Chapter 2

A glass of ice cold water thrown in her face brought Seraph to full stuttering consciousness. She open her eyes then immediately slammed them shut as light stabbed right into her brain. A groan that would not have been out of place on a dying animal fell out of her as she threw her arm across her face.

Warily, she tried opening her eyes again.

Gabe sat next to her bed, glaring at her. "Gabe? Jesus, what the hell are you doing?"

"What the hell are you doing? That's a good question." He waved his hand, gesturing around the room. "Just what the hell are you doing?"

Seraph's motel room was trashed. The run down Motel 6 would never be the Hyatt, but what little order the room had was lost under trash and empty beer bottles. Filthy clothes were scattered everywhere and the lone chair in the room lay on its side.

Seraph didn't look- she knew what state the room was in. She pushed her self up onto her elbow. At least some of those filthy clothes were on her. This whole confrontation would have been even less fun naked. She glanced at the bedside clock before returning her bloodshot to glare back at her brother.

"It's only six in the damn morning! Just in the hell how did you get in? How did you even know I was here?" She asked.

"You called me remember?"

Seraph blinked. She didn't remember doing any such thing, and trying to just made her head hurt more. "What?"

"Don't remember?" Gabe snorted. "Figures, you were too piss drunk to talk straight. I had to star-six-nine your ass."

Seraph groaned and fell back on the bed. She didn't need this right now. "Fine. I'm sorry I called you. I don't even care anymore about how you got in. Just go away."

"You left the door open."

That made her pause. She was making unremembered drunk calls and leaving the door open to the world while she was passed out? Shit. "Good catch. Be sure to close it on your way out."

"Goddamn it Seraph! I am not leaving. What happened to going camping and figuring out what you wanted to do with your life? Huh? Did you even go or have you just been shit faced this whole time?"

"I went. I'm back."

"And so this is what you decided? You want to grow up to be a drunk?" He snarled.

Sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Seraph sat for a moment waiting for the sick feeling to go away before standing. Pushing herself up, she moved quickly behind her brother and grabbed the handles on his chair. She had him turned towards the door before he had time to react.

"Son of a bitch!" Gabe franticly grappled for the breaks, setting them before Seraph could push him more.

She grunted when the chair stopped. Furious, she knelt by the wheel to unlock the break. He fought her, holding tightly onto the lever and shoving her away. She stood up suddenly, frustrated and outraged.

"I can drink myself into oblivion every night if I damn well choose to! Who the hell do you think you are to come here and lecture at me? You think you're Dad now? Well you're not- and there is no reason why I should have to pay for your mistakes." Seraph wished the words back as soon as she said them. Gabe flinched as if she had slapped him. He turned away from her and balled his hands into fists in his lap. Silence rang in the air for long painful moments.

"Shit." She closed her eyes and sank back down to the floor. She leaned against his chair, putting her head on the armrest. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't of..." she whispered.

He lowered his head, but wouldn't turn to look at her. "I don't want to see you ruin your life too," he said softly.

A rush of emotions overwhelmed Seraph. Guilt, fear, anger, shame built up and poured out as tears. It was already too late, her life was ruined. Drinking would do nothing- it was simply a way for her to run from her problems. But it would not work. There was no getting away.

Not from this.

"Gabe... I... I'm not..." She began.

It started softly, rising from the depths of Seraph's mind. Whispered pleas and commands that had tormented her for the last month returned, as they always did. Seraph cried out, clapping her hands over her ears, and closing her eyes she fell to her knees.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!!" Seraph screamed.

Gabe twisted in his seat, trying to turn around. He pulled himself off his chair and tumbled to the ground. He franticly pulled himself around to his sister, dragging his useless legs behind him.

"Seraph!" She did not respond. "Seraph! What's wrong?" He grabbed her arms and shook her. "Seraph, talk to me! What's happening?"

Seraph whimpered but would not answer him. She could hear that he was shouting through the noise in her head, and heard the panic in his voice, but she could not understand the words. The voice commanded her attention and would not let her know anything else.

For a moment it stopped. Seraph sat in the blissful silence of her mind shivering. The reprieve would be brief, before it would start all over again. Slowly she opened her eyes. Gabe sat in front of her, with his hands still wrapped around her forearms. The fear and confusion in his eyes begged her to explain.

The words were thick in her throat and would not easily come. Seraph had to swallow before she could force them out.

"I'm hearing voices."

The simple statement hung in the air between them. The seconds lasted lifetimes. This was the first time she had said it out loud. With the admission she had made what was happening to her real. There was no way to take the words back, and no way to hide anymore.

"W...what? When? When did this happen?" Gabe asked brokenly.

"It started when I went camping," she said. "I..."

It hit her again without warning. The pattern of the attacks was now familiar to her. Seraph never knew when an episode would hit, but when they did, they were always the same. They came in two waves, broken up by a misleading moment of lucidity. First, she heard a voice, that damn voice, which would command her to do what it wanted. The second part one came with visual hallucinations as well, but was mercifully silent. Both paralyzed her while they held her in their grip.

The attack left Seraph once again weak and trembling. She gasped for breath and tried not to be ill. She was sitting with her back against the bed. Gabe was no longer holding her. He had pressed himself against the wall, as far from her as he could get in the small space.

His reaction did not surprise her, but it hurt just as much as she feared it would. She looked away but could not stop herself from crying again.

"What the hell just happened?" he demanded.

Seraph paused, confused, she thought it was quite obvious. "I get attacks, which I guess is better than hearing her all the time, but still when it happens I... I can't do anything else, it's like a seizure-"

"What happened to your eyes?" Gabe interrupted her rambling.

Seraph stared dumbly. "What happened to my eyes?" she repeated.

"They were glowing!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Just now," he said. "Your eyes started... glowing, like damn flashlights."

Glowing eyes? Seraph clamored to her feet to look in the mirror on the other side of the room. Her eyes were glowing?

"They're not doing it now.' Gabe grumped, then sighed. "Help me back into my chair?"

"Yeah... sure." Seraph moved the wheelchair so that it faced Gabe before trying to put him in it. Squatting down, she wrapped her arms around him in a big bear hug. Lifting him was easy- getting him into the chair was the tricky part. She hadn't had to help with this since before joining the army, but it still gave her a nicely familiar feeling, something grounded and sane.

When Gabe was settled, Seraph sat on the edge of the bed. She was at a loss, every attack left her physically weak and just a little dazed. Forcing thoughts threw the fog in her head was a daunting task.

And the hang over wasn't helping much either.

"What, exactly, do these voices tell you?" Gabe asked, breaking Seraph out of her daze.

"Uh, she wants me to get something for her." Seraph had to think about it, she had not stopped to consider what the voice had asked of her before, because she had been setting all her will to not listening. "A crown, um, the Erlking's crown. From some cave."

Gabe blinked and sat forward. "What? That's... really weird."

Seraph laughed then winced at the resulting flash of pain. "So it wasn't weird before? Only just now?" She asked, giving her brother a look.

He ignored her and asked, "Is that all the voices want? Is that the only thing you hear? No warnings that the government is out to get you, or aliens are trying to read your mind?"

"No, that's it." Seraph frowned, "she just says the same thing each time."

"She?"

Seraph shrugged. "Yeah, it's just a woman's voice, with pictures of what she is talking about."

"Seraph, that's not usually how schizophrenia works."

"It's not?"

"You don't know?" Gabe asked, surprised.

"I really wasn't interested in learning more about it." She said, looking away.

Gabe looked down for a moment, collecting his thoughts. Finally he spoke, "Seraph, I think this might be magic."

"Magic?" Seraph snorted.

"Yes magic. Crazy doesn't normally make your eyes glow, you know."

Seraph crossed her arms over her chest. It would be so wonderful if she could believe she was not crazy. "But who would cast magic on me? And why? If someone is powerful enough to mess with my head, why can't she get the damn thing herself?"

"I don't know, I wish I did, but I don't." Gabe said. "Maybe... maybe we should go to the police?"

Seraph stiffened. "Christ, no way. They'll put me in an institution and have other magic-slingers do God knows what to my head, I'd be better of crazy." Even when someone was truly, clinically crazy they are not forced into care, but the same cannot be said of someone who's mind has been taken over by magic. The authorities do not wait for the person to prove a danger to themselves or others, a victim is assumed dangerous. Minds do not get invaded for benign reasons.

"I know, I know. You have to do something. This isn't going away on its own."

Seraph's shoulders slumped, "I know." For a moment neither spoke, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Have you-" Gabe cleared his throat, "have you thought about trying to find this crown? Maybe if you do what it wants, it will leave you alone."

Seraph stared at her hands as she clenched them into fists. She did not want to do anything the voice demanded of her. What right did it have to force its will on her? She wanted nothing to do with the whole thing. It killed her to think that she would have to give in, to bow once again to what someone else wanted from her.

It killed her that she did not know what else to do.

"We could try that." She said softy.

Gabe leaned forward and took her hand in his. "You're not alone in this. You know I will be here to help you."

Seraph squeezed his hand and offered a weak smile. "I know. Thank you." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "But before all that, I need coffee, clean clothes, a shower, and aspirin and I don't care much about the order. Aspirin first."

"Don't forget to brush your teeth, too," Gabe laughed, "Please."

Seraph punched him in the shoulder.

The tiny hotel bathroom was just large enough for everything in it and one person, provided that the person wasn't overweight. Seraph caught sight of herself in the mirror and winced. Bloodshot, brown eyes squinted in the harsh overhead light. Her usually tan skin had not seen enough sun, making her look ill, and her hair, which, while never fashionably cut, normally was at least clean and brushed, now stood up on one side. She ran her fingers through it to no effect- its shaggy ends had not seen scissors since she had left the Marines and was sticking out in every direction. Sighing, she put the cleanest clothes she had on top of the toilet and climbed in the shower, while Gabe waited in the main room. The water pressure left a lot to be desired, but the warm water was refreshing none the less and went a long way to making Seraph feel human again.

While she was showering, Gabe called Brad to let him know that Seraph would be taking Gabe home, since Brad had been the one to drop Gabe off at the hotel before skipping off to let them have some privacy. Seraph felt guilty and embarrassed that Gabe had made Brad drive all the way down here to pull her out of a drunken stupor, she wondered if she would be able to look him in the eye next time she saw him. Oh well.

There was nothing she could do about it now except not make the same mistake again.

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