Tick.
Tock.
Flashes of color flew past Bliss as she stood still in the center of a crowded subway station, doe eyes watching as so many people flew past her, each one telling their own subtle story.
Tick.
Tock.
Yes, the man behind her was grey. That's how Bliss organized things; by colors. The man behind her had one hand clenching a dull brown breifcase and the other fastening a phone to his ear as he formed sentances and sentances of orders and commands, constantly checking the time and tapping his foot. So therefore, he was grey, a very mundane color. She filed him away next to every other grey she had met and moved on.
The woman next to her, however, was what Bliss usually classified as purple. Her waterfall like brown hair was swishing down her shoulders, a long hippy-like skirt trapped her legs in its rich golden fabric and open toed gladiator sandals encased her feet, which were adorned with rings.
Tick.
Tock.
She was waiting. Waiting for that moment, that second long glimpse into paradise. Her long fingers tapping a steady rythm against her wrist and she closes her eyes.
Tick.
Tock.
A train rushes into the station, its doors opening, people rushing into it, slowly filling each available seat while the ones left over grab the nearest pole and clutch their belongings just a bit tighter.
And then she's alone.
So wonderfully and magically alone with just the voices in her head and the buzz of the old lights.
Dance, her mind whispers, dance.
So she does, letting her hair fly free from the knot at the back of her head and allowing her feet to be moved by some unseeable and barely tangible force.
She had only a second before the station began to fill up again and she was once more burdened with the thoughts of a thousand other people.
Bliss dances, eyes closed as glimpses of a past life flew before her eyelids. A pirate opening a gleaming treasure chest. A princess proving her evil step sisters wrong. A mermaid marrying the one she loves.
"Bliss Ann Grey! What are you doing?" The familiar voice of her mother interrupts her reverie and Bliss almost trips over her own two feet as her eyes fly open.
She's met with the sight of her frantic mother, along with two bored police. "Dancing," is her reply, really quite unsure why they all looked so mad.
"Dancing?! WHat do you mean dancing?! You had me worried sick! I thought.. I thought..." Her mother trails off as a violent sob steals her words like a thief running away with a purse.
"Excuse me ma'am, but we're going to have to ask you to come down to the station with us, we have a few questions we have to ask," an officer butts in, walking through the doorway and strapping a phone into the holster on his belt, right next to his gun.
How ironic.
**
One police car ride later, Bliss is sat in the lobby of the Howard Police Department, both nose and hands pressed up against the large glass window as her mother talks to a funny lady dressed all in black.
She watches as a group of kids she vaguely remembers walks past, their judgemental eyes watching her through the glass as you would an animal at the zoo.
'I'm not a tiger! I'm not a lion!' she wanted to scream at them. Willing them to realize that she really was no different than them. But her lips stayed sewed shut by a quick glance at her frustrated mother.
"Bliss?" A voice interrupts her thoughts, once again, and the 14-year-old meets the eyes of a woman dressed completely in business attire with hair so full of product she wouldn't be surprised if it would snap in half if she touched it. She was half tempted to try.
"Yes?" Bliss replies, her eyes lazily returning to the streets as she waits for the woman to inevitably begin speaking.
"Well, honey, what you did today wasn't very... smart," she begins chastising, "Your mother was worried about you! You could have been kidnapped or hurt and she wouldn't have known! Surely you realize that you shouldn't do this again?" She finishes, her eyes studying the teen with the cunningness of a fox.
Sluggishly, Bliss's head swivels to meet the eyes of said woman, closing her eyes for just a second as a single word eminates through her mind.
Brown.
Yes, she had to agree with the voice, the lady was definately brown, a highly mundane and boring color. It matched her personality perfectly. She reopens her eyes and looks the woman straight in the eyes, "It's not my fault, I couldn't help it," she says.
"Well who's fault is it then? Your mothers?" came the womans reply, her eyes shining with determination as she takes a seat in front of Bliss and folds her hands atop the table, "Perhaps you blame her for not spending time with you after the accident? Or maybe its your fathers, for deciding to not be in your life? Who's fault could it be?" she questions, raising one perfectly plucked eyebrow in questioning.
"It's yours." Bliss replies, standing up, glancing around the station and catching her mothers eye before nodding in the direction of the door. Her mother, having understood her daughters message, finishes her conversation before making her way toward Bliss.
"Ma'am?" A voice catches her mother just before she reached her daughter. It was the strange lady who had questioned her beforehand, who quietly begins a conversation with her mother. Bliss watches as her mother nods, a strained smile on her face and quickly shakes hands with the woman.
"Thank you Doctor," Her mother says several seconds later with a tone of finality before removing her hand and pulling Bliss out of the station and into the busy streets of the city.
"What did she want?" Bliss asks curiously once they reach their car, her fingers moving playfully in her lap and she stares up at her tired mother, whose pale fingers gripped the steering wheel in an almost panic-like fashion.
"Well, she wants you to visit her office. Weekly." Her mother says with a pained tone, Bliss knew why. She didn't want to accept that the only child she has left may be mental.
"Okay," she agrees, "I'll go."
**
It's so cold, so very cold, Bliss notes, opening her eyes and scanning her sourroundings. Where was she? This looks nothing like her home. It looked more like a forest, a snowy one at that.
"Pretty, innit?" A shrill voice rings out from beside her and she glances down only to be met with the most odd thing she had ever seen.
A fox. Surely this is not what that voice had originated from, "Is someone there?" She speaks hesitantly, rubbing her arms with her hands, her breath coming out in puffs of white.
"Yeah. Me," came the same voice, only this time it was slightly more annoyed. Bliss glanced down once again.
"Wait... was that you?" She asks, crowching down to the peculiar fox, whose grey eyes stared back at her with an almost humanlike expression. She was certain she looked rather odd, sitting with an unnaturally large fox, nevertheless talking to it!
Then something even more insane took place, the fox stood up on its hind legs, and reached a paw inside an invisible pouch in his fur and unearthed a golden pocket watch with a strange mark on the top before studying it for a couple moments. Sliding it back in the fox looked up at her once again, seeming to search her face before whispering something so soft, Bliss wasn't quite sure if she had imagined it or not.
"Almost... almost time."
