[Story] Delta – S01 E31

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 31

♥ Astrid ♥

Red flowers. Blooming across the floor.

That was all that my mind could see, because there was no possible way, none at all, that Charlie Gallagher – my best friend – could be dead. I couldn’t have accepted it if I had wanted to.

The flowers were blooming, spreading so rapidly that I thought it was a hallucination brought on by my hysterical mind. It was perfect. Flowers to surround the dead body. Wasn’t that what people did at funerals? But they weren’t needed. Charlie wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. He would never leave me.

My mind couldn’t accept what was reality; that the red flowers were the pool of his blood as he lay prone on the floor. But my mouth seemed to realize what was happening before I did, because I could hear myself screaming and sobbing as if from a great distance. I was still lying on the floor, my cheek pressed against the hard ground; I didn’t even try to move as my despair leaked out of me.

I wasn’t yelling. Who was it? It was my voice, but I had no control over it. I couldn’t understand the words that were spilling out of my own mouth, a mixture of oaths and curses, cries and pleas…anything to break the certainty I was in. That my best friend was gone.

Red flowers. That’s all it was.

Eventually, my voice seemed to die, choking noises emitting from my throat as my vocal chords refused to put through any sound. It was as if someone had placed a veil over my vision: everything I saw was through a thick haze. Cloying’s satisfied face, Jay’s wide blue eyes, the guards’ impassive features as they looked to their leader for their next orders… Charlie’s body, adorned with the red flowers that blossomed all over his chest, his sightless eyes looking at the ceiling.

And I felt nothing.

“Get her out of here,” Cloying snapped, apparently becoming tired of the whole situation. Make that the two of us. “Take her to a cell.”

Someone was grabbing my arms, hoisting me to my feet roughly. Still I didn’t move, a numb feeling spreading through me. My arms were twisted in back of me, a firm hand placed on my back to discourage any movement. I couldn’t have if I tried, though; I was as complacent as a lamb as the guard turned to lead me out of the room.