Unraveled

Chapter Seven

Unedited.

Gold, everything seemed to be bathed in gold. From the floor to the walls to the pair of eyes that stared at her from a golden corner. A golden boy smile is what Mr. Gold Eyes wore, with his gold hair and gold in his hand.

"It's time to wake up, Duke." Ah, yes, that golden boy smile struck gold once more.

                                     §

Fear was an abstract thing, you never truly knew what is was until you experienced it in a single moment, for it varied into different forms. The fear that you felt when someone scares you, the fear you feel when giving a speech in front of a large crowd, and the fear of the unknown. It wounded around your body like a cruel mistress in the depths of a lonely night, never letting go.

And then, just for a bleak moment you come to terms with this foreign, evil emotion and calm in the middle of a raging storm only for it to suck you back up once more.

Duke was experiencing just that.

A sickly sweet taste in her mouth as she woke, her instincts screaming for her to run far far away even though her eyes had yet to open. It was not rocket science to figure out that something was very off. She did not hear the screams of a child running around playing, nor did she hear the harsh revving of engines trying to crank from her neighbor on the first floor. No, it was dead silent, save for the gentle hum of air conditioning that Duke was damn sure she did not have this month because they did not have enough money to pay for it.

It was all wrong, from the smells to the sounds to the perfectly comfortable mattress beneath her back.

And when she finally mustered up enough courage to open her eyes, it was confirmed. Duke knew even through the night that the ceiling she struggled to see was not hers, there were no stains from water damage and there was not the chipped paint on dark walls, because there were perfectly smooth walls.

She briefly wondered if the heaviness on her chest was the etchings of a panic attack, it sure as hell seemed like it. The labored breathing, the tightness in her throat.

Duke remembered, it was not hard to remember a panic attack. The last it happened was when she was eleven and her mother had left coke out and Ilya had somehow gotten into it, he hadn't even been a year old.

But as she laid there on that impossibly comfortable bed, it was hard to compose a proper thought on how she ended up in her situation, Duke was too concentrated on how to not pass out again to remember what the hell had happened between last night and then.

In and out, in and out. It was a strenuous cycle that was torturous to her mind. Struggling to comprehend then and now. Her brain did not even register the thundering footsteps and the groan of a door being thrown open.

But it did recognize golden eyes. Two pairs of golden eyes.

It made her heart stutter and kick start. Heavy palms laid against her face, arms and waist. And with them they brought warmth. A warmth that lulled her into a relaxed state.

"Yes, just like that female, relax." How could you relax when there were two behemoths damn near on top of you?

It snapped her back into reality, her harsh reality where no one is spared from a good tongue lashing from her.

"....what the FUCK?" She screamed, making both pair of golden eyes wince.

Her fear dissolved and gave way to a fierce thrum of rage and confusion that churned her attitude into relentless motion once more. And by the reaction the gold eyes gave, they had not been expect her to react how she did.