by Miriam Bell » Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:56 pm
After languishing at the bar for way too long and ultimately having to leave when it closes, Miriam ends up on the roof of the dorms, leaning against the brick-work of the chimney and staring out into the night. Sam's words are still ringing in her ears. So how's it supposed to get out of your system? It can't and as terrifying as that thought is, what seems to cut even deeper is the slow dawning realization that regardless of what she's been telling herself, Sam has dealt with the same kind of thing she has and has handled it so much better. So much better that it took her mere moments to hazard a guess as to what's wrong with her. Such a small little thing that clicks into place in a long series of Miriam's mistakes. Not only was she at fault for almost everything going awry, but any time she's dismissed Sam's advice or suggestions the red-head had been right. Trying to help. Despite the vitriol she continued to throw her way. Her head is swimming, the world around her seeming to collapse in around her, so many sleeping minds underneath her, she's losing her grip on her mental barriers. She takes a deep breath for the first time in a couple days, trying to steady herself...
...and as she breathes out purple and red are beginning to spread over the clouds like a giant bruise on the world. How long has she staid up here? Lost in thought? The sudden panic only seems to make reality more spongy, unsteady. She stumbles as she runs for the door to the stairwell, the sunrise behind her swelling across the sky, surreal, like an impossibly large hand slowly reaching for her. Maybe the sudden movement is flushing the drugs into her head or maybe her mind is just slipping all on it's own, but everything is spinning and not in the drunk kind of way. She throws open the stairwell door and it yawns wide before her, larger than it should be, larger than makes sense and through it is nothing. The absolute vastness of the lack of anything is staggering but she has little choice. The dawning cloud-bruise is filling the world behind her, forcing her forward and as she passes through the door the feeling of missing a step on the stairs rushes through her as she moves forward and down, without falling somehow she pivots or maybe the world pivots around her, flipping upside down and inside out and then the nothing has her and becomes something, no longer empty now that she's stepped into it and from where her foot steps down to touch the ground a lush carpet spirals out beneath her...
And in the real world Miriam has stepped into the stairwell, the door slowly swinging shut behind her and saving her from the rays of the sun creeping over the edge of the roof outside. Her ghastly visage seems to smooth, features receding little by little and as they bleed away from her the ground she's standing on fades from the regular dorm carpet into thick, dark-red Persian carpet with spiraling designs. The effect slowly creeps up the walls, transforming the plain wallpaper into Victorian wallpaper of golden flower and branch designs embossed on the black cloth background. Seemingly unaware of what exactly is happening around her Miriam is staring into the middle distance, one hand raised and almost touching the wall, head tilted ever so slightly.
((Open))