Cornelia, Gone

Hello! Another chapter arrived! I already have another story planned, so I'll put up only the prolouge. When I'm done with this story, I'll continue the other. Look for Blades of Blood!

Chapter Four: Unleashed Sides

Just two weeks later, Cornelia became somebody completely different. Her blonde, long hair had changed to a shoulder-length black hair that seemed like charcoal. She had changed her fashion apparel to ripped jeans, leather jackets, and black t-shirts, sometimes with blood, guns, or rock bands that she had a sudden interest in. They way she wore makeup altered. Now her eyes were dashed with both black eyeliner and shadow, making her eyes what her friends called 'Raccoon Eyes.' She started smoking meth and dope, and drank beer, wine, and other liquors. Some of the kids in school were warned by parents not to be seen with her.

On a Thursday, Cornelia was sitting with a tray of food at the table she now sat at. Only a few days ago she had dropped to ninety pounds—exactly what she wanted—and decided to eat again. She had never felt so hungry in her life.

"Well, it looks like the wannabe is now a stoner. Congratulations, Cornelia, I knew you always weren't good enough for the title. However, you've made it as another stoner. I thought you could at least be a normal girl, but being a stoner fits you, too."

Cornelia recognized that prissy, preppy voice.

Gina.

"Did the cat catch your tongue, Cornelia?" Gina taunted, almost bursting into a fit of laughter. Cornelia only continued eating silently, hoping that Gina would get the fact that she didn't really care. But Gina continued to stay at the exact same place.

"Oh, Cornelia, Cornelia…Cornelia!" she went on. "Meth and Dope isn't going to help you bring up those grades. You've managed to get at least a decent weight, but I mean…isn't meth and dope going to make you fat again?"

The minute Gina started her endless laughing, Cornelia got up abruptly from the table. Gina looked not the least bit scared.

"Had enough?" she asked. "Because if I am bothering you, I'd be glad to stop. So, what is it going to be, Cornelia?" Gina let out that devilish voice that made Cornelia sick in the stomach.

"Can you just shut up!" Cornelia cried. "Then everybody will be happy. I'll be happy, the teachers will be happy, your friends will be happy, and best of all, your parents will be happy to hear you shut that large mouth of yours."

Almost everybody cheered for Cornelia, like she was a hero. Gina looked insulted, but didn't give up. Cornelia knew how Gina worked.

"You think that is a good comeback?" the girl smirked. "I'll have you know that stoners never came up with good comebacks. You are one hundred-ten percent stoner, you—"

"SHUT UP!" Cornelia cried, but it wasn't just her voice that came out. Instead, amazing green power came, tackling Gina to the ground. Cornelia's eyes were shut completely, but she could hear Gina's frantic cries for help. Nobody bothered coming up to help her.

"You've been tormenting people too long!" Cornelia seemed to cry, as if she had no power over herself. The power came rushing out her body like a serious wound. Gina was absolutely silent now.

The power from Cornelia's body disappeared, including all the power that wrapped around Gina's frame. Everybody looked surprised to see what Cornelia had done. Even Cornelia was surprised. She had forgotten about her past as a Guardian and the power she still held inside her.

"Uh…" Cornelia turned around. Almost everyone in the cafeteria was staring at her, then Gina's body (if they could see it). Gina was out cold on the cold cafeteria floor. She looked like she was shriveled up. Even her perfect hair was messy and looked like she had almost gone bald.

"Dude," said somebody close to Cornelia. "What was that all about?" Cornelia only rolled her eyes and whispered, "Shut up, or you'll end up just like her."

"I'm telling you, Oracle, she's gone nuts!" Will cried in the Temple of Candracar. "She's different. Today she used some extreme power and just ran away after it. She's skipping school and even just before started becoming an anorexic. She isn't Cornelia anymore. She's like somebody we've never met."

The Oracle stayed quiet—his back turned towards the girls. He had been listening, but he was also listening to something else. Soon, he turned himself to face the girls, and replied:

"True, Cornelia took a path of death and destruction. She is slowly destroying her body and her past life. Exactly seventy-five percent of the blame goes to Cornelia. But twenty percent of the blame also goes to you for."

"What?" Irma asked. "We are trying to help Cornelia! We don't want her this way!"

The Oracle nodded. "Yes, you are," he said calmly. "But not enough. Only every once in a while are you trying to help her. And the outcome always comes out the same. She curses and rants until her new friends—these stoners—come and help her, and you all leave, hoping Cornelia will follow you. But she won't. She believes that her new friends will do anything to help her. She sees that none of you are willing to help her out in struggling times."

Another silence came among the five. Hay Lin was the first to break it.

"How can we help her?" she asked, wondering if she had an idea.

The Oracle sighed, but not sarcastically. "Cornelia has forgotten her memory of being a Guardian the minute she saw you with this other girl she cannot stand. Five percent of the troubles goes to her and Cornelia's new friends. If she didn't become friends with these new people, her mind would make her think of her life as a Guardian. But now she is taking drugs and alcohol. You must try to make her remember. It will take a long time, but eventually she will forget this new present."

Within a quick instant, the girls found themselves back in Taranee's home.

Cornelia closed the door of her apartment. Lillian was still at school, and her father was at a business meeting. Her mother said that she would probably not be home when Cornelia would get back, but Cornelia was still cautious.

Staring at the palms of her hands, her mind only came up with the same question over and over again: What happened there? It raced back and forth, searching for an answer—an answer she couldn't find.

"I don't get it. How could that happen? It's impossible. Unless…no…it is just a stupid thing. Everybody will forget about it tomorrow. Tomorrow is Friday. Everything will quiet down. Maybe everyone will forget."

But on Friday, nobody forgot. Wherever Cornelia went, people whispered and pointed at her, as if she was somebody they never had seen before. None of the teachers knew about what happened, but some of them still seemed careful around Cornelia and Agatha—along with their little posse.

Around about the time gym started, Cornelia and Agatha decided to skip school. "I'm gonna stock up on some of Jennari's. At home, I've got some dope bags, and Spencer is thinking of bringing some Coke over."

"Thank god," Cornelia whispered. "I need some soda."

"It ain't soda, you idiot," Agatha snarled slightly. "It's cocaine, okay?"

"Uh…yeah…s-sure," Cornelia stuttered. As she and Agatha climbed out of the bathroom window, her mind began racing.

At the dock where the carnivals were held in Heatherfield, it was six o'clock. Cornelia and Agatha, along with Spencer Plaighe, were drinking some beer and having sticks of cocaine. All three of them were dizzy, looking up at the stars like drunken people.

"Look at all of them…" Agatha said, her body swaying back and forth.

"Yeah…they are like all the kids in school…crowded together…" Spencer replied, putting his eighth stick of cocaine in his mouth. Cornelia grabbed one.

"You know…they all are little specks…" she dazedly said to both of them. Stepping back without looking, she fell into a nearby boat with thousands of dead fish and nets.

Spencer and Agatha looked over.

"Go get her," Agatha replied.

"No you go get her."

"You!"

"Alright…fine…" he said, climbing onto another close-by boat, dumping a bucket of water onto Cornelia's face.

"Naugh…" Cornelia awoke. Spitting water out of her mouth, Spencer helped her out of the boat.

Cornelia came home at noon the next day. Her mother was out grocery shopping with Lillian, and her father was at another business meeting. Cornelia—after her fall—had seven more cocaine sticks and about three more beers. She felt a migraine creeping up her neck and her head. Her vision was swimming. She couldn't see clearly.

Feeling around the kitchen for the phone, Cornelia found it and dialed her mother's cell phone number.

"Hello…?" came her mother's voice.

"Mom…mom…I don't feel good…I—" Cornelia shouted into the phone.

"Cornelia? Are you okay? Are you sick do you—?"

Cornelia ran to the bathroom. "Mom…come home…please…I feel…just please come home and take me to the doctors…!" She started feeling queasy and left the phone by the front door and ran straight into the bathroom. Accidentally turning on the sink's cold water, she was slipping on something. Her vision went dark.

Mrs. Hale and Lillian made it to the apartment only forty-five minutes later because of traffic.

"Cornelia," Mrs. Hale said in the current room. Lillian came by with the phone. "Mommy…look!"

Mrs. Hale took the phone and placed it on the nearby table. "That's strange," she said. "I hear water running. Lillian, go upstairs and play in your room. I'll try to find Cornelia."

When Lillian was not in sight, Mrs. Hale slowly walked to the bathroom, where the running water was coming from. She opened the door to see an unconscious Cornelia on the floor; the water flowing out of the sink. Cornelia was drenched in water and what seemed like blood around her forehead.

"Cornelia!" Dropping to the floor, Mrs. Hale ordered Lillian to bring the phone back. Tending to her oldest daughter's forehead, she called a local hospital.

"Hello? Yes…hello…my daughter called me about fifty-minutes earlier because she was complaining about being sick…and she passed out in the bathroom. I need an ambulance right…hello!" but it was no use. The line was completely dead.

Cornelia awoke in a white room in a hospital gown and a tube of green liquid going into her wrist. She saw Lillian sleeping in an armchair with a teddy-bear in her hands. Her father was outside of the room talking to a man and a woman. Her mother was with him.

The door opened and the woman came in only. "Good afternoon, Cornelia. You've been asleep for two days."

"What?" she asked. "Two days? That means it is…Monday…right?"

"Yes," the woman said. "You passed out in your bathroom on Saturday and your mother took you here. We don't know why you passed out, and you probably don't either, but we are keeping you here until you get better. You aren't going to school for about a week."

Cornelia shook her head, but not because she was in doubt. "I…I…can't remember everything. On Friday I was with my friends having something—I don't recall the name—and came home at noon because I was staying over at my friend Agatha's house. Then I felt dizzy and felt pain almost every wear…I just called my mom."

The woman looked suspicious. "You said on Friday you were having something. What was it?"

"I don't know. I can't remember what happened after school. Everything was a blur…"

"This friend named Agatha…do you have her phone number?"

Cornelia thought for a moment. "No, I don't. She calls me instead of me calling her."

"What was the last incoming call on your home phone?"

"I don't know, lady!" Cornelia cried, almost enough like she did on Thursday. "I said I don't remember anything after school on Friday, okay? I remember getting a call before school…but it wasn't anybody I knew. Oh…god…I need some dope…"

In Cornelia's attempt to get up, the woman grabbed her arm. "What did you just say?"

"What do you care? I need dope and meth now!"

The woman cried, "Dr. Hensworthington, I think I figured out why Miss Hale passed out."

The man—who Cornelia assumed to be Dr. Hensworthington—came into the room.

"What, Mrs. Linnel?"

"Cornelia is smoking meth and hashish. She probably took an overdose."

"It ain't hashish. It's dope. And I even started on some cocaine. What is so bad about it?"

The doctor looked at Cornelia. "Aha…I see. Yes, she has been on cocaine, meth, and hashish. She's pale and thin—the usual symptoms of overdosed drugs. Mr. And Mrs. Hale, I suggest you listen to what I am going to tell you."

Cornelia rolled her eyes. Her mother and father looked at her with wide eyes.

Well, I did add a lot more than Cornelia almost killing Gina. But her parents have to find out sooner or later!

-Teenaged Assassin

Chapter Five: Stones and Stoned

Cornelia is released out of the hospital, but still continues her habits and getsa personstoned.