———This was meant to just be a calm, mandative trip up to the cliffs overlooking the sea, where only the sounds of water lapping at the distant ground below while the wind carried it up. There were some trees clustered at the top of this cliff. If there were more soil than rock, she might have considered this a good place to set up, but that wasn’t the case. Rosalia had no wish to force these trees to expand into the rocks where there’s no nutrients, nor to constantly feed them with energy just to keep them alive.
———Eyes closing as the distant lapping of water filled her ears, she carefully seated herself against the tree that was closest to the edge. This was the time to be calm & relaxed. This day meant nothing to her.
Nothing...
———A faint ringing sound filled her ears, making her wince; it wasn’t true noise, but it still hurts in a dim sort of way. Within that ringing sound, one could almost swear that there were muffled words.
“Stop, pl-” “-don’t hurt-” “-pathetic wretches-”
———❝Ngh. . .❞ Squeezing her eyes tightly, she tried to ignore them. The words were nothing more than fragments - they weren’t real. Not anymore. Yet they grew louder, more clearer. Unconsciously she’d clutch at her head as the intensity continued to climb higher, images flashing against her closed lids. Even when she opened her eyes to escape them, they only followed, the scene flashing from reality to past.
This is not real. . . NOT real. . .
———Despite the constant reminder that this was nothing more than another episode of flashbacks, it did nothing to quell the onslaught. The smell of iron was invading her nose in spite of the strong breeze coming from the sea. Trees were pillars or rubble, flashing to the temple that was supposed to be her family’s sanctuary. It was turned into a slaughterhouse. . .
———She didn’t want to see this, yet she had little control over these flashbacks. Sometimes, they’re triggered by the smallest detail; other times, they seemed to simply happen. These weren’t controlled. But what was to be done about it? Nothing, except to scream internally as she tried to cling to the fact that reality was this cliff, the tree against her back, not the flashbacks. They’re already dead...! “-just cleaning up the filth-”
———When had she gotten to her feet was a mystery, though with that murderer’s voice making itself louder, it was getting to be too much. Rage, grief, they filled her thoughts once again as the flashbacks invaded her senses, confusing reality with the scenes. She wanted to run, she wanted to attack — there was so much that her mind screamed to do in that instant.
Too much. . . just too much. . !
———❝Stop. . .❞ She couldn’t see, couldn’t remember her surrounding as her feet carried her along. There was no staying still, not while the screams of her children kept repeating, followed by the sounds of a sneering voice of someone that she once claimed as her son. The blank eyes that stared at nothing even as the expressions held shock & terror. Everything Malshano had done was deliberately done to inflict as much pain onto her as he can, & they were deeply seeded into her mind where information was not easily forgotten.
———Unable to shake the vision, finding it all following her as though she was running towards the scene even when she knew she had turned away, there was desperation growing to escape this personal hell. The irrational urge to attack the mocking man as Silvia laid at his feet while rapidly dissolving from the Void essence was strong, so strong. Rage built at knowing that he wasn’t even physically here, even while her mind screamed that he was. Everything was blending into a seamless line - what even was real for the likes of her?
———The breeze felt fainter, the one piece of reality that had kept contact with her this whole time. There was no sense of direction to follow, not when she’s so clouded by pain of the physical & emotional kind. Only when her foot found no ground did she realize that she couldn’t even tell direction of a slope, plummeting from the edge as the ringing grew louder still. Useless as it was, her remaining wing had snapped out instinctively to catch air, doing nothing more but spinning her out of control in the fall.
———Then, everything stopped as she painfully plunged beneath the surface of the water, landing left shoulder first. Salt stung her eyes, her nose. Her wing felt like it had just been twisted around by a hurricane. Her shoulder & neck, bruised from the impact of water. Lungs were burning, the impact having knocked all the air from her body. Dizzy & disorientated, she had a difficult time finding up from down. Even when she had finally reached the surface as spots of black had started filling her vision, her chest ached badly as she drew air in, hacking water out, almost gagging.
But yet. . . she was freed. . . for now.