Author's note: This chapter sucks, I know. I'm not sure how to continue with this story. I've definitely reached a crossroads here. If you have any prompts to send to me, for this story or another, feel free to do so. I guess I'll just have to see where this story goes...

~oOoOoOo~

What you lose in blindness is the space around you, the place where you are, and without that you might not exist. You could be nowhere at all. - Barbara Kingsolver

Philosophers have often said that, when someone goes blind, their other senses are heightened. The drop of a pin as it collides with the wooden panels of the canvas below can be heard with not much concentration-little to no effort-to hear such a sound that would ordinarily be out of earshot. The aroma of a warm apple pie-baking in the oven, the distinctive fragrance of it permeating the air-could be detected so easily. The taste of a bitter chunk of pineapple could taste as if it were a droplet of poison upon an innocent tongue. And touch... a simple caress-a gentle graze of another's flesh against your own-could elicit so many emotions from the receiver, so many images-vibrant images... images that vibrated with luminosity, an incandescence that could put the sun's rays to shame.

Enough bullshit! Anything else you want to tell me now? Because I will see it sooner or later. I had to go blind to see things about you I couldn't see before. A bad cosmic joke. It's a different kind of clarity, an absolute clarity I've never had. The images almost vibrate with light.

Roses pull in love and romance. That's not what I'm looking for right now. I need chrysanthemums. All kinds of them, for strength and protection.

Madison wasn't the next Supreme. The hallmark of any rising Supreme is glowing, radiant health. Madison had a heart murmur. She kept it monitored, she kept it secret. So I'm sorry, Myrtle. For 40 years, you've been barking up the wrong tree. My mother is the Supreme for a reason.

Fiona has got nothing to do with me. She has no idea I came to see you. You are my one real shot at this point.

So many memories, so many crippling memories inhabited Cordelia's muddled mind. She couldn't see, gratitude to the acid that had been tossed in her face. It was difficult to breathe. She'd never experienced so many panic attacks in her life. The scent-the distinct smell-of the hospital still lingered in her nostrils.

Cordelia remembered that day like no other, the day she awoke from her slumber. She remembered inhaling the scent of death, and rot. The hospital emitted fumes of urine and feces, amongst other things. It was one of her most unpleasant memories.

When Cordelia came to consciousness that day, and opened her eyes, she expected to be greeted by the face of a smiling doctor, perhaps a nurse that was standing by to check her vital signs. Instead, she was greeted by a grim voice, and a darkness that threatened to swallow her very soul.

"...I'm sorry to inform you that you were blinded by the attack," the stranger spoke.

Those were the only words that she had heard. Blind? That couldn't be. The last thing she remembered was drinking with Fiona at a bar, playing a juvenile game out of her own drunken stupor. And then...

Cordelia remembered crying. It couldn't have even be classified as crying. She was sobbing. Her entire body was shaking, her limbs no longer under her control. She recognized the familiar grasp of her mother's hand as Fiona intertwined her fingers within her daughter's, raising Cordelia's hand to Fiona's chest; a gesture that was intended to comfort her, but only created more pain for Cordelia. So much pain.

At the touch of her mother's flesh grazing against her own, she had seen a vision of everything she never wanted to see, things that she could have gone her entire life without knowing. At the time, she wasn't sure how she had avoided the image of her Auntie Myrtle burning at the stake for supposedly blinding Cordelia, but fortunately, she did. If she had witnessed that vision in that hospital bed, surrounded by her doctor, a nurse, and her mother... Cordelia just might have died.

Baby bird.

Delia.

Sweetheart.

Honey.

The final petname made Cordelia cringe. Her mother needed to die-at Cordelia's hands.

A brutal death.

A painful death.

It was coming.