Blind Frame of Mine

Chapter 6

Sometimes sleep promises nightmares and sometimes it promises peace and happiness; but for Phoenix, sleep is only good when it promises mind-numbing blackness. That's the type of sleep where she knows she is sleeping but she doesn't remember a single dream, nightmare or not.

At least in a nightmare, she knew she would be waking up. In utopic dreams, she tried her very best to wake up. All those dreams succeeded in doing was reminding her of the type of life she lived, and the timer ticking away. They made her better appreciate her time, but who wants to be reminded of their failures, their shortcomings, the anxieties that stop them from living.

Her mother used to say, "C'est quoi le sens commun, connais ta place." If one knows who they are and where they stand, then they have more common sense than the person who dreams for more. Bravery should only be named unto people who try and achieve things within their reach, to want for anything more is foolish and naive, both of which her mother cleverly beat from her.

The complete and utter blackness where she wakes up hours later and finally, finally, feels well rested. It happens maybe once every couple of months when she gets so exhausted that it's as if her brain can't even take the time to terrorize her like normal, she is finally as blind as her peers.

Normally, it knocks her out for up to twelve hours, but this time she had no idea how long she was out when she jerked awake. The sudden disruption of her sleep left her delirious and breathing hard as if she had been running.

She blinked a few times before remembering that it was totally dark in this room. She had grown up with short little candles in her room when she lived with her mother. She never did learn where her mother obtained such objects, long forgotten by everyone else. It still confused her every morning when she woke up and couldn't see, and it took her especially long in this place, a random, unknown place, to get her bearings and remember how she got there.

Phoenix counted her heartbeats and slowed her breathing.

She lifted her head to sit up and had to reach up and wipe her face. Her hair glowed like a halo around her, it had escaped its ill-fashioned prison. When she fell asleep, her body was in a weird position and she had drooled onto the carpet. She pushed herself up and felt her joints stretch and a few of them creaked in defiance.

She should really try and fall asleep in a better position next time. She was already chiding her foolish behavior.

She stretched her arms and groaned, then she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She felt the creases in her cheek from staying in one position for so long, the carpet really did a number on her face.

Oh my God, Carpet, she thought then started panicking. She felt around the room for any evidence of her presence, and just found short-cut carpet, warm to the touch. Oh, God! She had to get out of here. Where was that damn vent cover?

She froze. There. She heard shuffling somewhere in the maison. That must have been what woke her up. There was someone here.

She didn't dare click, lest she give away her presence. She tried to sift back in her memory and remember the size of the room from the echo of her crying. She couldn't remember anything, she must have been too out of her mind to have done a proper survey of the space. Her mother would have beat her for being so immature and unaware.

She was a damned colicky infant. So stupid! If this act was to be her downfall, she deserved what became of her.

She was in so much trouble all because she felt abandoned and then dropped into an unknown maison. She was so much better than that. She needed to get her shit together and think. Think!