Waiting by Erin Dennington ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 68 Christina was hyperventilating but was unable to really do anything about it. Her heart was rapidly approaching unsafe levels by pumping out of control. She knew that if she allowed her fears to continue to control her breathing, she would soon begin to have one of her panic attacks. The only problem with trying to control her breathing was that she feared she would swallow one or more of the insects that were flying so close to her face that she could feel the movement of their wings. She didn't know where the others were. As soon as the door was plunged into blackness, she had collapsed onto the nearest chair and, curling up into the fetal position, had tried to both protect herself and hide from the insects that she knew were in the room. She'd tucked her hands into her sleeves and then tucked them behind her legs, knowing the entire time that it was most likely a foolish gesture. These were genetically engineered insects and, as such, could probably pierce her skin directly through her clothing. She knew that. But trying to protect herself gave her a sense of doing something, especially since she had no idea what else she could do in this situation. Breathing through her nose, which she figured was safer, she counted her breaths and listened to the sounds of the insects. They were almost as bad as mosquitoes, which she loathed. These insects, since they were so small, weren't audible until they were pretty close to your ear. But once you could hear them, it was like you couldn't stop hearing them. There was, simply put, no escaping them. She strained to hear anything besides the hundreds of bugs around her, but found that it was a vain attempt. She had no idea where the others were but she could hear a couple of screams that seemed to come from across the room. Christina figured that she was safe, for now, as the insects didn't seem particularly interested in her. A few would alight on her clothing but would hurriedly fly away. She wondered if it was because she wasn't standing up, so she didn't appear to possess the shape of a person. It would be an interesting aspect of the insects to study, if she could ever have the chance to examine one beneath a microscope. Her body had begun to hurt from the awkward position she was sitting in, but she dared not move for fear of attracting the insects. She wished that her extremities would go numb -- not that it would be a good thing, in the long run, to have happen -- so that she wouldn't feel the pain any longer. Waiting for the insects to fly away and vanish again, she distracted herself from the aches and pains in her legs and arms by thinking about her children. Becca was growing up into a beautiful young lady who would spend her afternoons taking care of her little brother whenever she had the chance. It was how Christina knew that Becca had a true heart of gold; even though her daughter had spent the last couple of years not speaking to her mother, Christina knew that Becca had always cared. She knew that it was hard for Becca to deal with her mother's mental illness and she didn't begrudge her daughter her distance. Becca was like her mother in a lot of ways; Christina knew that if she was Becca's age and in her shoes, she most likely would have distanced herself from her mother, too. However, knowing that Becca was starting to come around and accept that her mom was not a monster had worked wonders in helping her get some of her self-esteem back. Knowing that it sounded cliched, she thought that her daughter speaking to her had truly warmed her heart this afternoon. She knew that if Becca had not been able to warm to her mother this afternoon, then Christina might not have had the courage to handle the news of her husband's betrayal as well she thought she had handled it. A sliding sound slipped in past the sounds of the insects and Christina strained to figure out what was creating the sound, because it almost sounded like a chair being shoved across the carpet. But she couldn't figure out who or what would be making that sound. The noise drew closer to her hiding place and she tried to peek out from underneath her arms, but changed her mind when an insect spotted the opening and dove for it. Slamming her chin back underneath her arms, she hoped that the insect had been smashed flat by her sudden movement. She didn't dare think what else could have happened to it. The sliding noise stopped about a foot to her left and she concentrated on drowning out the other sounds, so she could hear what this strange sound was. The harder she concentrated, however, the more she seemed to hear the sounds of the insects, until they seemed to gather into one cloud about a foot away and then suddenly lift, as if they were headed somewhere else. The area around Christina grew as silent as the eye of a hurricane when she heard a voice that she had hoped never to hear again. "Hello, Christina," it said. "It's so nice to see you again." 23:01 - 11.23.02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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