I can't believe I have 7 chapters already! *Giggle* But on a more important note, I've changed the rating to T. Let me know what you think. Also I owe partly to this great song on youtube for inspiration for this chapter... I don't own the song. "Sadness Piano Song - Alone in the dark music by Vadim Kiselev", on The0maXa's channel. Check it out if you like sad piano solos, it's pretty awesome. This chapter was originally planned to be mostly Peddie fluff but that piano song changed it into something which I like much better.

Chapter Eight, Silence

Patricia

I slowly forced my eyes open, the light flooding in seeming too much and too bright. My hands were shaking and felt weak, and I could feel the rough material of the couch in the living room against my back. I thought there must be some sleep in my eyes and all I wanted to do was sink back into the deep, deep oblivion of sleep.

But just as soon as I started to drift back down, a pounding strike erupted in my head, causing me to suddenly jerk up into a sitting position. The pain throbbed over and over again, and when I shut my eyes all I saw was a pulsing red. I could see the small veins in my eyelids pulsing and I desperately wanted to open my eyes again. If I did though, I knew that the light would stab into my head like lightning, burning my eyes.

It was like the feeling one had when one had a sore throat and a bad fever. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't get away from the fever and the scratchy sore throat that constantly reminded you that it was there. I felt hot, too. Startling flashes of images came through my mind, before my very eyes.

I was terrified. The gray sky seemed to let more light through than a vibrant blue sky. It was cold and bright, and everything seemed too quiet. I could feel a body that was not my own. I spun around, feeling the slightest tingle of the icy wind on my delicate hands. I could see a figure hunched in the woods. I became conscious of all the sounds that were not there. I imagined the bracken rustling around me, as if to comfort me. I could imagine the birds chirping and the distant rumble of thunder, and the gentle drops of rain sliding onto the brown, smooth leaves in the clearing.

I could remember days before this. Days before a mindless terror that took hold of me, a terror that would not let me sleep at night and would not let my mind drift during the day. I could remember days on which a gray sky would have seemed a trivial thing, and the rain would have seemed a nuisance. The fronds rustling and the birds chirping would have simply been one of the simple pleasures of life. Now it seemed the rain was consoling me, whispering to me. I will stay with you, it seemed to tell me. I will not leave you. The fronds seemed to say much the same. Stay strong, we will not leave you.

I know those sounds were there, but in the dreadful silence that awaited me as the hammer came down on my head, on my face; they were gone. Help me, I whispered. I was alone in the woods, with no one to care.

No one to care except for the fronds and the rain. They would not leave me.

Help me, I whispered to those that would not leave me.

"Eddie!" I called out, getting off the couch. My legs shook and I could hardly move. The flashes kept coming. I saw the corner of my own white dress with brown ties on it swishing through the rain. Then, I saw my front and my blonde curls spattered with a dark red stain that would not go. It would not lift and it would not leave me.

I felt his strong arms around me again, helping me to stand. "Patricia, what's happening?" his voice came to me as if in a dream.

Finally I shook the flashes away and I just saw his face. His face outlined clearly, right next to mine. I realized my arms were around his neck, but somehow I could not move away. "Help me," I half sobbed half whispered against him.

I felt the couch against my back again and felt his hand on mine. "What's happening?" he asked softly.

I couldn't open my eyes, the same flashes played out over and over again.

I saw the red stain spreading across my dress. In that moment I knew the fronds and the rain were there, waiting for me to hear them. I stared up at the sky and wondered why I could not hear the rain. I could not hear anything. Was I to die in this silence, without hearing anyone or anything? Would no kind words ever come to me again, not even from the bracken and the rain?
Help me.

I couldn't hear him, I couldn't see him. What was happening to me? The pain hardly mattered anymore, I couldn't even feel it through the haze of confusion and the spinning memories which were not my own.

"Help me," I whispered again. I pleaded although I could not hear my own voice. "Help me. Don't let me die like this."

Now you think I'm dark and twisted, I know. Let me know if you liked it or not, and I'm sorry not much happened but that's just the way I am. I'll try to update soon, but that might not be possible. Not sure yet.

~Iceshadow~