Never Bend

Chapter 3 : Astounded

The picture was picked from the web.

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Life is like a suspense movie, a labyrinth,
Like murky waters, nothing is simple, everything is complicated.
MJ1
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Annie
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I wake up, wrapped in my blankets, bathed in the comforting scents of early fall. I feel safe. It was just a nightmare. Just a terrible nightmare.

Voices murmur around me. I try to make out what they're saying. Slowly coming to my senses, I try to move, but my body refuses.

I hear someone speaking directly to me, but it's all a blur and I can't make out who's talking to me.

Am I still dreaming?

"Annie, are you awake?" The words finally make sense in my head. After a second I finally understand. It's my brother Luc, and he looks worried.

I slowly open my eyes. Two pairs of worried eyes are staring back at me.

"You scared us. We found you on the floor and your inhaler was across the room. We thought you wouldn't wake up. Luc made you inhale the medicine from your pump," Julie says without pausing.

I have trouble adjusting to the light. I blink several times; the light burns my eyes.

Through the blinking, I notice my blankets on the floor next to me.

I looked at them and forced a reassuring smile through the pain in my body as I lifted my torso onto my elbows.

Luc hurries to help me sit up.
"Take your time," he rumbles, cupping his fists under my armpits and lifting me enough to sit up, resting my back on the bed frame.

My head is still spinning, but I comply.

"You still have some packing to do. Mom won't be happy. You haven't packed anything." He throws his hands up in the air in annoyance, finally putting them under his armpits and making a funny face.

He's imitating Mom when she's fighting the urge to kill us.

She hasn't been herself lately. She's changed so much that we don't feel comfortable talking to her anymore.

I smile even though his face is as serious as a fourteen year old can be.

I rub my tired eyes, trying to hide my grin, and slowly get to my feet with his help.

"Okay, where are we going?" I ask in my hoarse and raspy voice.

"You're being silly!" Julie tells me. "We're going closer to Mom's new job. You know, because of her promotion."

She continues while Luc lifts my blanket and makes sure I can stand on my own.

I, on the other hand, play the sleepy part to hide my unawareness of all this.

This is not the first time this has happened, but every time I talk about it, it gets worse. I don't want to end up adding more therapy sessions to my life. Being pressured to tell a stranger what is going on in my head, only to be told that I am coping in my own unique way to keep the emotions from taking over. It was just rude and unhelpful. There was no way I was going back there. So I decided to play along.

"Annie! You need to pack. Mom's going to freak out!" Luc adds as he pulls some boxes in my direction.

Julie opens a drawer and dips her hands in to grab the contents. I raise my hands and surrender.