//------------------------------// // Morning // Story: The Scar // by FriendlyTwo3 //------------------------------// Chapter 2.7: Morning A heavy yawn escapes your lips as you pour the milk into your cereal. Cloudburst is a lot more rested than you, but tired all the same. Your cousin sits across the table from you, quietly munching on her waffle. With a quiet slurp, you put the spoon in your mouth, taking in more milk than food. This action is met with a volley of scratchy coughs. Your throat is raw and dry, and coughing now doesn’t help. After your little fit, you look down at your bowl. A thick pale green liquid now discolors your milk. Ah, fuck it. You take another bite. It tastes much more like dirt. Saltier, with a bitter aftertaste. Sucks to be you. You take yet another bite. “I’m worried about you,” says a familiar voice. Another sigh comes out through your nose. “You’ve been coughing like that all morning.” “Been coughing since I got home,” you say in a quiet voice. It hurts to talk. “I mean… You haven’t been coughing this much. It’s only nine and you’ve already coughed up at least a quart of blood,” she says, looking at you with very slightly bloodshot blue eyes. “Hm,” is your only answer. She’s right. You’ve coughed up a lot of blood before, but it’s only nine in the morning. Granted, you’ve been awake since yesterday, but still. You’ve been coughing nonstop all morning. Taking a deep breath, you look back up at your cousin. Her expression shows one of complete and utter concern and fear. You know this feeling she’s having. You had this feeling all throughout your childhood. Your father was diagnosed with some disease he got from guard duty in Saddle Arabia- you were too young to even begin to pronounce it and it hurts too much to bring it back up. Every day, every morning, every night, every moment spent with him was spent in fear. Bless him, he was a great stallion and a true role model for you, but he always coughed. He would spend a full minute coughing into a tissue and purposely hide it from you. When you would get up for school, you could hear him vomiting in his bathroom. Your mother told you he was just sick for a while, and that he would get better soon. He died when you were thirteen. “You should take a nap.” “Wait… What?” you ask, snapping out of your thoughts. “I know you didn’t sleep last night,” says Cloudburst, “And it’ll just be better if you take a few hours to sleep.” She’s smarter than she looks. After all this time with her, you still doubt the fact that she knows everything. And she’s stubborn when she wants to be. She’s like a female you, if you were twenty times smarter. “…Yeah… Okay…” you murmur, the concept of sleep becoming more and more tempting. In your ten months in the dungeon, you accidentally taught yourself to be awake for a full twenty-four hours. It’s fucking scary down there. …Or perhaps you really did fall asleep some of those times. It’s so dark in there, it’s hardly unbelievable. And it might not have even been twenty-four hours. It could’ve been a few minutes. Or even more than twenty-four. Were you even awake half the time? …Why does your head hurt all of a sudden? “I’ll be here when you wake up,” says Cloudburst, once again breaking you from your thoughts. “Thanks,” you say, beginning your ascent up the stairs. Opening the door to your room, your eyes are immediately drawn to the enormous hole in the wall. But, weird thing is, the wall is clean besides that. Where did all the blood you spilt go? …Oh yeah. You cleaned it all to give you something to do last night after Cloudburst went back to sleep. Flopping down onto your bed, your eyelids immediately close and you drift into sleep… “My dear, you squirm too much.” “…” “Why are you so silent? Do I offend? I’m trying to be the good Queen here. Please tell me where the Princess’s documents are.” “…” “I know you must be hurting. I mean, I would be too, but you left me with no choice.” “You killed her.” “I kill a lot of people. Don’t take it personally. I know for a fact that you worked with the royal documents for a good three years. You know them like the back of your hand. Isn’t that right, my spy?” “Yes, my queen.” “See? Now… I’ll ask again. Where are they? Are they in a safe? What’s the combination? In a room? Where’s the key?” “…” “You’re getting on my nerves. I’m not asking anymore. Tell me what I need to know or you will die.” “…” "...Hit him again." “AH! Gak!” "Tell me now! Or I'll rip out your throat!" “………F… Fu…” "Mm?" “F… Fuck… you…” "You impudent little worm!" “Gah!” “AH!!” Your eyelids jerk open as you’re snapped out of your dream.