To compensate for this, for some reason I'm up at what to me is basically the crack of dawn (about 6:45) in the morning. Because I'm awake at this ungodly hour, I'll do some writing now (Day Two) and write some more this evening (Day Three).
To start things off simple for my sleep deprived brain, I'm gonna use a First Sentence stick for about 15 minutes, and attempt to somehow create a makeshift IV drip out of my coffee.
First Sentence: 'Your mother lied to you. That's the truth.'
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'Your Mother lied to you. That's the truth,' says the man.
I have no idea where I am. One second, we'd been sat round the dining room table, eating Christmas dinner... 'We' meaning my family and I, that is. But one second, that, and now... I have no clue what.
'Your Mother. Your Father. Your Teachers. Everyone.'
'What are you talking about?' I groggily manage to say. I feel sleepy, like I've just woken up. I realise that I can't actually tell how long I've been conscious. I can't see the man. I can only tell he is a man because of his voice. But then, it could just be a very manly woman. See, that's the other thing, I can't tell where I am because I'm blind. Not actually, legally blind, but right this second, I'm unable to see. I must have a blindfold on, or a bag over my head, or something, but I can't feel anything there. I would be panicking if I wasn't so sleepy.
'Charlotte, this might come as quite a shock...'
'What?! You're not telling me anything. Who are you?' I ask, my heart beginning to beat faster. He takes a deep breath of air, holds it for a second as if trying to form the words he would use the breath for, then gives up and lets it out in a long sigh. Another, quicker, intake.
'My name is Dawn. I'm... I guess you would call me a Hunter.'
'A hunter? What does that even mean?'
'I stop bad things. I'm keeping you safe.'
'Safe?! Right now you're the bad thing!' That's it. Panic sets it. My heart is racing, and my breathing... I can't actually feel my breathing. I try desperately to feel anything around my mouth... My throat... But there's just a kind of numbness.
'Trust me. It might seem that way, but right now, there's something much worse happening to you. I need you to help me stop it.'
'What?! What are you talking about? Tell me what's going on!' I feel as though I'm laying on my back. Or am I sitting? The numbness in my face continues to a lesser extent throughout my body.
'Everybody you think you know was lying to you, Charlotte, because the world you were living in... Wasn't real.'
I laugh. For some reason, I find this hilarious. My throat convulses in laughter and catches on something. Something is in my throat. I go to speak, the words don't come out of my mouth but somehow form anyway. I realise that this is how I've been speaking before now, with my mind.
'What the FUCK?' I yell with my brain.
'Good,' comes his voice, 'you're becoming aware of its presence. You're beginning to reject it.'
'It's time,' says another voice. A woman's this time. 'Her vitals are good. If you're going to do it, Dawn, it's now. Now or never!'
'Very well... Now listen, Charlotte... I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt. I wouldn't do this if I didn't know you could handle it. See, you're one of us. A Hunter, like me, like Kyana. Now try to hold still as much as you can. Here we go!'
Before I can respond I feel movement. Something peeling off my face. Then a strong grip around my head. Multiple strong arms pulling the thing closer to my face again. And all the while an overwhelming pain. Not a sharp pain, like something on the surface, but an excruciating headache. More than a migraine. It feels as though there's a power drill attempting to escape from my frontal lobe the only way it knows how...
'It's fighting, Dawn!' comes the woman's voice.
'So is she!'
I feel the thing pulling away. It pulling back. It goes back and forth like this for a while, the pain continuing the whole time.
Then it it pulls back further. I feel something cool and metal slide between my face and the thing, and I realise that the numbness is disappearing. I feel whatever was in my throat slide out. I take a gasp of air. It feels like the deepest breath I've ever taken. Then, just as my lungs are about to fill, a scream.
The scream isn't me. It isn't Dawn. Or Kyana. It isn't even human. It doesn't sound like any animal I've ever heard. It sounds almost metallic. But it is, unmistakably, a scream. My breath is cut short by spurts of cold liquid entering my mouth. It has the coppery taste of blood, but with the copperiness dialed up several notches. I gag on it, choking it back up immediately.
I feel the last of the thing peel away from my face. The arms around my head go slack, limp, falling down my neck to my shoulder where they slide off. My eyes finally open, the world blurry at first. I'm on some kind of chair, reclined. I'm strapped to it, my arms and legs immobile.
I look around, two blurry shapes moving around me, inspecting me. And behind them... something, writhing on the floor.
'She's going to be okay...' Dawn's voice reassures nobody in particular. Then the same voice, but different. In my head this time, like before. 'Charlotte, you're going to be okay.'
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I guess writing in the morning works wonders for me! Something to bear in mind for University this year!
Thanks for reading, more later.
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