MAD WOMAN; pjo tv series

chapter 1

[act one; chapter one     -     bleed yourself dry]

tw: small mentions of anxiety-induced self-harm

    "Andromeda?" There was a voice, one that was muffled and blocked out by the sound of music. "Andromeda, can you hear me?"

    The girl, only twelve years old, turned the volume on her hearing aids on, hiding any hesitance she felt to let the world flood her senses. She was leaning back in the chair, her Converse clad feet tucked under her legs as she sat across from the school counselor.

    She looked down at her hands, surveying the callouses and scars that she didn't remember getting. There were three rings on her left hand, and four on her right, but the one on her left pointer finger was her favorite—it was her closest companion, she supposed. It went everywhere she did, everywhere she would ever go. It would never belong to anyone else, even after she was gone. Its very existence was tied to her own by the magic that flowed through her veins, the same magic that bound the ring to her. Mania, was its name.

    "Andromeda, are you listening?"

    The girl looked up suddenly, nodding her head. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

    The woman studied her curiously, "Have you had any nightmares recently?"

    "Um, no. No, no, I'm, uh, I haven't." Obviously she was lying, but that was part of the gig. At least for Andromeda it was. She was a great liar, you know, considering she lies everyday of her life—to other people, to the world...to herself.

    "Are you lying to me?"

    Without consideration or much thought, the girl muttered, "Yes." She twisted Mania around her finger, feeling the slight thrum of it against her skin—the heartbeat of the ring that mirrored the very heartbeat of another person, one she wasn't sure she was ready to meet quite yet. "Yeah, I am lying. Lying is easier than telling the truth, Ms. Brooks."

    The woman shook her head and wrote some stuff down in the notebook in front of her. Gods, that damned notebook would be the end of her. There were so many things written in it, so many things about her sometimes violent behavior and how she deflects her feelings with an unhealthy sense of humor or anger. How she starts fights when someone so much as looks at her the wrong way because she's paranoid and can't control her emotions—because she's a loose cannon, or so she's been told.