She just couldn't win lately Who: Dora and OPEN When: Wednesday February 1, midmorning Where: Running loops around the Alleys -- pick a spot! What: Something goes wrong during a run. Again. Warnings: Language (more than likely), possibilities of flashbacks, a bloody nose and a panic attack
She'd slept later than she'd intended, only finally getting up when Ewan prodded her before he left for work. If she hadn't, she knew she'd have just curled back up in the warm spot he'd left and gone back to sleep. She'd promised to eat something -- and she had nibbled on something, she really had -- and then drug herself to work where thank the gods Elroy was manning the front today so she could piddle around on special orders in the workshop.
With Valentine's coming up, she had a plethora of small orders -- generally jewelry, or some sort of boxes with illusions for proposals, or glamours for fun in the bedroom, all those sorts of things. Bags, too. Bags were pretty easy.
She knocked a bunch of small things out of the way right away and then because she was feeling tired again -- and here she'd thought she'd slept well -- she went ahead and changed into her running things. Running would energize her and get rid of some of the low-laying anxiety that was plaguing her. Mid-morning, there wouldn't be a huge press of people out and about at this time of week.
Two circuits of her loop around here, that was the plan. But as she was near the end of the first loop, she sniffed. It was cold out, and her nose was running, or so she thought, but as she raised her hand up, a drop landed on it and she looked down.
Not a running nose. Blood. One drop became another and another, a steady sort of drip, and she slammed to a stop.
For a long moment, she just bled and watched it fall into her cupped hand, so startled that several memories slammed into her one after another -- blood on her hands, blood on her hands, her blood, their blood, screaming, screaming.
She didn't usually have a problem with blood, but normally she was prepared for it. But Pandora wasn't good with surprises, and you never knew when something she'd done a million times would hit her just wrong.
Her breath caught and shuddered, and movement in the corner of her eye had her twitching, half in and half out of the memories, but it broke things just enough for her to shakily reach up and pinch her nose, though she felt it continue to bleed. She wanted to sit down and put her head beteween her legs, because her heart was pounding far harder than it had when she was running; but she couldn't do that, because of her nose, but there was NO way she was leaning her head back vulnerably.
She was stuck, bleeding, trying to decide what to do.