My heart was thumping wildly in my chest, the constant thrum of blood rushing past my ears with a dull thud. I felt the beginning of a headache nagging just behind my temple, dull and aching. I closed my eyes. The distant chattering of happy voices trickled through the thin walls of my small bedroom, echoing in my self-inflicted darkness. Blotches of color were mingling behind my eyelids: shades of green and orange mixed into an ugly, swirling brown whenever I moved. I turned my head away from the window, the colors disappearing with the sun.

The voices had come to an abrupt halt, steely in their unnatural silence like the moments after an explosion. The quiet persisted for a few, anxiety-inducing moments. Thunder started then, the booming shout of indignant anger left a sour taste in my throat as the echo reverberated through my bones. And then came the lightning sound of crashing pans, clattering against the tile floor in a sudden tinny cacophony. I winced, as the headache reared its ugly head and continued to doggedly gnaw at my temples.

I forced my eyes to open, ignoring the dull ache of reintroducing light so I could scramble to my feet. I clambered towards the door, stepping over countless discarded sketches and various drawing utensils on the way. The bellowing voices grew louder as I made my way down the stairs, and one particularly nasty strain of expletives almost made me lose my resolve. I pushed forward.

The moment my foot hit the cool, hardwood floor at the bottom of the stairs I knew there was no backing out, no changing my mind now. The anger was boiling inside my gut like wasps, propelling me towards the storm. Another clatter of lightning rattled against the floor, followed by another bout of clapping thunder. I was undeterred.

I slammed the door to the kitchen open, drawing an abrupt halt to the hurricane inside. I stared at their faces with a grim sort of determination, a look I was sure looked awkward on my oblong face. One last flash of indecision distracted me, but I pushed it aside. “Stop.”

Fleshy jowls dripped saliva to the floor as two pairs of big, black eyes stared back at me in guilt. Tupperware littered the tiles, glinting gold in the flourescent lighting and the television was screaming violence from an action movie. I turned the film off with a harsh click and slowly, deliberately set the remote back on the table. A pitiful whine erupted from one of the culprits, while the other stared unabashed at the havoc they had wreaked.

My anger dissipated almost immediately as I observed their endearing behavior. An indescribable burble of affection bubbled to my throat as an absolutely undignified coo left my body. Before I could blink, two furry bodies toppled me over, and litter my face with kisses. They knew as well as I did that they’d gotten off the hook again.

My head still hurt though.