Snippet #2217

Leila regained consciousness. That was how she knew something was wrong.

Where was she? All she could see was grey. How could she have moved, and yet still be in the same position she had been as she lay dying? There was no pain now, which didn't make sense either. Her hunger had vanished, as had her fatigue, two things she distinctly remembered. How had she come to be here, in this alien place?

She lifted her head, then sat up. Grey floor at the same temperature as her skin, grey walls far off, a grey ceiling high up. She sniffed, and caught the scent of blood. She twisted her head around to stare down her back, tugging away the fabric of her turquoise-and-black striped jumper. 'Oh God, oh God, oh God…' Ranging down her back were fresh wounds, blood showing but not leaking, two inches wide apiece. In a breath, everything returned to her, a tsunami of unwelcome memory. She'd been walking home after her piano lesson. Her mind had been occupied with the argument she'd had with her teacher, who didn't understand why she wouldn't, she couldn't play the piece she'd been supposed to learn. Her stomach had rumbled, asking for food. She increased her pace, darting around a corner--

Cold slithered down Leila's spine, like ice cubes dropped down her back. She hadn't seen the figure lingering in the dark. She'd been unaware of their presence until the knife sliced through her jumper, her skin, her muscle. It had pierced her senses with a sharp pain, once, twice, again, again, again. The last stab had been the final blow, she'd fallen to the pavement, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Agony, unlike anything she had ever felt before, like fire burning through the wounds, her blood was seeping away, warm and crimson, leaving her cold and drained, and still. Her last thought; what had it been? Mum, Dena--

Her head dropped into her hands. Mum, Dena, Noah, I'm so sorry… Her family, all the family she had in the world, gone in moments. No. It wasn't them that were gone. She had left them. She curled up into a ball, hugging her knees. She felt like she should be crying, there was stinging in her eyes and her chest was hitching, yet no tears spilled. She was unable to cry. How did that just make everything worse?