Cas' Memories

Somehow, she had to drag herself home.

Her paws scraped along the ground. She didn't have the strength to lift them. Her muzzle was dripping with water, and when she inhaled she choked on salt and ashes.

Time had no meaning. She stumbled through the city, each step landing her a mile away. In the longest of moments, she looked down and saw her forepaws, still wet, smeared with ash that cut off suddenly where the waves had hit them.

Then, somehow, she was standing in the doorway of the place that had never been home. Morning light poured softly into the sitting room, wind blowing in through the door hung open behind her. She looked to the window seat, but it was empty.

Screams were trying to break through the serene fog that was her mind, but she tried to ignore them, focusing on the empty cushions, the blankets ruffled and unmade. When she came home from school, he was always there. He was there almost all the time.

Something wasn't right. She hadn't gone to school today.

Dully, she stared up at them as they grabbed her, recoiling with their paws covered in ash she couldn’t remember how got there. The look on their faces didn't make sense. From a different time, a different place, than where she was standing now.

Their voices were wrong, the tones warped and sounding more distant than they were. "Cassaelia? Where is Cephias?!"

Cephi. She thought she might know the answer. But she didn't want to think anymore. She just wanted to sleep.