Main Stage

Chapter 7: I See Fire

Thank you so much for reading!

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Nella was not in her usual bed.

This bed was hard, as if it were never slept in. The pillow below her smelled faintly like cheap colon. The springs in the mattress poked through the material and the thin sheet underneath Nella. Another paper thin sheet was tucked under her, wrapping her up like a cocoon. She wished she could grow wings and fly away from this place, from this life. Her body trembled with chills but she couldn't move to tighten her sheets. She ached.

To her right was a lump of presence, the only warmth she could sense. Her mother's unmoving form emitted a low moan every few minutes. She wondered how bad was, if she was worse. than Nella. Baking flour and blood filled Nella's nostrils as she tried to breathe in. Her nose whistled and Nella whimpered. It was definitely fractured.

Nella's entire being felt utterly broken.

She could still feel it, experience it. The fists to her face; the hockey game blaring in the background; her mother begging for him to stop hitting their little girl; the smell of fresh blood and an unfinished meatloaf sprawled on the floor next to a flipped table; the sound of a beer bottle breaking against her mother's head.

She hated him.

"Nella?"

Nella tried to peer through her swollen eyes; her right one opened slightly, creating a small slit. Her older sixteen-year-old brother, Stanley, sat next to the bed, looking extremely worried.

And angry.

"St-Stan." Nella could barely whispered. Her throat felt raw. She didn't know how long she had been in this bed.

"He did this?" He didn't need to ask. He looked horrified. Nella's face must have looked pretty bad to garner that kind of reaction from her stone cold brother.

Nella felt a tear leak out of her single open eye. "I hate him, Stanley. I wish he would die."

Nella closed her eyes and felt more than heard Stanley leave the room.

"I wish he would die..." She repeated into the air, almost like a prayer.

~~~

Nella jolted awake in yet another unfamiliar bed, but thankfully not the one from her dream. This was a newer, smaller one. Sleeping soundly a few feet away was her new roommate who had collapsed after dinner. Being constantly excited must be exhausting. Uri was not a quiet sleeper, either. She didn't snore exactly, but her breathing sounded wet. Nella imagine it was the sound a squirrel would make if it could gargle mouthwash. Nella slid on her glasses and squinted at the digital clock on Uri's nightstand: 2:03am.

She silently slipped off her covers, stood, and grabbed her guitar case from under her bed. She needed to get her mind off of the past that haunted her dreams. The bedroom door made a thunderous creak as she slowly opened it. She flinched and looked back at Uri's sleeping form, but she remained unconscious, her mouth wide open.

Nella crept down the stairs, through a screen door, and out onto the back porch. She paused and gazed at the backyard in amazement. It was incredible, massive. A greenhouse stood in the far corner and a rusted swing set swung lazily in the cold breeze, the metal creaking. A path led to the wooden dock that hovered above Henry Lake, the water reflecting the full moon like a broken plate.