Ephemeral

At five in the morning, my body jolted awake from another nightmare. I felt my heart pumping blood and fear throughout my body at a dangerous speed. I was covered in a blanket of cold sweat and my mouth had a gross taste to it. My stomach twisted and cramped, and uncomfortable tension started to rise up my throat.

Realizing what was about to happen, I flung myself out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, promptly kneeling in front of the toilet. I expelled acidic vomit into the bowl, and my stomach continued to constrict and heave painfully. I looked into the toilet. Blood.

I had never thrown up blood before. I had coughed it up. But vomited it up? Never. I groaned as the tight coiling and churning of my stomach made my ribs burn in flaring pain.

I should be okay, I just needed a minute.

After a couple minutes of coughing, I flushed the toilet and slowly rose up. My throat burned, making my eyes water. I held myself upright using the sink counter as my legs shook beneath me. Everything was spinning and whirling around me at a speed I could not comprehend.

Whose bathroom was this? Was this mine... How did I get here?

For some reason, I seemed to be catching a slight virus. My body was freezing to the point I was shivering, but my skin was scalding hot to the touch. My mind seemed to be in a haze, and my body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. An aching and burning sensation buzzed all around me.

I stood there for what seemed like hours but was probably a couple minutes, trying to make the dizzy feeling go away. The entirety of my mind and body was disoriented. Where was I? Oh, the bathroom, that's right. I must be tired. I continued lingering in a blurred haze, slightly swaying from side to side. What was going on?

I shut my eyes, trying to regain my scattered senses. I attempted to clear my mind by remembering where I was and what day it was.

Today was... Wednesday?

Yeah... right... right...

I started school today... I should be nervous about that, but right now I don't feel anything... hmm...

I should thank Mr. Valen for the stuff he got me... yeah... why didn't I thank him? I don't remember. I'll go do that now... yeah...

I let go of the counter and swayed forward. Suddenly, my body appeared to be falling downwards.

Not a good idea...

I blinked, and I was somehow lying on the hard tile floor. The confusion worsened. How did I get here? Was this Mr. Valen's room? It looked an awful lot like my bathroom...

My eyelids were heavy, and it was clear I had no control over my body. The world around me kept spinning, and my body kept humming. But I needed to thank him for the stuff. Bad girls didn't say thank you. I wasn't a bad girl, right? I softly grumbled and fought to get control of my body, but my limbs had other plans.

My eyelids shut closed against my will, and my consciousness faded completely.

Third Person POV:

It was the early hours of seven, and the Morosini residence was alive and awake. Valen was standing in the kitchen in a freshly ironed suit tailored to perfection.

Perfection.

The definition of a Morosini.

A mug of freshly brewed, steaming black coffee was held in his left hand and his busy phone in the other. He was supposed to be in a meeting currently, but decided he would wish his sister well on her first day of school. He'd missed so many others.