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CHAPTER I family food
IT WAS PAST MIDNIGHT, but there was something keeping Roze Flores awake.
It wasn't just the feeling of "I can't sleep" where you toss and turn in bed like a hotdog on a rolling stick, despite your eyelids pulling themselves down. No, Roze felt uncomfortable, like the blood coursing through her was replaced with molasses, clogging up every hole. The feeling was in her stomach, in her heart, in her eyes, maybe even in her gums. Worms weaving their way through your brain and moths picking at the leftovers, an uncomfortable, rotting sensation. It wasn't painful, but maybe Roze didn't know what pain was.
Roze had thought too soon. Before she knew it she had shot out of bed, and was now holding a hand over her left eye. Its throbs were like a boombox on full volume, loaded with knives. The rest of her body felt as though it might be melting, as fast as butter on high heat, sizzling away within seconds.
The pain was fast. Roze held in her wails, and she thought tears would beg to spill, but it felt... Dry in there. In her eyes. The only noise was Roze's laboured breathing, and in between sounded a few gasps of pain, but she kept as quiet as possible... It wasn't like her parents were home, but if Roze fully expressed her pain in the moment, she was certain her cries would wake the whole neighbourhood.
They were coming back tomorrow afternoon, her parents. Her mother and father had left for a trip of some sort, though they didn't bother to tell Roze where they were going, leaving her brain like a broken jigsaw puzzle. They didn't leave Roze with much to eat, which was why she had to fend for only a granola bar tonight. (Unless she wanted to eat the sour remains of a nearly-empty jar of mayo.)
God, Roze knew she shouldn't have eaten a granola bar from the garbage, despite it having been fully wrapped... It was suspicious. Maybe it poisoned her, Roze thought. Her stomach was indeed churning, but she knew that poison was the most stupid idea in existence.. It had to have been something else, maybe she was sick.. Should she call 911? Roze was unable to think much now with how rapidly the pain was growing, she just hyperventilated, and groaned, and held her body tight.
Then it was over. Roze couldn't see a thing in the pitch black of her room, but it felt as though her pain was snapped away by the fairy godmother... Of pain? Roze felt nothing but numbness now, not even a tingle in her body, not a thought in her head.
Roze brought her hand up to her left eye again, where a great amount of the pain had been coming from. She touched her cheek underneath, grazing her bottom eyelid. It felt sticky, sticky and warm. Roze didn't gasp, she didn't panic, her heart in fact, didn't feel like it was racing at all. It felt like one of those boring museum paintings that has been there for 100 years. Her heart felt like it was going too slow.
Despite this, Roze carefully got up out of bed and felt around for the lightswitch. When she pushed it, the room flickered for a second before lighting up. Well, only half the room lit up.
