Quinn awoke with a jolt, catapulting herself off cotton sheets as old wood exploded a room down.
KUK , CR-AKOW
Her foggy mind fought to right itself, tired bones ached from the roll. She wasn’t as spry as she used to be, but still lucky that she could do it 't all. Her arm, swallowed by oily black, reached out found support from what felt like wood. Shaky legs rose from a crouch.
Slowly, she hobbled sideways, feet pattering with the rhythm of a drunken woodpecker as she peeked into the small corridor. Luck wasn’t on her side, she saw nothing from this angle, but heard much just a turn ahead.
She held the wall and a groggy gait made her turn the corner and couldn’t tear her eyes away from the laughing teens cloaked in shadow taking inexplicable joy in destroying her belongings.
Wildly failing four limbed beasts like skinny devils prancing about the ruins of her living-room. Each with a face she was sure even the sea wouldn’t give a wave. The floor was dotted with broken wicker and hard wood flecks being mashed to mush even further by sporadically stomping heels and glowing, shining smiles which cast shadows on her soul.
Her cast iron pot, a wedding gift from Bjorn, cracked in halves and wet at an edge. The remnants of Erica’s wicker basket, a treasure she’d long forgotten to return, mashed thin under active, angry heels. And oh- God-
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She had not the heart t' throw her gaze on anything else.
Like thunderclap on a silent night, a command slugged her right between the eyes.
Blink
It reverberated and rebound in her head and rippled and ached like frostbite.
Blink!
Louder now, hurried and fast like a hundred crushed leaves forced into her ears.
BLINK
Stronger now, like the bellowing roar of a furious bear, fangs boring into her ears, agony like a tree digging roots in her brain.
Still, she persevered, glancing up in time to see a hard wood bat descending between her eyes.
She blinked.
And as midwinter chill crept through broken windows, all was silent in an empty house, save its sole occupant.