[You Have No Idea]

16

Mother.
All color left my face as I was going through all the possible reasons that could explain why she was here.
And none of them made me feel any better.

Snow read me like an open book.
She turned to Mrs Dix and said:
"Take her to the bathroom, I'll do this. Don't come out, until I ask you to."

Mrs Dix pulled me with her, wearing a serious expression, I had never seen on her before. We hurried in the bathroom and Rose locked the door behind us.
This was the only room with a lock in this house.

I heard faint voices greating each other. Then the angry, loud voice that clearly belonged to my mother.
Snows tone was reassuring and calm.
Rose put an arm around my shoulder and held me, while listening just as hard as I was.

With terror I found that both of the voices came closer and moved into the apartment. My hands started shaking uncontrollably when they stood directly in front of the bathroom door.

Mrs Dix signed me to sit in the tub, which was right behind the door. Even if she would have to open the door, it was very unlikely for me to be seen like this.
She held my hand, when she saw how that made me panic even more.

I just want out, I just want out. Her hollow eyes appeared in front of me.

She was asking Snow, why the bath was locked.
Snow knocked and I heard her smile, when she asked Rose how long she still needed.

Two minutes later Rose gave me a last nod and then opened the door. I could feel my mom peeking into the apparently empty room.
I heard Dix greeting her before she closed the door behind herself again.

Then I was alone with the hollow eyes, burning holes in my lungs.
I had curled up as much as I could, to take up as less space as possible and to not be seen. But I just kept trying to get smaller, trying to escape the eyes.

They were seeing nothing but piercing into me like daggers. My arms and legs were aching from being pressed against my torso so hard.
Breathing became almost impossible.
And the hot water was slowly rising.

Soon it would be covering my upper body, then my head and then fill out the entire room. I could hear it rushing and felt it burning my skin.
It was impossible to find out where it came from. I couldn't move to check, I couldn't make it out from the sound.

Then it hit me. It must be from the eyes. And the second I understood that, the flood doubled. Twice the water came out, making the water level raise twice as fast.

It numbed the feeling of me shaking. It had reached my knees now and started covering my face. My lungs started filling as well, since the water crashed through the holes, the eyes had burned in.

The world started shaking and blurring and the rushing faded out.
There was a loud noise to my left or was it my left? It was hard to tell.
The world shook even harder.

Someone tried brushing away the water that was slowly closing over my head.
And suddenly a clear voice ripped through the thick layer of water rushing to my ears.

" KATIE SHE'S GONE."

The water fell through the bottom and I jolted up. Out. Out. Out.
The absence of the hot liquid covering my body, made it feel like I was thrown in an ice bucket. But the eyes had closed. They had turned away. Left me alone.

I fell out of the tub, and crawled out of that room in a filled with panic and desperation manner.
My knees hit the tiles hard. But I didn't stop crawling and stumbling until I found myself crashing against a wall.

I was drenched in sweat, drenched in cold water.
My arms wrapped around my legs, trying to stop the shaking.
I felt movement around me.

They tried to touch me but my skin was still so sensitive from the heat, that I flinched and pulled away.

Then a thin blanket slowly flew over me. It felt good, cool but not to cold. I tried to remind myself that the water was gone, the eyes were gone.
And I started to hear them again.

"-her rest for a moment.."

"But I can't, we need to do something! .. Katie ? Katie love can you hear me now? Please say something.. Are you okay? Katie?"

Slowly I lifted my head, it was almost too heavy.

She reached out again and I held still. It was just Snow. The eyes were gone. The eyes are gone.

"Katie? Katie can you hear me? It's okay. I'm here."

And I looked at her and smiled.