Psychosis

Chapter 22- Visibly Concussed

Isabel was surrounded by darkness before she heard the music. What kind of music was it? At first, she couldn't tell, but then she realized what it was. Circus music. She could hear other types of circus sounds, too. A lion roaring somewhere. Children's laughter. Even the sound of a hoop going up into flames for the acrobat. Finally, the darkness receded, and Isabel saw the circus materialize around her. There was only one problem. There was no color. It was all completely black-and-white, including herself. She looked around, and saw that people weren't really moving... well, actually, they were. It's like they were moving frame-by-frame. They would be in one position, and in about five seconds, they would be in a different position, as if they were trying to move fluidly, but weren't able to. Only she was able to move fluidly.

She walked around, knowing there had to be something she was supposed to find. Maybe where the color was being held. She looked into all of the tents, noticing that no one really noticed she was there. She walked in on a fortune-teller with a couple, and in the crystal ball, she was able to see that the couple was holding a baby. The woman definitely wasn't showing, so if she was pregnant, it was the very beginning of the pregnancy. She noticed something strange about the couple, though. The man looked a bit like one of the men on her team, and the woman might have looked like her, but she had short hair with blue highlights. Isabel hated her hair short, so it couldn't have been her. She left that tent, and the next she found held the lion tamer, and the one after that, the acrobats with the flaming hoops.

Finally, she found a tent that was seemingly empty. That was, until she found out that there was another at that circus that could move fluidly. A pair of hands wrapped around her neck and pulled her down to the ground. She looked up to see who her assailant was, and she knew the face she saw. No... it couldn't be him. But it was. He smiled at her, and her eyes widened in fear. He said something, but she didn't know what it was. Her heart was beating in her ears, and her body was shaking uncontrollably. The man's hands felt at her shirt, before starting to slightly pull on it. Isabel fought. The man sighed and decided she wasn't worth the effort. She thought he would just leave her, but that wasn't going to happen. Instead, he put his hands to her neck again and began to choke her. She tried to pry his hands off, but his grip was like iron. She wasn't getting out of this. The last thing she saw before her vision went black was his face, smiling at the prospect of her death.

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Ciara woke up from her nightmare screaming. She felt her neck, which actually physically hurt. It felt as if someone had actually just been choking her. She wondered if there would be bruises there, or if the pain was all psychosomatic. If the pain was all in her head, the idea planted there by a case that hadn't bothered her at all but had caused nightmares that did. She expected Akilah to be by her side, but after a few moments, she realized that she wasn't. Akilah wasn't coming, and Ciara realized she must still be sleeping her injury off.

It wasn't a serious injury, but it was enough that Ciara knew she wouldn't be working for a couple of days. If a new case came in, she wasn't going. Ciara looked at the clock, and though it was five in the morning, and her routine dictated that she should wake up at 6:30, she knew she wasn't going back to sleep. Not after that nightmare. Not after she saw that face. She quickly went to the bathroom, performing all of her morning routines. She took a little bit longer getting dressed, knowing she had time to actually pick something really good out, even though it was Saturday. It was the women's designated lazy day. They weren't doing anything but lounging around, watching Disney movies, and eating popcorn.

She ended up pulling a random t-shirt out of the pile, and after putting on the long-sleeved undershirt that hid her arms, she looked closer at the t-shirt, which was The Matrix inspired. Her favorite movie. The shirt was a size or two too big on her, but that was how she liked her t-shirts. The extra size not only made it loose but made it long enough to cover her butt and allow her to feel comfortable in leggings. After getting dressed, she decided to actually leave her hair semi-down for once and pulled it out of the bun on her head. She put it in a low ponytail, which kept it out of her face. Leaving her room, she decided to check on Akilah, just in case she was up. Ciara doubted it. She was a heavy sleeper, and this injury only made her a heavier sleeper. She grabbed a couple cereal bars and a glass of water anyway. Akilah could take them when she woke up. She entered Akilah's room, seeing that the woman was indeed asleep.