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 Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 11:53 am
Home sweet home.
Opehlia got out of Jett's car, she had borrowed one of his mothers coats and the hood was securely over her head so nobody would see who she was, maybe they would even think she was the girl who lived there. She opened the back door quickly, before entering the house and flipping on the lights. The curtains were all closed, and she planned to keep it that way. The less people saw of them the better.
The door lead into a living room. It was immaculate, really too clean for anyone to believe a teenager lived here alone. There were some books piled on a table and one wall was plastered with photographs. From graduation, from her violin recitals, and many holiday photo's of Ophelia with an older woman that resembled her quite a bit. Scattered in between were a few certificates and in the middle a teaching diploma and a doctorate which clearly did not belong to her. There were also pictures from the older woman's graduation, some from her days as a teacher and last but not least a bridal portrait.
"I am just going to run up into my room and pack, make yourself at home. Make a cup of coffee - It will only collect dust otherwise. Kitchen is easy enough to find."
She nodded her head before stepping onto the staircase to disappear upstairs. Though half way up she turned around. "Thank you for driving me here, I promise I won't be long." She added with a small bow before she vanished, footsteps could be heard pattering along the ceiling.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 3:10 pm
Jett followed Ophelia into the house, perhaps finding irony in the fact that it was now she who was playing host. The house had a sort of eerie air to it—moreso than most houses did when one first explored them. This was the house of not only a strange, but a stranger who was lost to the world. Ophelia stood before him now, though the girl she was before was gone. The girl in all these pictures would never be seen again.
He was not interested in coffee; he’d had enough this morning. The pictures and items strewn about made Jett question if Ophelia lived alone, though if she did have a roommate here, he didn’t want to call out his inquiry and get them caught. It did not feel like intruding as he slowly glanced over all the pictures, taking in the little details. There was an unreal mood to everything.
The house, in a way, reminded him of his own.
If he lived alone, Jett suspected he would be far less cleanly, though he made the effort to keep the house clean so that his mother was never disappointed when she returned. There were pictures of him and her, though none of his father spread across his living room. Perhaps he was looking for similarities between himself and Ophelia—or perhaps he was just nosy.
He scanned the pictures, looking for clues to who she had been while he waited for her downstairs. This was an important time for her—perhaps even the last time she’d step foot into this house. He didn’t know how her emotions were faring, but if it had been him, he’d have wanted to collect his things alone, too.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 3:32 pm
After about ten minuets she made her way back downstairs. The suitcase hit every step with a thud, over her shoulder was a large backpack, and in these two cases was every item she wanted to take with her. This was her life, up to now. When she reached the bottom she slapped her hands together and let out a sigh of relief. That was heavier than she expected, achieving this small goal even made her smile a little.
She found her new... friend? Looking at the pictures on her wall, she felt a knot in her stomach. A small part of her wanted to ask if she could take one, but she knew better than that, it was better this way. She wandered over to him, resting her hand on the one of her mothers wedding portrait.
"It was just me and my mum until a few years ago. This is her house, when she was taken away she left it to me. I do not think I will miss it though, all sentimental value it had left when she did. In a way I am glad to be rid of it."
She sighed, she never talked about her mother, she was not ashamed, she just did not want to. Though she had already made so many exceptions for him, she had let him touch her, she had trusted him unconditionally and now she was telling him her secrets.
"I will miss her."
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 4:21 pm
Curiosity was a curse. The polite thing to do in this situation would be to nod, perhaps to offer Ophelia a few words of comfort and ask again if there was anything he could do to help her. Instead, he just looked at the picture Ophelia’s hand rested over. “Would you be opposed to telling me what happened?” he asked, eyes drifting over the pictures again.
It seemed like a big responsibility to be left to tend to a house all on your own. Jett’s mother made frequent business trips and often injected herself into the business world and wouldn’t come home for days at a time—but she still always came home. Even if it wasn’t every day, or even every week, Jett couldn’t imagine what the house would be like if his mother wasn’t still around.
Ophelia had not claimed that her mother had passed away—but had been ‘taken’. Unless she had been taken by a disease, but his mind was getting the best of him. Had she been abducted? Incarcerated?
He could only speculate, but he wasn’t the sort to voice any hypothesis on the matter. Jett was curious, though didn’t intend to pry beyond scraping the surface of the situation.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 4:58 pm
Ophelia took down the photo and walked over to her couch, she fidgeted uncomfortably before she finally sat down and began to speak. "She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia just after she had me." She began, looking over at him before her gaze turned back to the photograph. "She could still function, and she had her husband. However as time progressed she got worse and my father abandoned us. She raised me, but as I got older I came to care for her as her illness progressed. She used to have these delusions, she became scared of the world, so much so she quit work and became a recluse." She ended looking to the side, that was the easy bit over with. The next bit was a little harder.
"One day I was in the kitchen when I heard a scream, I ran out and she was there, beating the living crap out of the mailman with a deck chair because she thought he was going to.... do unspeakable things to me and make her watch. It was all in her head, and all I could do was restrain her, but the damage was already done. Not long after that she was institutionalized, they said she was a danger to herself and others. I was sixteen then, and was fully able to live here on my own. So I did." She remembered the day she was torn from her, and she tried to throw back the memory as quickly as she could. Ophelia stood up and put the photograph back on the wall.
"Never the less, she is still my mother and I love her. She read me books, taught me how to play violin, and she loved me. She might have been broken, but she was also the smartest and most beautiful woman I know." She finished putting a smile on her face, she had had the last three years to accept this, and it had become less difficult to accept in time. "I... have only ever told my psychiatrist these things, I am not used to sharing my history with an outsider. Just promise to keep it a secret okay? I want to start again, and even though that means burying my demons, I do not want my past haunting me in the eyes of others."
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 11:06 am
Knowing little about mental disorders, Jett could only listen quietly as Ophelia delved into what he would have considered information far too personal to share with someone you’d only met the night before. Still, his curiosity was sated and he nodded. “I’ve no reason to tell anyone, my lips are sealed,” he told her. He wasn’t exactly sure who he would tell, anyway.
“Sounds like you had it rough,” he murmured, not in such a way that it sounded as though he were pitying her. Jett was nearly incapable of pity, only disdain for those struggling and failing. He was under the impression that if you fought hard enough, nothing was unobtainable—and whether Ophelia knew it or not, she was proof of that. She had not allowed this strife to way her down—and she had fought. Taken care of herself and this house after the incident. Her resilience was admirable, and felt as though the proper thing to do would be express some sort of comfort.
She didn’t sound like she wanted people to feel bad for her—hell, she didn’t want anyone else to know. She wanted to bury her demons and start out with a clean slate. She wanted to shy away from the weaknesses that haunted her in her past life and build a stronger, better life for herself, now.
Jett liked that.
“This isn’t something you’ll have to worry about anymore. The Dark Mirror Court will help you through whatever strife you might find yourself in. You won’t ever have to be alone with us. You start again—however you want. We’ll be here to support you through it, no matter what.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 4:53 am
"I don't think so." She did not think she had it rough, she had it a little harder than most kids, but it was not like she had hated every moment of her life. She used to smile a lot, she used to love to learn and play instruments. Her mother used to brush her hair, tell her how special she was. No, her childhood was filled with happiness and she would not change it for the world. She had discovered a long time ago there was no point asking 'what if', you needed to take what you were given and make the best of it.
It was what she was trying to do with the situation she was in now.
Jett if nothing else, had been so comforting, a true rock through all this trauma. She knew she was clinging to him like a lost duckling, but when you only had one friend in the whole world, you tended to do that. "Thank you. I will hold you to that." She nodded her head, readjusting the backpack to get comfortable.
"Anyway this is my stuff, let's go, there is no point hanging around anymore than needs be." She walked back over to the case, grabbing it by the handle and pulling it up onto its wheels. "Give me a fortnight. After that Emilie will be buried. I do not think I will find a new place that quickly, but everything else will be in order. I will make you proud Jett." She smiled, ready to take on this challenge like a bull.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:16 pm
Pride was something Jett had a lot of, though he was pleased with her conviction and promise. Ophelia was not a pushover, nor did it seem like she would ever become one. She had the potential to make not only him proud—but the court, as well.
Ophelia seemed to have everything under control; he wanted to offer to help her carry something, but didn’t want to insult her independence. Instead, he simply moved to open the door for her. He walked in silence, considering the situation as he casually crossed the room. It wasn’t until his hand was on the doorknob and he had pushed open the door that he spoke. He had paused and glanced over his shoulder just before stepping out, saying only, “You’re already making me proud, Ophelia.”
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