What was reality? Iris couldn’t even be sure she was truly feeling anything in and out of her daze and on occasion sounds would break through. It was hard to describe what she was going through, the closest explanation she had was that it was simply like a dream. It was easy to slip in and out of consciousness, but more often than not she opted for the darkness not having much of a will to fight against the numbing feeling it gave her. It was a blanket of comfort staying within the depths of darkness and even as the sounds of reality penetrated through it wasn’t enough to pull her back. 

Focusing on them meant she had to question her existence, had she really heard all that gunfire? Manic laughter? Her name? It hurt to question it because if she focused on it the lull of the darkness started to seep away and a pain began to return. Floating, that was another way she could describe it, right now she felt like she weighed nothing and could just glide through. Glide through what? What was she doing? Then there would be a flash of memory, blood. Blood everywhere and she could feel the internal panic there. 

And then… nothing. 

In and out, a strange cycle she began going through. It would start with the floating, feeling weightless almost limitless and just when she felt like she could reach it panic would settle in. Then fear. Then flashes of memories always ending up with blood before it would return to nothing. Over and over this happened and it almost felt routine, constantly playing on a loop for hours until it started to feel like days. Each section in the cycle began to drag on, lasting ages until she felt the release of the next stage to it. 

Desperately she wanted to be free of this panic, the flashes of memory that had lasted for hours. Right now, she should be feeling the darkness, being numb to everything but the loop was stuck on this very segment, and she wanted to be free of it. The intensity began to grow as if building up to something and she could feel it in the pit of her stomach, she could feel her heart in her chest and just when she thought the loop would continue it all faded away as finally her eyes began to flutter open washing away the odd state of mind, she had been in. 

Bright, there was so much light that eyes began to water as she adjusted to it. [color=f49ac2][i]Is this real? How long have I been out?[/i][/color] Wincing as she tried to get a better look at her surroundings, but her body felt heavy and even as she willed herself to move, she couldn’t. Tears left her eyes and she heard herself whimper from the pain in her side, she was alive. This was real. As she began to adjust to the lighting, she established she was in a room, it wasn’t a hospital? Dread began to settle in because the only reason she could think of as to why she wasn’t in a hospital was that Ethan still had a hold of her. 

“[color=f49ac2]N-No…[/color]” Hearing the rasp of her voice as she tried with all her might to push herself up on the bed, crying to herself at the pain she felt as she desperately tried to get out of the bed and somehow make a run for it. It was then she began to remember everything he had done to her, the beatings, the cracking of bones in her left arm all the way to when he had stabbed her. No, she would not go through it all again, but the sudden rush of pain from all the movement she tried bought a wave of nausea and she had to stop herself before she threw up.