Being Anna Marie

Being Anna Marie part 21

Wheezing hysterically and yet incapable of inhaling my vision remained sightless to everything around me. My skin paled even as my trembling form struggled to revive itself. I felt gentle arms cradle me within their warm embrace, and nevertheless I couldn’t focus my eyes as I felt them repeatedly roll back beneath my fluttering lids.

“Breathe Anna, just breathe,” Andrea repeatedly whispered anxiously as a small semblance of calm engulfed me feeling the soft touch of her fingers brushing back my wayward curls, half of my form still lying in frozen puddles.

My constricted lungs expanded finally allowing the earth’s breeze to enter my stunned figure, my limbs at last stopping its contorted convulsions, my mind finally free of the traumatic past. Then suddenly darkness faded and all I saw was the tranquil display of cerulean.

Andrea’s eyes full of unexpressed worry gazed down at me before quickly checking the concealed shadows for demons as Clarice rushed to end the flow of water. “Anna, what happened? Did a demon attack?”

I rose unsteadily onto my wavering feet aided by Clarice and Andrea’s hands trying to figure out why escaping a memory had been so difficult, so strenuous on not only my body but my mind too. Never had it taken such an arduous toil that even now as I stood clearly encased in the present I found myself strangely bewildered whirling around searching for Rick’s existence. “I …” I began only to trail off, staring dazedly at my reflection or what was left of it in the small sliver of glass before me.

Seeing my wild curls, my skin drained of its usual pallor, my discolored eyes; red prominent within its white orbs, the terror within my gaze… before Andrea stepped before my reflection impeding any further view, “look at me, Anna.” She spoke softly, turning my resistant form towards her. “When we came in you were seizing on the floor, the room was a wreck, did a demon do this, or did your darker half reappear?”

Even now with that slight fog still clouding my befuddled brain I could see the worry in Drea’s eyes, not just concern for my wellbeing but for the secret she wanted to keep buried, could see the truth in my sinister clone’s words. “I saw it,” I said simply.

“You saw what?”

“You,” I whispered watching as her hands fell limply from my shoulders to her sides. “You were getting ready to leave that night. Before all I could remember was that glimpse of babysitting Courtney and cutting on the water in the tub, but everything else that happened that night was a blur.”

“And now?” Andrea visibly forced the words from her lips, her eyes intent on my own.

“Now it’s like a curtain is slowly lifting and I can see through the darkness.”

“And what is it you see?” she asked, her tone deadened as if with each word spoken from her lips drained her of emotion.

“Rick wouldn’t let me leave.”

Brows furrowed in confusion, a glimpse of that unexplainable relief in her mystified gaze, “what? We already knew that, Anna. You failed your test and Mom-.”

My damp curls hit my face harshly as I shook my head in denial, “no, he never intended for me to leave the house that night.”

“Why would Rick intentionally force you to stay home, Marie?”

“Don’t you get it, Drea? Mom threatened to make you stay home too, but he took up for you.”

Completely confused, “so…”

“So… he never does that! When has he ever been on your side especially when it comes to anything to do with our father?”

Comprehension slowly donning on her Andrea began to shake her tresses in defiance, relief fading in her gaze as moisture filled their distraught exterior while still trying to refute what she already recognizes as true, “I don’t like where you’re going with this, Anna.”