Maria stood at her dresser, preparing herself for the night out, her daughter toddling around her legs as usual. She and John were finally going to get a night out together. In the midst of her preparation, she knocked off the keepsake that her grandmother-in-law had given her in the will when she'd passed away. She didn't know why, but she'd never been able to get rid of that thing, it's not like it was anything special, just a big, ugly key.
When it fell to the floor, that's when things got strange. Her daughter Ashelin, usually relatively uninterested in most things, went rigid with attention and snatched it up. A blinding flash of light filled the room and Ashelin stood up with considerably more purpose than usual.
Maria blinked for a moment, then went to retrieve the ornament. "Give that back to Mummy please Sweetie." She cooed placatingly as she went to take it from her.
A voice totally unlike the still child-like one she was used to hearing issued from her daughter. "You may not take the Millennium Key from this child. It is her right by destiny." Was the response she received.
Thoroughly shocked and fearful, Maria snatched the wretched thing away. That was when the screaming started. It went on... and on... and on... The small girl seemed to have no need to breathe at all, as the cry seemed to just continue with out stopping at all.
John ran in. "What's going on?!"
"I don't know!" Maria cried, wringing her hands. "When I took your grandmother's heirloom back from her, she just started screaming."
"Make her stop!" Was his only response.
"Don't you think I haven't tried?! Nothing seems to work!" She shouted back, annoyed at her husband's blatant lack of helpfulness.
"Well just give her the damn thing back then!" He snatched the key out of her hands and thrust it at his daughter. The wail stopped instantly, and she hugged the key tight to her chest. "At least she's stopped crying." He said with a shrug.
They both stood there watching the small girl, somehow knowing that everything had changed, but not knowing how. The stayed like that until the babysitter rang the doorbell, snapping them out of their thoughts. Putting the bizarre feeling out of their minds, they went out to enjoy the night. How were they to know how right they were?
No longer toddling around her mother's legs, Ashelin had grown up considerably. Everyone she knew would comment on how she seemed so much wiser than her years would allow, at which she would only smile knowingly. Her long hair and expressive eyes often made her the object of affection, but she seemed always above them, as if waiting for something – or someone – else.
Unfortunately for her, something else was also commented on. Her personality would drastically change, often several times a day. She would argue with herself in two distinct voices, and had two very different preferences for music and clothes that never, ever intermingled. The latest psychiatrist that she'd been to had finally diagnosed her with what her parents had been both dreading and waiting for, schizophrenia. According to him, it was so severe that she could possibly be a danger to herself, maybe even others. He recommended that she be put into the nearest mental health facility for observation and medication.
Ashelin lay in bed, thinking this over. "Am I crazy?" She asked herself quietly in the darkness.
She was rebuked for this, but only lightly. "Do you think that I'm just a figment of your imagination?"
She shook her head. "No. It's just that everyone keeps telling me I'm wrong. Mum, Dad, every single psychiatrist in a hundred kilometer radius." She sighed softly. "I guess they're just getting to me."
"You can't ever doubt what you know in your heart to be true. We both know that you're perfectly sane, and that's all there is to it."
Always knowing what to say to make her feel better, that had always been the trademark of the entity that she had shared her mind with since before she could remember. But this time, she couldn't be calmed. "They want to send me away to some institute where they're probably going to drug me up to my eyeballs. What am I going to do Asheritu?"
Asheritu sighed herself. "You remember that destiny repeats itself?"
"How could I forget? You only tell me twenty times a day." Ashelin was wary, she recognized this tone all too well, and it meant that the news coming was anything but good.
"At your age, I was forced to leave my home because my father wanted me to marry a man who, to be nice, was utterly revolting. Now, I believe that you are being forced out as well."
Ashelin put her head in her hands. "You sure about that?" But the question was unnecessary, she could feel the firm resolution of her companion, she had no choice. "You've never led me wrong before." She shrugged. "I guess I'd better start preparing then."
And she did just that.
