Drabble contest submission – Third Place Winner
Theme: Phobia
Ballistaphobia: The fear of missiles or bullets (and yes, arrows are considered missiles)
That sound.
--Twang—
The sound haunted her dreams, permeated her nightmares and threatened every waking day to send her over the edge, over the brink into madness. As if she hadn't suffered enough, to be left with this – this daily reminder, the constant nagging breath of fear that sent tremors through her limbs and chills over the scars she still bore.
--Thunk—
She could still feel them, the echoes of the aftermath. Every skirmish opened up another battlefield within her, a fight not with the demons arrayed before her, but with her own instincts not to fall, not to scream and claw the things from her back…not to imagine them there, not to feel the slow, wet trickle of her own blood as it seeped from their buried heads.
--Twang—
Worse yet, the knowing. Her friends. Their fight. The sound was necessary.
--Thunk—
Perhaps she fought for vengeance. Perhaps she fought for retribution.
--Twang—
Perhaps she simply fought to keep Kagome from firing those damned arrows at her back.
--Thunk--