Tuesday, December 16, 2014

The Beginning of the Descent

The day started at 3:00 am, with voices screaming. This wasn't exactly surprising; Serenity had been waking up like this since she was 22. She blearily stumbled out of bed, almost stubbing her toe on the door but missing it at the last second. The screaming began to get louder, turning into an unintelligible mess of noise. She downed her medicine and moved into her favorite armchair overlooking the fountain on Main Street. Nobody was out. In fact, most people were probably still in bed, dreaming of fluffy clouds and puppies. Lucky them.

After making an entire pot of hot chocolate to last until noon she finally began to feel her medicine kick in. The screaming subsided until it became white noise in the back of her mind. Feeling much better, she uncurled herself from a ball and began to get ready, slipping into her workout gear. Serenity tied up her hair into a high ponytail and grabbed her keys before grabbing her headphones and phone. She stepped out of her apartment on the seventh floor of Dreamwood Terrace Apartment building. Locking 744 behind her, she ran down the stairs and made the short jog to the local YMCA just as it opened.

Though she would never admit it to anyone, Serenity loved working out early in the morning. There was no one to take her favorite machines, and no class loudly taking place next door. She relished in the peace.

For a little while, anyway.

"Good morning, Serenity" said Braeden. Serenity stifled a groan. That was, what, 5 minutes earlier than before?

"You're being very rude, Serenity" exclaimed Dympna. They always seemed to come first, the others coming soon after. Serenity closed her eyes, desperately trying to gain some peace back.

"Serenity?" Dympna and Braeden asked together. Serenity grit her teeth, determined to get lost in her workout. She began to chant in her head. 'Go away, go away, go away, go away....' Braeden and Dympna began to talk at once, their voices mingling until it was all too much.

"GO AWAY!" screamed Serenity. One of the cleaning ladies that had just came in gave her a dirty look. "Oh, no, sorry, not you. Sorry." She seemed to stumble over her apology, scrambling to collect her stuff. Uttering one last apology to the cleaning lady, she grabbed her YMCA card and ran out of the Y, sprinting as fast as she could, Dympna and Braeden echoing in her ears. 'Sorry,' Serenity thought. 'Just talking to the voices in my head. Don't mind me, I just hear voices and sometimes they're so lifelike that I talk to them. Just ignore the crazy girl with schizophrenia.'

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