Sister Grimm

1 - Visions & Dreamscapes

Nico Minoru felt the heat radiating off of the sizzling  southern California sidewalk as she walked alongside the Pacific Ocean. It was the dead of summer and in typical Nico fashion, she was a black spot in a sea of color. She grinned to herself as she felt the back of her black sheer dress brush her tanned legs. The large brim of her hat, kept the sun out of her eyes, but not by much. Molly always called it her witch hat. Nico frowned and stopped in her tracks.

Why would she think about Molly? She sighed and looked around as if thinking of the bubbly and giggling girl would suddenly make her appear. But Nico hadn't seen that bright green frog hat in a long time and she knew she wasn't going to see it now.

Nico pulled her phone out from her satchel and glanced at it. Behind the time and multiple unread emails, a group of happy kids (Runaways some might call them) smiled back at her from the other side of the glossy screen. She should smile back, shouldn't she? But she couldn't. Maybe this is what happened when you wore black all the time? Eventually you feel nothing at all, but Nico knew that was untrue, because she feels everything. Maybe sometimes a little too much.

Maybe she could call them?
No.
It's easier this way.
Easier for who though, Nico thought to herself momentarily.

"But they are all doing okay? Right? They are all safe," Nico tried to remind herself. "And that is what's important. They are a lot safer than if they were with me."

Nico shoved the phone back in her satchel and took a deep breath. The tightness thickening in her chest. This frustration is nothing new for this old goth girl. The weight of the past few years. Nico closed her eyes for a minute, trying her best to take slow deep breaths like her therapist had taught her. The problem is that she had only gone twice before she made up an excuse not to go back.

"Deep breaths Nico," she sighed as the sun sparkled off of the ocean, "you are safe. You are safe. You are safe." As if repeating this mantra to herself, made it so.

Opening her eyes, she looked around at all the beauty, at all of the families laughing and playing together on the beach. The green palm trees and the umbrellas. Yet all she felt was sadness. So with a frown, Nico Minoru, once de-facto leader of the Runaways, walked home alone with heaviness in her heart as the sun shined all around her.

__________________________

Nico would like to pretend that she was a little more tough than she appeared, but with each trial Nico has endured, her shell has cracked a little more. That strong goth girl image she had in her youth, just wasn't true anymore. Instead most days, she now just felt like a little girl playing dress up. Wearing someone else's clothing to pretend that she was something more than just a scared orphan who helped to murder her parents.

You would think she would feel more guilty for that part, but actually the real feeling Nico Minoru has toward her parents was anger. She guessed it was that anger that kept the black in her wardrobe. But it could also be the several times that she had escaped death? Or maybe the one time she didn't actually escape death...Nico guessed she was still in mourning.

She looked down at her left arm as she cooked over the stove in her tiny one bedroom apartment. The mechanical arm gave off a soft purple glow if she held it in the light just right. Even now, it was so odd to look at. Definitely helped her to stand out, even more than she already did. Like she needed more attention. She could remember the fear she had while being trapped in Arcades Murder Arena, but she tried her best often to not think about it too much. She wondered if Chase still had nightmares about it like she did? The thought popped into her mind to give him a call, but just as quickly as earlier, she tossed that idea right back into the trash.

When she got like this, she tried to think about times when she wasn't so fragile. Back when she was in A-Force. She felt (if not just for a minute) brave for the first time in a long time. She missed having a purpose. Something to do. Someone to help. Helped her from recognizing that she probably needed to help herself, but right now she should probably just eat her dinner. Nico gazed over toward the couch where she kept a picture of her teammates from A-Force. Jen and Alison or maybe she should say She-Hulk and Dazzler.