Chapter 205 A MATCH IN GASOLINE
KAI’S POINT OF VIEW.
The mention of my mother was like a match dropped into a pool of gasoline.
The air in the ballroom seemed to drop twenty degrees. A few people near the front actually took a step back, sensing the shift in the atmosphere. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t roar. I simply stood still, my heart rate flatlining into the cold, rhythmic beat of a machine. For a moment, I felt it.
As did Silas.
Everyone’s faces blurred, warped, until they became blurry. I couldn’t see anymore; the effects of my trauma from years ago came crashing down. It gripped me by the throat harshly until I couldn’t breathe anymore, my chest constricting until it hurt. A trickle of sweat climbed up my spine, damping my hands so much that I could barely hold onto the small remote I used for the screen behind.
I searched around the hall, the silence so deafening, my ears felt full… like it would burst at any moment. I did not stop with the search, the sea of faceless bodies digging into my neck until I found her.
Aurora…my Aurora.
The only clear face in the hall. She stared at me, beautiful greenish blues filled with worry, panic… but trust, the one thing that shooed the pain in my chest away. Slowly but surely, until I could finally breathe again.
I found her.
Amidst the vultures, the vipers, and the ghosts of my own past, Aurora was the only thing that was real. She was the anchor in the storm of my own mind. Seeing the trust in her eyes was like getting a lungful of oxygen after an hour underwater.
Like getting a jolt of electricity and life to my brain after years in a coma, a lifeless sleep. My pulse steadied, the rhythm only she could bring returning, but this time it was fueled by a protective instinct so primal it eclipsed the fear.
I found her… again. The memory from that dreaded week returned, this time, with a roar.
“Skai.” That girl whispered, botching my name again, dragging that large bag with her. She stopped to release a puff of air, her chest rising and falling before she resumed, dragging it across the dirty floor.
“My name is Kai,” I whispered, my frail body trembling in the cold. She frowned, her small lip pushing to the side in that cute way I couldn't help but look at. My tongue felt fuzzy; days of not brushing would do that to you. She plopped beside me, not caring about the dirt, and mess around. Grabbing the bag, she pulled out four things.
A sandwich, a bottle of water, a bottle of chocolate, and a small bag of Skittles. “Here you go….eat, Skai,” she whispered, botching my name again. I didn’t care. My stomach grumbled again, the worms in it roaring from not being fed. My free hand, which my mommy had taken off the chain, grabbed the sandwich as if it would disappear.
There was a rat on the other side of the basement….if I didn’t eat it fast enough, it would take it from me. and I did not know how long it would take for her to return……I couldn’t afford to be hungry for too long again.
I munched on it, barely tasting the badly assembled sandwich, but I didn’t care. My stomach twisted with each bite and swallow, hurting even more. I choked on a crumb and went into a violent coughing fit that racked my body.
Aurora grabbed the water, flung the cap aside, and thrust it into my side. Each gulp felt like heaven, the coolness of it running down my throat greedily. “Thank you,” I whispered, wiping the droplets of water with the back of my hand.
“It’s okay.” She whispered, no longer as excited as before. “You’re my friend…my only friend.” She giggled.
“Why? You don’t have other friends?” I asked, feeling bad for only eating her food without making small talk.
“No,” she frowned. “ Mommy and daddy fight a lot because of some, S…Dh….Demies….and they don’t want me going outside while we’re on vacation. So you’re my only friend.” It was my turn to frown.
“Demies….vocation?” I stared at her, munching slower on the sandwich, my right eye staring between the hungry rat munching on the last piece of bread from before, its eyes on me too. I had a sharpened pencil from the night Mum threw me down here. If it came near her, I’d kill it….I swear, I’ll fucking kill it.