Chapter 3- 168 hours

Her heart raced, pounding like a jackhammer as she tried to catch her breath. Sweated poured like river, coating Lila from head to toe. Blood smeared across her neck, over her chest staining her now filthy, tattered and torn clothes. She stood still, silent for a moment taking in all that had happened, all that lead up to this moment in time, hiding in an alley as chaos ensured. She was no hero, she was a coward in her own eyes. Forever on the run, never looking back over her shoulder, out of fear.

"Stupid, stupid" She cursed at herself, why had she not thought her actions, her decisions through more clearly. Lila continued to mentally kick herself as she rested her head against the bare bricks that had once been the outside wall of her apartment building. In the confusion of all that occurred, her feet still found her way back to the place that she called home.

There was not much left of the upper floors but still she would try to recover some of her meagre belongings and fade into the light of the early morning sun. To think that only twenty four hours ago, it had just been another day, following the same routine as the day before. There shouldn't have been anything special about this particular day but how wrong she had been. How wrong indeed.

The clock winds backwards, reversing all that occurred

Twenty four hours ago

3:01pm

Her black kitten heels clicked firmly against the pavement beneath her feet. Each step as confident as the one that came before. Lila walked through Downtown New York, glancing at the high buildings that surrounded her as she went. Tomorrow, she would have to return to the working world once more.

It was a necessary evil that she needed to keep up the illusion that she was a normal, average work a day young woman trying to make it in the city. Not that this was actually the case. On the surface, Lila Wright was just another twenty something was something to prove. She simply wanted to sail through, remain as invisible as possible whilst still living her life to a degree. She had no destination in mind, just wandering through the streets that made up the city itself.

It was a rare day for her to be completely carefree as after all Lila knew that she would not be remembered by anyone that passed her by. She was just another faceless individual in the growing crowd that walked these streets beside her. With a smile pinned from ear to ear to keep up the carefree mask that she hide behind. It was an act that she relied heavily upon to just get her through each and every day.

The weight of her knowledge, her experience of the world weighed her down. It was burden that she had no choice but to bear. This gift, this curse held her firmly in the place. Lila knew that she wasn't going anywhere off this plane of existence. Life had her in a vice like grip. Death was nothing but an illusion to a woman such as she. Lost in her thoughts, she almost didn't need her shoulder brush past another's. Lila just kept on walking not realising who she had albeit briefly walked into.

The man stood there in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at her confused but a sense of relief washed off him, knocking off that weight that had been laying upon his shoulders for far too long. There wasn't a moment to lose!

Ten hours ago

5:01am

Lila lay there, covers had long since been pushed aside. This was the second night in a row that the sweet embrace of slumber eluded her. The mask had dropped as soon as the door swung behind her, closing the world from her sight. She had retreated into herself, losing herself to her memories, to the ones that she pushed down into the depths of her very being.

Death had always been hard, watching time rip away friends, family and those she held within her heart. The names echoed within her mind, as she tried to close her eyes and count sheep's into dream.

Mother

Father

Jackson

Elise

Arthur

Elizabeth

Ann

Francis

Alexander

The names rolled out one by one, as the faces of the long since dead haunted Lila, creeping their way out of their mental prison. The key had twisted, releasing the lock from its place, letting the ghosts of her past reign free. The anniversaries of Elise and Alexander's deaths, decades apart torn at her far worse than the rest.

Her dearest friend and the last man that she dared to let in, past her guard and into her heart. Elise, to old age and Alexander, to the grim truth of war. Each had been her pillar of strength holding her up, making her feel almost whole before the carpet was ripped out from underneath sending her soaring back down, landing hard and empty once again. Sun rise would not be long, as minutes tick by slowly. Each second felt like an lifetime before the next tick rang through.

The trickle of light rising from the horizon during nights when sleeping was simply not possible was her alarm clock, to get up and start the day. Â It was a beacon of light, warm and welcoming to those who dared to hope and dream. For Lila, the warmth barely touched the tips of her finger tips anymore.

Alexander had always likened the rise of the sun, to that of a most delicate flower opening, revealing its beauty to the world as it woke from its slumber. His poetic words had touched her heart, seducing the gentle lady from the depths of her soul back past the rough edges that time had crafted as she travelled the path that she had been given to walk along.

Lila lifted her head, shaking the sorrowful thoughts to one side, locking them away once more as she pulled herself up into a seated position, her legs dangling over the bed. She thought once more, of the life that once had been hers. The life before she know of her gift, of her curse when she had been a simple girl chasing a simple dream of being married to a man that would love her for who she was.

She scoffed at her childish of dreams, remembering how naïve she had been all those years ago. With one more push, she found herself upon her feet. Lila stretched her arms out, cracking the aching joints before letting them fall back down to her sides.

"Another day in a world where not a soul truly knows me" She said to the empty room, knowing that no-one was listening. Loneliness dripped heavily from each word as she fell from the tip of her tongue.

Tick tock goes the clock as fate creeps closer in

45 minutes to go

Lila wasted no time, as she pulled a sweatshirt on over the vest top and loose pants that she had been wearing whilst trying to count sheep. She needed to get out, the incessant noise within her own mind had started to pick open old wounds. Ones that she had long since put to bed. She needed to run. In running she found a silence that rarely appeared in the long stretches of time spending rattling around the apartment with no other company by her own.

Once her worn trainers were on her feet, she was ready to go. Not caring what time it was, Lila knew that she needed this momentary escape. She chuckled to herself, thinking of her means of grounding herself. Running had always been a means of survival but now it had become something more. A positive and a negative negating the other out. Elise would know what to do next but that luxury had long since passed.

The door of her home slammed firmly, before without much of second thought locking the door behind her and heading out to clear her head never knowing that time was against her.