Hey, guys! How are summer and quarantine is going? I hope it's well. Now I know that nobody cares about this story but I will keep writing it because I like it.
With this chapter I suggest listening to; Audiomachine - Wars of Faith
To whoever is still reading I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Be Somebody
Chapter 11: 21st and 22nd Century's Wars
The Next Day after Chapter 10 ended:
Jeremy was looking for Nansia having talked with Emma for counseling when he saw Nansia sitting on her on in some remote staircase of the former Boarding House that led to an attic and she was writing in a notebook that looked more like a journal. It must be a family thing…
Jeremy then saw her sniffing and wiping her snot and tears as she wrote and Jeremy decided to leave her be.
Nansia was feeling especially drawn into her head today so much that she didn't realize she was pouring hot water on her hand and the kitchen stool instead of her cup during breakfast.
She felt as if she couldn't stop herself from flashbacking to her time 2149 and it made her angry because she had promised to herself, Jeremy and Penelope that she would focus more on the now and not the past/future.
She thought that maybe this happens because her inner clock is still going with her own dimension's time so maybe it was an anniversary of a death or something because her mind keeps flashing back to when she first dimensionally jumped.
Flashback:
Nansia is marching down the empty halls of the school heading towards the school's girls bathroom as she shuts off one of the stalls, she then slides down and she puts her hands on her face as her headphones are still in her ears and her phone in her tracksuit's cardigan's pocket barely hanging from it.
Nansia is sobbing as she heard the news reported describing the scene and the damages. It comes alive behind her eyes as if she's there witnessing it in real time, her skin crawls in disgust, fear and sorrow.
She angrily yanks her headphones out of her ears and she throws them in her other free pocket in her tracksuit pants. She continues crying in her hands as her phone hangs in the cardigan's pocket but the strength of sobs cause the phone to fall down and that sound shakes Nansia out of her grief and looks at the floor.
"Shit!" She says as she sniffing and picks up the device to check if it's damaged but it's not. Samsung Galaxy smartphones have proven pretty durable in her opinion so she dusts it off and puts it in the same pocket as the headphones.
She grabs some tissues and wipes her nose and ears trying to make herself presentable and she's already thinking of what to say to her teacher once she walks back in class.
As she washes her face she looks herself in the mirror and she's her brown-green eyes flicker between bright blue and deep green.
Nansia gets scared and stumbles away from her reflection and then comes close again to see it happen again and again.
"The fuck?" She whispers to herself but then her eyes return back to normal, she waits for a few seconds before she hears the break bell and sighs, better find and talk to the teacher now.
Besides, her internet best friend, Vasia, and their family of friends they have in Belgium might not have been in the area at the time of the explosion she worries about people who already lost their lives.
There's still hope.
Right?
Right!
Hope always die last they say!
She walks through the crowd of students and heads to her art classroom where her teacher is looking through the phone.
Nansia sees her painting, the one she's been working on while listening to the radio and she truly studies it.
Since she was little, whenever she was shown to a blank canvas and told to paint it she would see colors and shapes and then been compelled to paint them and she wouldn't be able to do anything else. If she was forced to paint something entirely different she would try her hardest to paint what she was order to but she would fill physical pain in her joints, head and her eyes would become hazy or her vision fade in and out of focus as if she's been punished for disobeying.
She watched her painting, a black canvas, entirely black and drips of red then a coated line in red paint from the time where the brush fell through her fingertips at the sound of the news of the attack.
A mere hour ago, she was given a blank canvas and told to create something for the upcoming school art exhibition her major was throwing every year. She had to look at the blank for two minutes before the vision of a black paint covering it and droplets' of red paint flashed before her eyes. Then she reached for the black and red paint not missing the shocked and horrified eyes of her teacher.
None of her teachers liked the fact that she couldn't draw faces or actual geometrical shapes and she only painted abstract things and colors. Her classmates didn't like that either so they sabotaged one of her art works couple weeks ago and made her start from the beginning.
She was wondering why she couldn't paint like her teachers wanted her so she asked her mum and step-dad during lunch. Her step-dad said that his dad was a construction worker and painter and he had the same struggles as her, he couldn't paint symbols but he could paint colors and match them perfectly. Nansia knew that she couldn't have taken anything biological from his side of the family but welcomed the information, she loved learning about her step-dad's family.
While her mum said that her dad was more of an abstract colors and shapes guy when it came to drawing while her mum was the one making perfect shapes. Grandma Vaso loved to draw landscapes, portraits and structures of buildings and sculpts, she liked precision, order and detail in her paintings.
Nansia thought that maybe she got it from her mum's dad. Unknowingly her grandma's mum, her great grandma Helena before losing her eye-sight after twelve childbirths, nine of whom survived, had the same difficulty as Nansia.
Then her mind flashed back to her teacher who was talking on the phone and she guiltily smiled as she waved in order to be seen that she wanted to speak with her.
The teacher motioned for her to wait and Nansia did as she sat on her desk careful not to knock over paint and started solving her English homework and looking over her Chemistry and Physics notes hoping that today she could stand up in class and answer questions.
Then her hands started to shake and she grew colder and colder, her nails turned purple instead of their natural soft pink they were.
She knew those symptoms, symptoms of an anxiety attack coming.
She put her books and notes in her bag and started gathering her things for the next class when her teacher finally addressed her.
She explained herself and the teacher nodded understandably yet she didn't forgive her for her behavior and told her that she shouldn't have run out.
She nodded before apologizing again and grabbed her bag and jacket and walked of the class looking for her friends under the willow tree of the school's yard.
There she saw her best friends reading the school's newspaper and Karen gave her a copy that she put in her pants' pocket to read later as she told them about the terrorist attack and as expected they shrugged it off, it was normal occurrence, there were 89 terrorist attacks already and it was 20th of March.
Unknowingly by the end of March the number of terrorist attack in total would be 112, the lowest in the year of 2016, April's numbers though skyrocketed to 152.
She sat on the bench under the willow tree and put her headphones on and she turned the radio on to listen to some news reports.
And here it was…
"We are sadden to acknowledge the toll of deaths in this current terrorist attack is 36 people dead and 300 injured and in critical condition, body are still being recovered. The list of names are the following…" The voice in the radio said devoted of any emotion but Nansia couldn't help but her eyes to cloud with tears.
Names were being told.
Then the name was told in the list of dead;
"Vasia Nerou."
Nansia's cold hands and feet froze and Nansia jumped to her fit and run for the second time in the bathroom with tears in her eyes, bells, yells from friends and her stuff to be damned!
Her best friend was killed!
Her best friend was murdered!
She locked herself in a bathroom stall and she started to sob, girls already in the bathroom looked at her through the mirror in disgust and some in concern.
One even asked her if she was okay and Nansia looked at the door and said with a raw voice;
"No, my best friend is dead."
This sentence was like a repellent because the bathroom started to empty and the girl that had asked her didn't say anything just looked at the door in pity and left, with no condolences.
Nansia fell on her knees and started to hit the floor while crying that was when she saw blood on her hands…eww!
It wasn't her own maybe some girl was on her period and she sighed angrily as she walked out of the stall and went to wash her hands.
Then she saw her eyes again.
"No no no no no!" She mumbled as she stumble back as her eyes glowed blue and green and as she waited to hit her head at the age of the toilet she didn't….the flash of pain never came.
She felt dizzy and her stomach felt burning with acid as she opened her eyes lazily thinking that she might have been concussed from hitting her head in the toilet bawl but instead she saw iron ceiling and then a huge stab in her brain as she rubbed her head with her hands and closed her eyes memories flashed before her closed eyelids in the speed of light!
It's like her life was spilt in half.
Somehow, the voice she's been hearing her whole life that saved her from danger told her to keep her mouth shut and wait for answers to be provided for her.
She looked at her clothes and she was dressed in the same clothes as she was in school.
Where was she?
Then the door swung open and two guards forced her handcuffs on her and a third one told her she was sent to the ground.
What?
She remembers struggling and then a needle piercing through her skin and everything went black.
End of Flashback:
Nansia was shaken out of her flashback state by the sound of a thud and then a whine;
"Why do I always hit my shoulder in this freaking turn, damn it?" Hope's voice made Nansia turn and see her and Hope smiled excitedly.
"Hey!" Nansia waved Hope who was rubbing her shoulder blade and just huffed.
"I hate that turn and that floor it's very slippery!" Hope whine a bit as she walked towards the staircase where Nansia was sitting.
Nansia just furrowed her eyebrows and waited for Hope to finally reveal what she was doing here.
"Anyways, I'm here to tell you that you are needed in Professor Emma's office for your scheduled session, I've been looking for you for thirty minutes already and she has cleared her following session so you can catch up! Come on!" Hope said with an urgent tone as she kept rubbing her shoulder and Nansia looked between confused and angry.
"Did Jeremy do this?" She slowly growled and Hope just shrugged not knowing what to say.
Nansia stood up and gathered her things, shoved them in her messenger bag that was given to her by Lizzie as a Welcome to our school present the previous day and followed Hope.
During Nansia's session with Emma, Hope walked into Alaric's office where she found Jeremy, Dorian and Alaric discussing the keys and Malivore.
"It's been weeks since a monster attacked." Alaric said as he looked at the three people before him.
"Do you think that it might be a relation to Nansia appearing here? Yeah, there was the dragon, the knife, the Gargoyle and the tree nymph that came around while Nansia was here but no monster touched her…or acknowledged her for that matter. Also, we don't know why she's here, why now?" Dorian said deep in thoughts and Hope listened intently before the lamp inside her mind went off.
"It may or may not have been my fault?" Hope said hesitantly and Alaric glared at her but she kept talking.
"The previous night before she showed up I had done a spell…a summoning spell…I felt incredibly alone and my relationship with the twins and Landon wasn't the best…actually there was no relationship at that…so I tried to summoned a friend, kindred spirit that could be my friend…I thought my spell failed epically but Nansia is here…maybe she was the result of the spell." Hope said to Alaric and every other male in the office who looked at her disapprovingly. Hope seemed guilty.
"I don't think that was it, Nansia told me she was in the bathroom and felt dizzy and then fainted…" Jeremy started saying but Hope nodded.
"The side effects of the spell are nausea and fainting….I checked…I think it's my fault or partly my fault and partly something Nansia did herself unknowingly." Hope said deeply guilty and apologetically.
"Alright, but she's not to be disturbed with Malivore, it's our business alone!" Alaric said sternly and everyone nodded.
"But we are telling my Auntie Felicity, right? She's a teacher here too and she might be away in New Orleans helping her coven and Aunt Freya after my parents deaths but she'll be back. Should I call her and tell her to come back?" Hope asked with a little worry.
"No no! New Orleans needs her, besides she's scheduled to go on a recruiting mission with Dorian in a few months, Caroline find those two twin girls in Singapore." Alaric said seriously and in deep thoughts as Dorian nodded to Hope as he kept texting on his phone.
"Okay, anyways, I have to meet with Lizzie and Josie about Landon's, Rafael's and Nansia's party celebrating their time here…Landon's idea. Promise not to set anyone or anything on fire or kill anyone." Hope said quickly as she stood up, fixed her skirt and hair and rushed out.
Hope rushed to Josie's room only to find Josie, Penelope and Lizzie hunched over a notebook.
"Hey, nerds!" Hope said smiling but her smile was wiped out once Lizzie looked at her.
"Dad has been lying to all of us!" Lizzie exclaimed dramatically as she rushed to Hope and the door, grabbed Hope's arm pushing her inside and slamming the door shut.
"Penelope! Tell her what you told us and then show her!" Lizzie commanded Penelope who sighed in sadness and turned the notebook to Hope.
"Do you remember the pens I gave all of you for Christmas?" Penelope asked and Hope nodded still not following.
"They were spelled. I spelled them with a gossiping spell because I wanted to know secrets so I could use them as leverage for petty things…when all of us weren't threatened with exposure or death by monsters. I also spelled a huge note-binder type of notebook to store everything it was written anywhere and the notebook was adding pages magically whenever it was running out. One day I was flipping through it to get my mind off the nightmares I was having and the monsters for a bit of teenage drama when I saw Dr. Alaric's entry about the Merge and what Headmistress Caroline has been up to the past year. Read it." Penelope said as she handed the heavy binder notebook.
Hope read through it and she looked at the twins and Penelope who waited for her to react.
"So, there is a possibility for a way out of the Merge or do it without killing one of you? Maybe one of you would get rid of their magic abilities only? You can live without magic, you can teach magic or find another way to practice a different types of magic than the Gemini Coven way." Hope said with a hopeful tone and looked at Penelope and the twins.
"Yeah but it doesn't say anymore information but dad lied to us!" Lizzie exclaimed hurt and a little annoyed.
"Then we keep watch for what he writes." Hope said with determination and everyone agreed.
"Now, shall we manage the party?" Hope asked as she gave the note binder back to Penelope.
The spirit of the room slowly lifted and the girls started planning.
In Emma Tig's office Nansia was telling with every detail about her childhood.
How her mum was sick and she spent fifteen years of playing the role of a housemaid and babysitter and not of a child.
She told her about how mum used to lock her in her room without food or pee, she had to secretly walked out in the balcony and to her parents room and from there to tiptoe to the bathroom hiding from her mum, use the bucket for the mop with water and slowly pouring it in the toilet instead of flashing it down the drain making a noise. Her mum would lock her inside the room whenever she would refuse to do some chores or she would want to be in the room with her mum's friends because she wanted to see them.
Nansia told Emma about the bullying and the almost rape. Nansia told Emma of her time in 2149. She wasn't crying, she didn't want to allow herself to cry. She knew that she was past of all of them. Yet, she acknowledged the fact that she needs to make peace with them and forgive her step dad for just seeing as an accomplish because he was a silent witness to the abuse and was playing mind tricks on her by helping her tend to her wounds or feed her in secret and making her feel safe while in front of her mother he was silent and even at time supporting such behavior. For not doing anything and stop it. And to stop being jealous of her sister for the less violence she was exposed to because she was wanted and not a mistake like her.
She decided to stop the session there and not continue it because she felt exhausted they spent about three hours talking. Emma didn't have time to ask questions because whenever she was ready to ask something but Nansia was already offering the answer like she knew the scheduled psychological questions.
Nansia walked out of Emma's office and she walked into Jeremy's office saying how she was going for a walk.
She walked out of the academy she felt very heavy and her mind was pulling her in like a black hole. She kept replaying flashes of her childhood and she wanted them gone. She walked into the bus stop and then she took the bus into the town and grabbed a hot chocolate on the go and she sat on a bench while scrolling through Instagram when she felt a presence next to her.
"Sorry didn't mean to scare you." The guy said and Nansia didn't mind him much and just nodded while she went back to her phone.
"People sure have a way with phones…" The guy said and Nansia just looked at him and sighed.
"Depends on the usage of the phone." Nansia said with a guarded tone, she felt very bad vibes coming from him.
"Right…" He drawled out and Nansia nodded and made a move to get up and leave when the guy grabbed her hand.
"Where are you going?" The man asked her and she got jumpy.
"None of your business." Nansia said angrily and yanked his hand away from him.
She walked away from him without realizing who he was.
Behind her was left none other than Ryan Clark and he was evilly smirking. Completely unaware of the danger she's been in all that short amount of time she remained on that bench.
She felt hungry and walked into the Mystic Grill and waved at the familiar faces of employees on shift. She sat on the table and looked at menu and decided on a hamburger with French fries and Coca Cola.
Once she ordered them she went back on her phone when her order came and she put the phone down reveal her phone's lock-screen photo of the Falls of Mystic Falls, she had taken the first few months she roamed the city.
"Nice photographic skills." The server said and Nansia look up to see a guy smiling.
"Thanks. Thank you for the yummy food, say hi to the cook, Angela Xinselari." Nansia said smiling and the server looked at her shocked.
"I work the night shift here. But I never seen you before. I'm Nansia." She said smiling.
"Oh! It's my first shift. Nice to meet you, I'm Ethan." He said and smiled before he left her table.
She chuckled and shook her head because in her eyes he was reminding her of the boy she had her very first (and last) crush on.
She ate while scrolling on her phone when she felt someone slipping opposite her and turned and saw Landon and Rafael smiling like cheetah cats that were eyeing the hot cookies right out of the oven.
"What?" Nansia said with a mouthful.
"Hope called us and told us to be at the Old Mill by midnight they have a surprise for us. And it's Lizzie who's doing the planning soooo…PRAY THE LORD!" Landon said semi-dramatic and a little concerned.
"Oh no! And you came here to warn me? Should we run away? Maybe we should leave from the rumored catacombs of this town and then change our names to Maria, Riko and Chad and live off the land!" Nansia said with a sarcastic tone and everyone at the table looked at her and laughed at her.
"I think we can all survive Lizzie's party." Nansia said with a small smile once everyone sobered up.
"I regret the time I suggested that party at lunch yesterday…maybe I shouldn't have." Landon said as he pouted a little and stole a fry from Nansia's plate which earned him a glare from her.
"Come on guys! Cheer up! It's just a party like all the others, we just get drunk and have fun with our friends forget everything for a while." Rafael said in a uplifting tone and shook both Landon's shoulder and Nansia's leg underneath the table as a way to shake them off.
Time Skip:
It was well into the night and Landon, Rafael with Nansia walked into the Old Mill where the party was on full blown having taken their time to get ready both clothes-wise and emotionally.
Nansia was never one for parties she's only been to three in the 20 years of life.
So she was sitting in the corner watching people dance, play with their magic powers and drink around the bonfire.
She was laughing at a joke MG was saying when a thought occurred to her, why sit in the sidelines? This party had everything they parties she's been to didn't, good music, actual intellectual conversations and people and so much more!
Fuck it!
Nansia walked closer to the bonfire and grabbed a drink and started laughing with the rest of the vampires and werewolves and witched around it.
Soon she was having the best time of her life. She drank and danced, told jokes and fun experiences she had lived through.
At 12 am Alaric shut down the party and bedtime ensured.
Nansia stumbled laughing into their dorm and clumsily dressed in her pjs and fell to bed just like everyone else. Penelope had returned to Kaleb's and MG's room.
Nansia's Dream:
Nansia stood in the middle of the drop ship and she heard Octavia yell;
"WE ARE BACK BITCHES!"
Then she turned around she was looking at Lincoln being executed and hearing Octavia yell and sobbing.
She closed her eyes crying and when she opened them she was looking at the sky as thousands upon thousands people being floated into their deaths.
Suddenly Dream Nansia was aware that this was a dream and she attempted to take control over it.
She tried to speak to them, to scream to them, to do anything that would wake her up!
She was standing and watching as every single one of them arming their weapons, it was during the time they were forced to attack the Shallow Valley Clan by Pike because they were the adults and they were the kids….yeah the seized power over that sorry excuse!
She saw her hands doing the same actions as she did in real life like she wasn't in control of her body.
Then her eyes were glued to the man before her, his name was Thomas he had said, he was one of the 100s and when he was asked what he did, he said he killed a man when he was little but Nansia always felt that there was more to the story.
She truly thought that he was holding back of the true events or he was completely lying about what he did. He truly seemed lost at all times just like she did until she had Raven, Murphy, Monty and Harper with Jasper show her what her family had done and why.
After that event made her realize where she stood and she didn't felt that lost anymore so she guessed that look faded from her face yet it was still there for his.
For some reason now in this dream, fully aware of it, Thomas seemed to be the center of it while in other dreams he was either fading into the background or not appearing at all.
Why now?
Another detail was brought to her attention as the dream sequence continued and found herself standing inside the Ark and having their names being called on the roll call because toxic rain was pouring down and there were some people with suicidal ideas, they needed to protect the last remaining population of earth no matter the cost!
Thomas' name was called yet with no last name…he was just Thomas…was it now the dream not revealing his last name because she had forgotten it or was that the case in real life?
Suddenly she is being pulled by the dream by a sound!
End of Dream:
The sound was of a something glassy falling down and shattering. Nansia gasped back to the waking world only to see a shadowy figure in her room…that figure…that figure didn't look human like at all!
The fuck?
Nansia watched as the dark figure walked on fours and rampage through Penelope's side of the dorm breaking things and growling while saliva or something similar drooled off its mouth.
Nansia didn't know what to do…what spell to use…was there even a spell to use?
She chickened out and pretended to be asleep while watching the creature move around the dorm but only in Penelope's side of it…whenever it would near something of Nansia's it would break into million pieces.
Nansia watched in shock and horror, petrified of it and inside her mind she started to whisper a prayer.
"Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· ( Our Father who art in heaven,)
ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου· (hallowed be thy name.)
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· (Thy kingdom come.)
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, (Thy will be done)
ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· (on earth as it is in heaven.)
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον· (Give us this day our daily bread,)
καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, (and forgive us our trespasses,)
ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν· (as we forgive those who trespass against us,)
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, (and lead us not into temptation,)
ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.( but deliver us from evil.)
ἀμην"( Amen.)
Nansia's prayer wasn't heard by the beast but something did feel different, her memory went back to that night she woke up to her sister's whimpers after a night of playing Bloody Mary and she saw a dark smoky figure over her little sister, she instantly started saying this prayer and she saw it dissolve! It felt like that!
She watched expecting to see the beast dissolve but it didn't, something different happen…she saw the faintest white glow surrounding her space of the dorm.
What was that?
But the white glow didn't go unnoticed by the beast and it turned to her direction and they locked eyes…shit!
Suddenly very and I mean very quickly a white figure invaded her vision and turned to her and motioned with their hand for her to not look, she hid under the covers and squeak a little as she heard the unmistaken sound of bones breaking and blood being spilled.
She slowly peaked out the covers and saw nothing…the beast was nowhere and so was the shadow-person and the glow!
Did she dream all that?
A wave of tiredness took her over very quickly and she couldn't bother enough and turned around and slept.
From the darkness, you could see the shadow slowly walking over the sleeping girl.
A man around his 50s watched her with welled up tears in his brown-greenish eyes as the moonlight went through the window of the dorm and shine over him and the girl.
He touched her head and muffled a sob with his free hand.
"My dear!" He whispered-choked on his tears as he quickly disappeared as a sleepy the girl scratched her head in her sleep and continued soundlessly sleeping.
So? What do you think? What are your theories?