Return to Bittersweet Apple Acres

Present day

"Flora…

"Flora…

"Flora!"

I jump as a familiar voice rouses me out of the flashback of memories I had wished to just forget. The return to that horrible place that we had all somehow resurrected from history through our foolish actions of antagonizing a foundation that should've never been tread upon for the entirety of the remainder of history and time.

I will never forget the sight of that headless demon and every macabre detail. Her bloodstained fur, her insidious laughter and taunting, and the overwhelming smell of death and copper in that single space. They were all burned into my being, just like the scar from me trying hopelessly to escape before all that had happened could take place.

I shake my head, my eyes meeting Sassy's worried gaze and my dark and cold room.

"Flora! Are you okay?!" she asks in an attempt to get my attention.

I eventually collect myself, completely unsure of what had just happened.

"I'm fine," I answer sincerely. "What happened? Did I space off?"

She wipes her forehead of her growing sweat and sighs in relief at my response. She's absolutely stressed and grateful at the same time as she addresses me again.

"Yeah. You suddenly just spaced off and became unresponsive to everything I said. What happened? Did you have a sudden blackout or flashback?"

Sassy knows me well. She knows just how traumatic those memories are of that night I spent in that demented Tartarus, and that they can be triggered easily with just a single word.

Especially "Nightmare Night."

This hadn't been my first "blackout;" I've had several in the long year I've been stuck in this place, and while others claim it as a sign of me losing my marbles, Sassy knows what really is happening. That's why she's my only ally in this fuckhole facility.

She actually knows me and knows that I'm not crazy.

"It was a little flash " I lie through my teeth. "Nothing that hasn't happened before."

She puts her right hoof on my shoulder and looks at me with seriousness, not buying my lie. I don't like lying to her, but if I told her what I really saw, I'd be forbidden to join the rest of the facility tonight for the "surprise" Sassy had mentioned prior to my sudden daze.

"You know I'm on your side, right?" she assures me. "If you need to talk about whatever is causing these dazes, I'm here to listen."

My heart warms at her kindness, but I can't risk putting her in danger or any chance of word spreading, so I just express a fake smile.

"I know, but…I still need time, Sassy," I reply.

It's not a total lie. I really don't have the strength to speak of every raw and horrid detail that occurred that night in Bittersweet Apple Hell yet.

I lost so much that night; things I can never fix or repair back to working condition.

Things that I don't even want to remember, but just like the scars on my hooves from the fence burning me, they are forever burned in my memories.

Memories of things I never want to relive, speak of, or even think about to the day my heart finally stops.

Sassy smiles in understanding, patting my shoulder lightly and turning to leave my practical prison cell. As soon as the door hisses closed, I return to my bed and attempt to sleep, but the flashback of the horrors of a year prior keep me awake, taking me back once again.