DURABLE (completed)

Five Years Of Change

Those eyes, those red- slit-like eyes, drew closer mouthing something I couldn't quite hear but what was clear was the murderous intent streaming from them. Fear and a desperate need to escape crawled through me and I was forced up and out of my subconscious with a piercing scream.

Popping up with my heart hammering and fear clogging my throat, I opened my eyes. I need to reassure myself that I was alone in my room but was blasted with excruciating pain as soon as my eyes detected light. In an instance I knew what happened, there was a small beam of light streaming through the left of my lilac blackout curtains.

Clenching my eyes shout I allowed a few beats to pass and my heart rate to slow, before tentatively trying to reopen my eyes. Thank fully this time the light didn't bother as much my sight still watered but the unbearable pain was gone.

I sighed in relief but also in exasperation at the shitty way my morning was starting. A torrent of bitterness surged threatening to take over my senses and send me on a black out rampage. I couldn't allow it. The last time my anger got the best of me I was woke up in a place I didn't recognize with a weird taste in my mouth. Closing my eyes I drew a deep breathe, in. Out. In. And Out. I did that until my emotions were back under control.

As I recounted my dream the vivid images swirled through my mind reminding me that it was five years since I had escaped the lab of hell.

Every year, no matter where I was or who I was with, I would be haunted by those the day I left Keith and encountered the red slit like murderous eyes. I had never seen anything like them before not in movies, not in person, and certainly not the day that Keith had graciously rescued and set me up with fake papers. Yet year after year something deep within me whispered that they were real.

Lost in thought, I absentmindedly glanced over at the clock on my dresser. "Crap, Crap, Crap" I was going to be late for yet another doctor's appointment. Flipping back my maroon silk sheets I slid from my bed and sped to the bathroom. There was no way I was going to see my favorite doctor without taking a shower first.

Six minutes later I was stepping out the fastest shower of my life and starting my hair routine. It was always the same. I would spritz water over my hair followed by moisturizer, then coconut oil, then castor oil, and finally two big braids down the sides that met in the back to form a bun. It was simple cute and easy to do.

As soon as I got to Phoenix five years ago, I had decided to wear my natural hair. While my hair had thrived, growing healthy and thick, it took a lot of time and effort to get it into a manageable style.

Rushing out of the bathroom, I quickly applied lotion to my skin. I threw on the first pieces of clothing I put my hands on, a pair of dark, loose-fitting jeans and a pink blouse. Then sprinted out the door.

Thankfully my doctor was only fifteen minutes away, and the traffic wasn't bad today. I was only five minutes late. As I drove up to the nondescript white building, I psyched myself up. Everything was going to be solved today. All the episodes of overwhelming noise, insatiable hunger, and sensitivity to light would be explained, and I'd get the necessary medication and be back to normal soon.

I was once again lucky finding a parking spot almost as soon as I pulled into the parking lot. Jumping out my car I practically ran towards the building hope building with every step. I was almost through the door when for a slight beat, I felt an odd yet strangely familiar sensation of an intense stare. There were hundreds of people mulling around, but no one was looking directly at me, so I quickly shook it off and decided that I was just paranoid.

I was almost at the check-in desk when I faltered perturbed to see that Cassy was the receptionist on duty. Something about her made my skin crawl. She looked ordinary enough with blue eyes, waist-length dark hair, and a petite frame but it was the way she stared at me.