#15 (Part III)

#15 An Answered Scream ( Part III)

     “Here, now.  That’s enough.  You were sent to go get her.  Not bring her here.”  A new voice said.  A shadow fell across my feet.  It was solid and wide and no-nonsense.  When the great gaspings for air stopped, when I no longer sucked in breath against the psychic venom, I straightened.  The woman was as her shadow indicated: solid and forthright.  And though her eyes were cold they also made a promise that I dared not let go of: I would survive this.  I would survive this misery much as I’d survived everything that came before.  All the betrayals that came before.

     I would survive this thing my husband brought down upon my head. 

#15 (Part II)

#15 An Answered Scream ( Part II )

      I stared at her.  All thoughts of the times before disappeared under the weight of this newest loss.  Crippling grief welled up within me.  I bent in half, my arms wrapped around me.  I bent in half and screamed.  I screamed to the spring bud grasses growing beneath my feet.  I screamed at the leather shoes shodding my feet.  Shoes that, for a moment, I understood were not mine.  Were never mine.  I screamed because, in that very second of understanding I knew that I was no better than the paper dolls in my classroom.

#15 (Part I)

#15 An Answered Scream ( Part I )

     I was shattered.  Utterly and truly shattered.  "W-what happened?"

     Penny grimaced.  She gestured to the ashy remains of the house.  My home was reduced to remains.  Coils of smoke still twisted upwards in wispy spirals.  The soul of the house was being lost unto the wind.  She said, "It happens sometimes when he gets angry."
     "He?" 
     She turned to look at me, her gaze searching.  Then, grasping my arm, she pulled me closer.  "You have something from before that you hold onto, right?  You keep a hold of it.  Keep it in your mind."
     "If I don't?"
     "Then he wins.  He gets it all.  Try!  Try now!"