Inside the bathroom, she slammed the door closed, braced her hands on the sink, then stared at her reflection. Cianne watched her reflection in horror as the transformation took over. The tips of her fingers darkened and that blackness traveled slowly up her arms and through her body until the veins beneath her skin resembled the roots of a tree and her face looked like a roadmap of varicose veins.
She cursed as her pupils flickered, so fast that the average person wouldn't have noticed. Then the vision hit. She closed her eyes and tightened her grip on the sink.
Instinct had her trying to shut the vision down, to stop it. Unlike her physical transformation, which would traumatize anyone who witnessed it, the actual images that played out in her head had no physical effect. Unless. . .
A sharp pain struck Cianne, almost sending her to her knees. As much as she hated what happened when she tried to stop the visions, Cianne refused to accept them. She hated seeing the horrible scenes that played out in her mind.
Cianne tightened her eyelids as she concentrated on willing the images away. It felt as though her head was imploding, a feeling she could only describe as her brain being sucked out through a straw.
Six minutes later, Cianne was drained. She focused on the sound of the running water to calm her racing heart as she leaned over the sink. Cold water dripped from her unblemished reflection in the mirror. She survived another vision, and her attempt to stop it was useless.
One of her biggest worries was that the visions left her utterly defenseless for the entire duration, several seconds to twenty minutes or more. She didn't like the risk of zoning out anywhere at any time. The dizziness allowed time for her to seek immediate shelter.
When Cianne returned to her room, Tranae was still lying in the same spot. As she entered her room, her friend's look of concern questioned if she was alright, because Tranae knew not to ask.
Seven years ago, Tranae had witnessed what happened to Cianne before one of her visions. It took two days for Tranae's mother to calm her frightened child, telling her that what she thought she had seen was impossible, that the heat of the day had gotten to her. Almost two weeks passed before Tranae would even come outside. It took another before she would even wave back when Cianne waved to her from across the street.
Cianne sank to the floor next to her friend. "I'm good."
Tranae eyed her with suspicion but said, "I figured." She gave Cianne a sympathetic pat on the leg. "Hey," Tranae said, "can I ask you something personal?"
"Sure." Cianne picked up her diary and pen then gave Tranae her full attention. She watched as Tranae sat up and rested against the foot of her bed.
"Do you ever wonder about your bio dad?"
Cianne was relieved that Tranae's question wasn't about her vision. It was an odd vision anyway. She had only seen a single drop of blood splatter over the Roman numeral sixteen. The vision was too vague for her to give any consideration, and honestly, she wanted nothing more than to forget the cryptic image.
"Sometimes," Cianne admitted. "What he looks like, if he's even alive. If I'm his only child or if I have brothers and sisters out there who look a little like me. I even wonder if he is a freak of nature like I am." Tranae rolled her eyes at the freak of nature comment, but Cianne continued. "But then I think of how blessed I am to have my dad. He loves me, and I wouldn't trade him for the world."
"Did your mom ever talk about him?" Tranae asked.
Cianne wondered why Tranae was interested in her paternal side now when it had never come up before. Whatever the case, she didn't mind talking about him. "Not really. I remember asking about him once."
Tranae's eyes widened, and she leaned forward. "What did your mom say?"
"She just said that he did some things, awful things. But she loved him a lot and it wasn't easy for her to leave him." The quiet tapping of the pen on the diary cover was the only sound in the room for a long moment. When Cianne realized she was lost in her thoughts, she held the pen still, sat up, then placed it on her nightstand.
"I wonder what happened between them," Tranae queried. "I mean. . .what could be so bad that they didn't stay together if they were in love?"
"Don't know."
"Did he know about you?"
"Don't know that either. I do know that she left him before I was born. I don't think she ever saw him after that. Sometimes, I'd find her alone in her room crying. When I asked her what was wrong, she just held me. I think I reminded her of him."
Cianne glanced at the picture of her mother on her nightstand. She missed her so much that sometimes she had to put the picture in her nightstand drawer. The action always proved to be foolish because she could never forget her mother's lovely face.
"Do you know anything about him, his name, anything?"
Cianne shrugged. "Not really. Whenever I found her crying, she always had this in her hands." Cianne held up her right hand. On her index finger was a ring. "She gave this to me. Said that there are two of them, this one he gave her, and the other was his. They're both inscribed." She twisted the ring off her finger and handed it to Tranae.
Tranae took the ring. It was heavier than it looked and Cianne winced when her friend almost dropped it. Tranae held the ring up in the air, twisting it as she inspected it. "Wow, it kinda looks like bone, maybe ivory or something."
The ring did resemble ivory, but the hue had a grayish tint. It was smooth and had a thin blue stripe around the center on the outside.
Tranae raised her shoulders when she discovered the inscription inside. "With You Always." She handed the ring back to Cianne. "You never showed this to me before."
"I didn't think it would interest you," Cianne told her. "Besides, I've never been able to wear it until now. It didn't fit."
Tranae glanced over at the photo of Cianne's mother on the nightstand. "You sort of look like her, a little." Tranae inspected Cianne's face.
"You think so." Cianne got up and walked over to her closet. She pulled open the door so she could see herself in the full-length mirror that hung on the back. She looked at her reflection.
"You have the same shaped face." Tranae walked over and stood beside her. "We do know one thing about him, your bio dad," Tranae said as she lifted a small section of Cianne's hair in her hands.
"What's that?" Cianne asked.
"He isn't Black," Tranae said, assessing Cianne. "You didn't get your silky straight hair, those blue-green eyes, or that olive skin from your mom."
Cianne shrugged at her image then walked over to her bed and lay across it. After last night's nightmare, she wasn't too interested in her mirrored image. Plus, her curiosity concerning her ethnicity had faded over the years. She simply felt that everyone had their physical differences, and she was comfortable with hers.
"What happened to you at lunch today?" Cianne wanted to move on to the serious stuff so she could tell Tranae about The Crimpy's Incident.