My house disturbed in 10 seconds

Submitted into Contest #74 in response to: Write a story that takes place across ten seconds.... view prompt

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Coming of Age Kids Speculative

In the first second, I was fine. Everything was like usual. I was all tangled up, sleeping, floating in a pool of sweet hot darkness. I loved floating around in the hot water, which was my home, as well as the weird walls I had around myself. It was all I ever knew, and it made me feel safe, like nothing would ever touch me. I knew nothing else, but I didn't need nor want to. I was happy with what I had, with where I was, a bit like the people from the cavern those ancient greek people talked about.

But then, a second after, something really weird happened, and it woke me up. It was quite irksome, actually. I couldn't understand why, but the pool I was in was emptying without my asking. Why would I ever ask such a thing? I had my own free, eternal spa, and know it was taken away from me. Of course I didn't want that!

I tried to hold the water back around me, raging, trying to block the rift where the water was getting out with my feet, hands and elbows, but nothing worked. The water was fleeing my house. I was quite angry about it, but wouldn't you as well?

A second later, I wasn't in a pool anymore. I felt cold and panicked by my surroundings, which didn't changed except for the disappearance of my hot liquid blanket. My whole existence was troubled, that second changing it for ever. I didn't knew that at the time, but only the disturbance annoyed me as hell.

The pool was empty, and I fell flat on my head - really? A headache and some bruising adding to my already awful day? Thank you, powers that be!

Another second passed, still uncomfortably on my head, I grew more and more irritated and I started shivering. I did nothing to deserve this, but my whole existence was being troubled, especially since now, I could start feeling the empty pool close violently around me. I could also hear a grating and strong noise, without really knowing what it was. I felt violence through that noise, like I was in intense pain, but, except for the bump I probably would have on my head, I didn't hurt in an extremly bad way, at least not enough for such an intense howl to be wrenched out of me. The scream was not only hurting my hearing, but also scared something primal inside of me. I knew it wasn't me, but I was still terrified without really knowing why. That didn't make it better!

The fifth second of my misadventure was better than the forth. The pool stopped crushing me. I was relieved, but only until the sixth second, where the pool closed again around me, giving me a muscle cramp. Great. I wanted a relaxing day, similar to the ones I always had, but no. I had to be violented by the house I lived in, crushing my butt and my ears had to be insulted by that violent noise of pain without me even being wounded. Forget the peace, people, that day would be shitty.

The seventh second, I felt something around my house. I felt it often, but it was the first time of the day that I did. It was unique, really, like something of the exterior - I mean, outside my house, which was somewhere I never saw, never even figured existed - wanted to keep me warm, reassure me. It felt like a pressure against my home, but not a bad one like I just experienced.

«Are you ready, Millie?»

The question at the eight second came from elsewhere, from the same mysterious outside world I knew nothing about, and wasn't even interested in until I heard the other voice at the ninth second:

«Yes, I am ready to welcome my daughter into the world». I knew that voice, in opposition to the loud and annoying one of the other one. That voice was sweet, followed me around all the time. Actually, I couldn't remember a whole moment in my life where I didn't hear that voice, or felt the presence associated to it.

At the tenth, I understood. I, Heidi, as the one called Millie - my mother - was about to be born. It would be an annoying day, yes, but I could finally meet the owner of the sweet reassuring pressure around me, the beautifully soft voice telling me stories and singing to me to help me fall asleep, the presence I never really wondered about, because it was always around me. Even though that voice usually so sweet was now screaming, practically making my ears bleed, I wasn't annoyed anymore.

I gave a little kick at my home, which seemed to make my mother laugh everytime. I wasn't panicked or angry anymore: I was excited. Excited to get out of my home (my mother's womb?) to meet her, and also the other presence I felt next to her, which was now encouraging her through the closings and openings of the pool walls around me.

I knew now that the pain creating that life troubling scream was coming from my mother, and I hated feeling her, hearing her like this. I gave her a soft kick, trying to tell her that everything would be okay.

Those ten seconds I just told you were extremly painful for me as well as for my mother, and so would be those that would follow that day, but after that I would have plentiful of other seconds, an eternity of seconds really, to finding my house/mother in a new way, tasting the outside world that sometimes influenced my peaceful but isolated home, but also discovering myself.

I wasn't just a being isolated from everything else outside my home. I was a blank page, where would be added new scriptures with each experience, each new person I met, each new noise I heard.

I gave a little kick at my home, which seemed to make my mother laugh everytime. I wasn't panicked or angry anymore: I was excited.

I would be born.

December 27, 2020 01:02

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