So here I am. I got stuck with chapter 3 somewhere and can't seem to find a way to move forward, but I do believe that problem is behind me now. I am also experimenting something new with this series, rather than the type of events that I usually depict in my original fictions. Prepare yourself, if you have not already, for me pushing the T border, even if it is just a little bit.
Chapter 3: Voodoo
"God…" Sabrina pouted as she felt her head aching like mad. Her eyes still closed, she reached over to her temples. It never actually did help anyone with their headaches, but it was just something people usually do. She did not care too much about that though, since her consciousness was still a bit hazy, considering all the alcohol she had last night. There was something off with her memories, but it was hard for her to make out what might have happened last night. She only remembered drinking, getting drunk and… "Erika?"
Opening her eyes rather slowly, Sabrina found out that she was put onto the bed at some point. Her arms stretched around to make sure that she was alone on it. Fortunately, she was. Even though what happened last night really had not make its impact on her memories yet, Sabrina really did not feel like dealing with any more complications. She got up half way, eyes closed down to deal with the hangover.
"Ugh…." A whimper echoed across the silent room, which caught Sabrina's attention. Trying her best to ignore the pounding in her head, she once again pried open her clamped shut eyes and stare at the direction where the sound was coming from. To her surprise, it took her to the nearby couch, where her friend Erika was lying on, seemingly asleep and dreaming of something. The botanist had been holding a pillow that was supposed to support her head and was breathing quite heavily. Sabrina was not sure what to make of that. Getting off the bed, she approached her friend, noticing how Erika's face looked red and flustered, even though she wasn't even awake. The psychic was not sure of what to do at this point, so she decided just to wait it out. "Sabrina…"
Her eyes were wide open after that. It seemed that the sleeping beauty had been dreaming about her friend, which Sabrina thought was somewhat odd. From the look on the slumbering's face, she was not positive on what kind of dream it was showing. Suddenly, a fresh piece of the past rushed into her mind, as she was reminded of what happened last night, behind closed doors, before she passed out.
"Oh god…" The psychic was getting a bit worried afterwards. Having remembered the two's little drinking, not drunken, play last night; she could rather guess what her friend was dreaming about. However, in order to be sure, she would have to plunge herself into the depths of Erika's dream to see for herself. It was not something she usually did, nor was it marginally difficult at any point in her past, but Sabrina did feel a bit guilty in doing this. Of course, the headache she was still experiencing did not help her concentrate on the matter much, but she was able to do it anyways. Sabrina sat down on the floor next to her couch, her hand gripping Erika's. She could feel her consciousness fades, as she knew she would soon stumble upon the botanist's most private moments.
It did not take long for Sabrina's own mind to manifest itself within the boundaries of Erika's dream world. However, since neither of them was awake the dream itself could change at any moment. Knowing this, Sabrina knew that she had to make sure that the Erika within the dream would not recognize her or the dream itself might end abruptly, nullifying the whole point. That was the least of her worries at the moment, though. Her surroundings were anything but easy to navigate through. A confined space, it was, which marginally surprised Sabrina. She did not really expect this kind of closed setting on anything but a nightmare, and the thought of her being in her friend's worst dreams did not really cheer her up by any stretch of imagination. Still she pressed on. There was only a single path, surrounded by arrays of grown trees, as far and as tall as the eye can see. Her eyesight narrowed onto her apparent destination at the far end. It was bright, and hard to deduct. It was slightly bothering her that, even though she was among the tall shrubs, it still felt like a confined place. Taking a close look at the "sky", it seemed as infinite as ever. However, she could just feel its limit, by the boundaries of her own power. Shrugging, Sabrina decided that it was against her best interest to ponder at a place like this. For all she knew, Erika could wake up at any moment, and even the female psychic herself would not have known the exact position of which she fell asleep. It could startle her friend, or worse yet, create some catastrophic loop hole in her subconscious. Sabrina moved forward to end her thoughts. As she casually strolled into the unknown destination, the view of the proximity around her alters gradually as well. The trees, if she ever knew possible, flourished even further, as bouquets of the most exotic of flowers appear on their branches. People would take this as a beautiful sight. She would too, if she actually cared at that moment. Being in the dream world, Sabrina held no concept of time. However, it must have taken a while, at least it would qualify as so, for her to finally reach something she could see. The path she was taking closed off rather abruptly, in front of a door. Her ear against it, she could tell that there were not much of any noises in there. As careful as she was though, Sabrina only faintly placed her hand on the door handle, steadily twisting it, trying to be as silent as possible. As the door partly opened, Sabrina could take a better look at the scene inside. It was unnervingly familiar.
There she was, Sabrina herself, at least her natural manifestation within Erika's dreams, lying down on the couch. The real Sabrina could instantly recognize the locale of where this dream acquired place. There was not the slightest different between the room of which its door was just opened compared to the room her conscious body would have been in right now. It was, by all means, Erika's room on the boat, only within her dreams. The dream Sabrina was there, still unspoken and at rest. Erika herself was there as there, sitting next to her friend's sleeping self. Her eyes seemed unfocused, but her smile was evident. She seemed rather content, considering how Sabrina had previously thought this was a nightmare. Feasibly, the botanist could have just had a different sleeping pattern than those which the psychic usually encounters. Sabrina, however, felt like there was something amiss. The scene appears to be blissful, but it was still set in a confined space, making her as uncomfortable as ever. Without warning, the place blurred. It staggered her, forcing her to keep her focus in order to make out. She could see Erika sitting still, but with tears dripping from her eye sockets. Those were not tears of joy, she could easily tell.
"Sabrina." Erika hung her head coldly, let out a tone of distress that was the same as what Sabrina has heard before she went into the dream world. She could not have yet figured out the cause for such angst, however, since everything still appears to be normal. Could it be that Erika was envisioning what happened last night and regretting it? That would certainly be a possibility, Sabrina thought, although she did not want such a thing to be reality. It took her a certain time within this distorted world to realize what had been missing from her perspective all this time. Her sight set upon her dreamy self, still there, perfectly still. The Sabrina there was not moving the slightest of bits. She was not even breathing.
Sabrina snapped out of her psychic state at that point. She felt sick. As far as she knew, she was dead within her friend's dream. That would explain the moody end of the bright tree tunnel, and the ever present coffin shut in extent of the distraught reverie. At least Erika did not see her there, alive. It might have helped a bit, the psychic admitted. However, she could not live with that mental image any longer.
"Erika…" Her hands started applying force onto the form of the woman sleeping next to her. It did not seem to be helping, which only increased the anxiety within her awareness. She was, by every meaning of the word, worried of her friend. "Wake up…."
"Hm?" It took a while, but the botanist was at last freed from her dream state. Sabrina sighed off her worries, as it had been taking a toll on her regardless of how insignificant it seemed. She could not explain it, but she was at least pleased to see her friend up and all right. "Sabrina?"
"Yeah, it's me." She did not quite know what to say after that experience. It certainly made her question the point of her trip in the first place. It was originally intended to help her investigate what was bothering her friend so much within that insentient realm. However, it only helped making her feel extremely conscious about what she had seen. "How are you feeling?"
"Not that well, but I blame it on the booze." Erika, surprisingly, seemed rather fair with whatever she experience, or she simply had forgotten it. Either way, it struck Sabrina a bit. For such a thing to happen, the existence of the dream, or at least that half-conscious state, must be customary enough to make Erika not out right disturbed by such visions. The psychic pondered. Perhaps there was a lot more to her friend's psychological depth that she might have imagined. Someone like Surge was blunt and easy to read, too boring for her to pay any mind to. Erika, however, had a deeper side of her that seemed completely off to the people around, perhaps even to herself. It was such an exhilarating idea to Sabrina at the time. Regardless of the recent ominous hallucination that she had just witnessed, there was a lot of secrets that she were simply dying to find out. "How are you feeling? You passed out last night and I had to carry you to the bed."
"Thank you for that, Erika." Sabrina smiled, as to not express any of her thoughts accidentally. For all she knew, Erika actually seemed rather cheerful to see that, which settled for both of them. Still, there was a rather sensitive matter that they must tackle first before everything could be brushed off as said and done. "Hey, last night, do you remember… you know, when I… just came back here, drunk?"
"Oh?" That particularly memory was not in Erika's mind at the time brought about her search for it. When that piece of timeline cleared itself to her though, a rather expected reaction took place. Her cheeks became rather flushed, and her hands started to agitate. Her eyes drifted off to Sabrina, confirming that her friend was perfectly clear of what happened as well. The psychic herself seemed aware of that, but she ceased any of her actions, waiting to bring out the answer from the botanist herself. "I… yes, I do."
"I see." Sabrina smiled, which startled her friend. Erika had already gotten herself straight on the couch at the time, and was rather having a mindful of what was going on around her. She obviously noticed Sabrina settling herself next to her, those deep magenta-eyes staring straight into her own, forcing out an honest answer. "Admittedly it was an act I committed while I was under the influence. My apologies, I truly did not suspect such an undesirable results."
"Oh… ok." Erika awkwardly brushed it off. However, she was rather aware of how such an action might have been detrimental to her own good. Sabrina seemed even more determined at this point, which was something the botanist had been afraid of. "What are you…?"
"Erika…" The depth of the psychic's eyes was positively irresistible, as the botanist quickly realized. She was drawn in, slowly, to the sensual lids, the endearing features and even the voluptuous lips speaking every word. "Tell me the truth, what did you think of it?"
"I…" Erika was completely at a loss for words. She felt it hard to contemplate the situation, when her observation suddenly was all on the physical traits of her conversation partner. Gulping, as if to calm down her nerves, Erika sucked up a deep breathe, and answered. "I… didn't hate it."
"I'm glad." Sabrina was, or was not; conscious of the seductive effect of her actions on her friend, but her mind was set on something else. To her, her friend seemed like a true spectacle that warranted investigating in. She would be a very unique subject; one Sabrina was never been able to chance upon within her years of studies of the psychical arts. She was set onto discovering it. Erika, however, was completely unaware of what was going on inside the thoughts of her friend, and she became rather flustered, uncomfortable with being focused on for so long.
"So…" Erika was rather indecisive on what she wanted to say. Her sudden influx in emotions the past few days did not help her cause. She was not completely oblivious of her feelings, or the apparent consequence of Sabrina's gaze. She was, however, absolutely clueless on figuring out what those were by herself, and she was simply too embarrassed to speak about it with Sabrina directly. After a period of extensive silence, Erika continued. "Where are you going after this?"
"Hm… I would go back to the gym, if nothing else comes up." It was a truthful answer. It had been the psychic's plan from the start. There might also be the problem of the League meeting coming up soon, but Sabrina had already made up her mind about not attending it, so it should not matter too much. What was important to her at the moment was rare fascination that she had recently found in Erika. It was almost… charming. "Would you care to join me?"
"Me?" Erika was astounded by such a proposal. Certainly, she did not expect much of anything from her friend at the previous point. She was already too mortified to mutter out coherent sentences, but what would she say to this. Erika gaped away, trying her best to escape Sabrina's stare. However, she found herself getting back into it more often than not. It was only a matter of time before she cracked. "I… think that would be fine."
"Wonderful…" Sabrina nodded to concord. She was already planning on how to get the two of them in private to conduct her research. Such an intriguing subject could not go to waste, after all. Fortunately, the stretch of water that the S.S. Anne covered within the weekdays is rather negligible, as most of the stops were for ease of simple transportation and commercialized meetings. It only took around two days for it to go a full circle, so the current morning was when the ship was scheduled to make its way back to Saffron city, w here Sabrina's gym resided. "The vessel would reach its destination soon; you should ready your belongings before getting off, of course. It would be going back to my own room, in order make preparation for port as well. I would come back here before then though, so please don't leave before I do."
"Ah, yes, understood." Nodding, Erika was already acting within the near prediction of the psychic. Sabrina, however, did not take the gaze following her as she left the room too seriously. She was definitely not dense, but put it off as Erika's experimental phase. Though she did not know much about her friend, considering how easily flustered the botanist was, she would put Erika into the category of lack of affectionate segments and be done with it. She had not been back in her room for a while, and so Sabrina made her way to the foyer instead. Unbeknownst to Erika, the psychic came here without any luggage at all. She was a frequent on the ship, or at least that was what she wanted to be, so she knew that she did not need much to board. People knew her; after all, not even a pass was needed. It also helped that Surge had basically given her a permanently room on the most luxurious ship around, although she did not like having owed the man anything at all.
"Sabrina, it's always a pleasure to meet you." She lifted her expression a bit, enough to make it seemed genuinely appreciative, to return the greeting of the woman approaching her. Her name is Penny, mattered not how thirty or forty something she appeared to be. Sabrina did not like Penny, not the slightest bit. She was just so annoying, at least to the psychic. "I heard you boarded the ships two days ago, but I haven't seen you at all."
"I don't go out of my room much." Sabrina coldly answered. She had hoped not to run into the woman at all, in all honesty. The last time they met, it took every fiber of her being not to rip the skin off her conversation partner. It was strange, considering how close they used to be. The lack of motivation within the psychic's words obviously had an impact on how the woman viewed their current mood. "Do you never leave?"
"Aw, you know I love the high seas." Penny practically hugged Sabrina from behind, her face rubbing against the psychic's. It was a way to express love, or at least that was the excuse she had always went with. Sabrina, obviously, despised such an act. If anyone else would have been doing this, she would have no hesitation to hit that person somewhere deep and hurtful. However, she could not do so to Penny. "Oh come on Sabrina, don't be like that. Aren't you happy to meet your own mom?"
"Not at all…" Sabrina sighed. She should have expected to meet her mother somewhere like this. She had always been trying to get on her nerves, about who knew how many things. When she was little, she enjoyed the attention, sure. She was well over twenty now, though. She was a gym leader, yet her mother still treated her much like a child. Well, in every way except one. "Would you just let go of me?"
"Grumpy…" Penny pouted. She was very much like she was when her daughter was born. Raising Sabrina had been an easy task, one not many parents could claim, especially when her husband was mostly overseas, being the military man that he was. He had always blamed her that their daughter clearly did not like the army because of Penny's influence, but she did not care at the very least. The woman was not someone who needed a man in her life to support her, after all. "So honey, did you find any cute girl you want to date yet?"
"Mother!" Penny stuck her tongue out when she heard Sabrina's grunt. She knew very well that asking about Sabrina's love life would easily agitate the female psychic, but she did not care much. It was funny, and it was one of the few ways she could get her daughter to be truly honest. Being the psychic that she was, it was extremely hard for her to crack through that ever so daunting expression Sabrina always put up. "I would appreciate it if you did not go snooping into my private life."
"Hey, I deserve to know too." Penny circled around Sabrina, as she pinched her daughter's nose slightly, causing her to retract. Penny chuckled at that reaction, and it was obvious that Sabrina did not like it one bit. She knew that her daughter must also have a lot of patience to be able to deal with her being like this, but she could not help it. "Don't you remember how hard it was to get your dad to understand what you meant when you said you were coming out?"
"Yes, I remember." Sabrina could not argue that point. She was at the very least open to her family. However, her dad, being the stubborn and backward man that he was, had trouble even grasping the concept of her daughter being a homosexual, or that homosexual was not actually a disease one would pick up somewhere. Her mother was the one who was able to finally put it through his skull. He was not happy with it, but Penny did not care either. "On that note, are you sure you're not gay, mom?"
"I'm sure honey, even though the only man in my life was chosen so that I could have a kid." Penny drew her daughter in to give her another affectionate embrace. The people around them were fully aware of their situations, so they did not give the scene much of a thought. Sabrina was at least thankful for that, as she herself knew how deeply her mother cared for her. "You were the best thing that ever happened to me, Sabrina, not your old man."
"I guess that explained why you didn't even agree to marry the poor sap." Sabrina could finally find something her mother said mutually amusing. It was fun to make fun of her dad. Her parents were never actually married, and her mother made it clear from the very start that she only wanted her dad for a baby, and he was woven into the mess anyways. Sighing contently, Sabrina was grateful for the fact that her mother was being a bit more reasonable today than she usually was, and that was good enough for her. She had some time before the ship make port to Saffron, so Sabrina decided she might as well sit down with her mother to catch up. "I'm leaving when it gets to Saffron, but I have some time before then."
"Splendid! Sit down dear, so I can tell you all about the time I…"