She awoke with a jolt, her body shooting up ramrod straight and releasing a bone-chilling scream that shook the glass of the windows and left a terrifying silence in its aftermath that she couldn't hear. A few moments passed sluggishly as her heart pounded relentlessly against her ribs, angry at being startled. After a time, her heart slowed and the ringing she hadn't noticed in her ears receeded until they recognized the sound of someone calling her name. As her senses returned, her eyes adjusted in the pale yellow light of early morning in Fort Brigid, the dry and raw burn of her throat reminding her of the terrible vision. She caught her breath just long enough to wheeze "bad dream," hoarsely.
She was speaking to the man lacing his boots on the floor. He had his hands on her wrists like she had been flailing, and his eyes flew across the surface of her face wildly. "Ash?"
"I'm OK, really." Mikey released her and fell back with a sigh of relief, then picked himself up from the floor. "Hurry up and get dressed. We can't miss this flight."
They were words thrown eagerly over his shoulder as he swiftly left the room. The off-white walls were mostly barren, more like a longterm hospital than an army camp. But Fort Brigid was located in the heart of Kansas, so the cost of building a fully fledged armed facility was unnecessary. Mikey liked it here, he loved being in the army, but he longed for home as much as she did. Home. Her heart ached with the memories of the creaking and groaning of 200 year old wood of the family home, so loud you might have thought the foundation would collapse at any given moment with just a little more push. She missed running along the dirt path half a mile to the river, missed following the streams and looking for faeries with Nick.
A few hours later, polished black boots strode quickly through the wide, open space of the airport. A pair of well groomed twins dressed in American army fatigues headed to the proper terminal dragging a single suit case each. Boarding went lightning fast, and in no time flat the twins were seated not so comfortably in coach on either side of a hippopotamus of a man. Ash envied Mikey, as she was too slow to notice him sit between them, and knew she would have to fight to use the airport bathroom, so for now she closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Grey City Rhapsody
Siêu nhiênA woman returns home to discover mysterious disappearances around her hometown of Allemand before realizing that the supernatural goes so much deeper than she had anticipated.
