Sense

Chapter 1: Seven

I held the delicate china tea cup in my hand and the matching saucer in the other. Taking a careful sip of the milk and sugar infused Lipton mixture I set return it to the saucer, my hands shaking and making a slight clatter.

I don't think I like tea...

I steadied my hands and gazed across the room to the four faces gaping at me.

They stared at me, searching my face for something, as if they were expecting my emotions to be written all over my face. I suppose at one time I would have expressed them like that. If I was happy I would smile until my cheeks hurt, when I was sad I would cry with puffy eyes and a running nose. All the general emotions and their corresponding normal facial features now seemed pointless. I did not feel the need to express how I was feeling outwardly...not even to them.

"Monica, are you sure you're okay?" Spoke a blonde twenty-something guy sitting on the brick fireplace.

Steven, his name is Steven. I had to keep telling myself. Frustrated I went touch my forehead were I felt the stitches going down from my hairline to my brow.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven of them.

"Yeah, I mean I'll manage..." I replied shifting my gaze from the pool of tea in the cup to the living room window, to the fire roaring in the fireplace.

Hot...fire feels hot...just like...

"Honey, you're in shock still. Why don't you lay down." Said a dark haired woman with dark circles under her eyes and worry on her brow...

I was worried...now I can't. I can because of the seven....

I put my hand back on my forehead...

One, two, three, four...

"We can do this later." Said the woman again sternly. But she wasn't looking at me, she looked around at the others in the room and then back to me with a hesitant smile.

I sensed there was a tension in the room, they wanted me to talk about it. I'm not sure what it was...an event, a place, a person? I knew I remembered, something was in the back of my mind...in a foggy place were I just could barely see it.

The woman took the tea cup and saucer from me and helped me out of the wooden rocking chair.

She smelled like something familiar, the scent didn't come to mind but it was something I remembered...deep down.

Cinnamon...candles...baking....

She took me into a room. I loved this room, this was my room, with things I knew were mine. The bed wasn't made but it looked still looked inviting, I knew I had slept here happily so many times. My body begged me to lay down.

I went to lay down...

Tired, exhausted, the crunching of the comforter and sheets.

Then I saw the pillow on the other side, the pillow that still had an indentation left from where someone had laid their head.

Not me..not my head?

My brow tried to furrow as I was puzzled by the pillow but it made me hurt.

Again I touched it...

One, two, three...

"Where is he?" I asked the woman as she tucked in the sheets.

Once again her brow creased with worry, "Hun, we don't have to do this now."

A feeling of panic washed over me and my eyes frantically glanced around the room.

Window, pillow, dresser, pillow, door...oh there he is.

The muscles in my cheeks reminded me what a smile felt like. I saw him there in the doorway.

Oh thank God. My body instantly let go and relaxed.

"You okay, dear?" Said the constantly worried woman.

I looked back at the doorway and he was gone.

Black.