Prompt 15 (Woven in Mystery): Everyone has their own seasonal decorations that come out this time of year. Maybe you found it in some sort of thrift sale, maybe you just spotted it hanging up while you were out and about, maybe it’s at a friend’s house–wherever you are, a holiday tapestry catches your attention. It’s beautiful and someone clearly put a lot of effort into making it. You won’t find this mass produced–it looks like it’s vintage and handmade, with careful embroidery and beads. There’s something incredibly alluring about it–and something sinister. Out of the corner of your eye it might seem as though something is moving. Maybe it happens while you aren’t looking at all. When it doesn't have your full attention, the image on the tapestry changes. It isn’t just that small details change, large parts of the tapestry change, forming whole new images. Sometimes the threads even change to leave vague or threatening messages. It always seems to change too quickly for you to get a picture of, or to even point out to anyone else. Even when the tapestry isn’t moving, it feels like there are eyes on you.
The tapestry at first didn't even register to Delaney as she turned around to securely lock the door behind her. No, inwardly her thoughts were of that disastrous encounter with yet another corrupt senshi. She had utterly failed in trying to save that poor page from being murdered. Of course she had arrived after the page's starseed had been ripped from their chest but trying to be firm enough to demand that the corrupt return the object had failed and instead caused the victim to be murdered in front of her watching eyes. Even while she was standing back in the alleyway had Delaney, as Meissa, realized that crushed windpipes were almost essentially a death sentence. Her own attempts to save her own skin had been equally as pathetic. Her magic only seemed to enrage her opponent rather than causing them to flee. It had happened once before over the summer when she'd been face to face with another corrupt senshi that seemed to express anger when her bobcats were summoned. Was her magic just that defective? Coming up with that last ditch idea of persuading Beatrix that she really just wanted to join forces had been somewhat careless of her but it had worked, hadn't it? She had to suppose it had worked as Beatrix had let go of her own starseed in the end and had even backed off before gushing about how great the Negaverse was.
The idea of leaving notes for each other had been a stroke of genius as she didn't explicitly say when she would start leaving notes. She could leave the other girl literally hanging on forever for someone that would never show her face around the 7-11 that had been mentioned. But if she didn't show then what would happen?
Turning around even as she swore that she felt eyes watching her did Delaney suddenly breath out a sigh of reverence at the sight of the rather large tapestry that had been hung in the hallway leading to the living room. Her parents must have found this and purchased it earlier in the day and taken the time to hang it up before heading back out. Their only child couldn't find fault with their actions even as she closed the distance to peer with an interested gaze at the various colors and weaves that brought out the overall image of a stormy night taking over a lone figure that was valiantly struggling to apparently make it into a warmly lit home that was promised by the open door radiating a brilliant light to encompass all that it touched.
Delaney sighed before giving a soft smile at the scene before trundling off towards the kitchen to fix herself a snack. After everything that she had been through tonight it almost seemed as if food could be the answer to solving the imperceptible tremble that still resided in her hands. Tonight had been the first time, that she could recall, having someone stick their hand into her chest to grasp at the very core of her self. Perhaps something like that had happened when she had been missing a few years ago, but if it had, the memories were forever locked away. No, it was best not to dwell on what could have been. It had been a learning experience and she would leave it at that.
Passing back to dart into the living room did Delaney happen to glance back up at the woven fabric and the warmth that the image had invoked inside before frowning. The stormy scene was still there, as was the struggling figure, but the house no longer appearance warm and inviting. Stepping even closer, almost so that her nose was touching the fabric did Delaney squint her eyes at the figure before she jumped back. No ... it had to be coincidence. There was no way that was her. But now the thought refused to leave her mind and even as she watched did a word seem to appear above the head of the figure that looked like her and Delaney had to clap a hand over her mouth to bite back the audible reaction that she would have given to reading that single word of "traitor" that now hung over the figure. Black threads were encircled by red ones before the word simply melted back into the fabric as if it had never been there in the first place.
Only she had definitely seen it.
Turning away from the unsettling experience did Delaney once more feel as if she was being watched before simply trying to ignore the sensation. That was right, if she ignored it, the feeling would go away, like magic. Wouldn't it?
After thirty minutes or so of simply trying to ignore the feeling that she was still being watched from beyond Delaney gave in once more to check the wall hanging before recoiling in shock. The house appeared to have been burned to the ground and the figure that looked like her stood over the remnants, clad in all black. Delaney bolted from the room to freaked out to even care what she was going to do. Slipping out of her own room's window did Delaney drop carefully to the ground before sprinting all out in bare feet before transforming once she was far enough away from her home. Even then did she continue to run from the images that the tapestry had shown to her. Was she a traitor? Was she going to burn down everything that she touched afterwards?
Closing her eyes Meissa collapsed in a snowbank before wishing that she could simply freeze time and thus herself in this moment. She didn't want to even think. Her breathing became harsh and erratic before she simply curled into a small ball of shivering flesh. She'd stay out all night if she had to in order to be away from that cursed woven catastrophe if it came down to that. But even as she uncurled did the idea of at least finding a warmer place to hide out began to gain a certain appeal. It wouldn't be her home and it surely wouldn't even be the 7-11. But she needed to find someplace where the elements wouldn't slow her thinking and response time.
