Anxiety.

Fear gripped her ferociously. Her chest tightened, her breath felt short and squeezed out. Panting, sweat coated over her as she clung tightly to Nevin, her brotherly figure. She was wrapped in his crimson threads. They felt strange, like a liquid, yet were sturdy and firm. Her rapid fear had her clinging onto his shirt. Unending terror bolted through her body as her vision glazed. She had no idea what was surrounding her. Sound was distorted, feeling was oddly muffled. Her vision switched between rapid blurs and turning off, visions of her past striking in milliseconds during her blackouts.

It was not just her cousin either.

Everything she had endured within that time invaded her thoughts. Armies of memories stormed the gates, breaching defenses. Memories of Jonathan’s death, yes, but other transpiring’s as well. The news of her uncle’s death devastated her all over again. Her feelings of despair and loneliness in the empty house that was once her. The true feeling of being lost and alone. Alone…

Ayleth also stampeded through her head.

Numerous memories, all terrible, ran rapid. The way she tortured, murdered, so many people. The abuse she handed out to her, the trauma…

Felicity did not notice at all when Nevin brought her into his home, into his lab… She did not even notice when he set her down.

Felicity just… came back to. Eyes suddenly unglazed, realizing what reality and memory was again. Unease still flooded her body, yet the familiar sights made it into her vision. The familiar ladder up, the two workstations situated at the opposite sides of the room. She could smell the fire of the oven cooking, she could hear a pot boiling with whatever potion the alchemist was brewing. The many odd and wonderful scents of various herbs and plants…. Nevin’s healer’s hole. His doctor’s dungeon. His laboratory where he created his greatest inventions – potions, pills, medicines and poisons. His layer, his den, his fortress…

Her anxiety began to simmer down, just like the slowly broiling medicine on the stove. Still, she curled up in the fetal position, her thoughts starting to line up with logic again.

Why am I like this? Why now? What’s happening?

Questions ran hastily in her psyche. The tightening and butterflies within her chest still did not yield, even if she was out of panic mode.

Through the corner of her eyes, she saw something. She jumped! She sat straight up, on her knees. Her hands searched for her weapon as they shook, “St-stop righ-” She paused upon processing who it was.

She sunk back into the cot, legs flattening as she pulled the pillow up, hugging it in attempts to hold onto something. She whispered timidly, “Nevin, sorry…”