The Black Swan

Chapter 4- Inertia.

December 20

The day

05:34 pm

Lucie had no idea what was the reason behind her hard sobbing and sniffing. The volcano inside of her just erupted and she was trying to cool it down. Mark for her was literally like any old brother, more like father. He was thirty years old, still at her grandma's house, never had a girlfriend and dropped out of university in second year while he was studying history of art. He has no job, and is a total idiot, in Lucie's point of view. Lucie had known him for almost 14 years, so his long, embarrassing, lectures were frequently normal and surely not behind the state she was in. It was just her exhaustion that caused her emotional volcano go wild inside of her. The past two days were nothing but easy, and she just couldn't hold on stronger. 

Lucie lives with her father, Oscar, in the same town Brianna lives in. Morgan, her mother, lives very far away from Lucie with her new husband, Axen, and her two twin step sisters. Lucie does not see them regularly as appointed in the court, though her mother signs all the papers accordingly. They, as in Lucie and her mother, just never seem to go along that much. After her parents' divorce when she was 12, Lucie got more lonely and less opened up.

Thanks to Brianna, Lucie learnt what true friends were.  

Lucie's father owns a shipping company and is constantly sort of busy. Barely home, their only connection is phone calls. Oscar had to get another phone number just for Lucie's calls. His phone is always on his ears as he talked. Her father comes one weekend in a month due to his full schedule touring Europe and doing an infinity number of meetings.

You can actually call Lucie 'Blindly Rich'.

To spend some quality time, Oscar takes Lucie to the most expensive shops in her town for her pleasure in owning luxurious things. But that always keeps Oscar confused as Lucie dislikes these kind of shops, tremendously. She ends up having a huge fight with him and calls the things they sell 'Expensive-for-nothing-shit'.

Oscar got Lucie a lot of servants and baby sitters, but Lucie rejected most of them. The only person who understood her and took good care of her was Adara. Adara accompanied Lucie everywhere and helped her in everything, she seemed to sort of click with Lucie. Oscar likes her because she likes Lucie so much. 

Thinking about Adara made Lucie sick to her stomach because she went out of the house two days ago without telling her where she is going. Adara was probably is paranoid at that moment. 

"Lucie, calm down. Let us put all this energy we have on thinking where the hell are we going to go now," Brianna's solid voice chopped her thoughts into pieces and scattered these pieces all around her brain. It will take her a while to collect the pieces and collapse again. Good.

She managed to sniff out one last sniff and turn off the tap of 'meltdown'. She blinked a couple of blinks and realized that her eyes were more swollen than they ever had been before. She took a deep breath and calmed her self. 

"We are going to find a safe place away from the police and from the Crystal Sovereign and we will tell you, Mark, everything. Okay?" Lucie took a glance at Brianna. Her black dress torn from the bottom making it mid thigh length. Her hair though is as fresh looking as always. Lucie smiled as she remembered what she once told Brianna about her hair being calm. "You have a straight hair blessing that is indestructible by anything."

"Fine," Mark had no emotions in his voice, just like a robot. His gaze was distant and his dull black hair was filling his face in random direction. Lucie realized for the first time how much Brianna and Mark looked alike. The same pale skin, dark hair, dark eyes and pink lips. One of the only main differences that was noticeable was the red strands dispersed everywhere around the black ones on Brianna's head.  

After a long time of what really was ten minutes, Mark was the first to break the silence. "Brianna," He said slowing the car down. "I once came this to this neighborhood with my dad and we stayed in a hotel near here. I am going to take you both there, Okay?" Lucie turned to look at Brianna as it was her decision, Mark did not ask for Lucie's. Brianna's face wore a distrustful look, that Lucie knows by heart, meant she was confused. 

"Why and when did you come here with dad?"Brianna asked. Lucie turned to look at Mark who did not enjoy the question. 

Details. Brianna and details. Details are the only things that seize Brianna's attention. She perfects it, enjoys perfecting it and ace perfecting every room of its castle. Every corridor every door, every chandelier and candle. How can she recognize them? How can her mind grasp the big chunk of information, yet only the details? She just does so. It is inside her blood.

At first Lucie thought Mark did not like question because of its timing, but then she became doubting her conclusion. He got angry and yelled "I just did, Brianna! THAT IS NOT THE POINT! STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!?" 

Brianna strangely did not let it down. "WELL YOU SHOULD STOP SAYING WEIRD THINGS AND EXPECT ME NOT TO QUESTION THEM, MARK! I AM NOT AN IDIOT!" 

Mark's eyes went blank. Brianna was panting loudly. Lucie didn't know what to do. Suddenly, the whole van turned unexpectedly right in a immense angle. Brianna shrieked a long 'Mark' in a high pitched voice as they all turned to left. Inertia!  At least I remember what physics is. Adara would be proud. Lucie thought as Mark adjusted the van back on the way. The van went back silent. Lucie then remembered Brianna's medicine.  

"Um, guys. Is there a pharmacy near that hotel? The Velo... niteeline," She took a break of saying a long word. "Is about to finish." 

 "Ventolin, Lucie." Bri corrected and

"Yes, I guess there is" Mark said spontaneously. 

Twenty more minutes passed and no one spoke a word. Lucie wished her phone had some charge to listen to music. She tried to forget everything and looked out the window. They were surrounded with farms on both sides of the rode. Lucie didn't know exactly why she didn't feel good about them. The farms looked eerie, and empty, though, the plants were fully grown and healthy green. But there were no people. Lucie reminded herself that she had no right to judge as she was not too acknowledged with crops and plants. 

Brianna though knew A LOT about plants and farming. She had like a big digital encyclopedia of plants inside her head. She and her grandma, Claudia, used to go to near farms and come back with baskets full of delicious grapes and strawberries. Claudia was a vegetarian and she never buys anything not naturally made. This actually was great as she looked just like Mark's age and she is healthier than all of them. Her perfect body that complimented her shiny and neatly cut red hair made her look very young. After what happened in the past couple of days, Lucie realized why Aunt Claudia always was kind of... disconnected from the world. 

Lucie till now does not believe what happened. 

The van slowed down into a parking lot behind a big building. "We are here," Mark said as her parked the van. They walked to the front of the house which had three windows and one wide door. A scary happy face. A terrifying one. The house was painted black and it looked older than a two hundred years old tree.

Lucie paused in her place half standing as she realized what was written, more like carved, above the door. Three black words that caused her goose pumps to rise and her mouth to drop open. Mark climbed the four front stairs to reach the door. Brianna realized what was written too and froze dazzled in her place next to Lucie. 

Brianna whispered to Lucie. "I am going to have a vision. I'll act numb. We'll talk later."

She dropped to the floor.

And Lucie stared at the words again.  

The Duvan Ingress