The aftermath of everything and how Bianca is dealing.
{cut for privacy and possible triggers just to be safe}
Bianca turned off the bath taps. The bathroom filled with steam, cloaking the air in it's heavy warmth and the water pipes hissed like a nest of vipers. She dipped her foot in the scalding water and felt the heat bit into her skin, as a shiver travelled up her body. She was cold, she had never stopped being cold since waking up in that hospital bed, since learning how close to death she had come, since Tori...
With a soft whimper, she plunged in one leg, then another, and stood there in the overflowing tub, trembling. Biting her lip, and screwing her eye. The fine hair on her willowy arms and nape of her pale slender neck stood shock straight. Slowly, soundlessly, she crouched, sank through the acid burn of the steaming water's surface. Finally a chocked gasp escaped her. The pain was excruciating, the water like fire, but at least she finally felt something other than terror and emptiness. A purifying fire.
For a moment she felt like she could see again, like someone had cut through the static noise that filled her eyes and the thick fog that had settled over her once sharp mind. She couldn't eat, she hardly slept save for the one or two hours every few days when her body finally collapsed out of pure fatigue. But then the night terrors would creep out from under her bed, the monsters she thought she had left in her closet of her childhood home came to life once more and the Bianca would scream.
And scream, and scream...
Finally she would wake up, she chest rising and falling rapidly as she struggled for air, tangled in her sheets, her now frizzy curls plastered to her forehead by sweat and her eye damp with tears. She'd warm her arms around herself, shuddering and crying. Sometimes she crawled on to the floor, fearing the small distance between the bed and the ground. Then again, you can't fall any further if you're already on the floor. Soon the days blended into one.
Leaning back until the scalding water began to seep through her hair, Bianca closed her eye, took a deep breath. She plunged her head backward into the water, her head and body fully submerged. The bit of the fire was sharp, but cleansing. She opened her doe-like eyes looking up at the ceiling from behind the ripples of the water. It was quiet. Peaceful. And for a moment she wondered if she could stay here forever.
Blake gave a soft laugh as his sister regarded the hospital food. Really hospital’s didn’t make him feel very comfortable. All sanitized and clean that it burned his nose, not the mention the ill people. He really couldn’t wait for Bianca to come home and he was sure that the other felt the same way. “Well when you get home we’ll have your favorite food how about that?”
When the other brought up what had been hanging over them since Blake arrived, the older male sighed. He had been trying to avoid it but it was inevitable. “…I have a bunch of questions,” he said as he gave Bianca’s hand a squeeze. “Believe me. I want to know every detail you remember. And I have a whole speech prepared on how you shouldn’t be alone when you knew how vulnerable you are…” He held up his other hand a bit and took in a breath. “All those things though can wait…until you better or until you feel like talking about it. I don’t think me yelling at you will help your recovery and will just make both of us upset.” Oh but how he wanted to rant and rave. If he could he would ground Bianca. Yes. Grounded until….she was thirty! Yes! “…Do you want to talk about this now? Or wait?” He asked, holding mixed feelings on either way she would decide.
"Well according to the doc, I kind have to talk about it" she began sarcastically, more for her benefit than Blake's. "Look, I want you know what happened, so hopefully you won't be an idiot and get yourself torn up like me" she said struggling against her bandages to reach for him again. "Whatever attacked me out there, it's not anything 'normal'. There was no way it was a bear of mountain lion or something like that. This...creature is huge and strong and it smells all wrong" she wrinkled her nose at the memory. Sometimes she still imagined she could smell it's scent mixed with that of her own blood. Bianca swallowed the bile threatening to climb up her throat. "It's strong and fast and there's just the two of us Blake. In this whole damn town we are the only ones of our kind. We need protection. This monster is knocking people down like dominos and the next person might not be as lucky as I was." Bianca closed her eyes, tired from the effort of talking, and of trying to keep her memories at bay. If it weren't for Tori she wouldn't have the luxury of lying here in this hospital bed with her brother by her side.
"You can scream now if you want, or threaten to call mom and dad or something" she said a moment later, not wanting any awkward silences to form between them. "Also, I better be getting this best chocolate cake you can find and a huge bowl of pasta when I get out of here. I'm barley surviving on what their giving me here" she frowned thinking of the cod porridge that had been served for breakfast.
The mixed scent of coffee and deer was enough to help Titus’ sensitive nose focus less on the stink of predators and he smoothly withdrew his fingers from Bianca’s in order to gently usher her forward when she moved for the counter, keeping to her side so as not to frighten her doe with being out of sight. His own beast was calmed by the warm and friendly presence of a kinder creature than it was used to being around; the mall could be daunting, some days. He was a million miles away from work and crowds, though, and he leaned an arm on the counter and turned to face her with a smile.
“Still couldn’t be as sweet as you, though, right?”
Titus’ eyes drifted lazily up towards the prices and drink options, his head craning back before he decided that he was just going to get whatever it was Bianca chose because that was easier than deciphering the scramble of letters and numbers. Both human and rabbit were more focused on the present company, and couldn’t be bothered with reading. Dropping his eyes first to peek at the doe, his head was soon to follow and he pushed himself up a bit straighter before looking around to take in the rest of the Rookery.
“So…how do you like it there over? At the music store.”
Bianca continued to scan the menu trying to decide between a simple mocha or something fancier when Titus joined her. Though they weren't particularly close, she could still feel him beside her. She had begun chewing her lip absentmindedly when his words startled her. "What?" she said turning to face him, she eyebrows suspend on her forehead, showing her disbelief as her face cracked into an embarrassed smiled. Bianca had always known there was a fault in the filter between her mouth and her mind, sometimes causing her to say the first thing that popped into her head. Was Titus the same, or was he deliberately trying to turn her face into a violent shade of crimson? "First of all, I can't believe you just said that" she said, a violent blush creeping up her pale cheeks, "secondly I'll have you know that there are some people who actually find me quiet difficult" she said shaking her head. Luckily the barista diverted her attention then, she turned her face hoping the rabbit wouldn't notice her blushing like a school girl.
"I'll have a caramel mocha" she said, her voice sounding slightly strangled as a part of her mind still tired to process. It had really been too long since anyone had flirted with Bianca, so much so, she feared she'd simply make a mess of thing. Grateful for the change of direction in conversation, she focused on work. "Well it's definitely not Empire Records, but it's not bad" she began, hoping he'd get the reference. "We mostly get teenagers coming in and a few of the older folk since we still stock vinyls, but things only get busy during holidays. I get a lot of down time unless I'm on inventory" she shrugged, finally having the courage too look at Titus again, now that her face was no longer on fire. She cocked her head sideways, "I realise I actually have no clue where you work" she said, curious, wanting to know more about him.
Nightmare: One of our characters will have a nightmare.
Bianca picked her way as quietly as possible through the apartment, not wanting to wake her brother, sound sleep in is room. She hated how tiny their home was, and even worse was how sound seemed to carry through the paper thin walls. She had almost reached the fridge when the sound of someone’s voice startled her. It was Blake, and she was screaming in his sleep. Bianca ran to his room, throwing his door open to find her brother a tangled sweaty mess in his sheets, his hands forming fists around his blankets as he grit his teeth. “Blake” she called out to him, approaching the bed, not wanting to startle him awake. “Blake? Wake up!” she placed a hand on his shoulder as he turned in his bed, shouting something incoherent. She shook him with more urgency, “Blake wake-up, you’re having a nightmare! C’mon, wake up!”. Finally his eyes flew open, startled he tried to sit up almost knocking his sister over. “Christ Blake, what’s wrong?” she said, her eyebrows puckering in the centre of her forehead with worry as she placed a hand on his shoulder, waiting for him to fully wake up and realize she was in the room. His breathes were shallow, and his forehead was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, eyes wide and pupils dilated - he looked so young and vulnerable. Bianca sat on the edge of her brothers bed, wrapping and arm around him while leaning him into her shoulder, as they both waited for him to breathe again.
gummygunk
baratheonpilled
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon
romaincrisis
stormborns
titsay
jbbartram-illu
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