Evenin' all! How was your Saturday? Mine was busy. Busy as all hell. But here I am!
Once again, thanks for the all the love. You guys are the best!
*~*~ToL~*~*
"Guys, I swear I'm fine," Persephone tries once again to reassure her overbearing, over-protective father and sister. "I think it was a spider or something, I don't know."
"A spider? Since when have you been scared of bugs, Persephone?" Joe asks disbelievingly. Even as a child, Persephone was the kind of girl to let bugs crawl on her fingers than scream and kill them.
"I wasn't scared!" she defends herself as nonchalantly as she can in her panicked state, "It came out of nowhere and startled me. That's all guys, I swear."
Joe snorts, "Have you forgotten I'm a cop? That wasn't a scream of surprise, Persephone. That was –"
"Dad!" Persi snaps, wanting her interrogation to be over with. "I said it was nothing, okay? Leave it, please?"
Tense silence fills the room. Joe hasn't been snapped at by Persephone for a very long time. He remembers a time when father and daughter were arguing daily, because they didn't see eye-to-eye about anything and everything. While Iris had inherited her mother's gentleness and kindness, Persephone inherited her father's unwillingness to burden anyone, as well as his sharp tongue. They bashed heads constantly in her late teens, as she struggled with accepting herself for who she was, so for her to snap at him now…
Persephone sighs and shakes her head. "I'm sorry dad," she apologizes, reaching out for him. "I just don't feel like myself. I think I just need to get home and sleep on a real bed for about a day to get back to normal."
Joe sighs and relents, stepping forward and giving his oldest child a warm hug. "You know we're here for you whenever, Persephone."
"I know Dad," she replies, relishing in the warmth of his arms.
Behind Joe, Iris stands at the doorway, watching the touching scene with narrowed eyes. Persephone catches her eye as she continues to hug her father, and they have a silent conversation.
"I don't buy that," Iris says, her eyes narrowing further and her eyebrows furrowing. "Something happened in there."
"…I know," Persi concedes to her twin, "Just…give me time, okay?"
"…I trust you, Persephone. Always," Iris reminds her.
"Thanks sis," she replies, smiling minutely.
Iris sends her a small smile of her own, and is about to walk out of the room when Joe calls out, "You girls are doing your twin thing again, aren't you?"
The girls burst into surprised laughter, and the tense atmosphere is gone from the West household.
After reassuring Kelsey that yes, she is truly here, and yes, she isn't going to get hit by another bolt of lightning ever again, Persephone finally has some privacy in her own apartment.
The apartment itself is spacious and very elegantly furnished with steel counters, marbled floors and beautiful ebony wood paneling and doors. It cost a fortune of course, but her salary (who knew working at a gym could be so rewarding?) makes it easy to pay for and maintain. She is very proud of her place, and likes to show it off as often as she can.
Right now, however, is not the time to show off her aesthetically-pleasing apartment to Kelsey. After giving her a quick goodbye at her front door, Persephone races to her bathroom, slams the door closed and discards her sweatpants and tank top as quickly as she can.
Naked as the day she was born, Persephone stands herself at her full body mirror that is attached to the back of the bathroom door, eyeing her body cautiously. Nothing looks different. She is still tattooed, the spiraled markings resembling tendrils and vines across her skin. Her abs are a little less prominent, but that is understandable, given the fact that she's been asleep for six months.
But she doesn't see anything strange, and she doesn't feel anything strange. Biting her lip and scrunching her eyes closed, she tries to do…well, she doesn't know what exactly, but she tries to make whatever happened earlier happen again.
After what seems like a long moment, she slowly opens one of her eyes and saw…absolutely nothing.
Sighing in defeat, Persephone's shoulders slump and she turns away from the mirror and towards her sink, turning on the faucet and letting the water run over her hands for a few minutes before splashing it over her face. She doesn't know what she was doing, she doesn't even know what the hell that blue thing was! How is she supposed to replicate whatever the hell –!
Gasping in surprise, she turns her body away from the sink and returns to the full-body mirror. And there she is. Her blue eyes glint from the light shining above her, and her skin shines like an ethereal body of water.
"Whoa," she whispers, and jumps in shock. Her voice has changed: it echoes around her, and it reminds of a steady river steam. Chuckling nervously, she takes a step closer to her mirror, watching as her feet ripple with every step she takes. The ripples travel up her aqueous body, but it doesn't feel all that odd. Slowly raising her hand, she pokes herself in the cheek and watches in awe as her index finger slips right through. It feels strange, and she laughs at the odd feeling before pulling her hand back.
How is this possible? So many questions run through her mind, and she doesn't know how she's possibly going to get any answers. No one else could possibly have been in the same situation as she had –
Except Barry.
*~*~ToL~*~*
AHHHH! Me thinks Persi is going to ask Barry about his meta-human abilities, right? And to ask Barry...well, she'll have to ask S.T.A.R. Labs. Discoveries about! Mysteries! Love! Words!
Guys, I'm really tired, can you tell? I'm going to sleep, I promise to reply to reviews tomorrow after work (yeah, I work on Easter. America, the land of the free guys).
