She stared again down the hall the figure had gone down and shook her head, sweat beginning to drop down her brow. Their voice had changed a little, but they still carried themselves like they were him, “You are as stubborn as he.” She spun around taking a swing at the figure and it was wise enough to dodge this time. “I made an effort to claim a new voice from my history. Is this better?” She sighed and began whispering a nursery rhyme as she pointed between the doorways. The figure continued speaking. “These tunnels are not of my make, but I do my best to influence them. When you travel down them, I know not where you go.”
“I don’t care.”
The figure sighed, “When Shawn and I walked these halls, he would see visions. What was. What could have been. What he wished most. You were in some of these visions. I’m sure you would love for me to share them.”
“Not really. Not interested in the stories or opinion of a pretender.” He tilted his head in visual bafflement. She explained the only time she was going to, “If you can’t be yourself and have to steal from others, you are hollow and empty.”
The figure circled her for a moment before shaking its head, “I will mark my cave when you are ready then.” It walked away stating, “Always ignoring the answer in front of you.” She shook her head in disgust and checked the hallways again. Closing her eyes and focusing on her goal, she found her mind drifting to the true Shawn. Where was he in all of this? Dean’s last sighting was not encouraging.
Eventually feeling pulled down another of the hallways, she followed her gut and stepped into the darkness. As she did, the heat would slowly fade, replaced with a piercing cold. The snow began to fall around her as she pressed forward, the tunnel fading into a starry night. The howling wind propelled the falling ice like shards of glass, turning her face a raw red as she walked. Pushing past the pain and cold, she eventually came to a familiar building, it’s warm golden lights inviting her in the cold.
She hesitated at first but eventually approached the window the light was pouring out from. On the other side of the glass, she watched as a passenger, but her bones began to warm.
Within the school their freshman dance was full of lively dancing and music that seemed so nostalgic to her now. She watched Shawn sitting awkwardly by the punch bowl, his crush Gena approaching him, “Hey, cutie. What brings you to a watering hole like this one?”
He would tease back, “The same crippling social anxiety that made you invite me.” Anisa smiled as she watched her friend warm up some, “Besides, I wasn’t about to embarrass myself without you here to watch.”
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“Oh dear. Shawn, you are a beautiful dancer. You need to stop. Come on!” Gena grabbed his hand and dragged him out onto the dance floor. Anisa smiled softly at seeing her friend enjoying himself.
Scanning the party she saw herself over by the DJ table, suggesting some amazing remixes of typically stringed classical songs. The girl running the table was amazed at what she was being told and started to take notes. She saw Terry and Maria doing their usual sappy romance crap over behind the bleachers like no one knew they were both too harmless to do more than stare at each other. She even saw her sister trying to climb onto the stage and crash the dance by playing some unattended instruments.
She watched through the window as the freshman year she never got played out unrealistically before her eyes. She knew that only she and Shawn were going to the same school. She knew that Shawn never got to tell Gena how he felt. She knew that Terry and Maria had broken up over the summer. She knew that no one was the same after Shawn’s passing. She remembered being the only one who knew or believed the truth.
In the blizzard, she heard a voice she only knew from the jewel she had been given that day at the funeral. The sinister voice whispered, “Oh, such a tragedy! Such hopeful days cut short. At least I had the dignity to bring misery off world.” She didn’t look at the figure, again refusing to acknowledge the hollow replica. “So cold. I’m so proud of you. He would be too.”
“That’s closer to being me than you are.” The figure laughed coyly at finally being acknowledged and she snapped at it, “Brainwashing and hijacking my mind doesn’t make you me! I am so much more than you!”
“More… I love that word. It implies inclusion.” Anisa turned to face the mutated scorpion themed villain Shawn had once slain. The monstrous doppelganger laughed at her again, smirking from ear to ear. The villainess walked up to the glass, dragging her claw across it to release an ear piercing shriek. “I don’t know why you defy your nature. Follow his lead. Slip in among them and eliminate them…. One… by…. One….” The monster hissed, “Punish them for defiling our home and lives.”
Anisa stood ready to combat this beast and it smiled at her, confident and in control, until its face became vicious in a flash, the claw smashing the window. As the shards of glass fell to the ground, the vision of what could have been vanished, the school now nothing but a cold, dark, and empty space. Anisa growled, “You are a nightmare that I’m glad to be rid of.”
“Nightmare! I am your stinger, Ani! I am the part of you dealing death and judgement to the deserving! You cannot deny me!” She turned to walk away into the driving snow. She refused this phantom just as she refused the crystal. The scorpion woman appeared in front of her and shouted, “It was I who offered you power! I granted you the strength you needed!”
Anisa shook her head, “You killed ally and foe alike! You held me hostage as I watched massacre after massacre at what I know were my own hands!” Grabbing the monster by the throat she stated coldly, “You are dead to me. The weakness in my heart that fears death and craves blood. I am a hero of justice. I welcome none of that.” The monster latched a claw around Anisa’s throat, the two of them gripping harder and harder. Her bodied screamed for air even as her fury demanded justice on this monster. Eventually Anisa blacked out.