Avery Hill Won't Let Go

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 1- 𝑭𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒓 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔

Ramona-Eve

Avery Hill was never meant to feel like home.

But somehow.... it was the only place that ever did.

My Favourite thing about the job is stopping by Avery Hill after work, sometimes I bring baked goods and sometimes small donations but really I go for them.

The children.

It feels like home there, having a familiarity about the place. Safe, in a way nothing else ever has.

The truth is that they are my family.

I grew up in places like Avery Hill. Group Homes, temporary rooms, unfamiliar faces that were supposed to mean something.

It changes you and shapes you into something quieter, smaller or maybe just.... More aware.

Every time I walk through those doors, I feel it and how different it is now but how it still feels the same, it isn't perfect.

Some of the workers barely do more than exist, drifting through their shifts, just collecting paychecks while everything carries on around them. But then again it's better than it was.

Everyone thinks I just help out, that I keep everything running smoothly.

No one knows I'm no different from the kids that are at Avery Hill and no one knows I never really left. The system drains you, slowly and quietly. It takes something from you piece by piece until you don't remember what you were like and what it was like before it all in this crazy world. You won't remember all the people you call friends, mutuals or even family members just what you are surrounded in there and then.

People talk about it like it ends in something good, a perfect home, a perfect family and a beautiful white picket fence. It doesn't....Well not really.

You grow up feeling like a stranger everywhere, in houses that aren't yours, in lives that don't fit and even in your own body and you can never have enough hope to enjoy the environment you're in when you start to settle, it falls apart again.

Maybe it's just me, I could just well be the problem

But it's a known fact that no matter what happens in my life, there's always something there, I always have the sense of dread in the back of my mind. Just waiting for something to happen, a quiet constant dread, maybe that's why I can't fully commit to anything and why I keep a distance.

Why am I always ready to leave before I'm left behind?

Thats why i come back to Avery Hill, its not for them but for me, to face it. To fix something that never was fixed and to make things feel lighter.

To give them something I never really had and maybe, just for a moment, convince myself I'm okay.

We live in a small town where it always rains, but somehow, the people make it feel lighter. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and their names, their habits, their secrets. But no one really knows me.

Only what I let them see.

I'm just cleaning up everything when it happens, I hear a sharp crack, then glass shattering following after. A bundle of screams cuts through the room echoing in my ear as it rings, I flinch back as something hits the floor near me. A brick.

Like a switch everything in me snaps into place.

The kids, they're shaken up and frightened, but safe, that's all that matters.

This isn't normal.

Not here.

Not like this.

I snap out of it and move quickly, clearing the glass and my hands are working faster than my thoughts and the workers try to calm the children down as they are shaking and running around. But something feels off, wrong.

I can't seem to shake off the feeling and it doesn't leave just sticks.

It follows me, clings to me almost suffocating like I have a bag over my head but by the time I step outside, it's heavier and the air feels different, too still and too quiet.

I cross the road to the shop, to try to distract myself and ignore it, trying to convince myself it's nothing.

It isn't.

It can't be.

Because as I walk back to the car reluctantly, there's another smash, then another. Then screams surround the car park, not just one.

Everywhere.

The sound spreads like a virus, before I can even blink I see pure panic in everybody's eyes as they are barging past me and pushing past each other.

Raging panic floods the streets. I'm consumed by this feeling of sharp dread and uneasiness comes over me but I don't stop to look at where it's coming from and start running straight towards Avery Hill and pushing through everyone who is running past me. I only have one thing running through my mind.

THE KIDS.

THE KIDS.

THE KIDS.

I don't think,I don't hesitate,I run.

Straight towards Avery Hill, against the heavy crowd and pushing through anyone I can who is trying to escape. As I sprint towards Avery Hill, I hear it...

A clunk.

Something hitting concrete, too heavy and deliberate.

Then a hiss, so sharp and sudden.

Wrong.

My stomach drops before my brain can catch up, I see the workers on the steps of the entrance, but staring at something just out of view. Everything stops, not quiet or calm.

Just..... Suspended, just stopped.

Like the world has been paused, almost holding its breath.

And then.... BANG.

The sound itself seems to splinter, sharp and violently.

Darkness crashes in.

Like someone turned the world off.

I woke up disheveled. There was glass everywhere, my body felt numb and I couldn't see anything, not properly. It's almost as if something is covering them, thick and distorted.

All I can see is red.

I can feel myself start panicking and shaking violently, uncontrollably. Something warm runs down my face, my eyes burn. My breath stutters as I blink rapidly, I wipe my eyes and I look at my hands.

Blood.

My hands start furiously shaking, my ears are on fire from the ringing that won't stop tearing through my mind, rattling every nerve in my body.

I force myself to look up out of my trance, and everything is gone.

The Children.

Gone.

My Family.

My Home.

Gone.

The world tilts and everything goes black.