Till Death do us Part

Cross the Oceans in my Mind

I was shaking. Horrifically. I could hear voices above me as I swam in and out of consciousness. It felt like my body was fighting with something else, battling with an evil that wanted to take me over. I’d gotten used to the pain, so bad it started numbing itself out. There was just the dull, repetitive feeling of my insides being ripped to shreds.

“She’s possessed—”

“Don’t know what happened—”

“She just collapsed—”

“Came out of nowhere—”

I felt my face pinch tight with pain. A warm touch on my cheek. A voice, calling out to me. I pried my eyes open. Kevin’s face swam into view.

“Kevin,” I whispered.

His eyes widened. He crouched down, cupping my face in his hands. Everything was moving in slow much, and I could see his lips move, but I couldn’t understand a word he said. He seemed to realize this, too, and it frustrated him. I just shook my head, and a menacing look crossed his features. I thought it was directed at me, and tried to apologize. His face softened.

His rough palm moved tenderly over my head, smoothing my hair back.

Home.

Safe.

Lips gently found mine, caressing my senses, offering strength.

Not enough.

I felt myself being pulled under again.

~*~

I knew where I was immediately.

Just not why I was there.

I wandered through the deserted halls of the hospital. The last time I’d been there, they’d confirmed my mother’s death, and I’d been checked into rehab for a month. I hadn’t stepped foot in the place since.

Why now?

It was creepy, walking through the hospital of my mind. Everything was crumbling and hanging by a hinge, dark and abandoned. There was nobody but myself. The walls were cracked, the floor missing tiles in places. I could hear pieces of the ceiling crumbling and falling behind me.

I nearly fell into a gaping hole, but spotted it at the last second, stumbling away from it. I fell against the window, heard it crack beneath me. It took everything I had to pulled myself upright and not fall through. My heart pounded as I craned my neck and saw where the glass fell, down, down, down. To the grass below.

I shivered.

Keep moving.

I rounded a corner, pausing at what I saw before. A door was open at the very end of the hall, beckoning me, a meager light flickering on and off. I swallowed hard, sure it must have been a trap, but what the hell. Did it really matter at this point?

No, I decided, and with new determination set off towards it. I wrapped my fingers around the door jam, peeking inside. It was mostly dark, the naked bulb above me spluttering.

“Hello?” I called, voice incomparably small in the room. I took a step inside, looking around me. It was the hospital room of my nightmares, my darkest thoughts.

Where they told me my mother was dead. Where my life officially came to an end.

Or, like Luna would say, a new beginning.

“Hello?” I tried again, pressing my fingers against the soft blankets rumpled on the hospital cot. Everything was silent, even outside in the grey world I found myself. “Is anybody here?”