The Citizen Soldier (DNF)

23) Visitor

*Clay POV*

Trigger Warning: Nightmares

I do admit that throughout a couple of weeks it gets boring, especially if you don't have a single clue what you're doing here or why exactly. Apparently, I was diagnosed with some things that were a bit more complicated than depression. That was all that Eret would tell me. At least she was nice. I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. It had patterns that I admired.

Eret knocked on my door.

"Come in,"

The door opened slowly, but Eret wasn't behind it, nobody was. I creased my eyebrows and squinted to try and see past the empty doorway.

"Is this some kind of joke? Where are you?" I could feel my heartbeat pick up and my breathing shake. No response was other than the door creeping open another few centimeters. I swallowed and tried to harness my fear. Slowly, carefully, I stood and walked lightfooted to the now ajar door.

Before I got there the light in the hall flickered rapidly, which made me pause, and then the lights shut off, giving way to a dark grey just outside the door and in about a two-meter radius, then black. The change in light in my room changed as well, the only light coming from the stormy light that was displayed through the open window.

The breeze made a whistling noise and slammed the door shut. I heard it lock from the outside. Whatever was out there and lying in wait for me terrified me to my core. I didn't think that it was Eret, the fun-loving person. The only person I could think of that would even do this to me was my uncle, and that would be for a prank. I swallowed and took a couple of steps back before composing myself.

Looking over to my bedside dresser, I saw my lamp, the one with the pink flower lampshade and the yellow background. The base itself was blue and had red flowers and light green stems and leaves. It really was a beautiful lamp, but the thing that made it even more beautiful than any design out there was the promise of light and the promise of safety.

I ran to the lamp and pressed the button that was supposed to turn on the lamp, but the instant that I did so the bulb overloaded and shattered, spraying shrapnel everywhere and cutting open my fingers and my cheek. I inspected my fingers first, three were fairly shallow cuts, but they were wide and wouldn't be easily covered by a Band-Aid. The last was much deeper, and there was still a bit of the bulb inside it, though it seemed to me that it was actually staunching most of the blood flow, so I just left it, despite the intense pain that accompanied that decision.

I swallowed a couple of dark thoughts and looked around for an alternative exit, the window certainly wouldn't work, we were on the top floor. There were no other exits. I didn't want to even try to pick that lock because I didn't know what was on the other side of it, and the window would never be an option. Not anymore. I closed my eyes and held my own hand, putting them in my lap as I sat on the bed. I bit my cheek lightly but stopped myself from chewing on it or biting too hard.

I opened my eyes to complete darkness, and so I used my imagination combined with my object permanence to envision the room around me. Then something zipped by so fast that I could hear the swishing noise and feel the cold air swipe across my injured cheek. I reached up to touch the spot that had it so affected and I felt warm wet and knew that I was bleeding there too.

Then the stinging started. The pain was intense and pretty bad, bad enough to make genuine tears surface. The cut felt both deep and wide if it were possible, and I forced my eyes open. The room was at least moodily lit. One of the curtains was shut, and I went up to draw it again, confused on why it would be shut when it was literally just open.

My hand pulled back the curtain and it was opened to the dark, storm-laden sky. It looked and smelled like rain, and yet there was no tip-tapping or pitter-pattering drumming on the roof. I'd appreciate that, actually. Then there would be some semblance of peace and comfort in the world around me right now, but there was at the moment absolutely nothing at all. Everything that I knew right now was fear and discomfort.