Fleur-de-lis

Eleven Eleven

Vanitas' p.o.v.

Saint Paul's year round ministry & fellowship. A school/ summer school that is known for it's promise to help "troubled children". In other words...they used conversion therapy. A rare practice these days.

Here I was...stareing at the face of what would become my prison. I Turn to face my family.

"Mom, please don't do this." I beg.

My father steps forward, speaking on her behalf. "You made your bed with this one."

A woman steps out the front entrance of the building and makes her way over to us. "Hello. The Rogers family, correct?"

"Yes." My mother says in an almost desperate tone.

The woman turns to face me. "And you must be the young man joining us this evening."

"There's nothing wrong with me." I say to her, eyes narrowed.

My father places a firm hand on my shoulder as a warning to shut up.

"Of course not, dear child. After all, you DO want to get better."

I grit my teeth but stay silent. This was going to be a very unpleasant experience.

"You've already been formally admitted. You should say your goodbyes to your family."

I turn to my mother and try to beg one last time with my eyes for her to change her mind but she just tuns her head and offers me a "Get better, son."

My father pats my shoulder. "You can come home when you've finally renounced those ridiculous ideas." He starts walking to the van. "Say goodbye, kids."

Eve gives me a ingenuine hug. "Get better, Van."

Azazel walks up to me and stares me in the eye for a few moments. Then without a word, turns and heads toward the van.

"Zel." I call out.

Azazel stops in his tracks.

"I really am sorry...about Roman. I want you to understand that."

Zel just takes a deep breath and climbs into the van along with Eve.

Lastly, Wiccan steps up to me, the pain and sadness on her face evident. She grabs my hand and places something in my palm, a sincereness in her eyes. Then she embraces me in the only genuine hug I'd recieved.

"Wiccan." My mother snaps, as if she'd done something wrong.

Wiccan jolts away in fear and runs toward the van and hops in, giving me one last sad look before the doors are closed and the engine's started. I look down in my palm and see that she had given me her earrings. These were probably the rarest natural phenomenon on the planet. I didn't deserve to watch over these.

"Shall we get going?" The woman asks.

I just stare at the van for a moment. I wanted to see. I needed to see. I needed to know the trauma of my family abandoning me. It'd make anything that followed less painful by comparison.

I watch as my family slowly drives away, making the experience that much more agonizing. I watched until they faded from my view. Then without a word, I turned and headed towards my new personal hell.

"You've already been formally admitted so all thats left for you to do is have a living space assigned to you and attend the colt ceremony in the morning."

I don't say a word. I had nothing to say. I just...I didn't know.

"Lucky for you, the headmaster is still leading the bible study so you can join."