Hallucinations and Interruptions(Geebs,photo)

Anna wasn't stupid, though there were many that seemed to think she was. She was young for her age, and there was an undeniable childishness to her, true. He level of sanity varied to often for anyone to say exactly how insane she was. But she was crazy, she heard things and saw things that no one else did. She wasn't stupid. She could tell that things between Gabriel and Lireal were weird. And she knew there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. So she hung back when the two of them were together, not wanting to get in the way. She'd chosen a side though. She wasn't vocal about the side she'd chosen, but she figured it was pretty obvious.

Anna loved both of the twins. She'd brought them into her home when they came into the district, and she loved them. But her relationship with Gabriel was so much closer. She and Gabriel had something in common. They both knew the shadow world, the shadow people. Gabriel couldn't see them, of course. Not like Anna could. He was blind. But he could hear them. Anna couldn't hear or see Gabriel's shadow people, though, and he couldn't hear hers. But they knew that each other knew of them. Gabriel had even started to use Anna's word for them. Shadow people. He hadn't used that before. And Gabriel seemed to like her well enough. She figured it was because she didn't treat him different than she treated Lirie, even though he was blind.

It was obvious to her, when she saw Lireal put the bag with the cane in it into Gabriel's hands, that he wasn't going to like it. He hated that. So she flinched a little bit as his hands reached in, and she watched his fingers creep closer to the cane through the clear plastic. She picked up the black cat mewling at her feet, hugging it close for comfort as Gabriel marched down the hall, closing her eyes against the anger in his voice when he yelled at his sister. Her eyes opened wide, though, when Gabriel came storming back out the hall and ran out the door. Did he really know her house, their house, so well now that he could run without feeling where he was going? Did he know the district well enough to continue that pace?

The sigh she blew out was tired, full of confusion and desperation. She wanted to follow him, run from the house and chase the boy that had just left. But she knew better. He wouldn't like it, would think she was worried not about his feelings but about his safety. So instead she turned, walked down the hallway to the bathroom. She leaned her back against the door and sunk down to the floor, the wriggling cat still wrapped in her arms. Anna bit her lip, trying to decide what to say. She wasn't as close to Lireal, not by a long shot. Lireal rarely talked to her, was rarely home. When she was home it seemed she was locked in a room somewhere, or fighting with Gabriel. But they talked some, and she knew that Lireal worried about Gabriel a lot, loved him a lot. She didn't know Lireal's story like she knew Gabriel's, but she loved the girl all the same. Anna had a lot of love to give, anyway.

"Lirie?" she finally managed. "Why'd you do it Lirie? You had to know he wouldn't like it. That he doesn't like being treated differently, or having to do things different from everyone else. He doesn't... He manages fine on his own, doesn't he?" Anna waited for the answer, closing her eyes and counting to twenty in her head, waving off the shadow people that danced around her. Lireal had told Anna, tried to convince Anna that the shadow people weren't real, perhaps hoping that by convincing Anna of it, Anna would inadvertently convince Gabriel that his weren't real either. Anna didn't know though. That they weren't real, that it was all in her head... It wasn't unlikely. Gabriel and herself, they were the only people she knew who could see them. So it was definitely possible. But accepting that they weren't real... That meant accepting that she might just be as crazy as people told her she was. And that was scary. And the shadow people looked real, sounded real... She didn't know.

"Lirie?" Anna said once more time. She counted to twenty once more. "I'm going to go find him, okay?" Anna stood slowly, letting the cat leap from her arms as she did so. She stepped into her shoes at the door, and stepped outside. The market. That's where he would have headed. The market. To rid himself of the offending cane. She turned in that direction and wondered if he'd gotten that far, or if something had happened. He would have, though. He would have at least gotten that far.

Anna was right, as it turned out. She asked about him at the market. It had taken her a while to find someone willing to answer. Most avoided talking to her unless she was buying something. Most probably thought she was talking about one of her shadow people, instead of a real boy. But she found one person willng. One of the sellers had chuckled darkly. "The crazy boy?" he laughed. "Figures you two would know each other. He ran that way, girly." The man gestured vaguely into the other direction. "Ran like somethin' was chasin' him. Ducked into the alley o'er there." Anna frowned, thanked the man, and headed to the alley, hoping to find Gabriel.

She did, after walking into it a ways. He was leaning against a dumpster, and Anna couldn't tell if he was asleep or not. She was about to say something, do something, when a girl, a woman, came out of the shop, which she hadn't even noticed till that moment. Anna watched, frowning as the woman walked closer and closer to Gabriel and then... Kicked him? She winced, letting out a small squeak. The woman stopped, seemed to consider Gabriel and Anna cocked her head to the side, watching, curious. And then the woman spoke, offering help, and Anna figured she probably should make herself known. She shuffled her feet, spoke. "Um... I..." She stumbled over her words, a bit uncharacteristic of herself. But she was confused, and worried about Gabriel. Anna's frown deepened. She didn't know how to talk to people, adults anymore. When had that happened. She turned to Gabriel. "Are you okay? Did the shadow people bug you?" She knew he'd know it was her. He'd seemed to have her memorized almost immediately after moving in, knowing the sounds of her walk, her voice, the things that made her Anna and not somebody else.


(ooc: This is long, which is good. I haven't lost that. But it still reeks of fail. Forgive me. Congratulations. You two get to bring me back into RPing. It's been a long long time.)