@thelilblacksheep
Something felt off. She could feel it under every part of herself, that something felt very wrong, and she wasnât sure what. Everything just felt very wrong. Like she was underwater maybe, and she was looking at the world from below the surface. She could see everything in vague colors and shape but she could not feel it. Drowning felt very much akin to how she felt. Like there was a weight on her body and something was trying very desperately to hold her down. She couldnât gain a foothold no matter how hard she tried to bring herself to the surface.
Finally something latched, she wasnât sure what, but she found herself coming out of the water, or maybe she was lifting herself higher. She wasnât really sure. And then there was no more water. There wasnât any more of that drowning and panic. She just felt confused, uncertain of everything sheâd ever learned. Slowly, she looked around and realized she was standing on a grassy lawn. She didnât feel the crunch of the grass beneath her shoes, not like she felt she should. There was just something that distinctively told her something was very wrong. And for some reason the spot she stood over brought a feeling of dread and sadness that she couldnât put her finger on. Still shaken, she took a few more steps. Those felt odd too, but she felt better being away from that one spot. Wrapping her arms around herself, she tried to battle the confusion in her head. Crimsyn. She remembered that. She was Crimsyn.
Honestly, Lily wasnât used to be around her family after so long. It felt like she had lived an entire lifetime since she had last seen them, then again living around them had been a lifetime in an of itself. Since then she had been in an abusive relationship that she left after an accident that had left her in the hospital and that had led to the discovery of her pregnancy at the time. She had gone back for a time but never saw her siblings and instead had her daughter who died and then left again because it was too hard to stay. The only reason she had come back was because her father was dying and she was going to try and make an effort to be in her siblings life because it would make him happy.
In an effort to try and mend things she knew she would have to actually see her siblings. So she had looked up where one of them was staying, Esme. Luckily her dad knew of the place Esme had gotten and was able to get her address. He had been very happy to do it. Lily figured he felt guilty for never questioning why she stopped visiting them or even to try and figure out what was going on with her and her siblings so if he could fix it then he could assuage his guilt. Lily walked up to the door and tried knocking and got no response. To be honest she knew that if they saw her they probably wouldnât let her in so her next brilliant idea was to see if it was unlocked. She tried the door handle and twisted it noticing it was unlocked so she opened the door and took a step inside. âEsme, anyone home?â
The world was starting to make more sense. She could look around herself and even though it still felt vaguely like she was surrounded by a thin mist and the rest of the world was clear, she felt a little more stable. She could make sense of the ground that she stepped on, even if it made no sound. She could see the sky that was darkening with night. She didnât feel like a piece of prey caught in a spiders web, desperately trying to fight her way out to no avail. Instead she had gained just enough clarity to be alert and more than aware of how she was confused she was by everything. She couldnât put her finger on it but something felt wrong.
There was a house and it didnât look right to her. It was hard to tell why, but either way she kept walking, eventually finding herself nearing the edge of the house. The sudden voice took her off guard and she almost jumped a little. But she settled herself down. Esme. Sheâd heard that name before. Curiously, Crimsyn headed around the side of the building to see the open door and the form heading into it. âHello,â she said carefully. Maybe this girl had some answers.
Honestly, Lily was glad that from the looks of the place Esme hadnât tried to replicate what their childhood home looked like or their motherâs taste in decor. Then again the home her siblings grew up in had never felt like home to her, it really just felt like she was trespassing somewhere she didnât belong every time she was there. From the looks of it despite the front door being unlocked it seemed like no one was home so she didnât go very far past the front entrance into the home. It just felt wrong to take a look around or something considering she doubted her sister would even want to see her much less want Lily in her home.Â
A voice caused Lily to instantly spin on her heel to face the cause of the voice. Before her was a young blonde girl, she looked a bit lost. Lily couldnât help but feel like a child who got caught doing something she wasnât supposed to be doing. She left the entrance of the house back outside and closed the door behind her. âHello, and you are?â Lily didnât remember anyone mentioning a girl about Crimsynâs age living with Esme and she didnât think her children were that old yet. Maybe the girl was lost or something and needed help getting home. Lily bit her lip and couldnât help but feel something was off about the girl, it took her a moment to realize she couldnât hear her heart rate. That couldnât be possible then again it wasnât like she generally made use of her heightened sense, for the most part she ignored the fact she was supernatural. Itâs not like it ever did her any good her entire life, so it was probably just weakened due to lack of use or something.Â
She couldnât remember exactly seeing this girl before. There were certain things about her that seemed similar. Maybe it was the nose, or the lips. She couldnât really put her finger on it. But she didnât think sheâd met her before. Than again, she didnât seem to know a whole lot of anything. Right now she didnât know a whole lot besides there was a sinking feeling inside her that seemed to tell her that something was wrong. She didnât know what it was. Something told her she should be in the house.
The blonde stepped back as the woman stepped back onto the front porch. It was just a gut reaction. Just an instinct to avoid the person. She wasnât sure why. âI am Crimsyn Novak,â she told her. That was her name, she was sure sheâd heard someone call her that. A little girl maybe. She couldnât remember. But that was her name. Crimsyn. She was Crimsyn. âWho are you?â The blonde studied the other woman. The person in front of her seemed similar in other ways too. She got the sense that there was something off about her. Something wrong somehow. She didnât think this girl was a normal human.
For the most part since coming back no one seemed to recognize her which suited her just fine. She had been just a teenager when she had left and when she had come back she had pretty much secluded herself. There was a lot she had to acknowledge when she came back the first time she just didnât want to add family drama that involved her siblings to that list so she had avoided them and anyone who would run into them. This time however, she knew that wasnât going to be possible. A part of her felt guilty for having just left things the way they were with her siblings instead of trying to fix things she had just figured she would make them worse. Although, that could still potentially be true considering they all basically hated her for just being alive.Â
Lily noticed the blonde take a step back when she had gone back out on the porch. It was a bit odd but a reaction that she had once done when around people. Even now she hated sudden movements especially with strangers, after Mark she was a bit more jumpy and didnât quite trust people. So the instinctual reaction to move away from someone was something she understood and respected. Lily didnât make any movement forward and crossed her arms in front of her just in case the girl was scared Lily might try and hurt her. Figured itâs better to keep them in sight just in case something traumatic had happened to her that had brought her here. Lily didnât recognize the girls name, but then again why would she considering it had been years since she had last been in Falls Church. âLily Scott. My sister Esme lives here or at least my dad gave me her address.â Lily figured it would be better to explain why she had been trying to enter the house and it probably made it a bit better to admit that she was Esmeâs sister. She wasnât about to include the part about her siblings disliking her though. âDo you live nearby or something?â Lily asked the girl trying to gauge if she was a neighbor or even just narrow down why she was here of all places.Â
Crimsyn couldnât help the way it felt. The woman was coming towards her when she stepped out and she didnât like it. She felt like she might hurt her. She didnât know why. She just was sure that the woman was going to harm her if she got too close. So she was quick to step back. She didnât noticed that the footstep made no noise, or that it didnât feel like she was hitting anything solid. Esme. The name rang familiar in her head. A memory hit her kind of suddenly. She remembered looking through bars. Something that looked like bars at least. She remembered a little child, and a blonde woman. She remembered a tall brunette woman coming in. The blonde had called the tall woman Esme. But it didnât seem right that they were in the house. They seemed out of place there. Or perhaps she was out of place. She didnât know. âI donât know,â she admitted, uncertain of her answer. âI think I live here,â she said carefully. It made no sense. If this woman claimed her sister lived here. Why would she live here too? It was all very confusing. She stepped back again. The house seemed familiar, but at the same time it was different. There was a newness about the clean siding, the wood of the front porch had been stained not too long ago. She was very confused. She didnât remember living here, but she knew this place felt like home.
Something still didnât sit right with Lily about the girl. Maybe it was that she seemed to have gone a bit distant or the fact that even now Lily couldnât hear a heartbeat. Lily looked the girl over again trying to focus on the part of her she hadnât really use in a while to see if maybe she just needed focus a bit harder to hear the girls heartbeat. Maybe she was just as much a failure as Brett said she was considering he had hated everything that had to do with the werewolf part of her. Surprise flickered across the brunettes face at Crimsynâs words. How could she live here considering it had been the address her dad had given her for Esme. She was pretty sure she hadnât gotten it wrong and she could smell the familiar scents of her sister despite the fact it hadnât been one she had smelled in years. The evidence of people in an area tended to linger even after they left, it was stronger the more time they spent somewhere. âWhen did you live here?â Lily knew it was an odd question to ask but there wasnât something right about the girl. It was as though she wasnât human but something else, something without a heartbeat and apparently a good memory. Maybe she had been convinced she lives in Lilyâs sister house or her sister had taken the girl in.Â
Crimsyn wasnât sure what made sense and what didnât. This felt like where she belonged, or at the very least, the house was very important to her. Yet sheâd seen people there, and this house did not look entirely right. The people obviously lived there, there was someone looking for them. And the new features that she couldnât exactly tell why they were new were all too present. She just knew they hadnât always been there. The question sounding off the otherâs lips had her even more confused. When had she lived here? A few more images flashed through her head. Simple ones. She remembered a red door with a single window, and a hole in the porch steps. She remembered looking up an overhang of sorts. Crimsyn wasnât sure what to make of it. But when she looked up she could see the overhang was the same with different paint and new shingles which sheâd spotted walking up to the front porch. âI donât know,â she said carefully, nervously.
Lily followed the girls gaze and looked at the house. Nothing really seemed unusual about the building itself. It looked like it could be fairly old or at least there had been some attempts made to redo some of it like the fact the paint wasnât chipping off and there seemed to be a few decorations and such added to the exterior of the house. Maybe the blonde had hit her head or something and was having memory issues. It wasnât too implausible considering the amount of damage head injuries or even just experience trauma could do to ones memory. So the blonde didnât know when she lived her which kind of made her doubt the theory that she was taken in by Esme. âWell, why donât we take a look around the property and see if that helps some of your memory about the house come back?â Lily suggested after a moment of thought.
It sounded silly, her saying she didnât know when she lived here. None of it really made sense, as she watched everything around her. It seemed familiar yet not at all. Everything was so confusing. She couldnât make sense of her thoughts or feelings. She couldnât untangle the cobwebs inside of her head that seemed to hold all the secrets sheâd been keeping. Once again, her green eyes shifted to the girl in front of her. âOkay,â she nodded carefully in agreement. She still wasnât entirely sure of everything but maybe this would help. Maybe sheâd finally remember things. Â It wasnât as if looking around would do her harm at the very least. The blonde woman stepped down over the steps once again and glanced at the surroundings around the house.