Hey there guys. I know some of you left some prompts for me. I have a few that I got on Tumblr that came earlier, so once I'm done working on those, I'll be working on yours. I'm not sure about in which order I'll write them, but they'll all be up sooner or later, and that's a promise. This is a continuation to Misophonia.
Warnings: 1. This chapter deals with Misophonia, a neurological disorder that is classified as mental illness at times.
2. If you are a Misophoniac - this one deals with a few certain triggers, so if you easily pick up new triggers, please do not read!
Emma slammed the bug's door, then winced at the loud sound. This wasn't good. She was so tired and annoyed that she was triggering herself, and that was always a sign to call it a day before bad things happened.
She climbed up the stairs, not able to ignore the too soft climbing sound she couldn't help. She pressed the key inside its hole, then slowly turned it and entered the apartment, careful to take off her boots without them slamming into the floor.
Everything hurt. The sound of the wind coming from the opened window in the kitchen burned in her ears and the soft hum of the blow drier coming from behind the closed bathroom door made her want to break the door and throw it in the garbage. Sleep, she really needed sleep.
She turned around, startled by the sudden sound of phone clicking, to find her father coming into the apartment. He was focused on his phone, not even raising his head to look at her when he greeted. "You're home. I thought it's was going to take longer".
She groaned, covering her ears with her hands. "Leroy decided he had better stuff to do than to complain about sneezy. Told me I could leave".
David hummed in approval, kicking off his shoes in a way that made Emma wince again. He was typing on his phone still when he fell to the couch, putting his feet on the coffee table. "Where's your mother?"
But she couldn't bring herself to answer that. Her hands flew to her pocket, pulling her earphones out and plugging them into her phone. It took her about five seconds to make it all happen, and soon enough there was music playing in her ears. Only it wasn't enough by that time.
The drums in the background of the song felt like they were banging inside her head and she groaned again as she took the earphones out and threw them, along with her phone, as hard as she could and as far as she could through the room. And that made David stop typing, Snow run out of the bathroom in panic.
"What's wrong?" they asked in unison, just as she fell to the floor, face in her heads. She started shouting, hands pulling at her skin. Her fingernails buried deep in her cheeks.
In seconds she felt strong hands grabbing her and helping her up. She didn't stop shouting for a second, not daring to be quiet enough to hear any noise. She let them both guide her to the couch and she sat there with her hands still covering her face.
Then softly, her mother's hands cupped her cheeks as her father's strong hands grabbed at hers and pulled them down to release the pressure they were creating over her face. She knew she'd bruise in the morning, but it didn't matter. Not when she wasn't even sure she could make it till morning.
"Charming, the white noise," she heard Snow say quietly through her screams, and in seconds the room was filled with white noise coming from the TV that was set to full volume. Poor Neal probably had no idea what was going on. She stopped screaming once she could hear nothing but the white noise.
She suddenly realised she started crying, probably sometime during her screaming. She tried to free her arms from her father's grip, but with no success. She couldn't bring herself to speak, so she just tilted her head to try and dry the tears on the shoulder of her coat.
"Okay, Emma, I'm going to count for you, and once you've relaxed a bit I'm going to free your hands, is that okay?" David asked softly. Too softly she could actually hear his T's and F's hurt her ears.
She nodded slowly. "But speak louder, your pronunciation is triggering".
He nodded, and she could see the proud father look in his eyes. And then he started counting. Seven counts in, eleven counts out. Seven counts in, eleven counts out.
She was a bit more relaxed after a few minutes and the obviously saw it, because they both released their grip. Her hands immediately grabbed at a tissue resting on the coffee table, and she dried her tears. "Sorry".
"There's nothing to be sorry about Emma," David said over the white noise. "I just don't understand what happened".
She sighed, and started ticking points off her fingers. "I slammed the bug's door too hard, climbed up the stairs too softly, and kicked my boots too hard. You were ticking on your phone, the wind was blowing, and mum was blow drying her hair. I put on some music but the bass was too loud, and I had a very long and exhausting day. I reached the point where I triggered myself, and that's never good".
"You need to communicate Emma," Snow said with a sad smile. "We can help, but we need to know what's going on in order to do that. We could have prevented you from feeling this way, from breaking down".
What so you say I set the white noise on you iPod and you put it directly in your ears? It would be a bit more helpful, right?"
He didn't even wait for her to nod, getting right on the task. On his way back, he picked her phone up from the floor and gave it a look. "It's not broken," he said with a relieved smile.
She took the iPod gratefully and plugged the earphones in her ears. She watched as her mother turned the TV off and came back to sit with her and David. "How about some dinner?"
She shook her head. "I can't Mum," she begged.
"Okay, then I think you should go to sleep. I'll take care of all the paperwork for the last two calls of today, and tomorrow you can wake up to a new day. Okay?" David smiled, his hand giving her shoulder a light squeeze.
And with a nod she got up, not leaving before she hugged both her parent. It was a good thing she had them now, even if from time to time they were the ones causing her triggers.
Tell me what you think?