Fast walking and Slow Talking

---------- 𝒜𝓃𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶 ----------

----- 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕸𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖆𝖓𝖊 𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖑𝖉 -----

No.

It... It couldn't be.

It was just a dream after all.

She remembered the symbol from before, the memory made her dizzy and sick. Sick to the bone. Sick to her very existence. How could it not; it was one of the last things she saw before her trial death. That thought alone could make anyone topple over in horror.

No no no no no no no no no... She cried out helplessly in her head, as she was rooted to the floor, paralysed in fear. She thought back to her floating in nothingness when she woke up. That floating sensation wasn't too bad now that thought about it! She didn't need her sight anyways! Oh Lord, she was going to die. She was going to die, and that time there wouldn't be any coming back from the void. That was it. Andrea almost finished saying her silent goodbyes...

That was... until the figure spoke -

"Hey Andrea, how are you this morning?" asked the shadow, pulling off the hood of her (conveniently) black bathrobe.

- and Andrea honestly would've preferred if it was the cloaked phantom.

Usually, the woman in black wasn't home at that time. She had early shifts in the hospital that her dad worked at, and usually was up and gone by 5 am. Why the hell was she home?

"I'm fine," Andrea mumbled back to her, rushing to the door in a desperate attempt to leave as fast as possible. Suddenly, she regretted deeply for wanting a change in routine. At least her daily ritual included the exclusion of that... of that... of that bitch.

God, she just loved breaking things, that old cow; but Andrea knew that her insults could not leave the security of her brain. The 'mother' was around because of Andrea's dad, and Andrea would never defy what he said. He was miserable when it was just the two of them and only started opening up after he let Silvia move in. Andrea wanted to call her a homewrecker, but her dad called her his lifeline, and who was Andrea to take that away from him.

But just because she tolerated her existence, it didn't mean that Andrea respected her; and God did she not respect her.

Andrea knew very well that the 'mother' had more to say, but Andrea had already run to the door and was on the street walking before she could hear what that was. Not that she cared, it was probably another snarky comment on her unbrushed hair and casual fit, that the 'mother' deemed 'not school appropriate'.

Whatever that even meant.

Andrea couldn't help it. A sweater and tracksuits were the easiest clothes for the sloth-like girl. If it was vice versa (a blouse and skirt being the pinnacle of comfort, instead of her usual throw on)... she would still wear what she normally wore, just to annoy the old woman.

'Why do all my wishes keep backfiring?' Andrea thought sadly, as she tripped on a small crack in the pavement and stumbled forward a bit. She had managed to get halfway to school without realising she was running. Running just seemed to be a habitat that rate.

Running in her dreams, running in reality. What next?

Funny thing was, she wasn't even late. Pulling out her wrist from beneath the comfort of her long sweater sleeves, Andrea glanced at the watch that read 7:45. Her school started at 8:50. Her school was a ten-minute walk away.

She had no reason to rush... so, she didn't.

Her ten-minute walk turned into a fifteen-minute stroll. Andrea gazed at every tree and every house as she made her way down the suburban road. The luscious greens on the trees made her awe at their vibrancy, the occasional car caused her to slightly jump. The summer sky was a hideous grey, a speciality of London weather it seemed. All the houses were lined up like soldiers after a war. One was crooked, one was slanted, one was missing a limb, yet they still stood, serving the people who inhabited them. A flock of crows flew overhead.

Damn, did Andrea hate birds.

Why?

...

...

... Don't ask...

...

Andrea knew it was stupid and hated the reason herself. It's one of the things she just avoided thinking about.

Hey, look! A distraction from the topic!

Andrea counted every crack, every rock, every nook. She had to, otherwise, she would start thinking. Any distraction was better than none. Any stupid counting game was better than wondering about things that were out of her control. She could feel her thoughts; she could almost brush her fingertips against them. They were caged animals at the back of her mind. A cackle of hyenas, thrashing at the sides of their enclosures. Taunting Andrea. Haunting Andrea...

'Stop it, think about something else,' that was the third time that day Andrea had had to tell herself that, and she had only managed to walk down the street. Maybe she could appreciate her finally being able to peacefully walk?

It felt good, going against her norm. It felt good, taking her time. It felt damned good. She was always rushing, it felt good to slow down. It was nice being able to catch her breath. A small shiver went down her spine as she remembered a fragment of her past dream. She was really bad at distracting herself.

"Hey, Addy!" someone called from behind her. Andrea turned around, and saw a tall boy, wearing tracksuit bottoms and a Star Wars shirt saying 'I am your father', slowly jogging towards her, " Slow down, I'm too fat and tired to be running."

"Oh, hey Lee, you say that like it's my fault you didn't sleep last night," said Andrea, glad that Lee had once again turned up.

She always met up with Lewis in the morning before school. He was the only one of their friends that were willing to wake up earlier than last-minute. While he didn't study like Andrea did during the time before their classes started, it was nice that he was willing to get up. Of course, it wasn't just because he was nice (don't get him wrong though, he was nice, without a second doubt), it also gave him a chance to practise his chess skills - and it was also funny seeing Andrea frantically writing.

She called it 'studying'. He called it 'last-minute homework'. Andrea didn't see the difference.

"Yeah, yeah, I had a party last night and went to bed at like three am," sighed Lee.

"Please tell me you didn't wear that shirt. That would not be a good thing to wear if the police showed up. Knowing the parties you go to, it was probably filled with underaged girls pretending they're 30," said Andrea. You'd expect her to at least have a small smirk hiding in the crevices of her mouth, however, her face was like stone, no emotion insight. Not that the expression was done deliberately by Andrea.

She was just very, very, very bad at showing emotions; and very, very, very good at the poker face.

"One, this is my dad's shirt. Two, I so regret introducing you to predator jokes," Lee retorted.

"Did they call you daddy?" Andrea said in an equally monotone tone as before.

... Wait-

"What do you mean, 'introduced me'?" she asked, her eyebrows scrunched in a confused fashion.

"Don't lie, you found them offensive before I started using them."

Andrea thought for a little while.

"Fair enough," she sighed. She hated that she had to give him such a dull response, she couldn't help it. Don't get her wrong, she loved the short, playful conversations she had with Lee; however, at that very moment, her head was just too busy. It was like her focus was equal to the focus of a child in a hospital waiting room. The night's before the dream was swimming dangerously shallowly in her subconscious - close enough, that if Andrea were to simply stick her hand out, it could spring out and snatch hold, without a drop of water spraying.

Ironic, as she was drowning in that very dream.

She glanced at her watch. Holy shit, it was already 8:15?! How long were they talking for?

"Can we start moving towards the school dude, I didn't realise how long we were talking for?" Andrea said, still looking at her wristwatch, wondering where did those minutes go.

"What are you talking about? We only talked for a few seconds," Lee said. It wasn't until he pulled out his phone to check the time that he saw that they had, indeed, been standing there for a whole twenty minutes.

"What the fuck, I swear I just caught up with you?"

"I could swear as well, but it's not like the time is wrong on both your phone and my watch."

"That's trippy, but I guess you're right. Maybe we're just tired?"

"I dunno dude, let's worry about it in school, I still want to be early you know," Andrea finally said, and with that, they started walking together towards their school.

They walked mostly in silence, with Lee occasionally glancing over at Andrea, only to see her lost in her thoughts. He was pretty used to Andrea being in her little world, often emerging with a completely different mood every time. Sometimes, she was ecstatic, running strong on a high on life. Other times... well, I'll allow your imaginations to fill in the gap.

"Could you hurry up please," Andrea muttered to the boy. She was three steps ahead of him. Lee warned jokingly, "If you start running, I'll start sleeping through my alarms."

Andrea let a small grin finally appear on her face, but Lee couldn't see it.

The school wasn't too far.