Blair picked at the loose thread on her black and purple striped fingerless gloves as she sat across Doctor Watkins for her therapy session. She hated therapy sessions and didn't see the point of them – they never made her feel any better.
"Tell me about the visions," Doctor Watkins urged. "You see yourself as someone else, correct?"
"If you're asking me if I see myself walking around as someone else, then no," Blair countered with snark.
Watkins was being very patient with her. He was well aware of her anger outbursts, thanks to her file, and knew to tread lightly. "How would you describe them then?"
"Why do you care?" Blair shot back. "Oh, I know, because you're paid to care. That pretty little paycheck at the end of each week must be a nice incentive to pretend like you give a damn."
Watkins removed his glasses and set them down on the desk. "If you do not wish to speak, that is your choice, but that will simply mean I will have to schedule another session for later today and if you do not wish to speak then, another will be added and another if the trend continues. So, whether or not you believe I care, I recommend you tell me and get it over with. Think of it as ripping off a Band-Aid." He returned his glasses to his eyes and picked up a pen to take notes.
The last thing Blair wanted was more sessions talking to this old guy about everything that was screwed up about her, so she ripped off the Band-Aid. "I don't see myself walking around as someone else, it's like I'm looking through someone else's eyes. It feels like it's me but it's not me. Sometimes it feels like I'm reliving a memory that not really mine but when I try to remember more of it, it's like trying to remember a dream. Like I feel it's there and I know it's there but I can't get to it."
Watkins felt like they were getting somewhere now. "We you having these visions when you went after that young man?"
Blair crossed her arms, taking clear offense to that. "No, I went after that jackass because he wouldn't take no for an answer."
"I wasn't aware he tried to force himself upon you." This was news to him.
"He didn't," Blair clarified. "He kept asking me out and I kept saying no. Finally I had enough and gave him a damn good reason to never ask me out again."
Doctor Watkins stared at her for a moment before saying, "Your reason put him in the hospital for a week. You were arrested, Blair. You could have gone to a juvenile detention center."
"But instead I got sent here." Blair looked around her at the grimness of the office. "I'm starting to think juvie would have been better."
"But then you wouldn't have been with your sister," Watkins countered.
"Leave my sister out of this. She had no part in anything I did." Blair gripped onto her wrist to keep herself from doing anything rash because this guy was starting to piss her off.
"Why do you do that?" Watkins gestured to her action. "What does that help with?"
"Keeps me from ripping someone's head off. Lucinda grabs my wrist whenever she sees me getting pissed off. If she's not around I try to remember to do it to myself. Like now, when I want to slug you for bringing up my sister." Blair tightened her grip and took deep breaths in an attempt to keep calm.
Watkins made note of this. "You are very protective of your sister, aren't you?"
"She's family. I'd kill for her, die for her, and live for her." Blair said that like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Which is why I'd rather not have you bring her up in these chats. Just in case you say something I don't like."
Watkins made note of that and moved on. "Do you still them? Your…other life hallucinations?"
Blair sighed heavily as she released her grip on her wrist. "Not really. They've been replaced with dejavu on an epic scale, though."
Watkins nodded as he prepared Blair's medications and poured her a glass of water. "And when did they start?"
Blair scowled at the sight of the pills. "Can't give you an accurate answer to that." When Doctor Watkins pushed the pill cup towards her she pushed it right back. "Not interested."
"You're not interested in the fact that if you take your medications as prescribed that you can leave?" Watkins got out of his chair to move around his desk and sit on the front of it. "Why do you think you're here, Blair?"
"This or juvie." Once again, Blair stated something like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And like you said, Lucinda wouldn't be at juvie and I wouldn't subject her to be in this hellhole alone." Blair pointed to the pills, saying, "I'm not going to take those now or ever. I refuse to walk around like a zombie just for a ticket home. If that means I'm stuck here under the judge's order then so be it." Blair knew all about the conditions of her being at Sword and Cross Academy.
"Is that all, Doc?" Blair scooped her bag off the floor and headed towards the door, only to stop when Watkins said,
"One more thing, Blair. I'm curious as to why you would give up a chance at having a normal life."
"Normal is but an illusion," she answered simply. "What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly." With that said, Blair left his office without any further interruption.
As Blair went into the library she couldn't help but feel like this was the longest first day of school ever. Already she felt like it'd been an eternity and was thinking about that as she rummaged through her bag for her book list when someone bumped right into her. "Watch it," she snapped and realized it was the blonde guy she thought she recognized.
Seeing him close in person caused one of her 'memory hallucinations'. Blair gasped and leaned on a nearby table as her mind seemed to take her somewhere else. She no longer saw the library around her but a forest where dead bodies laid and a man with a sword fighting off another – a man none other than the mystery blonde. The vision went further when she, seeing through the eyes of another, started running straight towards another man with a sword who looked exactly like Cam. The faces were the same but the attire was very different. In fact, this was the first time she had ever seen any clear faces which just sent her for a loop.
Blair was pulled from this when Lucinda came over and started talking to her. Finally she could see what was presently around her and turned to her sister. "Sorry, what?"
"I asked if you were okay," Lucinda repeated, looking worried. "It happened again, didn't it?"
Blair nodded without a word because an older woman with white hair approached them.
"You must be Blair. I'm Miss Sophia. I have your books all ready for you." Miss Sophia picked up the stack from her desk and placed them on the table in front of her.
"Thanks," Blair replied absentmindedly and put them into her backpack.
Miss Sophia seemed to expect more to be said but since there wasn't, she moved on. "Well, it was lovely to meet you, Blair. I will see you and Luce in class."
Blair looked at Lucinda with a 'she's weird' expression as she zipped up her bag and left the library with her sister.
During their walk down the hall together they heard fighting and shouting going on further down another one. Neither of them wanted to get involved so they just kept moving. It wasn't until they reached an empty hallway that things got a little weird.
Both Blair and Lucinda felt like they were being followed so they looked back and saw someone at the far end of the hall just standing there. "Like that's not horror movie-esque," Blair muttered and turned back around, only to look again to find the girl with bright purple hair and a nose ring to be standing directly behind them. "Jesus," she exclaimed because that freaked her out.
Even Lucinda jumped because of it. "Shit! You scared us." The purple-goth didn't say a word to them so she just nudged Blair and kept on walking. Lucinda didn't get very far before getting pushed to the floor.
"Dumb move, bitch," Blair shoved the purple goth away from Lucinda. "You better get the hell out of my sight before I rip you apart."
The purple-goth laughed at them because she wasn't intimidated in the least. "Is that the best threat you can come up with? Based off your record and that of your psycho murderous sister, I expected more." She sauntered right up in Blair's face and said with a menacing tone of her own, "Coming here was a big mistake."
Blair's anger bubbled over, causing her to spit in the girl's face before shoving her again. Before slugging her like she wanted to, Lucinda grabbed her wrist and held tight.
"What is going on out here?" Randy demanded to know as he joined them in the hallway. "And don't even try to tell me that she started it because I'm certain she did, but that doesn't mean either of you have to take the bait." Randy looked between the three girls. "Fighting is grounds for expulsion, which for you, Blair, is grounds for getting sent to juvenile detention and you, Lucinda, would be sent to a state psychiatric facility. Do either of you want that?"
Both Blair and Lucinda shook their heads, saying, "No."
Randy let out a deep breath. "Since this is the first day I am going to assume neither of you have read the code of conduct so I will just assign you both to yard duty." He turned to the other girl to say, "You, come with me."
When the purple-goth went off with Randy, Blair flipped her off and scoffed to Lucinda, "Love the look, hate her." She saw Lucinda's expression bordering on disappointment and sighed, "I tried, Luce. If it was directed towards me I would have walked away…probably, but she went after you."
Lucinda understood. Blair had been her guardian angel – or watchdog if one preferred – pretty much ever since Blair was adopted. It wasn't anything new to her, she just wished her sister had a bit more control over herself. "I get it, Blair. You don't have to explain yourself to me, ever."
"You're the only one." Blair draped her arm across Lucinda's shoulders. "One of the perks of knowing each other like an open book, I guess."
Lucinda couldn't argue with that, but she could add to it. "And one of its downsides."
That was such a good comeback that Blair couldn't even counter it. "Touche, dear sister. Touche."
Blair's next class was History of Religion with Miss Sophia. She wasn't particularly looking forward to it because she was so not a religious person. Especially the topic Miss Sophia was presently going on about – Fallen Angels walking among mortals because they failed to choose a side in Lucifer's war against God. That whole idea seemed a bit preposterous to Blair, but she sat next to Lucinda who was sitting next to Penn, and kept her opinions about the whole thing to herself. Blair also made sure not to look over at the mystery blonde who seemed to be paying more attention to his sketch than the lesson. The last thing she wanted was another trigger, especially with so many other people around.
Lucinda was apparently interested because she asked Miss Sophia, "What happened to the other Angels?"
Miss Sophia answered the question with no hesitation. "Those that sided with Satan were banished to Hell. Only the faithful remained in Heaven. The Angels that didn't choose were cast out and banished to earth."
"Where they knocked up as many humans as they could," one of the male students with dreadlocks joked.
Now this happened to be something Blair knew about thanks to an episode of Jeopardy, "According to legend, or whatever, only one Nephilim has ever been born." Blair didn't realize she had said that out loud until she saw everyone looking at her. "At least according to Jeopardy."
Miss Sophia didn't address this and continued on with her lesson. "Some of the Fallen retained their Angelic nature, repented and wait for the chance to return to Heaven. Others aligned themselves with Lucifer finding pleasure in mischief and chaos. But neither group can leave this world because of one of their own. The Rebel Angel. He rejected both sides of the war, God and Lucifer alike, all in his pursuit of human love. All the other Fallen must remain here on Earth until he chooses a side in the only war that has ever waged. The war we still see every day waging all around us."
Miss Sophia walked over to Blair and Lucinda to say, "But I'm sure you learned some of this in Sunday school?"
Blair laughed at that then cleared her throat. "No, sorry."
Miss Sophia looked intrigued. "No?"
Lucinda answered this time. "No, we didn't go to church growing up. Our parents aren't religious."
Miss Sophia tilted her head thoughtfully, "So neither of you were ever baptized?"
Lucinda shook her head. "Nope," she looked at Blair, "Were you before?"
Blair shook her head as well. "Nada. My birth parents weren't into the whole religion thing either." Once again she saw that they were being stared at and when another student asked a question during the awkward silence, Blair leaned closer to Lucinda to say, "See? Weird."
After class, while the other students had free period, Blair and Lucinda had yard duty. "You'd think they'd have maintenance people to clean up all this crap." Blair called over to Lucinda who was staking up trash closer to the school itself while Blair was nearer the road.
"Then they wouldn't have any way to punish us," Lucinda mildly laughed back.
"I bet you I can clean up more trash than you." Blair needed some sort of amusement in this punishment.
Lucinda threw a rotten banana in her bin as she replied with, "Oh, yeah, and what could you possibly have that I'd want?"
"What makes you so sure you'd win?" Blair tossed another can into her bag.
"What makes you think I have something you'd want?" Lucinda laughed at this because she'd swear that her sister didn't actually want to make a bet and was just talking about it for the hell of it.
"Oh, I'm sure you do." Blair looked away for a moment but when she looked back it was just in time to see an angel statue fall from the roof right over Lucinda. "Luce!" Blair screamed and ran for her, only to skid to a stop because the mystery blonde seemed to come out of nowhere and pull Lucinda out of the way. "Holy Twilight."
Just as Blair was about to check on her sister, another 'memory hallucination' entered her mind. This time it was a different period than before but she saw the mystery blonde in a ballroom dancing with someone she couldn't see and upon turning her head she saw a man that looked like Cam asking her to dance.
Blair found her wrist and gripped it tight to bring her back to the present and darted over to her sister, noticing the blonde wasn't nearby anymore. She made a mental note to learn his name because she was tired of mentally referring to that guy as the mystery blonde. "Are you okay?" Blair crouched beside her sister and looked her over for good measure, even as others came over.
Lucinda was processing a bit of a memory blast herself and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm okay."
Blair let out a breath of relief and hugged Lucinda. "Good because I do not give you permission to die."
Lucinda chuckled lightly, "Noted."
End Part 2
