A/N: Don't even ask. I just randomly started writing this... I have no idea where it came from and where it's going to go (if anywhere) but take a look.
Piper has lost most of her sanity after Prue's death. How does this affect her and the people around her?
Psychosis
People wonder why I wander around oblivious to what's going on around me. The reason is that I have no reason to pay attention. I am perfectly content living in my own little world. I am happy here. In their world, it is filled with sadness, with misery... after all, I lost my sister in that world. But in this one - in my world - she is here.
Here she comes now, in fact.
Her hair flows in the breeze, and she smiles to me. I return it in gratitude. Although I am alone in my room, really I am outside, in the sun with my loved ones. My hair is lifted by the wind, and it floats uncommitedly behind my neck.
Waving to me, Prue turns and walks towards a river that makes little gurgling noises in the distance. Somehow, I don't want her going there, so I get up to follow her.
I see her at the river's edge. She is still smiling, still radiating that energy she is always so filled with. I join her side, and look into the river. The riverbed is brown, because of the ground underneath. It is very calm. I realise there's nothing to be afraid of, and question myself as to why I was so worried about Prue going to the river.
Then my answer comes.
My attention is taken by the water, because the smooth-soundling bubbling of it has increased; the water is moving faster. It's getting deeper, and the sky begins to cloud over. A frown crosses over my face as I stare at the sky, blinking as the first droplet of rain splatters onto my nose. Shaking it away, I glance at Prue. But she is not there.
"Prue?" I cry, twisting around to look behind me at where I was before. She is not there. A cold dread curls its way into my skin, clawing through my blood. I know where she is. I cannot look. If I don't look, then it won't be real.
I tell myself this until the fear is too great and I chance on my icy intuition and deep-seated knowledge being wrong. I know it's not, but curiousity and terror is much too strong for my pathetic will. I glance behind me.
And scream.
My sister is lying face down in the river.
*
"Piper, Piper, look at me!"
Noise. Voices, shouting. I blearily try to come to my senses but my mind is foggy. Where is the river? Where is Prue? What happened to her... oh god no... she fell...
Screaming. High and piercing. It hurts my ears. The voices become louder and clearer.
"Piper, calm down, please-"
More screaming. Someone chokes out the name. Her name. Prue.
My eyes snap open to see who spoke her name. Gasping, it takes me a moment to register that it was me. The screaming has stopped, and I realise that was me too.
I adjust to the light, and try to make sense of the faces swimming in front of my eyes. I barely recognise them anymore, even though they are the people that live in my daydreams. Well, they are there mostly, but I usually concentrate on seeing Prue.
But what just happened slammed me back to reality. I know I go into my little daydreams, where everybody is with me and Prue is alive, I know to some extent that they're not real. I really do. But that's besides the point. What bothers me is that... what happened... with Prue in the river-
I feel myself physically shaking. It's pretty violent - the voices start up again, but I still can't quite make them out. I'm too far lost in my own thoughts to notice what is happening to my body. I don't know I'm making little noises, little crying sounds, which is terrifying whoever is trying to calm me down. It's beyond me.
Anyway, back to what I was trying to get straight in my stupid warped head. I know my dreams aren't real. Yeah - the real world is out there, and if you want my opinion it sucks. Maybe it's why I retreat back into my own little place. I feel safe there. Hell, not any more! What I keep trying to get at but I can't seem to get my head around it is what happened to Prue... it's never happened before.
I've been there hundreds of times - same scenario. I'm sitting on the grass on a beautiful day. Then she appears, smiling at me. Time passes.
I realise this is the first time the river has been directly in my daydream. Memories of Prue's age-old fear of water creep into my mind and I shudder, thinking about how I now feel afraid of water. I know what it does now, my imagination has just taught me that. It kills.
Body status: the convulsing has stopped. I only barely notice, but the sensation of a cool, damp cloth being pressed to my forehead calms me down and prepares me for my return to the real world. After what happened to Prue I'm unsure if this is good or bad.
I open my eyes and finally I can see clearly. Leo smiles gently down at me, his face sympathetic yet full of pain. He dips the cloth into a basin of water, squeezes it out and reapplies it to my forehead. I am inexpressably grateful, though wary of the water after my revelation. I watch his face, and he stares into my eyes, as if judging my alertness. He comes to a conclusion.
"Are you with us Piper?" he asks.
Us? I strain to find someone else in the room, but unless they are invisible, there is only Leo and myself. I can't seem to pass it off as a figure of speech.
Then Phoebe steps towards me, taking my hand. I don't understand where she came from, but I try to accept it.
Stroking my cheek, Phoebe leans down beside me. She is upset. She is looking at Leo pleadingly. She says something, but it goes over my head, all apart from the word 'heal', but I can't make sense of it. Leo shakes his head mournfully in reply.
I want to speak, to let them know that I'm awake and I can see them and I love them... but somehow I can't get the words to come out. It's an exertion even forming them in my head. Sometimes I hate myself for creating this life, where my imagination rules and my conception lies below, but it is getting too much. I find it difficult to comprehend so much, sometimes I don't even recognise the new woman who lives in my house.
Here I go again. I berate myself for not remembering her name. Paige. That's it. I'm ashamed at how I have to remember. Rather than storing it in my memory as a separate entry, I only know her name by knowing that like the rest of my family, she is named with a 'P'. Then it usually comes back.
I'm back on the grass now... Prue comes to me, smiling. I return the smile, happy once more. She beckons me to follow her to the river. Against my better judgement, I pick myself up and hurry to catch up with her.
When we arrive, Prue grins and points at the water. I look at it expectantly, but see nothing out of the ordinary. Then I hear a rumble of thunder overhead. Glancing up, I notice the sky is now grey with clouds and rain is beginning to splash down. I hear the river deepening and quickening. I turn to Prue, to ask her to come bac with me, but she is gone.
Panic. Where is she? Where has she gone?
I look back at the grass, but there is no one there. Terror violently rips open my heart and lets itself in. I know where Prue is.
Don't look, don't look Piper and it'll be all right. Just don't look in the river.
But I must do what I must.
I tear my eyes off the ground and turn to face the river.
I feel my scream vibrating in my throat, and I know it travelled into the real world too. Prue is in the river. Her face is in the water. Her dress is puffed up from the trapped air, and it billows in the harsh winds.
An image of her face flashes before my eyes. It is cracked and slimy, eaten by maggots and the eye sockets are empty. Stumbling backwards in horror, I fall.
And continue to fall.
Down, down.
Then... I am still.
A/N: Okay, I don't know whether to make this a one-off or continue with it as a story. I guess it could get pretty interesting. I've got my other story which takes muchos priority over this one, but still, tell me what you think.
pp
Piper has lost most of her sanity after Prue's death. How does this affect her and the people around her?
Psychosis
People wonder why I wander around oblivious to what's going on around me. The reason is that I have no reason to pay attention. I am perfectly content living in my own little world. I am happy here. In their world, it is filled with sadness, with misery... after all, I lost my sister in that world. But in this one - in my world - she is here.
Here she comes now, in fact.
Her hair flows in the breeze, and she smiles to me. I return it in gratitude. Although I am alone in my room, really I am outside, in the sun with my loved ones. My hair is lifted by the wind, and it floats uncommitedly behind my neck.
Waving to me, Prue turns and walks towards a river that makes little gurgling noises in the distance. Somehow, I don't want her going there, so I get up to follow her.
I see her at the river's edge. She is still smiling, still radiating that energy she is always so filled with. I join her side, and look into the river. The riverbed is brown, because of the ground underneath. It is very calm. I realise there's nothing to be afraid of, and question myself as to why I was so worried about Prue going to the river.
Then my answer comes.
My attention is taken by the water, because the smooth-soundling bubbling of it has increased; the water is moving faster. It's getting deeper, and the sky begins to cloud over. A frown crosses over my face as I stare at the sky, blinking as the first droplet of rain splatters onto my nose. Shaking it away, I glance at Prue. But she is not there.
"Prue?" I cry, twisting around to look behind me at where I was before. She is not there. A cold dread curls its way into my skin, clawing through my blood. I know where she is. I cannot look. If I don't look, then it won't be real.
I tell myself this until the fear is too great and I chance on my icy intuition and deep-seated knowledge being wrong. I know it's not, but curiousity and terror is much too strong for my pathetic will. I glance behind me.
And scream.
My sister is lying face down in the river.
*
"Piper, Piper, look at me!"
Noise. Voices, shouting. I blearily try to come to my senses but my mind is foggy. Where is the river? Where is Prue? What happened to her... oh god no... she fell...
Screaming. High and piercing. It hurts my ears. The voices become louder and clearer.
"Piper, calm down, please-"
More screaming. Someone chokes out the name. Her name. Prue.
My eyes snap open to see who spoke her name. Gasping, it takes me a moment to register that it was me. The screaming has stopped, and I realise that was me too.
I adjust to the light, and try to make sense of the faces swimming in front of my eyes. I barely recognise them anymore, even though they are the people that live in my daydreams. Well, they are there mostly, but I usually concentrate on seeing Prue.
But what just happened slammed me back to reality. I know I go into my little daydreams, where everybody is with me and Prue is alive, I know to some extent that they're not real. I really do. But that's besides the point. What bothers me is that... what happened... with Prue in the river-
I feel myself physically shaking. It's pretty violent - the voices start up again, but I still can't quite make them out. I'm too far lost in my own thoughts to notice what is happening to my body. I don't know I'm making little noises, little crying sounds, which is terrifying whoever is trying to calm me down. It's beyond me.
Anyway, back to what I was trying to get straight in my stupid warped head. I know my dreams aren't real. Yeah - the real world is out there, and if you want my opinion it sucks. Maybe it's why I retreat back into my own little place. I feel safe there. Hell, not any more! What I keep trying to get at but I can't seem to get my head around it is what happened to Prue... it's never happened before.
I've been there hundreds of times - same scenario. I'm sitting on the grass on a beautiful day. Then she appears, smiling at me. Time passes.
I realise this is the first time the river has been directly in my daydream. Memories of Prue's age-old fear of water creep into my mind and I shudder, thinking about how I now feel afraid of water. I know what it does now, my imagination has just taught me that. It kills.
Body status: the convulsing has stopped. I only barely notice, but the sensation of a cool, damp cloth being pressed to my forehead calms me down and prepares me for my return to the real world. After what happened to Prue I'm unsure if this is good or bad.
I open my eyes and finally I can see clearly. Leo smiles gently down at me, his face sympathetic yet full of pain. He dips the cloth into a basin of water, squeezes it out and reapplies it to my forehead. I am inexpressably grateful, though wary of the water after my revelation. I watch his face, and he stares into my eyes, as if judging my alertness. He comes to a conclusion.
"Are you with us Piper?" he asks.
Us? I strain to find someone else in the room, but unless they are invisible, there is only Leo and myself. I can't seem to pass it off as a figure of speech.
Then Phoebe steps towards me, taking my hand. I don't understand where she came from, but I try to accept it.
Stroking my cheek, Phoebe leans down beside me. She is upset. She is looking at Leo pleadingly. She says something, but it goes over my head, all apart from the word 'heal', but I can't make sense of it. Leo shakes his head mournfully in reply.
I want to speak, to let them know that I'm awake and I can see them and I love them... but somehow I can't get the words to come out. It's an exertion even forming them in my head. Sometimes I hate myself for creating this life, where my imagination rules and my conception lies below, but it is getting too much. I find it difficult to comprehend so much, sometimes I don't even recognise the new woman who lives in my house.
Here I go again. I berate myself for not remembering her name. Paige. That's it. I'm ashamed at how I have to remember. Rather than storing it in my memory as a separate entry, I only know her name by knowing that like the rest of my family, she is named with a 'P'. Then it usually comes back.
I'm back on the grass now... Prue comes to me, smiling. I return the smile, happy once more. She beckons me to follow her to the river. Against my better judgement, I pick myself up and hurry to catch up with her.
When we arrive, Prue grins and points at the water. I look at it expectantly, but see nothing out of the ordinary. Then I hear a rumble of thunder overhead. Glancing up, I notice the sky is now grey with clouds and rain is beginning to splash down. I hear the river deepening and quickening. I turn to Prue, to ask her to come bac with me, but she is gone.
Panic. Where is she? Where has she gone?
I look back at the grass, but there is no one there. Terror violently rips open my heart and lets itself in. I know where Prue is.
Don't look, don't look Piper and it'll be all right. Just don't look in the river.
But I must do what I must.
I tear my eyes off the ground and turn to face the river.
I feel my scream vibrating in my throat, and I know it travelled into the real world too. Prue is in the river. Her face is in the water. Her dress is puffed up from the trapped air, and it billows in the harsh winds.
An image of her face flashes before my eyes. It is cracked and slimy, eaten by maggots and the eye sockets are empty. Stumbling backwards in horror, I fall.
And continue to fall.
Down, down.
Then... I am still.
A/N: Okay, I don't know whether to make this a one-off or continue with it as a story. I guess it could get pretty interesting. I've got my other story which takes muchos priority over this one, but still, tell me what you think.
pp