I fell to the floor, overpowered by an unseen force pushing against me. I breathe, over and over again.
In, and out.
In, and out.
In, and out.
I felt a pounding sensation in my head, driving me crazy. I covered my ears with my bruised, bleeding hands, hoping it would block out the repeating noise.
It didn’t. I still heard it! Over and over again!
“Burn the witch. Burn the witch. Burn the witch!” I heard.
‘Stop, stop, stop!’ I wanted to shout, yet couldn’t make a sound.
A painful ringing noise of bells rang through my ears, bouncing around in my mind.
‘Not the bell! Not again!’
Light soon lit up the room, brightening everything.
“Hello? Anyone in here?” I heard a mature voice speak out, along with footsteps tapping against the tile floor.
They looked around the room and under desks until they reached the one I was under. They crouched to the floor and bowed their heads under the desk, looking at me with pity in their eyes. I disliked that look, it felt as though they thought I was weak.
“Sweetie, what are you doing under there? Don’t you have somewhere to be?” she asked in a sweet toned voice.
With my hands still covering my ears, her voice was muffled by the still pounding sensation. I looked at her, my pupils dilated in fear. She only shook her head and sighed, reaching a hand towards me. Without a word, I grabbed it gently, almost cautiously. She studied my bruised hand for a moment before pulling me out from under the desk. I kept my hands close to my ears, hoping that the continuous noise would die off by now, but it didn’t. It was still fresh in my mind as if I was hearing it for the first time. But I wasn’t, I’ve always heard it.
The woman, who seemed to be a teacher, tried to lightly take my hands off from the sides of my head, but I wouldn’t move them. For I feared that the thoughts would become louder and slowly rip me from my sanity. It was as if my hands were protecting me from the insanity of desperation and horror; a barrier.
The women gave up and walked me out the door, stepping on a few shards of broken glass from the window on her high heels. As we reached the front door, I felt my hands instinctively slowly drop down to my sides as I realized the noise was much fainter. I closed my eyes, loving the feel of rejoining the darkness that lies behind my mind.
•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•
“Where are your parents, love?” I heard the guidance counselor ask, though my magenta eyes were too focused on the strange paintings that lay upon the plain white walls of the office. One picture was a man baring his teeth to a dog holding a gun in its mouth.
‘How weird.’ I heard a voice say.
Credits: Music – Lurking In The Shadows by www.soundimage.org
