Finding the Orphaned Luna

The Body's Mysterious Betrayal

Avery walked into her apartment with a breath of relief. She loved Jordan, of course, but these dinners were often exhausting. It was the only time she really tried to explain what she was dealing with to someone else. She'd tried to explain, she really had. Jordan had really tried to understand too; she'd c****d her head and asked a million questions, but by the end she suggested that perhaps Avery was just tired, and maybe she should take some time away, off work, to really focus on herself. She hadn't thought of it, truly, but it did seem to make sense.

Avery collapsed on the couch, thoughts swirling in her mind like the eye of a hurricane. Her head was pounding. Since her birthday, smells, sounds, and lights were significantly more intense, and she couldn't figure out any explanation worth a damn as to why. She'd mentioned to her doctor, wondering if maybe she had a brain tumor or something, and he'd brushed her off, claiming something about being overworked. She had been doing full time work and full time college now for two years; she'd taken extra classes in high school and graduated early. That was truly the only explanation she'd been given, and she supposed it could be true. She decided then to take the next semester off, and to see if she could cut her hours a little bit. She had enough saved up, and if she wasn't going to be paying tuition in a few weeks she would be fine.

She'd lost her parents at a young age, she'd only been four when the accident had happened, and then everything was a flurry and she was with a foster family several states away. Both of her parents had been only children, and their parents had either died or they didn't want her; she hadn't known. Either way, her knowledge of her history was limited to what she could remember of it, as there was really no one else she could direct questions to.

Suddenly it felt like a hot knife was slicing her head and half and Avery gasped out of surprise and tumbled off the couch to run towards the bathroom. Dinner seemed to be making a reappearance. Her joints felt like they were ripping out of socket, and her skin stretched. She was shaking, feeling hot and cold all over. Her body was certainly betraying her these days. The pain subsided for a second and she took a deep breath, bracing herself on the toilet sides as her stomach tensed and contracted. Okay. She would get control over this. She just bad to breathe. Suddenly, she felt her heart in her throat as the pain returned to her head, her joints, her very skin. It felt as though she would burst out of herself. There was a sickening pop and she felt the pressure increase. She felt her stomach squeezing itself until she had no choice but to through herself on the toilet

As she heaved, her screaming echoing in her ears, she blacked out.