Embracing

She lost control, the stormy seas taking her down, she fell to the floor. You were told to embrace for impact. I can’t hear you. She thought.

You were told to embrace for impact. Embrace for what you don’t know, just embrace it. The unknown.

So you do, Because the world said so.

Cold calloused fingers, like vermin crawled up her cheek. “You’ve such beautiful hair Ronnie.”  The woman in front of her said, carding her spidery fingers through her long locks. “ You got that from me.” She whispered, smiling.

The room was spinning, she gripped the counter top beside her feeling a rush of dizziness invade her.  

Clueless, cold fingers kept touching her. Sucking the heat away.  Stop touching me.  Was what she wanted to say, but she only heard herself mumble. The sound distant like as if she had heard it from down a hallway.

Ronnie blinked her eyes open, not realizing she had even closed them. Looking up she quickly closed them, blinking before looking back.  No, that wasn’t right. The cabinets were swaying.

She heard the woman again, she was saying something. She didn’t understand. Speak up she thought. I can’t hear you.

Finally she managed to glance up at the woman’s face. Her lips moving, up down, up down. In the back of her mind she noted this probably was just making her sick. The swift lip movement made her feel like she was rocking.

Like a first time sea goer on the their first voyage.

She was in such a state she wouldn’t have even heard or seen the front door opening. Nor the man who called her name and said he was home.

At least she noticed when the woman’s lips stopped.

The way the woman’s cold hand on her arm was feeling warm all of a sudden. The way her lips turned thin and Ronnie noticed with sudden clarity that the woman’s lips were chapped. Red and peeling, Foggy looking skin that was falling off in flakes.  

She was going down. Like the many sea voyages that sunk in the sea from a storm. She was sinking, the lights were sinking.

Her sight being swallowed, her eyes continuing to watch the moving floor. Abandon ship a little voice in the back of her mind answered playfully.  She lost control, the stormy seas taking her down, she fell to the floor.

Her first conscious thought, was the unfounded ringing in her ears. Opening her eyes, Ronnie roved the interior roof of her mouth. Lips pursing at what was her dry sandpaper tongue.  Her mind was running on autopilot, like a machine checking its system when it comes back online.  She felt like one, a machine that is. She pulled her arms from her side, only then feeling the heavy blanket draped over her

. It was her favorite, a nice lavender shade and it was always just so homey. She picked at the stray strings sticking out, rubbing the material afterwards between the pads of her fingers feeling the old rough wear of it.  Ronnie, smiling when she thought of the all the times she had been sick and had snuggled in this exact blanket. Her father bringing her a cup of spiced herbal orange tea with a spoon of gooey golden honey.

Crash!!

Ronnie Jolted, pushing herself up. Recognising her father's room from, the brown curtains containing the dying daylight, his pillows still with the imprint of his head. The files from his work hastily scattered across his night table.  Leaning her forehead down onto her hand, as ronnie felt her vision beginning to fade from a blood rush.

She shook it off though, pulling herself from off the bed. Walking to the bedroom door, she heard the soft muffled voices turn into a full out screaming match. She pressed her ear to the wood, hesitating as the cold pressed against her skin uncomfortably.

“ You won’t be getting any money from me!!” She recognized her father's voice, just not the tone as she she jumped back for the door. It was the next voice that startled her. “ This is my house too, David!” She inhaled sharply.

It was the woman.  She was still here.

Her heart thundered in her chest, she felt her hands become clammy. “ You’ve such beautiful hair Ronnie.”  She said touching her cheek. “ You got that from me.” She whispered.

She was overwhelmed. Her head spinning, she couldn’t think. Just those words that kept repeating almost sweetly in her mind. There was only one thing to do.

Only one solution that could solve this.

She barged from the bedroom door, skirting through the hallway and past the living room. “ Ronnie!”  The woman called out to her, she ignored it. Speeding past their two figures. She yanked the kitchen drawer open, grabbing the green pair of scissors with fever.  Slamming the drawer shut she grabbed a chunk of her hair. Placing the blades of the scissors against it and proceeded to violently saw it off. Locks of her brown hair fell in clumps. She felt better instantly,feeling her mind start to clear. She sawed another lock off before a hand grabbed her hand with the scissors.

“ Ronnie what the hell are you doing!” The shrill shriek, left her in abandoned anger. She wrenched her arm away, the woman's face contorted in horror. A deep satisfaction grew in her stomach.

She felt better, hell she felt great.  

She missed the look of anger washing over the woman’s face, and was stunned at a hand slapped her across the face.

She was stunned, completely unaccustomed to this sudden shock to her system.

The heat on her cheek, felt like it was a raging fire.

She hadn’t heard her father scream at the woman, yanking her back from Ronnie herself.

jagged pieces of her brown locks stabbed her cheek, as longer pieces swept into her face.

“ She’s my kid too, David!” The screaming woman slammed her fist into her fathers chest violently. The stunned face on her fathers gave reason to believe that the woman had never become so violently before. This was all a surprise really.

Ronnie dropped the scissors from her hands, darting past the woman and her father. She stormed to the front door, pushing the screen door almost clean off it’s hinges in her rush. The screen came back almost instantly, slamming back into the door frame.

The woman’s and her father's voices faded as she moved farther from the house. Her path stabbing into her feet as the rocked path twisted and turned. She saw it. Her pool.

She raced to the side where a bunch of stones lay, grabbed the biggest and heaviest she could find and raced over to the pool’s edge.

She stood there for just a moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. With the giant stone she had picked out in hand. She jumped. Splashing into the chilled water and she sunk. Embraced into a cocoon of safety and silence. Her descent was accompanied by bubbles rushing to the surface.

It was time she embraced it.

Author's Note

I thought this turned out better than I thought.