Bright white flashes across Kai's closed eyelids. Her dreams are a twisted version of the reality she knew. But now she sees things a little clearer. It feels as though Kai is trapped, being forced to watch memory after memory blur together.
Her little walks to and from her house to the cave. Slight rustling in the bushes or shadows that Kai didn't notice before, now haunt her. This scene then morphs into her childhood nightmare, you know, the one you always recognize the instant it begins. The tall pale man with shiny greasy black hair and clothes, with even darker eyes. He sits in his thorny stone throne with his son on his left and his wife on his right, who is almost different in every way. She has warm brown skin with curly brown hair and a green dress speckled with blossoms.
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The tall man stands and walks towards Kai, who kneels before him, her hands bound behind her back. He raises his arm as though to slap her, then his form shifts into her mother, then to the Terror Twins. Kai's cheek stings as she sits huddled in the dark corner of her small room, sobbing, surrounded with torn apart pencil sharpeners covered in blood. Her step-father pulls the blanket off of her head and comforts her, stroking her back in small circles. Then the memory that haunts her to this day. The day that that one guy cornered her after school . . . .
Kai sits up sharply, immediately thwacking her head on the familiar stone roof. The pain throbs in her temples as she realizes that its not just from hitting her head. Exhaustion seeps through her muscles sinking into her every bone, mostly centering in her leg.
Her teddy bear, Chocolate, tumbles from her arms. How did I get back here? Kai looks around her little alcove that branched off her cave's main area. She only recognizes it because of all the pillows and worn blankets that she had spent months gathering, were cushioning her body. Tenderly, Kai lifts her left leg.
The blankets fall off revealing her jeans torn off at the knee and angry red scratches with a couple swollen areas. Looking closer, she can see, on the swollen lumps, tiny even stitches. Who did this? Kai wonders. She doesn't have to wait for long.
Nico peeks into the small area, his black hair hanging in his eyes. Which looked even more weary than she remembered.
"Hey, I heard you stirring, do you need anything?" He asks. Kai shakes her head.
"Wait! Yes, I need answers." She waves Nico over and moves her leg to the side to make room in front of her. He settles himself down and takes a deep breath. "What exactly do you want to know?"
Kai wracks her brain for what she thinks is the thing that is bothering her the most. "How did you find this place. I never told anyone it's exact location, my step-father still only knows cause he followed me here."
"Oh," Nico looks relieved "Noah and I read your dreams to find a safe, and close, location to hide you."
"How much exactly did you two see?" Kai asks, suddenly nervous.
