(Hiatus) Before the Fall//CaitVi

Part Five- Tension

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The bed next to me was cold when I finally woke up, and the strange darkness of the room immediately had me stilling. There was no soft breathing from Powder, no snores from either of the boys. The string lights along the ceiling looked burnt out, and the soft glow from the wires that ran through the walls had dimmed to nothing more than an afterimage that my eyes painfully tried to capture. Curtains over the small window- drawn, without a hint of light underneath. Door? Closed.

I barely dared to breathe. My heart began to pound uncomfortably, my fingers fisting at the blanket under me.

Where was everyone?

No mutters from upstairs. Not a single creek from Vander's heavy boots or a drunk patron dancing and grinding about. No music, stereo or record player alike. Only a dull thrum that dripped through my ears, and a distant ringing that I knew was a product of my own mind.

What the hell. What the hell.

I stretched out a finger to look for Powder's little body, but I already knew she wasn't there by the absence of weight on the bed. My throat was dry, and it throbbed as tears built in my chest. I slipped a hand over my mouth to stifle my own whine. My family, where was my family? Was someone in the room with me?

Were they in danger?

It stayed quiet, and I eventually managed to get out of the bed, my feet numb and throbbing strangely as I snuck towards the door. The warped stairs passed too quickly, and suddenly I was behind the counter of The Last Drop. I still couldn't see. No sounds, either.

A flash of red, Vander's face looming.

I cried out and fell back, my head thumping against bottles of liquor. There was a muffled scream, like it was through layers and layers of glass, and a spurt of blood flew from somewhere I couldn't see. It splattered over my face, into my mouth. I flinched and bit back a gag, trembling.

Powder's voice.

Violet. Violet. Please.

Wetness pooled underneath me, and the clogged scent of blood crept into my head, snaking through my pores. The counter dripped red. The air around me curdled, and I lifted my hand to find the bones picked clean, mirroring my left leg.

I stared in horror and would've retched had a slender hand not tilted up my bloodied chin. Caitlyn, an older Caitlyn, perhaps five or ten years in the future, held my face. Her eyes were onyx black and glittered with malice as reddened mud drilled down her ghostly pale cheeks, which sported rose-like bruises. She wore a pristine enforcers uniform, and scars grazed over her skin.

"Oh, Violet. Don't you know that you won't be able to save them?" Older-Caitlyn crooned, her poisoned mouth stretching unnaturally wide as she grinned. "Not even me."

And then she was gone, ash in my mouth.

Nothing but screams and rotted blood, and I drowned in them as my family begged for a salvation that would never come.

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I shot up with a gasp, my body reacting to the vision so severely that I almost toppled off the top bunk. There was a small yelp as Powder was thrown awake by my movement, but she was ignored as my weight slipped. I leaned over the bed, knuckles white as I gripped the railing and dry heaved until my throat felt like burning shrapnel.

I held on tightly, my head spinning. Fire lanced through my breath, and my vision spun.

It felt so real.

I could still taste the blood on my tongue, down my throat, boiling in my stomach. Disgust swamped me, and terror pooled in the corners of my eyes.

It felt so real.