Who: Cecilia When: 5:07am Where: Her room/first floor/front yard
Once upon a time, Cecilia had slept deeply and peacefully. She had loved sleep, and slept well. Circumstance had changed her to a woman who would wake at the drop of a pin. The settling of old wood. In the beginning, the bad days, every noise had set her heart to racing and filled her with terror. In those days, Neptune would wake and move close to her, nudging her gently with his nose to let her know that he was right there. That she wasn't alone.
When she woke this time, she was alone, and Neptune's bloodstained collar was still wrapped around her wrist. Her body went rigid, immediately on high alert. She was alone, she told herself. She was, and alone was good. Alone was safe. But she wasn't alone. There was a voice in the room. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe. She moved not so much as an inch as she tried to make sense of this. She realized why it filled her with such terror. It wasn't just in the room. It was coming from beneath her.
It was coming from under the bed.
Nope. Boom. Cecilia moved quickly, fluidly. In the same motion she had put her feet beneath her and crouched at the head of the bed she grabbed for the butcher knife on her nightstand. That in hand, she was off the bed in two quick strides and she hit the ground running. Three more strides and she was out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
She didn't think twice until she was out on the front lawn. It was possibly she didn't breathe until she was out on the front lawn, because at that point her chest was burning. She made it halfway to the road before she turned back towards the house and bent over, gasping for breath. Cold air filled her lungs. It helped. Didn't fix the problem, but it helped.
Just breathe, she told herself, and she tried. She couldn't stop shaking. She felt as though she'd touched an electric fence. The rational parts of her brain tried to kick in, insist that this was ridiculous, that she was overreacting, but for the time being those parts were overruled.
I just need to breathe, she screamed in her mind. Breathe, and you'll be okay.