Cracks of Lightening

Pharai

I searched the vanity cupboard in hopes I would find a first aid kit. Yet so far all it had were a few of my toiletries and extra face clothes with towels. The only other place I could guess for there to be in a first aid kit was in the kitchen.

Yet as I stared at my feet I wondered would I have been able to make the journey. I no choice. The last thing I wanted was an infection and if it truly was a sick twisted version of reality, the sands of a desert could hold a lot of things that could lead to septicity.

I tried to balance myself to walk on my heels as I held onto the walls for support. Each step felt like I was only opening the wounds further. My hisses filled the silent apartment until I managed to make it to the kitchen by some miracle.

I searched every cupboard and finally under the sink, I found a small green metallic container that had a white cross on it. When I opened it, it had rubbing alcohol, bandages, soothing cream and everything I would need to tend to my wounds.

With a quick check to make sure nothing had expired, I tended to my feet right there on the tiled kitchen floor. I bit into my lower lip to prevent myself from crying each time the alcohol touched my cracked skin. There were so many questions running through my head on how this could happen.

None of it made sense. How could a dream turn into reality? Were these one of the extreme cases of sleeping walking I had once learned about? Yet from where I lived there was no way I could actually make it to the desert.

From where I stood there not a sign of civilisation. I would have to travel hours into the desert before the lights of Cairo could disappear from sight. Even so there were so many towns and villages scattered around it that there was no way in one night I could walk that far.

How would I have even gotten back if that was the case? Had my insomnia become so bad that even though my body had shut down, my mind was still so awake whilst I was so perfectly unconscious I could attempt such a walk? There was no way.

Once I was done, I applied the soothing cream before I wrapped my feet in bandages. It helped relieve the pain just a bit more. I then worked on my hands before I stood up to pack away the first aid kit. It took me a few seconds to get used to the bandages on my feet before I made my way back to the bedroom.

When I entered my eyebrows furrowed and I pursed my lips when I saw the trail of sand from my bed to the bathroom. I almost recoiled from the sight as I looked around the room to see where the sand could have come from.

Yet it looked to be perfectly dumped right there. I touched my clothed body only to find there was not a trace of sand on me despite the fact I had laid down on it.

Was someone pulling a sick prank on me? Had I been abducted and drugged to believe that all of this was real?

What was going on?

No matter how many times I asked myself, it would not make the sand disappear. I had to clean it up before I spread it to the rest of the house and created more of a mess.

With another wobble back to the kitchen, I got a broom, dustpan and vacuum cleaner before I made my way back to the bedroom. I swept the sand into one pile as best as I could. My jaw was so painfully tense as I tried to understand what had happened to me, that I knew another migraine was set to appear at any second.

Once I had successfully swept the sand into one pile, I turned around to get the dustpan but instead collided with a wall. A wall would be the wrong word to describe what I had collided with.

It could be described to be more of a boiler by how hot it was against my skin. I jumped back but instantly regretted it as I let out a small scream because of my feet. The scent of rain hit my nose and for some reason, on instinct I hit the figure in front of me with my broom that instantly snapped in half.

I held the half of the wooden broom in my hands as my eyes looked into golden molten ones. I opened my mouth to let out a scream as a large man stood in front of me.

"Shhh," he hissed but I did not bother to listen to him. I let out a scream but he muffled it out by covering my mouth with his hand. I tried to stab him with the half of the broom I was holding but it only shattered more to the point it became splinters. "Still so feisty," his voice, unbelievably, felt like an earthquake as it caused my whole body to vibrate by its low deep intensity.

His maroon hair cascaded down his shoulders like a silk throw. My face only heated up more when I realised the man with almost golden skin, was shirtless.

I slapped his hand off my mouth then tried to shove him away from me but the man was like a boulder. He was unmovable no matter how hard I tried, that a point I figured running away from him would be a safer option. Just as I passed him he wrapped his arm around my waist and brought me flush against his chest.

I thrashed in his arms as he covered my mouth once again. He seemed to find my struggling extremely humorous as his laughter echoed off the walls like cracks of lightening.