TAKE TWO, kotlc

Chapter 14- Braelynn

The cold metal hit her in the back like water.

Burning water.

Freezing water.

Shutting everything off, sending every thought spiraling down into something between pain and fear and maybe a little regret...

All she could feel was cold.

Silence.

Not even a lot of pain.

But it was still there.

And there were voices too.

Calling her.

Coaxing her.

But reality was too hard to face, and she was afraid of what might happen if she woke up, and closed her eyes again, and maybe they would never open a second time...

Maybe she'd never see her parents.

Never see the stars or the sun or the sunrise anymore.

Never see anything.

So she kept herself tucked into the darkness, not ready to face that reality.

But something cold hit her again- but not in the same spot. A freezing liquid hit her tongue and she could feel herself slowly rising up from the bottomless pit...

She didn't want to go.

There was too much up there- too many things she wasn't ready to face.

And the more she rose, the more she could feel the sickening pain pressing against every bit of her, squeezing and pushing and pulling until...

It stopped.

Her eyes opened.

One blink. Two. Maybe even three.

And when she let her brain fully piece together the blurry, smudged figures, a rush of memories flowed back at her like water...

"Dad? Mom?" she asked, staring into her parents eyes, which looked both heartbroken and relieved at the same time.

Biana blinked in a way that was totally embarrassing. "How're you feeling?"

"Um.." She wanted to say humiliated, because her parents were looking at her like she was three and not almost thirteen. "Fine?"

It was true- she couldn't really feel anything at all though, so maybe it didn't count...

"Don't move though," Elwin warned, forcing another disgusting, murky liquid into her hand. "I have you numbed."

"Numb-?" Another vial of gross sparkly elixir was shoved down her throat. She gagged- now she understood why her aunt hated the Healing Center so much.

"How long have I been here?"

Elwin shook his dark hair out of his eyes. "Only about two hours."

"Two- oh.." Her voice trailed off as pain burned in her gut. "Okay. Yeah, I can understand that."

She pressed a fist against the side of the cot, trying to focus on anything else except the white-hot fire she could still perfectly remember being pressed against her raw skin...

"I don't want to numb her any longer," she could faintly hear Elwin saying to her parents. "I think I'm going to give her a sedative.."

"No sedatives," Braelynn choked out.

"You sound like your aunt," Elwin said, in a tone that made it clear that his decision was final.

But as her world swam back into darkness, she wasn't thinking about being kidnapped and sedated like Sophie had always feared.

She was worried that if she finally escaped to the darkness- finally closed her eyes, she might never open them again.