𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐅𝐀𝐑 ?̷?̷

𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐌 - 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏

Drip. The sleety rain came steady and cold against the pane of the window, the shower's pellets rattled noisily on the roof of the mansion. Each raindrop makes its vertical haste down the intricacies of each arch and balcony, slowly losing its traction as it spent its energy. The white noise whoosh of falling rain was rhythmic, almost lulling, eager to swell to fill the silence of the room.

A room with plants, with flowers in bloom, calm pastels, and soulful purples. The girl's room was at the very least... an eclectic chaos that told a story of the talents and obsessions of the owner of the space. The plush carpets, velvet sofas, and opulent curtains exuded a sense of luxury that was hard to ignore. In the corner of the extravagance, a maid idled, reclined in a nearby seat, fumbling with a messily strewn handkerchief.

In spite of the serenity, the air gooped and clawed at the bedridden owner's throat, distorting her cries as she struggled to breathe in, tasting of mold and metal, thick as spoiled pudding. Her complexion is pallid, her long strands of hair stick against her perspiring skin, and her soft groans fill the air as she stirs in her resting position. Her lace dressing-gown lying across the silken bedspread, her little embroidered slippers before the bed frame, a vase of carnations filling the air with perfume, settled in crisp white sheets and plump pillows, she was being snuffed out by a gelatinous ooze unknowingly. A pain best described as a sharp-toothed creature eating her petite figure from the inside out.

She was no longer benumbed to her peaceful slumber but was spurred into clawing at her throat, her screams are vapor, wisps of gasp she couldn't grasp; words of objection suffocated by the intangible force. The maid was no longer dormant in her role but rushed to her side, prompted to try and pry her awake. She was supposed to be asleep, yet her legs thrashed wildly and her pampered nails were spoiled with her own blood.

The usher of a thunderclap; her eyes shot open, her hands grappling to her abused, ill-treated neck, she hacked out a cough, noisy, and bronchial. Surveying her surroundings crazily, her ablaze pupils withdrew from the light to the size of a pinprick with the instantaneous change of scenery. She felt fear in the hair on the back of her neck; deft, invisible fingers running along her spine. She sucked in the muggy air hungrily to remedy her vocal cord's suffrage. It hurts.

The delicate skin of her neck had been peeled downward, now a disheveled, stringed, bloody sheet of flesh dangling limply back over her inlet, flapping with her labored breaths. Tinted red, but see-through enough to the point you could see every forceful exhale through the sheer tissue. Her aide's huge blue eyes gave her a beyond startled look, bottom lip quivering, her hands remained clasped around her slender arm, trembling furiously at the scene of the outlandish behavior of her master.

Her manic gaze flickered over the servant's expression as her shudders traveled up her aghast body. The oval of her face swam out waveringly from a background of shadows, the uncertain light blurring it like a haze. Between them on the nightstand was a bowl of something steaming, one upside-down teacup, an empty flower vase, and a pair of matching hand-painted ceramic bowls. There was a pause. The baby pink curtains billowed gaily, sailing and anchored, so very buoyant in the remote breeze of the stuffy chamber seemed to throw darker shadows into the hollows of the deep-wrought cornice.

Where am I?

The new dilemma registered in her thick soup of a brain, laying in a sweaty stupor, her bedclothes twisted around her. And without so much as a warning she put out a nice stiff right square into the woman opposite of hers' nose with her free hand, whipping her hips, utilizing her core with the potent swing. It connected solidly with the bridge of her nose; a dull and violent thud. She hissed through gritted teeth, like air seeping from an open valve at the newfound aching throb of her arm at the motion.