#i cannot stop thinking abt taeng being unable to fully protect herself </3

[upsidedownism]

TASK 004.

tw: injury mention, natural disasters. 

you used to be so fast, she could hear her mother whisper in her ear as the glass started to break all around them before the swarm of bats started to fill everyone’s senses. she’s not sure where she’s even running to, but she can hear her mother say, you used to be so fast. quick as lightning, able to weave around people like a dance.

 taeng’s body is broken. 

it’s broken beyond repair, she remembers telling her brother in the hospital room after the career ending injury in front of hundreds on the field. it would be months with several surgeries before the doctor says it would be a mercy to herself to retire. a body can only handle so much before you’ve completely burnt it out. 

taeng runs like her body isn’t something that’s been held together by bandages and tape. 

but in the end, like before, she fell. her body gave out before she could even think about bracing for the fall. she used to go into man-made paralyzes in the beginning. her legs decided to not want to work because it was too painful to keep going at night. she remembers crawling somewhere safe, away from the screaming inside the mall, away from those inhuman creatures. she closes her eyes so tight and plugs her eyes and pretends that her body doesn’t ache. 

for someone so confident she’s broken, unable to even save herself like her life depended on it. what kind of sick joke was that? 

when they’re gone and the emt’s flood the mall they find her in a dark corner of the mall. and when they reach out for her to take their hand, she takes it. there’s a first for everything, but like always, taeng will bite the hands that feed her when they ask about her injuries. 

when she’s in the hospital and they ask if there’s someone they can call she says there’s no one. taeng would go home and act like nothing happened, crawl into bed and think about the fact that there was no one there to save her. not even herself. 

you used to be so fast. what happened?