Finding Contentus

Chapter 20: Reinvigoration

All those voices that cried out in terror, simultaneously as one. All those voices that cried out to be saved, simultaneously as one. All those voices that cried out for life, simultaneously as one. All those voices that cried out...

Simultaneously. As one.

Fuckin hell. I can still hear them. Getting softer and softer, but still so damn loud, fading away, escaping me. Everyone screaming for mercy, for salvation, for victory. For... anything other than death, hanging onto life with everything they have. Fuck. I can't breathe!

The palpable torment of flooding destruction raced through every fiber of Kakara's being as she raced away from the house, delving deeper into the dark forest.

The air around Kakara was heavy and dense with stormy toxicity that invaded her constrained lungs that struggled for breath. She tried inhaling sharply, only to reel from fatigue in feeling nothing but ash, blood, fire and smoke burning her insides.

Panting heavily with a strangled sob, she carried on running still, disregarding the tightening of her chest and windpipe in an attempt to blindly flee from the inescapable prison of loss that was now her mind.

Just like the twins ran that day, crying, with nothing but panic, confusion and magnified horror to the likes they had never seen before.

Jesus Christ. This feeling of loss. My heart feels like it's been broken into so many fucking pieces the likes of which I can't even count. All those people. Non, they weren't just people. They were all united as one people. As one family. As one. I... I feel them. Like they're a part of me. Like they're my family. Non non non, I don't want this! I don't wanna feel this! I don't want to see this!

Realizing she couldn't possibly maintain her speed and track of things, she stopped to catch her breath by a lone tree in the middle of the forest.

However, such a moment proved to be futile as her lungs still felt extremely constrained, and her knees caved in, wheezing for oxygen. Clean oxygen, one not riddled with the poison of death, and the penetrating venom of despair. All she was was a sea of burnt corpses, dismembered corpses, corpses without skin, ranging from men, women, children, infants, unborn babies...

W-why can't I breathe? Where am I? Shit I can't even tell if I'm running from the primals inside or outside! I feel weak. I'm losing it. I'm losing everything. Non, it feels like I've already lost everything! What? Non non but this isn't my shit! That's right this is theirs, this is what they saw!

It's not real! It's not real! It's not real!

They kept hearing their booming screams. She kept seeing their dead bodies flowing in rivers of their own blood. She saw so many severed heads, staring back at her...

Fuck! It is real! It's the realest shit ever! This is the reality they saw for the first time! This is the reality they experienced for the first time! This is the reality that they weren't ready for! This is the reality that they knew nothing about!

Kakara opened her mouth and vomited. My head's spinning. My head hurts. My head is about to explode. I'm gonna pass out. Non! I can't pass out here! I don't want to worry Papa Ren and Mama!

She dry heaved once her stomach was empty, once all the bile had left her system. She wiped her mouth. Then, she screamed, to keep her disintegrated sanity intact. Calme, calme, calme! She told herself to calm down.

She carried on screaming in protesting agony, clutching onto her head, continuously wheezing in desperation for air. Lightheadedness swept over her like an ocean of darkness that engulfed everything around her.