Chapter XLI: Violet's Unexpected Challenge
Hello again, everyone. We apologize for the delay again as Peach again had a busy schedule chasing after her adorable nieces and then as she had to perform accounting work for a good friend. Anyway we hope this was worth the wait. So on with the chapter…
Last time, the gang confronted Violet/Mary at the Horakhty dorm after Violet/Mary tried to kill Annie. Annie chose to confront her friend's dark side, and got her to stand down. But did it work? Stay tuned…
Usual disclaimer: We just own our OCs, this storyline and this version of the Yugi-verse. Of course we don't own the franchise! We just play in it!
Authors' notes: We will see a representation of Violet and Mary's shared mind. Further, there is mention of mental illness, not Mary-related. Also, Mary has… a bit of a potty mouth, but no more than a PG or PG-13 movie. Thank you for your attention.
As Miss Fontaine gently treated and patched up Violet's bloody hand, within the girl's mind, Mary took a deep breath. The red-eyed doppelganger of Violet Angeline Haverbrook, clad in a black boat-necked top and skirt, strutted over from her corner of Violet's mind to Violet's side of the mental neighborhood. "Hey, Violet! Where the hell are you?!" she demanded loudly.
Mary's side of the neighborhood, from the outside, was represented by what appeared to be the door to an old Victorian mansion. Inside had originally been a hellish landscape, filled with unidentified corpses and pools of blood. But now, in the wake of Mary realizing love and kindness, the place had changed into something a bit more inviting. It appeared to be the interior of a mysterious old Victorian mansion; perhaps something out of a horror movie before things went horribly wrong.
She now wandered to Violet's door, usually a 6-paneled white door covered with Watapon decals, pictures of her friends and recipes. But now, the door looked as if it had been painted over by Vincent Van Gogh in one of his manic periods. "Oh boy," Mary muttered, knowing what she was about to deal with was not going to be easy. "This is partly my fault... I went on the attempted killing spree and threatened to kill her friends... Oh, well," she muttered to herself. And so she opened the door into Violet's psyche.
Normally, the door would have opened to bright sunlight and a warm, welcoming breeze. Looking inside, one would find an endless grassy meadow beneath a bright blue sky dotted with white cotton ball clouds. However, at this moment in time, the room had taken a dramatic spiral into the disoriented. It was as if all of the colors of the world had mixed and run into one another, colors of every shade and hue blared out at the eye like the sound of city traffic during rush hour might blare out at the ear. Rather than a wide open landscape, the room had diminished to four solid walls, a ceiling, and a floor covered in the paint.
A better description might be several paint cans, each a different color of the rainbow, exploding all at once within the room. It would make Van Gogh proud and, perhaps, even a bit jealous. But right now, the room's owner was feeling no emotion of that sort. Violet sat in one of the room's four corners, hugging her knees to her chest with her chin resting upon her arms. Her eyes held a blank, vacant stare to them, though Mary knew that was only skin deep. Inside, her counterpart was as mixed up as the room's appearance.
If Mary had been another spiritual counterpart, like a certain ancient pharaoh was to a certain diminutive champion of a children's card game, she would've spoken softly to the troubled young woman. However, this was Mary... "VIOLET! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! GET OFF YOUR XXX AND TELL ME WHAT THE FXXX IS WRONG!" she shouted.
Any person in their right state of mind would choose between the two natural options: fight or flight. They would either stand and yell back, or scream and try to get farther away from Mary. However, Violet was not in the right state of mind at the moment. As such, she lifted her head slightly and turned it so that her emotionless green eyes met Mary's fiery red ones. "...Wrong?"
"Yes, wrong! Your side of the mind looks like a clown ate a Rainbow Swirl pop, confetti jimmies and multi-colored frosting and then threw up all over the place! Clearly, something is wrong! So talk to me, damn it!" Mary growled, not wanting to wait for answers.
Violet didn't react at all to the description or Mary's growl, not a flinch or grimace. Slowly, she stood, not stumbling though any other person would have in that crazy, confusing room. She continued to stare at her red-eyed clone, the pair looking like perfect twins. "You know what's wrong."
"Yeah, yeah, I know... I went psycho... And I'm sorry," Mary admitted. In here, she couldn't hide this and wouldn't now. Violet's emotional and physical health was at stake.
Violet swung her arms slightly, eyes finally leaving Mary to rove around the room. It was as if to her, it was one single color, not a mismatched, jumbled up rainbow. "You're sorry... sorry... I'm sorry." Her eyes darted back to her twin. "I made you."
Mary looked back at her. "Did you? Or was I always there?" she wondered, trying to snap her counterpart back to herself somehow.
That seemed to get through a bit, as Violet tilted her head. The colors in the room shifted. "Always there? Were you?"
"I wonder about that. Before that incident when I became completely aware, I remember times when you were hurting and I wanted to react... And then I went back to sleep... I think maybe I was always there," the red-eyed spirit stated.
This time when the colors shifted, they merged slightly, bringing more solidity to the room. "Always there... When I was lost in the mall?" the green-eyed teen asked, a hint of emotion in her voice.
Mary nodded. "Like that time... I remember you being terrified. And then your joy when your parents found you. Then I went back to sleep..."
The colors merged more, making the room clearer. "And... and when Dad tried to leave, but I chased after him?" Violet asked, voice holding the lightest undertone of sadness this time.
"That too... I was somewhat awake, but still powerless. And then on the day Mike attacked you the first time..." Mary's expression turned dark... "On that day, I started to have real power... At least, I started feeling obsessive about hurting those who hurt you..." The bloodlust was still there, but not as strong.
Finally, the remaining colors in the room were slowly locking into place, like the pieces of a puzzle. However, it was like trying to mix oil and an egg. No matter how much you stirred, the two just would not stay mixed, and the colors moved back and forth in uncertainty. "I was angry... so angry... and upset... I made that deck, but... but then I found it... here," Violet was murmuring, eyes now hidden by her bangs.
"Duel Academy," Mary stated as an image of the school came to their joined mind. "And in the summer, you talked... to Annie..." The image of the dark-haired girl, first smiling and then pleading in terror swam into Violet's counterpart's consciousness. "She helped you..."
"Annie..." Violet reached up a pale hand, brushing it against the shifting colors of a wall. "She saw... it was an accident, but she saw..." The colors swirled, primarily the orange and white, before drifting back into their semi-ordered state once more. And then, the sound of something plastic hitting the floor, and rolling slowly to the middle of the room.
"Do you remember how she reacted?" An image flew to both their consciousnesses.
"It's okay, Violet... It's nothing to be ashamed of, really. I don't mind. I had to see a psychiatrist for a while when I was in elementary school and they put me on prescription stuff," Annie's voice stated easily as her past self smiled in sympathy and understanding.
"She'd had depression and didn't think you were weird at all," Mary remembered.
Violet's hand curled into a fist. "She didn't... neither did the others... I... I thought it went away..." She finally seemed to gain some true emotion as she looked up at Mary, like a lost child looking for support from an elder sister. The room's color darkened to a deep blue. "Why is it back, Mary?! Why… I should be cured..." Tears slowly began to form in her eyes.
And the once bloodthirsty spirit, borne of Violet's pain and hatred, moved to her side and put her arm around the green eyed girl. "Maybe... you weren't... I got stronger when you were afraid in the first year... I got stronger last summer and then in the fall... Something's been eating away at you... you have to talk..."
Violet looked up at her in surprise and confusion. "Talk?"
"You have to tell them when you come to... that you're having trouble again. They know," the red-eyed girl stated calmly.
The green-eyed girl's head drooped. "But... but what if they..." Violet bit her lip; fear of rejection and abandonment still sat heavily with her.
Mary sighed, slightly frustrated. "Look, if they didn't reject you when they found out, what makes you think they'll ditch you now?!"
"I… I don't know... I just... I can't think straight..." Violet groaned, reaching up to hold her head. Her body began to sink down again, the colors of the room pulling farther away from each other.
Mary's hug became a grip of steel. "Oh, no you don't! Annie will tell you when you wake up what she did! She risked her life to get you back! And damn it, I am not letting you pull in! She fought me and knew I was probably going to kill her!"
Violet hung like a rag doll, Mary's grip the only thing keeping her up. "Annie... my best friend... my friends... Can they possibly help..?" she asked in a deadpan.
"They can, so get up, get out there, and get it in gear! Whatever's wrong, they're all going to help you fix it! And that guy of yours; he's going to need you back together soon! He needs you... and I misjudged him," Mary admitted softly.
"Bastion...?" Violet whispered, eyes coming into focus as she straightened. The reminder of her love and his current state seemed to be the bucket of cold water to her nightmare. "He needs me," she murmured. Now the world was fading to black as she came towards consciousness. "Mary, I want you to come with me."
"You've got it," Mary answered. "Let's go..." The room dissolved in a column of light and Violet and Mary could feel the return to the real world.
GXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGX
"I think she's waking up," said a voice in the blackness of Violet's semi-consciousness. Her sense of hearing returned first, then her sense of taste- not that there was anything to taste, and then her sense of smell. She could faintly smell blood, but the smell of bleach and other sanitizers overpowered it greatly. Second to last came her sense of touch, and she grimaced at the pain radiating from her palm. "O-Ow," Violet whimpered, finally opening her eyes.
Miss Fontaine smiled as Violet's green eyes opened. "Welcome back," she smiled, laying the freshly bandaged hand down. "Violet, take it easy. From what everyone told me, you had a rough time."
"Violet?" Annie's tear-stained face came over her. "Violet... I'm right here... I promised I wouldn't leave."
"A-Annie...?" she mumbled, confused. The last thing she remembered was Annie confronting her in the abandoned dorm and then the…was it a dream?
Her eyes were the friendly green Annie remembered. "You're all right... you're all right," she said, tears in her blue eyes. "Violet... you were in the Horakhty dorm..." She took a deep breath. "Mary took over..."
Violet's eyes widened considerably, and she sat upright. "She what?!"
"She took over... and I talked her down..."
"You... you did?"
Annie nodded. "I told her that what she'd been thinking of doing... It wouldn't help you in the end. And I gave her a hug..."
Violet stared at her friend in shock. "Annie… you... You did all of that? You risked your life... for me?"
"You're my best friend... of course I would..."
"But you could've been killed!!"
Annie reached out and hugged her tightly. "I didn't care about that. I wanted you to be okay... and she was part of you..."
Violet shakily wrapped her arms around Annie, returning the hug. "She… she is... I made her… and didn't realize it until recently..."
"After what you went through... it's no wonder... but... is she still there?"
"I… I don't know... I could never tell... until she made herself known." Violet couldn't be sure that what had occurred in her head was a dream or reality.
Jaden looked at her. "Close your eyes and look for her in your head, Violet..."
Violet sighed and closed her eyes, trying to do as Jaden had said. 'Mary...? Mary, are you there?' she called.
'...Yes, I'm here,' came the answer.
Violet's eyes snapped open. "She's still here. But... she sounds weird."
"Weird? How so?" Jaden asked curiously for all of them.
"Violet?" Annie asked, shivering slightly.
"She sounds different... Like, instead of confident and loud, she's more quiet and calm," Violet explained, finding it hard to do so.
"So... she's not mad?" Tyson inquired.
Violet shook her head. "Didn't sound like it."
Annie took a breath. "Can we... talk to her?"
Violet's eyes widened. "Wh-What?? Why do you want to do that?"
"I, for one, want to hear her for myself," the other girl said calmly.
Violet frowned worriedly. "But... but what if it's a trick?"
"Then we'll know... and maybe this time... she'll let you be aware…"
"If you want her to be aware, then this is the only way," stated a familiar voice. Mary, in spirit form, looked at the group from behind Violet. Those with the gift to see duel spirits would be able to see the spirit girl.
"M-Mary?" Annie gasped, eyes wide. Everyone awake blinked. She looked like Violet's carbon copy, except for the eyes. The eyes were still ruddy, but with something that seemed like an earthy brown to them now.
"Duh. It's not like Violet has a twin or anything," Mary answered, rolling her eyes. Violet turned to stare at the spirit person who had practically driven her mad in shock. This definitely wasn't the Mary she was used to.
"So... are you okay with us now? You're not planning to kill us?" Annie asked.
Mary scoffed, leaning against Violet's side and letting her legs hang off of the bed. "No. If I was, don't you think I would have done it already?"
"I guess so... I'm glad you're not angry anymore," the dark-haired girl smiled, wincing at the sudden pain from her cheek and lip.
The spirit frowned and looked away. "Hey... sorry about that..." The apology was barely audible; it was obvious that Mary was a lot like the old Chazz in certain aspects.
Fortunately, thanks to her proximity, Annie heard. "Apology accepted," she smiled.
"So, welcome to our group, Mary!" Jaden grinned eagerly. I actually got a break from having to duel, he thought in relief.
Mary scoffed. "You people sure are forgiving. I was out for your blood half an hour ago," she reminded, raising an eyebrow.
Jaden grinned. "Meh, Chazz was a jerk in our first year, Atticus, while under control of an evil guy we just took care of, tried to kill us... So what's your point?"
This caused Mary to blink a few times. "...Like I said, you people sure are forgiving. Geez..."
"They're just...understanding, Mary," Violet tried, smiling.
"It's how we all are," Adrian sighed, smiling. "None of us are angels here... And maybe that's a good thing..."
"Yeah... nobody's perfect, and you didn't kill anyone," Tyson pointed out.
"Guess you're right," Mary replied, standing up. "But we still have a problem, if you've forgotten."
The group sobered, looking at the curtained cubicle where Bastion slept. "Yeah... Bastion's still so sick," Jaden groaned.
"Afraid I didn't help with that problem. But I will now, if I can," Mary stated, eager to do what she could. No running into other people's nightmares and killing them, she commanded herself without Violet hearing.
"Thanks, Mary, appreciate it," Jaden smiled. As the group talked on, Bastion turned over in his bed, tormented by his nightmares and the fever.
"Violet?" Annie asked after a few minutes, meeting her best friend's eyes. "How are you feeling?" It had been almost three years since the day Annie had found Violet's bottle of anti-depressants. Having had her own battle with it, she knew the depression might have resurfaced.
Violet frowned, gaze turning to the ground. Her eyebrows furrowed when she did so; it felt like even the white tiles were laughing at her for her problems. "Physically, mentally, or emotionally?" she asked quietly, surprising everyone. They certainly hadn't expected that as an answer.
Annie looked around at her friends and then back at the curtained cubicle. 'Darn it, Bastion,' she thought, 'I wish you were awake right now...' "Violet... I want to know the last two," she said slowly.
Violet looked back up, only catching her best friend's gaze for a moment before looking away again. "...You don't want to know the answer to that..."
Mary, standing beside her living twin, rolled her eyes in aggravation. "Here we go again. Why do you have to be so damn stubborn?!" she growled, eyebrows angling downward.
"Violet... come on... We all want to help," Jaden pointed out, knowing all too well what hurting mentally and emotionally meant. He met her green eyes with his brown ones, unblinkingly. "If you're worried about what we'll think, don't. We won't ditch you... You guys didn't ditch me."
Violet looked over at him, remembering that he had also been diagnosed with a mental disorder before. In fact, a few of their group had. She sighed, head hanging as she gave a real answer this time. "It came back... Annie, I'm not cured after all... it's back, and it's making me crazy again..." Violet reached up to touch her head, remembering the past week or so. Going from sad to angry in a heartbeat, having problems thinking clearly, seeing and hearing things that weren't there. It was worse than the last time.
Annie helped Violet into a sitting position again and hugged her tightly once more. "We'll ride it out again... Is anything different from when it started before?"
"It's worse... I can't control my emotions or how I act around you guys. I keep having problems whenever I try thinking too much about something. I'm seeing things and hearing things I shouldn't. I'm getting so paranoid," Violet frowned, pulling away and shaking her head. "You probably think I've lost it. This all sounds crazy," she muttered, burying her face in her hands.
Miss Fontaine and Annie exchanged glances. They might not be psychiatrists or psychologists, but they knew this wasn't like Violet's depression of a few years before. "Violet... sweetie... maybe you weren't diagnosed right," the nurse offered.
Violet looked at them in surprise and confusion. "What?"
None of the other students spoke, allowing Annie and Miss Fontaine to explain. "Annie, if you would, please?" the nurse smiled reassuringly.
Annie nodded and took a deep breath. "Violet, your psychiatrist and the psychologists might not have seen everything that was a problem in you emotionally and mentally. Maybe... maybe you're bipolar..."
Cliffhanger! Does Violet have bipolar disorder? How will the group help her? How much angst and medical drama can your co-authors put into a story?! Next time, please join us for "Diagnosis." Until then, please read, review and stay tuned! Thank you, as always!