𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐄, ERIK LEHNSHERR

𝑶𝑵𝑬

| 1954 |

          Seven years had passed since everything happened and it wasn't easy, but Kara learned to live with it day by day. It never got any easier, but Klaus had been there with her and experienced her spirals.

They had helped each other out as much as they could without possibly going borderline insane. Kara used Sarcasm and Humor to help ease her senses and used them against Charles the most, aggravating him in the worst ways possible but she knew he still loved her.

Klaus was a person big on destroying things, so he used Charles' bunker room to take out his anger and sadness to not lash out on anybody. Thankfully, he used it less and less over time and even learned karate in his free time.

Charles had helped train them both, at separate times of course because of their opposite abilities, and they had improved much over time.

Kara also took combat lessons with Raven to help in case they ever got into a situation where they needed to fight instead of using their abilities.

It was a cool yet dark night outside with fireflies lighting up the trees and stars enchanting the sky. The wind was calm but would occasionally pick up every minute or so. The moonlight cast down from the sky, shining through the top of the lake.

That was where Kara was, using it to calm her mind. That day hadn't been good on her for some reason. Either because she hadn't slept in two years or because it was the exact date of their mother dying. She guessed both.

After the night they arrived there, Kara never slept. It became extremely hard for her whenever her nightmares constantly threatened her. So, she decided to avoid it instead of going through the never-ending pain again.

Occasionally, she couldn't fight it off and woke up to watch the nightmare behind her eyelids. It was inevitable because she knew it wasn't healthy for her body, but she was already messed up anyway.

She had arrived at the lake two hours ago, disappearing from the mansion without a thought whenever her breathing became shallow and her heart rate picked up.

A panic attack. She often had those.

As she controlled her abilities with Charles over the years, she had perfected everything but two things. One, being able to control large amounts of water like waves and tsunamis. They were still working on that.

And Two, being able to stay underwater for large periods of time. So far, she had been doing it without a thought as she sat at the bottom of the lake, an air bubble around her mouth as her eyes were closed.

She didn't fight off the images behind her eyelids that time, needing to learn to process it even if it was seven years that night. She had already accepted it, but it was hard for her to look back on it without feeling the pain again.

She didn't want to bother anybody so she kept it all to herself, finding peace in the water. She remembered the first time she ever noticed her ability.

She was eight. Both Kara and Klaus were outside in the ocean behind their house, having a water fight in the dark like normal siblings.

Having gone underwater for what felt like a few seconds, she hadn't noticed that Klaus had panicked and went to notify their parents. She didn't know she was actually under there for several minutes.

She could breathe underwater without struggle and her body had reacted to the water by leaving markings across her skin. They were beautiful but she was confused by them and turned her body every which way to see if they were everywhere. They were.