The next few rooms were more of the same.
Skyler was having to revisit some of the worst times of her life, being bounced from home to home every few months and learning about what Isaac had said. She was a paycheck to most people.
She did have one decent place once, and was there a little over a year. The Carrillions were an amazing couple who actually seemed to care, and had Skyler gone there earlier, she might have learned to love them. As it was, they had honestly tried their best, but Skyler had hardened her heart in the face of so many rejections to the point that it wasn't until years later that she was able to admit that she hadn't given them a chance.
In the end, they'd reluctantly given in to her wishes to return to the group home.
"Are we almost done?" Skyler asked, wiping the tears from her face. "I don't know what this was supposed to accomplish."
"I believe we're almost done," Nought said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I am sorry that you are having to go through this."
"Why am I doing this?" Skyler asked angrily. "I don't understand what all this is for."
"We are looking for the block," Nought said heavily. "Your mother is convinced that something happened to create a mental block that is keeping you from reaching your full potential."
"Oh, what," Skyler asked bitterly. "Was there another prophecy? Am I supposed to be able to save the Fae from something else? Because I've got to tell you that the Fae are not one of my favorite races right now."
"I can understand why," he said softly, "And how you have not turned on the humans after all I have seen this night, I will never know."
Skyler let out a bitter laugh. "It took me a while to get past it, believe me."
"Have you?" He asked pointedly.
"Gotten past it?" Skyler asked, then shook her head. "Maybe that's not the right term. Maybe it's more that I'm living with it. We all have skeletons in the closet. We just have to choose which are the ones we can live with. But, yeah, I was nearly out of the system and on my own when I started coming back around."
"How old were you when you were 'out of the system'," he asked curious.
"Eighteen."
"I see," he said, nodding. "Most fae have instances of their powers flaring as they grow. You were never taught by your mother or aunts, because they couldn't afford for Oberon to sense the power and come for you. Still, there should have been times when they would manifest themselves."
"Oh, they did," Skyler sighed, then pointed at the next door. "And if my memory serves and this is all in some kind of torturous order, then this next door should prove entertaining."
"Why do I not feel as that is not a good thing?" Nought asked.
"It's not," Skyler sighed. Resigned, she turned the knob on the next door and entered.
After the night she'd had, Skyler had hoped to be used to seeing herself in a very almost surreal way and watching all of these scene play out.
Nope, she thought now as she saw a younger version of herself, sitting on a park bench and keeping an eye on her young foster siblings as they played on the park equipment.
"You look older here," Nought said from her side.
"I was almost seventeen," Skyler said, her eyes scanning the park around them. "I was staying with… Damn, what were their names? The Dennis family? Or was it Dennison?" Skyler said, frowning and searching her memory. "Yeah, I think it was Dennison. Anyway," she shrugged as if it didn't matter, "They were nice. They took in me and two little girls who were sisters." Skyler glanced at the playground and pointed to the two little girls. "There. Maria and Marisol. They were roughly a year apart in age, young and cute." Skyler went back to scanning the distance, "The house we were living in was a few blocks from the park. The girls begged me to take them while Mrs. Dennison had to run to the store or something that day. That's where… There!" She said, pointing at the dense tree line at the edge of the park.
Nought turned and spotted the large dog as it came barreling through the trees and into the playground. He was snapping and snarling, a generous amount of white foam surrounding its mouth as it flew off in steams behind it.
"Wild animals generally avoid humans," Skyler said, restraining herself from running forward and trying to stop what was about to happen. "Rabid. I read about it in the paper a few days later, when they managed to track it down."
There. The first scream that Skyler remembered hearing once it was seen. More voices followed, as more and more people began running the other direction from the sick and aggressive large dog.
Skyler, her headphones on, was slower to acknowledge the noise until the people began running past her.
Tearing her headphones off, she threw them to the ground and began to run to the two girls playing on the swings, their backs to the approaching animal and unaware of the danger.
"No, no, no," Young Skyler shouted as she tried to outrun the animal in the race for the girls. She was still a few feet from the girls when the dog lunged, it's jaws opened wide.
"No!" Young Skyler screamed. Her eyes flamed to life with a green glow that spoke of her Fae heritage as her arms flung out and toward the girls. Suddenly, it was as if time itself stopped, and the swings froze in the air with the girls squealing in delight.
The dog's jaws closed on nothing but air with an audible snap. Denied it's original target, the dog turned towards young Skyler with a snarl. With one arm still raised and holding the children out of reach of the animal, Skyler swept her free arm out in an arc, sending a sudden wave of energy towards the dog.
It struck the dog with enough force that the animal was suddenly flung backwards and landed about ten feet and landed with a loud yelp. The dog rose, shook its head and with one final glare and growl in Skyler's direction, it bolted back in to the trees.
Young Skyler lowered her arm slowly, the green illumination dying from her eyes as she dashed forward and gathered the girls from their seats. With one in each arm, she ran in the direction the others had fled and continued on to the Dennison's home.
It wasn't until dinner that night, once the Dennison adults had returned home, that the girls began excitedly talking about all that had happened.
Young Skyler was horrified. She had no idea what had happened, how it had happened, and very little memory of the even as it had happened so fast.
Young Skyler excused herself from the dinner table as soon as she could, closing herself in her room.
Once the two young girls had gone to bed, tucked in with stories from the parent figures, Skyler lay in the dark and listened to the conversation that was happening in the living room.
"…But what if it's true?" Mrs Dennison asked.
"Do you hear yourself, Marcie?" Mr Dennison asked angrily. "The whole thing; the scary dog, the being lifted into the air and Skyler glowing green? Seriously?"
"Okay, so not the glowing green, but the rest, George…" Marcie said slowly.
"No," George said. "We have asked for so little from Skyler. I know she's had it rough, but if she can so thoroughly convince Maria and Marisol to lie so much that I can see they believe it… What if she can convince them to lie about other things? And if it is true, what were they doing at the park? Skyler should never have taken them out by herself."
"She's almost eighteen," Marcie Dennison protested. "Practically an adult, and until today, there's never been a problem leaving her in charge to watch the girls."
"That we know of," George pointed out. "What if there has been other times, other problems, and she's had the girls cover for her?"
"So, what?" Marcie said, resignation and doubt in her voice now. "We send her back out into the system?"
"Perhaps that would be best," George said softly. "I don't want to do it, and I wanted it to work out, but… Marcie, can we trust her after this?"
Young Skyler had heard enough. At least this time she had a forewarning.
She got up from the bed and silently began to pack her things into a fresh trashbag.
In the far corner of the room, the unseen observers retreated through the door and back to Nought's home.
"I can't do this anymore," Skyler said softly. "I just can't."
"You can," Nought said firmly. "And you must. There's one more door."
"And I know what's behind it," Skyler cried out. "If you want, I can tell you in painful detail. But to have to see it…"
"You are stronger than you know," Nought said softly. "You have not had an easy life, and it is not one I would have wished upon you, but you survived. Not only have you survived it, you have become a far better person than anyone would expect. There," he said, waving his hand at the door they'd just come through, "That was the incident in which the power that you hold was able to be called forth, and had that been nurtured within you at that time, it would have fully developed and you would have more control. I have the feeling that what lies beyond that door," he pointed at the last door that they had not tried yet, "lies the reason that you closed your powers off from yourself. For you to reach your full potential, you need to be able to destroy the blockage."
"Why?" Skyler asked, weary to her bones. "Why is it so important now?"
"I do not know why," Nought said. "Only that your mother came to me and asked that I try to help you."
"I'm going to need some serious therapy after this," Skyler said. "Okay, fine. Let's get this train wreck over with."
Lifting an arm that felt as though it weighed about a hundred pounds, she grasped the knob on the final door and twisted.
