mindset

awake

eloise comes to with a great shuddering breath, one that heaves her body and racks her bones. her head is pounding and she leans over the edge of her bed to throw up on the floor. nothing but water comes out.

“hello?” she tries, but it feels like her throat is splitting in half, so she doesn’t try it again. she realizes that she’s not wearing her usual clothes. her thinned-out sweatshirt and her jeans are gone, replaced by a ratty nightgown-looking thing.

her heart begins to pound. this doesn’t feel right. everything feels terribly, terribly wrong.

she dangles her bare feet over the edge of the bed until they touch cold tile. she doesn’t recognize this room. it doesn’t look like anybody’s dreamspace.

she pulls back the thin blue drapes shrouding her little bed and automatically screams. there are people- adults, all unrecognizable- walking around and she screams and screams, feeling like her throat is going to tear in two.

one of the adults rushes over and reaches out to her but she lashes out, narrowly missing the woman’s face. “don’t touch me! where am i? what have you done with them?”

the woman doesn’t understand. eloise doesn’t, either.