Me: Whoo. I own nothing. I’ll explain this in A/N at the end.

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Vertigo.

I knew there was a word for it, and that’s what it was.

It was a strange sensation; I don’t think I’d ever like to experience it again.

It was sometime from the moment between the alarm and then the death. I don’t mind talking about it now. It’s not as hard as it was then. But it’s hard to remember. It was too foggy outside to remember.

I’d heard that the neighbors were the ones who called the cops first. Something I heard between waking and dozing in the ambulance. I remembered the alarm. It was loud enough to burst my eardrums. And then there was the vertigo, and I wasn’t quite sure of anything anymore. It all seemed so dreamy, so surreal. Things like that didn’t happen to me, at least they weren’t supposed to. But they did. That means that they lied when I was little.

It wasn’t like the movies. It wasn’t like it was supposed to be. There weren’t any sobs or tears. There were just people talking to people working on people, and random people doing nothing. They weren’t crying. I wasn’t crying. It wasn’t dramatic, it was simple. But it rang like a gong in my head.

“Where’s mommy?”

They didn’t bother answering me until I woke up for the third time. “Where’d she go?”

“She’s dead, Sheena. She’s gone.”

I let it sink in, not really believing uncle when he said it.

“Daddy?”

“He’s gone too. I’m here to take care of you.”

“I wanna go home.”

“You’ll be there soon. Now rest.”

Whatever that meant. But I went to sleep all the same.

I woke up again and everything was nice and white and pretty. It wasn’t fuzzy or gray. No death, no nothing. But I looked over and saw uncle with his sad, sad face. I started to cry.

I don’t know why I didn’t cry before, but I did that time. I let tears escape, and then started to sob like mad. It hurt a bit, but I didn’t mind. Uncle patted me awkwardly, but I didn’t want him. I wanted mommy and daddy. But they weren’t there. It was just uncle. And I was alone.

I stopped crying soon, resolving into little gasps and hiccups. I didn’t want to cry anymore. My eyes were dried out. I looked up at uncle and told him that I wanted to go home.

Home wasn’t like it was supposed to be, either. Everything was big and silent. And empty. So empty and echoey. It was my universe, and it was dead. He told me not to go inside, but I did anyway. It smelled rather funny, and I wrinkled my nose. He dragged me out before I could go up to mommy and daddy’s room. I screamed, telling him that they were in there, sleeping. He said that they weren’t and picked me up, putting me back in the car.

I cried again.

Maybe that’s why I ended up like this. Mom and Dad’s absence. I don’t know. I don’t remember much else. I remember the sense of vertigo before and after, though, and I remember the tears. So many of them. I felt like drowning in them.

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Me: I’m aware it’s terribly short. Think of it as a prologue. This is total AU, by the way. Guess what it is and I’ll give you a cookie.