𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐃│✔

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟕

Pandora 

♡

Screams echo from below us by the time I open my eyes, my breaths coming out ragged and needy.

"Are you alright?"

I look up from my crouched position to see Esmée staring at me in chock, followed by horror when I couch blood.

"I'm fine." I manage to stand up, unsteady on my feet.

"Pandora, you didn't tell me your mana was so..." She doesn't manage to say the words, her stare focused on the barrier that emits golden cracks of lightening running through it.

"So what?"

"So chaotically strong."

Her murmur overlapped with the screams makes it hard to hear well, and I open my mouth to reply but am interrupted when I hear a scream announcing our location.

"They found us," I warn in panic, my head getting more dizzy by the minute.

"Who?"

"Them." Pointing down at the many people encircling our stand point, the screeches of panic become worse when I let myself be seen.

My movements halt when I make out one man that manages to stand out from the rest. Silver hair braided from both sides of his temples to the back of his head, where it's tied in a short ponytail. His clothing is that of a General, the stance he takes on when meeting my eyes confident.

"Pandora, let's go."

I'm positive I've never met him, yet the heartache at seeing his smirk. The surprise in the widening of his silver eyes consorting into pleasure feels all too familiar. My body bends over the edge slightly, and my head tilts when I try to recognise where the sense of nostalgia comes from.

I've definitely seen him before.

"Pandora!"

I snap out of it when Esmée grabs my hand, the panic oppressing my mind feeling like it could crush me.

"Take us back," I practically beg now,"Please!" Continuing to stare at him, who, right before we disappear into the portal, mouths something to me. My eyes widening when I read the word forming from his lips.

I barely feel the grass under my fingers as I grasp it like my life depends on it. The pressure accumulating within manages to concentrate on my head, leaving me with a splitting headache. The acute daggers slicing through my vocal cords make me grasp for air to no avail. 

The entourage moving around me slows down until they are nothing but a blur, a faraway murmur in the shadows of the ringing loud in my ears. Never does it fade away, the image of that man. The terrifying agony I felt when watching him. The eyes that looked at me with realisation and amusement at my confusion. As if I was the only one left in the dark while he knows the way by heart.

"Traitor."

What did he meant by calling me that, and what is it in the sharpness of his gaze that pains me so? Guilt washing over me slowly as I contemplate where I could've seen him before. Her loud cries resonating within the walls of my head make me wince. Gradually, my breaths slow down until the air surrounding me becomes so light that my body seems even more heavy compared to it.

What did I do?

Bodies press against mine, painfully. Arms grab me, forcefully. Hands creep like insects crawling all over me, repulsively. The moist body heat radiating of them render me desperate to escape them.

Escape it.

The nightmare I live in.

Wake up.

I want to wake up. I need to, because once awake, they'll disappear. These lingering touches imbedded in my memory, still tainting my body to this day no matter how much time has passed. As long as I open my eyes, they'll disappear. They always do.

Always.