I awoke with a start, my eyes flew open and I wiped my head around to see if the rabid rabbit was still here. I sat up in a hurry to look around to see if I was safe. My breathing was uneven and came in short, rough, gasps of air, my head was swarming with everything I was trying to process. I could barely feel the tips of my fingers due to the cold air that was around me.
I felt something on my face slowly going down it. I lifted my hand to wipe whatever it was. It felt warm, I lifted my hand in front of me to see what it was, it was blood mixed with salty tears. My body started to shake worse than it already was. Was it real, did it really happen?
A creak came from beside me, my eyes widened and my body froze in fear, I turned my head to see what was coming to finish me off. It was Masky, he just stood there in front of the doorway looking at me. I continued to stare at him as well, not really knowing what else to do.
The tears kept pouring down my face, I started hiccuping in an attempt to quiet my sobs but it only made it worse. I broke eye contact and hung my head in my hands to try and stop the tears. I heard soft footsteps approach me.
They stopped when they were right beside me, the only noise that was present was my sobs echoing in the empty room. I felt a warm hand on my back, "Your safe now," he spoke in a smooth voice.
I lifted up my head just a bit, my hair covered most of my face but I could still make him out. He became quiet once again, "Let me clean that bite mark up," He said.
My body went rigid, It wasn't a dream, oh shit. "Is there really a bite mark on my face," I asked desperately,
"Yes," he responded in a hesitant voice. Oh no, no, that can't be true, it was all just a dream, it couldn't have been real. My grip on his arm tightened, I was trying to ground myself, my mind was racing.
How was that even possible, it was just a dream, a fucking dream. Thoughts were flying through my head at lighting speed all trying to find a solution to this madness. I heard him say something but I wasn't listening, I couldn't listen, everything was just so confusing. Blurs of colors were swirling in my vision, in and out they came. They would never stay, always in the move they were.
Suddenly I felt a warm presence in my face, it snapped me out of whatever I was. The swirls of colors faded out and I was left with Masky standing in front of me, shaking my shoulder and cupping my face.
He just stood there, staring at me, he always stared, always thinking about his next move carefully.
My shaking body finally calmed down, but with the shaking gone my body felt cold and strange. I couldn't feel my finger tips, they held no sense of feeling.
"You need to go eat something," Masky said firm tone.
"I'm not hungry," I replied, the last thing on my mind was eating something right now.
"Then we'll get your something to drink,"
I paused for a second to think about it, not that he mentioned it, my mouth was extremely dry. I nodded my head, "Ok,"
He held out his hand for me to grab, I hesitated for a second, he seemed to notice this.
"I'm not going to hurt you," He said, I narrowed my eyes at him. Now that's a lie if I ever heard one.
I figured I could walk by myself. Besides, I was honestly afraid to even touch him. I didn't want to set him off again, especially now, I wouldn't be able to take whatever he threw my way.
I gripped the side of the couch I was laying on and pulled myself up. A wave of dizziness flooded my brain and sent everything spinning for a couple of seconds. I tightened my grip on the couch to steady my legs. I felt a firm grip on my arm, it was him.
"I don't need your help," I said through gritted teeth.
"You haven't eaten in two whole days and you've been beaten up god knows how many times" He retorted back at me.
Deep down I knew I couldn't walk by myself even if I wanted to, so I let him continue to hold my arm. He guided me to the kitchen and sat me down in a chipped chair with a worn down table to accompany it. He looked through the pantry and drug out a can of something; he opened it with a knife and it made a terrible scratching sound. My eyes squinted in disgust from the noise. He turned around to the microwave and placed it in there. Once that had started up he grabbed a bowl and stood beside the microwave.
He turned and faced me, I broke eye contact and instead looked at his yellow coat. It was completely silent, the only thing that emitted any noise was the low hum of the microwave.
He cleared his throat, I looked back up at his mask, "So, are you going to tell me what you dreamt about. Or how the hell you managed to get that scratch on your face?"
I looked away from him and stared at my hands, I thought about it, "I don't wanna talk about it," I mumbled. Even the mention of that dream made me want to puke. Suddenly the microwave let out a loud beeping noise and startled me.
He turned around to fix the soup up, now that his back was turned I could finally get a good look at him. He was very tall, it was no wonder he caught up with me so easily. His running strides must have been huge. His hair was a chestnut brown, it was ever so slightly grown out, but not enough for it to be so-called messy. The yellow jacket he was wearing looked a little worn out, it had a couple of rips and tears alongside with stains appearing every so often. If he wasn't trying to kill me I probably would say he looked nice, maybe.
He finished opening and pouring the soup and threw away the can. He turned to me and gave the bowl to me. The smell of the soup sent my stomach going wild. The hunger from the past couple of days had finally caught up to me. I grasped the spoon in my hands and picked up a spoonful of the hot liquid. I held it up to my mouth and blew on it so it wouldn't scold my mouth.
My hunger must have been really bad because it tasted like the best chicken noodle soup I had ever had. I didn't even care to blow on the next spoonful, I was entirely too hungry to. It burnt my throat but that felt a lot better than the achy feeling in my stomach. I got about half way done with devouring the soup when Masky spoke up.
"Don't eat too much, it'll hurt your stomach since you hadn't eaten anything in awhile," He said in a monotone voice, I nodded my head in response.
He looked at the cabinet and back at me, "Let me clean that wound before it gets infected," He got up and went over to the cabinet.
He pulled out a whole bunch of medical looking things and placed them at the table. He reached out his hand to grab my face but I jerked away. I was still scared of what those hands were capable of, I didn't want him anywhere near me.
"Stop being so stubborn , I'm just trying to clean your wound,"
He reached for me again but this time I moved out of the chair so it separated us. My legs were shaking but I gripped the table with my uninjured hand to steady myself. I stared into his mask, I swear I could hear his breathing.
"I can clean my own wound," I said in a low voice, the thoughts of him completely beating the shit out of me still lingered in my mind. I wanted to be as far away as I could, with that I could have a chance of fleeing from him.
He slammed the disinfectant on the table, I flinched at the noise. He slouched his shoulders and clenched his fists.
My breathing started to pick up, he looked as if he was going to lose it again, I started frantically looking around for something to defend myself with.
"You will listen to me," he started walking towards me, I backed up with each step he took. But now I had backed myself into a wall, he continued to inch closer, each time he took a step a clunk echoed on the hard tile.
He stopped right when he was just about half a foot from me. I stared at him with fear in my eyes. He gave no information to whether he was about to beat me or just kill me, I could never tell. The mask snatched every piece of information away from me. He grabbed my chin harshly, I winched and gave off a small whimper. He crouched down so I was forced to look at him, I started thrashing and trying to get away from him.
"Let me go!" I yelled at him, but my attempts at escape were pitiful, my strength compared to his was unmatchable. His grip didn't loosen one bit, "Get off!" I screamed once again, his grip tightened. As I continued to writhe in his grip I could feel my eyes start to sting from the tears that threatened to cascade down my face. In a panic to get him away I balled my fist up and struck his face.
A small crack split through the air due to the contact of my fist to his mask. He stumbled back and clutched his mask. I had broken the side of his mask, cracks had engulfed the mask. He didn't say anything, it seemed as if he had stopped breathing all together. It seemed early similar to the time he had lost it with me.
Shit, it's happening. I started to run out the room but he snapped out of it as soon as I moved. He clutched my arm and threw me against the table; medicine and other objects fell and shattered onto the floor. I gasped for air, he had thrown me with so much strength it had knocked the wind out of me. My legs crumbled from the impact and I landed harshly onto the tile floor.
He walked over to me, I cringed away from him and tried to crawl away but he kicked me in the legs. I screamed, it hurt like hell. I knew the bruise was going to be a terrible sight to see. I clutched my legs and formed a protective ball, I squeezed my eyes shut and prepared to get another kick but it never came. I heard grunts and shuffling coming from in front of me. I glanced to see what it was and saw Masky and Hoodie, I think that was his name, wrestling with each other.
Suddenly Hoodie raised his fist and punched him in the side of his head. Masky fell with a dull thunk onto the cold tile floor, the pieces of his mask scattered everywhere. The room went eerily quiet, the only noise that fell onto the room was Hoodie's intakes of air as he composed himself. He wrapped his arms around Masky's torso and drug him into one of the rooms down the hall. I heard a door slam, followed by footsteps coming back from the hall.
It was Hoodie, again. He stared at me then glanced at the medicine that was on the floor. He started walking towards me, I jerked myself up from the floor and fled to the other side of the room. I looked back to see if he was still coming closer but he wasn't. He was picking up the medicine and things that had fallen. I let out a small sigh of relief.
He looked up at me and motioned for me to come over. I looked at him but didn't move an inch, I didn't want to go anywhere near him. He held up a medicine bottle and pointed to his cheek. A wave of realization hit me, oh, maybe he doesn't want to hurt me. I walked up to him slowly, he pointed towards the chair and stepped back. I took the chair thankfully, standing was starting to hurt my leg. He grabbed a bottle of liquid and poured a little on a cotton swab.
"It'll sting," He spoke in a quiet voice.
I nodded in understanding and turned my head so he could access the cut. He dabbed at it with the cold liquid, I squeezed my eyes shut as the pain started in the cut. Thankfully the stinging passed quickly and I relaxed my face once again. He put the swab down and searched for another kind of ointment of one sort.
Silence filled the air once again, questions were swarming through my mind now that I had time to think. Maybe I can get some answers out of him. "Um," I wasn't really sure how to start this off, "Why does he do that,"
He stopped and turned towards me, "What?"
"Like, why does he lose it, it's happened twice so far, he'll go silent then go bizerk," I explained.
He thought for a second, he looked up back at me and said "He doesn't want to do it,"
"Excuse me, what?"
"It's not his choice,"
"Oh, so it's like an episode?" I said with a hint of confidence.
"It's not my place to tell you these things," he said blankly.
"Right," I said and blew raspberries.
He put some other ointment on me and put a bandaid on the scratch. He then walked over to to refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water, he place it down on the table and said, "Drink this and go lie down."
I muttered a thank you and grabbed the water. As I sat down on the leather couch it almost started me on how cold it was. I looked behind me and saw a blanket. I grabbed it and draped in over me, taking a swig of the water I looked around this place. This might be the last place I see. I looked down at my lap, I clutched the blanket with my hand, I wanted to squeeze the life out of it just as the world had done to me. I eventually let go once my hand started to ache.
I looked behind me at the window, I could escape right now. But the more I thought about it the more I realized I wouldn't even get far. I was in no condition to run, even if I could outrun them I had no idea where I was. I took one last sip of the water, I studied it in my grip. Then in a fit of anger I threw it against the table. It rolled around on the floor before stopping entirely.
I laid my head on one of the worn out throw pillows that sat on the couch and looked up at the brighting sky through the window. Shades of oranges, reds, and pinks bleed into each other and the clouds were dusted with a light golden color. It was beautiful, it was free.
I dozed off into sleep admiring the elegant sky.