Empêchement

Going Home

You know the feeling when you're fast asleep, but then something seemingly minor pulls you out of your dreams just enough that you have no idea what it was, but you're still conscious enough to wish it doesn't happen again so you can continue sleeping?

Yeah, that happens to me a lot.

This particular morning, I felt something soft fall on my head with an unusual amount of force. My heart rate sped up as I shifted, but I kept my eyes closed hoping that whatever woke me up would just go away so I didn't have to deal with it.

Unfortunately, it did not go away. Instead, the thing followed me to my new position and hit me again.

"Seriously, Ena?" Cinder scolded. "Why do I need to fight with you every morning to get you out of bed?!"

"What?" I mumbled, "What's going on?" What is she hitting me with?? My sleep-muddled mind struggled to comprehend what was going on around me.

I heard her scoff. "You're going home, child!"

...Home? It took me a second to process her statement. Oh, home! "I had completely forgotten about that," I mumbled, still not willing to be woken up.

I felt the thing land on my head again, harder this time, but it didn't hurt me. It was a pillow. Cinder was hitting me with a pillow.

"Get up, you lazy lug!" I guess even Cinder was grouchy in the morning. It must suck being an alarm clock.

Suddenly, the blanket that was keeping me nice and warm was pulled out from around my shoulders and replaced with the cold morning air. I gasped and sat upright, fulling awake now as I tried and failed to grasp the blankets and pull them back over my shoulders. "No!" I whined "It's cold! Give them back!"

Cinder glared at me with bloodshot eyes. It was that moment that I realized I had made a mistake to whine at her.

She continued to wad up the blankets so she could pull it so it would come untucked from around my feet.

I threw myself back down in defeat and pouted. She kept glaring viciously at me as she set my wadded-up blankets on my dresser.

"Ena, if you don't get out of bed, I will drag you out by your hair." I almost believed her.

Almost. But I knew that at this point I was fighting a losing battle that would only hurt myself in the long run. Cinder was doing me a favor, and I was being a bitch.

I sighed, "Fine." It seemed to take a lot of willpower, but I managed to pull myself off of my bed. I stood up in my pajamas, the ground moving under me because I stood up too fast. I looked at the clock. 5:10 a.m.

"You've got ten minutes." She sneered, "Would have been more, but it took fifteen to even get you up!" She stormed out in a huff.

I rolled my eyes, surprised that she hadn't woken Alice or Indigo up at some point. I sighed again and got out of bed. Soon, I was clad in a comic t-shirt, jeans with a hole in the knee and my trusty Converse.

I only halfheartedly brushed my hair, because there was a good chance that I was going to fall asleep on the plane, so brushing it into perfection would be pointless. then quickly packed my phone charger and other toiletries into my suitcase.

By 5:12, Cinder was back in my room. "Come on, child." She said from my door way. "Season is already waiting. That girl is unbelievably excited."

I looked around my room one last time, making sure I had everything. I know I had been sort of kidnapped and forced to live here, but it had become a second home to me. I would definitely miss it if I had to leave permanently.

Lucky for me, I would only be going to my first home for a few days, so I wouldn't get the chance to miss it. I suddenly realized that I would have clothes and toiletries at home, so packing my bag last night was sort of a waste of time.

"Ena?" Cinder said, grabbing my attention. "You aren't going to war. You will be back."

"I know." I wonder what her reaction would be if I told her that I was thinking about my luggage and not whether or not I'd be back. I grabbed my suitcase. "Okay, let's go."

We walked down the hallways together. This morning, no one was out and about like they usually were. It was eerily quiet as Cinders heals echoed through the hallway.

Silently, I admired my ability to walk without making a noise. Besides the fact that doing so made me feel like I could be a ninja, it made it easier to move place to place without being noticed. I found it especially helpful when I arrive late to a class or have to get up and do something in a quiet classroom.

Soon, Cinder and I turned the corner into The Portal Room. The moment the wheels of my suitcase made the "Ga-thunk" noise of the hitting a large crack in the concrete that separates The Portal Room from the rest of the facility, there was a shrill squeal that could only be emitted from a teenage girl, and I got plowed over by what felt like a bulldozer of excitement

"Ohmigosh, thank you so much for letting me come, I am so excited, I've never been to your hometown –what's it called again? —and I am soooooo excited. Your parents know I'm coming, right?" Season said all of this in one breath, and only stopped to squeal again. "Thank you!"

She looked like she was going to explode if she didn't to express what she was feeling. It was way too early to be this excited.

"No problem," I said, hoping my inability to be excited this early didn't damper hers.

She squealed again, then looked at Cinder. "What do we do now?"

"Now I tell you that it is the utmost of importance that you don't tell anyone about this whole operation. Consequences of doing so are not fun to experience." Cinder warned.

I internally rolled my eyes at the vagueness of her warning, while Season got serious. We both nodded with various levels of sincerity.

"Alright, now to the plane. You two will be on there for six hours."

I sighed. Alrighty, then.