"mastermind."

i. kora

4 years ago
•
There's blood on my hands, not mine not mine not mine. I look at myself in the mirror, tears running down my pale cheeks. Stop crying, why are you crying?

Present day
•
"Tell me, Kora, how are these dreams making you feel?" My shrinks voice scratches it's way through my ears.

"I'm not insane." I reply.

"No one said you were insane, Kora. I simply asked a question. How do your dreams make you feel?"

"They're not dreams, they're memories," I whisper, staring down at my intertwined fingers, my right leg bouncing up and down.

"Alright, let me rephrase, then. How are your memories making you feel, how do they affect your day-to-day life?" Dr. Kinbott sure is persistent, I'll give her that.

"They.. they," I stumble on my words, trying to find the correct answer, but I quickly realize there are none. I slowly glare up and find blue eyes patiently looking back at me, shit, that's creepy.

"Take your time," as if I'm not doing that already, seriously, I could give myself better counseling in front of a mirror.

"They make me question my choices, myself, my efforts. When one comes up, it's like, I can't move, or eat, or sleep normally for at least a day. Enid worries about me. Griffin worries about me. I sometimes worry about me." I give this answer unwillingly against myself, anything to make this go by faster. I look back down to see my hands have strayed and are now shaking.

I tune the rest of the conversation out, I can't do this right now. I think I would hate Nevermore less if they didn't force me to go to therapy.

Dr. Kinbott says I'm distant, that she's worried these memories are deteriorating my mental health, but I don't need her to worry for me, I've never needed anyone, I don't need to start now. I'm certainly not letting a few recollections of things that happened years ago cancel that out.

I walk out of the building and make my way to Weathervane, as usual. "Ah, Kora, another therapy session over?" The barista smiles as he hands me my usual latte.

"Yep, hi Tyler" I reply with a tight lipped smile. "Another one still with no progress." Tyler looks at me pitifully, just what I needed. I sit down at my typical booth and pull out my phone.

enid🐺💕
- how'd it go?!

Of course. Even though these type of questions make my blood boil, I could never get mad with Enid. We've been roommates ever since I moved here, and luckily, we've had the largest dorm in Ophelia Hall.

enid🐺💕
- how'd it go?!

great 🤥 -

- come on kori, you're never going to feel better if you don't accept help!

ugh, you sound like my brother. -

I set my phone face down on the table and rest my head in my crossed arms. I let out an audible groan and hear Tyler laugh.

"Is it that bad?" He asks, resting his shoulder on the booth across from me.

"Enid's undying support doesn't help anything," I whisper, looking up at him.

Principal Weems appears through the doorway and I hear the entrance bell ring. "Come now, Kora, we have to get back to Nevermore."

I nod and thank Tyler for the coffee, I make my way into Principal Weems' car, which she insists on every time, still afraid I'll try to make my escape, even though she couldn't be bothered to take me to my sessions. I've vowed not to escape multiple times, on her terms, but she still doesn't believe me.

As I enter Nevermore, I am immediately greeted by Enid and a girl with a braid on each side, she looks like she's come out of a black and white movie. I'm intrigued and annoyed right away.

"This is Wednesday! She's our new roommate," Enid brightly smiles at me. "I was just about to start her tour, do you want to join us?" I nod, and follow behind them.

Her words don't reach me. I don't talk, I don't listen. Until- "She used to date our resident tortured artist Xavier-"

Xavier.

3 years earlier
•
"Kor, have you seen my sweater?" I shake my head, staring at my computer screen, knowing damn well I'm the one wearing it.

He sees me and smiles, I smile back. He finds his seat next to me, I look over to him and there's- blood. There's blood everywhere. Whywhywhy?

Present day
•
"Kori, are you okay?" I snap back to reality with the sound of Enid's concerned voice.

"Y..yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." But I'm not fine, I'm on the ground and almost everyone is staring at me. Why is everyone staring at me, make it stop.

Enid's staring, of course Wednesday's staring, that's a great first impression, Griffin's staring, Xavier's staring I'm sorry Xavier.

I close my eyes for a second and Griffin is here, yelling at everyone to back off, and picking me up, and going to my room, and whispering sweet calming words and, and, and, oh I'm so grateful for my brother.

Then everything goes dark, and I wake up in the infirmary. Dr. Kinbott staring directly at me.

Great.