(( @prophecyread sent --- Send me [PANIC] and I’ll write my muse coming to yours during a panic attack, seeking safety. / Mahia and Amos ))
“ A... Am --- ! “ Mahia choked on his name.
Had she even spoken?
The wall seemed to shift beneath her hand, the floor beneath unsteady steps stretching further no matter how quickly she stumbled forward... feeling as though she’d made no progress at all. No further from where she’d awoken, alone. No further from those features leering above her, contorted, beside pristine walls. Each breath burned. Their shallowness left her lungs aching, that sensation doing nothing to calm the thunderous pounding of her heart, louder, louder --- !
“ A m o s...! “ A wheeze, forced free. Where was he?
Feathers dragged across the floor, her mind refusing to even acknowledge them, now. Disgusting. The word had echoed. Muttered behind thin masks. An in the next instant --- both arms snapped to close over her chest, nails gouging into skin... a weak shield from the agony that had ripped through her moments before,. All in the healer’s mind, she knew that. Only memories. Pain that had left her throat raw from screams unheard. That prick of blades in her back, so clear as though she might reach back and find one there, again, burrowed beside wings.
How her body shook...
Fear. All there was, then. All there was, now. Past and present merging in every way that didn’t make sense. This familiar hallway one moment, home, safety... and in the next, a cell floor stained and discolored by droplets of blood spilled, and the glaring light that never dimmed, the approach of footsteps nearing her door to take her away. To hoist her up by her arm --- when had she fallen? --- pay no heed to how her hands scrambled for a hold, the desperate pleas as she was pulled toward the door, no matter how she planted her feet, fought, b e g g e d. Her frame shrank into the shadows. Knees jerked toward her heaving chest, head bowing to meet them, and those despised wings curling as a closing curtain around her. She hadn’t made it far. Couldn’t move a step further. But, they were coming. Steps nearer, each urging another shudder that surged from the very tips of ebony feathers, down her spine, blood freezing in her veins.
No, not them. Wasn’t them. Was it? They weren’t hear, couldn’t touch her, couldn’t harm her ever again so long as... “ A M O S --- ! “ Finally, a cry. Hoarse, and cracking with a sob. Hands rose in a frantic instant to clutch over tear-stricken face, quivering lips. So long as he was there... she was safe.
And he was there. Even his presence so familiar, that realization alone helping to loosen the frigid grip terror had kept around her heart. Not enough to let her open her eyes, to uncoil her tiny frame from where she’d huddled... yet, Mahia managed to draw in a full breath --- painful as it was, catching on the lump in her throat --- for the first time in seeming hours.

















