in which a girl with a heavy burden tries to find her way through the trials and torments of the earth they've come home to.
OR
in which she must rebuild.
EMBERS
JOHN MURPHY
DEATHLIES 2016
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN T...
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T W O
Althea woke at the sensation of human contact on her shoulders, shaking her awake heavily. She gasps, taking in a large amount of air before letting her body collapse back into the seat. Steadily, she opens her eyes to come face to face with a young girl with glistening eyes. Octavia Blake.
Althea's eyes rampage around her face, calculating and focusing on her as she spoke. Focus was the only way to block out the pain of the nightmares. "Are you ok? You were writhing and muttering in your sleep." She asks.
Now, Althea nods her head as Octavia sinks back into her seat. Althea did not speak, her state would not allow it. Her throat was dry and her forehead beaded with sweat.
"You were having a bad dream?" Octavia asks again as if the silence was killing her, like poison to her blood.
Again, Althea nods her head and flicks her hand up to brush her hair from her face, she whips it behind her ear in habit.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Octavia was a sweet girl to ask for such a burden to be propped upon her shoulders, precariously balanced and adapt to fall at any given moment. Althea wasn't sure she knew the horrors of her mind.
"No," Althea croaks out. Once more, she runs her fingers through her hair and tucks it behind her ear. "But thank you," She adds, not wanting to come off as rude. They hadn't even made it to the ground yet so making enemies would not be wise.
"I'm Octavia by the way," She tells her as she thought that pushing the girl beside her would not be the most wonderful of ideas. She looked on the edge already and a stranger pushing into her mind did not seem like it would put her at ease one bit.
"Althea," She replies shortly. She was not used to such a vibrant aura being near her. It was something new and something she was going to have to get used to on the ground. Down there, Althea would be surrounded by a variety of auras, some not so vibrant as Octavia.
The dissipation of their conversation lead to the thoughts seeping back into her mind, swooping in like ravens. But they were far from silent. They screamed inside her mind as she stared blankly ahead, oblivious to all around her, as she saw two bodies dead, unmoving, unbreathing. They lay on the floor of the dropship, eyes rolled into the back of their head and hearts wishfully still.
Althea's teeth bit into her lip, blood rising from the wound as she held back a scream of agony. The closer they got to the ground, the more her head pounded and the more her brain screamed at her about all the misfortunes and deaths that awaited them down there.
Her own eyes rolled into the back of her head as she slumped in her seat, but her heart continued beating and her mind continues whirring, even whilst she was unconscious.
There was no escape for Althea Barnes, besides death.
-
Althea is not in a good place and her being put on the ground is just making her mind go haywire. Honestly, I don't see any hope for her to have a complete recovery from this trauma of being shown death every time she sleeps.
