Veridis Quo

Chapter 62 - The Nightmare Ends

Snow was promised tonight. Unable to recall where I heard that information, only that I was sure of it. Perhaps I overhead someone, maybe she told me casually, I couldn't remember.

Remembering has become taxing in the last couple weeks. Days blended together like water and oil, reaching a critical state of milky lies. Hours were numbers on a circle, the suggestion of deep thought horrifying.

But why? Why didn't it snow? Where was the snow? I missed it; making angels in the white fluff, building snowmen, fighting with snowballs.

Snow. Think about snow. About good. About snow. Snow is nice, a nice place, a happy place.

Thunder roared, spooking me out of the labyrinth within my mind.

Although snow was late, rain was called to be a placeholder. Inside the confines of the tower I still caught the rapid taps of raindrops against a decaying rooftop, early flashes warned of every loud boom of the heavens, though it could've been the fighting.

Fighting...

Why were they fighting? Did something happen? Jeez, I hope they'll sort it out...

...

...

...

"MMMMM!!!"

I thrashed violently, the chains rattled like a baby cyclops' toy.

Happy place...

Shouts barely reached my prison, quiet pops, sometimes, sometimes not. Lots and lots of shouting, buzzing mosquitoes out of sight, growing louder and louder and louder and-

GET OUT OF MY SKIIIIN!! GET OOOOOOUT!!!

"MMMHMMM!!!"

...

...

...

I stopped, catching my breath gradually with only a free nose.

My happy place was gone. There was no place in the world I could be happy, not as long as the... t-the...

Clenching my eyes shut, my sobs were swallowed by the rag in my mouth, further burying me in a sea of despair where no soul could hear me.

How long has it been? How long?!

I...

I feared the answer. Even though I knew deep down, irritating my malnourished, chipped brain could...

Weeks. It's been weeks since my life was intertwined with hers. How many weeks? There had to be a specific number, what was it?

I don't need a number.

...

Once again, I screamed my lungs out into the cursed gag, coming out as nothing more than a pathetic muffle.

I was alone! She wasn't here! Yes! With her out of the picture, I could finally turn my brain on and think! But I couldn't control it! All over the place, nowhere to go, anywhere but here!

"Mph! Mph!" Fuck! Fuck!

I was on my lonesome, I could finally fucking think!

However, after retreating into one of the worst coping mechanisms against torture, something might have... broken.

For weeks I've endured countless atrocities against humanity and animal-kind alike. The... things she did to me...

I shook uncontrollably, shivering like a crumbling leaf.