Page 85 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

I snarled at the brush and slammed it against my overly plush mattress.

The damn thing was like sleeping on a cloud. It was horrible.

I preferred to sleep spread-eagle on my stomach, and I swore the thing was giving me back pain.

Sure, the enchanted “WHORE” carved into my flesh and random surgical lines that Sadie said were parallel to my spine were likely contributing to the pain, but the mattress was still not helping.

Lately nothing was.

The drugs had lost their efficacy, and I couldn’t blame my problems on a made-up monster in my head. Dissociating wasn’t fun when you knew you were just pretending.

I couldn’t even pretend that I wanted to pretend.

Shadowy walls collapsed around me.

A random chill made shivers crawl down my spine, so I pulled myself out of bed and lay in front of the large hearth with my blankets wrapped around me.

The flames warmed my cold skin as they screeched obscenities at me.

As I lay on the ornate carpet in front of the fire, the pounding in my temples intensified.

“Screw you,” I whispered as the fire screamed.

I reached my fingers toward it. For a second, a strange tingling zapped between my shoulders.

Whoosh.

The fire disappeared, and darkness surrounded me. Embers glowed dimly.

I stared down at my shadowy hand with no clue what I’d done.

Shivering from the cold, I regretted my life choices. At least the darkness was comforting and my head had stopped pounding.

I lay on the floor wrapped up in my blanket cocoon.

The hard surface grounded me.

Closing my eyes, I enjoyed the quiet darkness because it was all going to be okay.

Whoosh.

Flames reappeared in the hearth, and they screamed even louder than before. I didn’t need to speak fire to know they were shrieking obscenities at me.

Shadows expanded across the walls.

Jumped.

Taunted.

Nothing was okay.

I slapped both hands over my mouth, leaned forward, and screamed. Curling into a fetal position, I shoved my knuckles against my teeth to muffle the sound. The fire was warm, but I convulsed with shivers.

Pulling the blankets tighter, I squeezed my eyes shut.

Tasted copper as I silently screamed.

Wished I could disappear.

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