( 3 )

It was like walking through a time warp. Nothing about the room had changed, right down to the books on the shelves. Someone had dusted and vacuumed regularly, but somehow it felt to Natalya as though at any moment her thirteen year old self would walk through the door and flop down on the bed. She dropped her bag by the desk and watched as Philip did just that, sinking low in the soft green comforter. He smiled up at her, picking up a one of the glittering barrettes off the nightstand and twirling it absently.

"Hasn't changed much in here." He commented quietly, watching as Natalya stepped over a box and ran her hand along the dresser. She picked up a bottle of perfume shaped like an apple and sniffed it. Making a face she laughed and put it back exactly where she'd found it.

"That's kind of what I was worried about." She replied, finally moving over to sit by his side on the bed. He stared at her quietly.

"Look, Talya… I know I haven't seen you in a while,"

"Since Christmas." She interrupted, then offered a quick apologetic smile. They'd spent a day together in London right before the holidays, but it seemed like a very long time ago.

"Right, since Christmas. But if you want to talk about this, being back and all that, you know that I'm here for you. I'm still holding out hope, I guess, that you're going to tell me what happened here someday." He told her. She lay back slowly, nodding her head.

"I know. Maybe I will, someday." She replied, and then sat back up quickly. Her face was completely devoid of the sadness it had been covered with just moments before, and a happy smile sprang to her eyes. "So tell me about the house members, Alex and the blonde. I've heard of Alex, but I don't know anything about Rachel or her daughter."

"Looking for gossip?" he asked with a knowing smile, and Natalya shrugged coyly.

"You know me too well." She answered, reaching into her bag and pulling out a pair of jeans and a clean tee shirt. She moved over to the bathroom, shooting him a glance and a smile as she left the room. "Keep talking, I can hear you. I just want to get out of these wet clothes."

"Well, you know that Alex was a student of your father's…" Philip began, and Natalya laughed shortly.

"Lucky her." She called out, and Philip sighed.

"Anyway, Rachel joined the house just a few years back. She's a doctor, a psychologist really, and Kat is her daughter." He finished, and Natalya reappeared from the bathroom. She had brushed her curling dark hair up into a loose bun and washed the eyeliner off her face. She gave Philip a hard stare that quickly dissolved into smile as she sat down at the nearby desk and started shifting through the drawers.

"You know I want dirt." She informed him. He held up his hands, defeated.

"Fine, fine. Rachel is the skeptic, always the last to believe whatever's happening. Alex is more… spiritual, and she has the sight." He said, and Natalya's head popped up.

"Is it strong?" she asked, and he nodded a little.

"Not as strong as Derek or Kat… or you, for that matter, but she's very gifted."

"Kat has the sight too?" she added. Philip nodded again.

"Yeah, though she doesn't talk about it as much as she did when she was younger, or so Nick tells me." He explained, stopping short when he realized what he said. Natalya pretended to be very engrossed with the papers, but Philip could see the way her shoulders drooped.

"Is he… good?" she asked, and Philip could only shrug.

"Good enough, I imagine. We don't talk as much as I would like, and in recent years he's become sort of a demon magnet so that's always a problem…" he trailed off. Natalya finally stuffed the papers back into the desk, a thoughtful look coming over her face. He wanted to reach out and touch her shoulder, but held back. He tried to smile, but it came off looking more pained than anything. "Don't worry, he'll come around. I think he will, anyway."

"Oh, thanks." She replied with a laugh, reaching out to slap his arm. He laughed too, before his face grew serious again.

"Even though I know you're going to be going crazy here, it's good to see you again. I'm glad you're back." He told her, and she smiled a little.

"That makes one of us."

Down in the library Rachel had finally tracked Derek down. He was sitting at the table, writing in his journal. When she entered he smiled a little, closing the book and leaning back. She returned his smile cautiously, taking the seat across from him at the table. She laid her hands flat on the table and he sighed deeply.

"Derek, we really need to talk about this." She informed him, and he finally nodded.

"I know we do, it's going to be hard enough over the next couple of weeks without you and Alex thinking the worst of the situation." He finally conceded, and she was glad to see the haunted man from the other night was long gone. He seemed almost, happy.

"So tell me something. Something true, about what happened and why there's so much tension between the two of you. Tell me why she doesn't want to be here, and why Edmund is so keen on having her transferred." She asked, and he laughed a little.

"Anything else while I'm at it? Maybe explaining the meaning of life?" he joked, but he could tell from the look on her face she really wanted answers to all the questions she asked. "It's a long story…"

"I've got time." Rachel wasn't going to let him off that easy.

"All right. When Natalya was brought here she was very young and very fragile. She'd just lost her mother, and she didn't know me at all. I could tell immediately that she was very gifted psychically, which was to be expected I suppose. But I was totally unprepared to be a father to her. It took a lot of time, but eventually we grew closer. I got used to it, and after a while she was my world." He began, and Rachel nodded encouragingly. "Nick spent a lot of time here back then, he was just a few years older than she was and they became very close. The summer she turned thirteen was when Philip came to stay here, before he entered the Seminary. The three of them were inseparable, and I sometimes worried about the amount of time they spent together. But they both cared for her a great deal, so I allowed it. It was toward the end of that summer that something changed. I've spent years trying to understand exactly what happened, but all I can say was it was like she just snapped. For a while I thought it was hormonal, that I was unprepared for her to hit puberty, but I think it was more than that. Overnight she seemed to change, became sullen and withdrawn. She started smoking, drinking, sneaking out at night. Nick comes by his love of cars naturally, his father had a beautiful Porsche that she took one night and crashed into a tree. I didn't know what to do with her."

"So you sent her to Paris." Rachel provided, and Derek was quiet for a moment.

"I didn't know what else to do. She practically begged me to go, I could see she didn't want to live in San Francisco any more. I imagine that's why she's so upset to be sent back here, because all she wanted was to leave. I've tried to talk to her about it, bridge the gap there. I send letters sometimes, but they come back unanswered. I can tell she's angry with me, but I can't figure out why."

"Do you think it has something to do with the fact that she has the sight?" Rachel asked gently, and Derek could only shake his head.

"I'm not sure. I feel like there's more to her visions, that they're different from mine somehow, but every time I've asked her to talk about it she's refused. I can't figure out why Edmund wants her here, either, unless he's planning something."

"Like what?"

"I can't even imagine, but it's probably not good." Derek concluded, taking a sip of his nearby tea.

Neither Derek nor Rachel noticed the small figure moving out of the darkened doorway and out into the hall. Kat crept slowly away from the library, so busy mulling over what she'd overheard that she didn't notice Nick standing directly behind her. When she bumped into him she had to suppress the scream that welled up in her throat. He gave her a knowing smirk.

"Eavesdropping?" he offered quietly, and she felt her face get red. Not long ago she'd stopped asking Nick for piggy back rides and started noticing just how attractive he really was. She finally smiled back.

"Don't tell mom, okay?" she asked, tiptoeing away.

"My lips are sealed." He replied with a conspiratorial wink. He didn't mention that he'd been listening, too.

Kat left the library and went out to get some air. The rain had finally stopped falling and the night was balmy and damp. She made her way onto one of the balconies and was surprised to find someone had beaten her there. Natalya sat curled up on one of the chairs there, blowing smoke rings out into the darkness. She flicked the ash off her cigarette and smiled at the younger girl as she stopped short. She motioned for Kat to sit down.

"I don't bite, no matter what you heard." Natalya promised. Kat did as she was directed and sat down in the other chair.

"You have another of those?" Kat asked, motioning to the cigarette Natalya was dangling over the railing. Natalya smiled a little and suppressed a laugh.

"How old are you?" she asked, and Kat tried to shrug nonchalantly.

"Old enough." She replied, and Natalya couldn't hold back the tiny chuckle that managed to escape her lips. She fished around in her pocket all the same, handing Kat the pack and flicking her lighter to life. Kat took one between her fingers and pressed it to her lips, inhaling like she'd seen on TV and holding the end of the thing in the flame. She sucked in her breath and coughed immediately. She couldn't seem to stop coughing, her stomach twisting angrily as the smoke filled her lungs. Attempting to look suave she took a smaller drag and then placed the thing in Natalya's makeshift coke can ashtray.

"Smoking is bad for you." Natalya commented, stubbing out her own flame and sending the end off into the night.

"So is living." Kat countered, and Natalya finally turned to look at her.

"You're awfully young to be so disillusioned." Natalya replied, and then shrugged. "Who am I kidding, you're never too young."

"Is it true you have the sight?" Kat asked suddenly, and Natalya seemed taken aback by the forwardness of the question. Finally she nodded.

"I hear you do, too." Natalya answered, but Kat just shrugged.

"I guess. I don't think mine is right." She said. Natalya's face grew thoughtful.

"What do you mean?"

"I just think mine… is broken." She flinched suddenly, eyes flickering to the corner suddenly. Natalya's own eyes followed, and very slowly she reached down and slipped off the leather and stone bracelet that was tied around her wrist. She almost gagged at the grotesque face that glared at her from the corner of the balcony, hate burning clearly from a decayed face. She turned to Kat, whose face had gone completely pale.

"I think you should borrow this." Natalya told her, reaching out and slipping the bracelet over the smaller girl's hand.

"What is it?"

"A friend gave it to me. It's good luck." She explained, giving the hand a squeeze and standing up. "I'm going to go to bed. You and your mother are staying the night?"

"I'm on summer vacation now, so we'll probably be here a lot." Kat answered, following as Natalya led the way off the balcony.

"That's good. I get the feeling it's going to get kind of lonely around here."