Scars and Bruises

Nightmares

ALEX.

She felt the cold stone floor beneath her shivering body. Alex was scared but she opened her eyes. There was darkness around her, it smelled like sweat, blood, dirt and mold, she tried to move, but her body was not cooperating. After a while, her eyes accustomed to the dark and she saw her wand laying on the ground next to her, she tried to reach it. But it didn't matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move her body.

Alex realized that something was completely wrong. She felt broken, not just mentally but also physically, just like her body had been snapped in two. She felt like she was not in imminent danger, and she tried to push some of the fear away. But that was a mistake. Fear was pushing her pain away, and now it rushed over her like waves collapsing on the cliffs.

Alex tried to scream, but the sound was trapped in her throat, she just managed to get weak sound out of her mouth. She needed to get away from here, but she was helpless. Alex tried to scream once again, but sound still disappeared in her chest, sharp pain stabbed in her head and she lost her consciousness.

It was the day after September's full moon and Alex laid on the floor in her basement. Her body was covered with sweat, blood, scars and bruises. Her body twitched and she yelled aloud. Alex opened her eyes and sharply turned to her side. So it was just a nightmare, she realized that she could move if she wanted to, and that was good. She stared at the basement wall and breathed heavily, she felt how tears fell down on the floor from her eyes. Alex hated when she cried.

She tried to stand, but she had no strength to do that, that's why she fell down to the floor and continued to lay there. It was cold, her body was shivering and she wanted to get away from here. Alex gathered all her strength and slowly stood up, she took some steps towards the door, all of her body was protesting. She had a splitting headache, her back was pulsing from pain, blood was seeping from deepest scars and then everything went blurry, Alex passed out without even reaching the door.

Alex still was lying on cold stone floor in a room where everything smelled like sweat, blood, dirt and mold, but this time she was not alone. A voice behind her back was laughing, but she could not turn around to see whom it was. She heard some whispers and more laughter, they could not mean anything good.

She knew only that she was hurt; her body was in pain. Alex could not remember when the last time she didn't felt pain in her body was. It was a long time ago, but Alex did not knew how long she had been here. It could be hours, days, weeks, months, even years... Life that existed outside this room seemed so far away, she was afraid that she could lose all the memories of that life.

She heard steps approaching her; they stopped beside her body. Alex winched, she felt that something bad was going to happen. And then she heard stranger's voice, "Crucio!" Her body flipped to her back, she thought that she could die, and there was no other explanation to this madness. She screamed, screamed until she lost her consciousness.

A shriek broke out of her lips and she woke up. She was still on the basement floor, she was trembling uncontrollably, and Alex did not even knew if it was from fear or coldness. That was it; she needed to get away from this room. She tried to get up one more time, but this time she was successful, she stumbled to the door and opened it. She leaned against the wall and slowly started to climb the stairs.

Stumbling upon everything, she went to her study and opened old wooden cupboard, it was full of potions and ingredients to make them. She looked for potion for pain, finally she found it – she drank it immediately. She felt better at once; she took some other potions to make her feel better and reached for her wand to heal some wounds.