The Phoenix

Anya

It was only 1 a.m., and Lucy was already having a bad day. Eliza was in town, and her sister was in Israel. Her best friend had convinced her that it was a good idea to go clubbing somewhere they'd never been. Everything had actually been fine up until she'd spotted the one person she thought and hoped she never see again, Anya. Or, Crazy Psycho Bitch as she and Eliza had called her.

The name fit her perfectly. Not only was Anya crazy, but she could manipulate the truth better than anyone she had ever met. She was vindictive, manipulative, and just downright crazy. And just when she thought the situation couldn't get any worse, she noticed her.

"Oh, my god. Lucy? Is that you?" she asked in a bright and cheery tone.

"Anya?"

"Yeah. It's so good to see you again!" Anya beamed, pulling her into a friendly hug before noticing Eliza, who was standing behind her.

"El, you're here too? Wow, it's so crazy that we ran into each other!"

"Yeah, uh, totally. Uh, why are you here?" Lucy asked in a nervous tone.

"Same as you, of course. I'm going to Georgetown, it's only my dream school. I know I haven't seen you in forever, but you couldn't have forgotten about me that much, right?"

"I thought Juilliard was your dream school." Eliza butted in.

"It was until they saw my medical history."

Anya was in and out of psych wards all the time, especially after The Incident.

The three of them had met when they were dancers in Buffalo. Anya could only be matched in skill and raw talent by one girl, Tori. The had been competing for the lead spot in Swan Lake until things got nasty. Tori said something to her, and in a fit rage, Anya pushed her off the stage, causing her to break her arm and get a nasty concussion.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." she said, feigning sympathy.

"Well, now that we're all back together, I think it's time we celebrated! I'll go get us some drinks!" Anya exclaimed, practically jumping from excitement.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Lucy began to panic.

"How did she find us here?"

"Hell if I know. Something's changed with her. She doesn't have that twinge of crazy in her eyes that she used to have."

She wasn't wrong. Anya didn't seem like a veteran psychopath, she seemed like an overly excited hyper college kid.

"Should we give her a chance?" Lucy asked.

"Why not? It's been four years. Maybe the shrinks in England actually helped."

Anya's mom had sent her to a mental facility in England when she was 15 since none of the ones in America hadn't been able to help her.

"Alright." she sighed as the bubbly brunette came back with drinks.

Lucy stupidly decided to drink it without even asking what it was but thought nothing of it. They caught up for an hour, until Eliza had to leave, stranding her with Anya. That made her nervous, but Lucy didn't start to panic until she felt nauseous. She headed to the bathroom, and Anya had graciously offered to come with her. She could tell that something was seriously off when she became so dizzy that she hit her head on a light fixture, causing her to cut her face. Lucy knew what all of these things were symptoms of. Anya had roofied her.

"Lucy? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just go get me some napkins or something, would you?" she asked, finding it harder and harder to form complete sentences.

"Of course."

She only had about ten minutes to get out of there before she was rendered a human vegetable, so she called the only person she could think to call at that moment.

"Aaron Shore."

"Aaron, hey, uh, it's me," she said with panic in her voice.

"Lucy? What's wrong?"

"I'm at the club on 15th. I need your help. Right now. I'll explain when you get here. Please." Lucy begged.

Aaron sighed. "I'll be there."

"Thank you."

It took him almost no time to get there, and she began to feel more and more out of it as time went on. She was hiding from Anya outside when he arrived.

"Hey. What's going on? Are you okay?"

She was going to answer, but her knees gave out. Luckily, Aaron caught her, then unceremoniously threw her over his shoulder and carried her to the car.

"What the hell happened?"

"I let my crazy psycho bitch ex-girlfriend give me a drink, and she roofied me."

Aaron slightly scoffed.

"Nice going, dumbass."

"Fuck off." she groaned.

He took the hint and stopped questioning her, which meant the entire car ride back to her house was silent. She could barely keep her eyes open by the time they got home, so he had to carry her inside as well.

"I'm calling Emily." he said, setting her down on the couch.

Somehow she managed to stand up and slap his phone out of his hand.

"No. She can't know about this."

Then everything went black.

A/N: By the way, Emily won't be having a part until she comes back from Israel because I want to utilize this time to get more character development going for the characters that don't really have any yet. Okay, so, I don't go on Wattpad for three days and come back to find that my reads have increased by 200? This is honestly insane, and thank you to everyone who reads this book. I'd also like to give a big shoutout to my best friends JJ and Damian for helping me come up with a ton of content for this chapter, and the next one (which will be out soon) during our lunch period. You have them to thank for the great lines such as: "Nice going dumbass." "Fuck off." and the idea for Aaron to come get Lucy. By the way, my upload schedule is definitely going to be a pain in the ass, because I'm now on a travel softball team, which practices Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Plus, if I make the school team, they practice for 3 hours after school Mondays-Thursdays, so I'm going to be swamped. However, that being said, I will always try to make time for my writing! I love you guys so much, and thank you again for your unwavering support!