Skeletons in the Closet

[Hope Ryder]

Hope bit her lip and smiled as she turned the keys to the costume closet; she’d quickly introduced herself to the drama club, and gone to investigate if there were any dancing clubs, purely to get her hands and eyes on costumes. Not that she intended on stealing them, far from it, if anything she’d be offering to modify, adjust and create more for the schools collection. She opened the door and let out an excited squeal as she stepped into the closet. It had a skylight to the side and she could smell the musty air as she stepped inside. The smile never left her face as she put the keys into her pocket and started to explore the racks full of costumes.

They were beautiful, the materials, the designs, it almost made her want to be an actress able to wear them. She pulled an elegant Shakespearian costume and held it up against herself. It was a beautiful mixture of silk and velvet, and it flowed like a dream.

[Clarity Ryder]

Clarity;; ♥

Clarity was enjoying her day, actually being halfway social and smiling a lot more than she had been in a while. It was a good day for her--she knew the answers to things, and she had the day off of training, which was always a plus. Her diary pages were full of scribblings up to three days before, and they weren't as morbid in mood as they had been. Her bike had even arrived at Hammel--something she had forgotten had been sent by mail when she had first been recruited.

Today, she had thrown on some of her favorite things that she had brought from home: her old, worn-out shirt that once had the name of a band on it but had been worn and washed too many times to make out what, exactly, it was advertising--maybe AC/DC; her most comfortable dark jeans, and her usual sneakers. She knew there was supposed to be some meeting of the art club, and she wanted to get another good seat, at the table in the back corner, where she could work on a sculpture that had no title, but was looking a lot like two people supporting one another. She'd figure it out, somehow, maybe if she asked that Coronova girl--

A certain flash of movement caught Clarity's eye. A very familiar-looking form was going into a closet. She couldn't place--exactly--where she had seen the girl before. And besides, seeing her from the side, out of her peripheral line of sight, was not the best point of reference. But she felt like it was someone she had known somehow, maybe from another life...

She didn't realize that she was already turned and stepping into the closet until the light changed. And with that change of light, Clare finally saw something that it never even crossed her mind she would see.

Hope was at Hammel.

The realization knocked the wind out of Clarity, literally, and she was taken over with several emotions at once: shock, fear, overwhelming happiness, and even hopefulness. It was crushing, maddening, dizzying. Her knees went weak while she wished for nothing more than to rush forward and hug her younger sister and weep. All she could do was choke out a single strangled word.

"Hope?" And with that, Clarity found herself somehow falling to her knees, and she barely registered the door softly closing behind her with a barely audible click.

[Hope Ryder]

Hope was swirling as the second person entered the closet. She put the dress back up on the rack and pushed her way along the line of costumes to another. This one was a ballet dress, probably from something fairytale related. Hope gently stroked the material between her fingers and sighed as she felt the smooth satin of the top and then traced her fingers over the beading that led down to the tulle of the skirt. She smiled and then froze.

Her stomach tightened and her eyes widened. She felt her breath catching in her lungs and she turned to see her sister just as she slipped to the ground and the door closed. Hope wasn’t sure what to do. She took a step back and tripped over the bottom of the rack and fell through the curtain of costumes. She landed on the floor, hidden from her sister and for a few moments, she let herself stay on the floor. Her backside hurt from the impact, but not nearly as much as her heart.
She felt herself beginning to shake and she sat up and wrapped her arms around herself. She was quite happy to stay here, hidden from her sister behind the comfort of costumes and beautiful material.

She had done so well in avoiding Clarity, she squeezed her eyes shut and pulled her legs up closer to her body. Despite being warm by nature, because of her power, Hope felt cold. She sniffed and wiped her nose. Maybe it wasn’t true, maybe she had been imagining things and Clare wasn’t on the other side of all that beauty.
The truth was, Hope had been hoping to avoid her sister here forever, she didn’t know what had happened that day, and she understood that accidents could happen with gifts, but was the encasing of her arm in ice an accident?

She moved onto her knees after a minute or two and slowly reached out into the skirts of the costumes. She pushed them apart and looked out upon her sister, her eyes watery and her expression apprehensive.
”Hi.” She said, though her voice was barely a whisper. She was scared, it showed, her cheeks were pink but the rest of her was incredibly pale and her eyes were wide and shimmering, her arm was shaking slightly as it held the costumes apart and she didn’t move any closer.

[Clarity Ryder]

Clarity;; ♥

She really had seen Hope.

Clarity was nearly crying now, her breath coming in hiccupy little sobs, because she didn't know what to do. She was the big sister, she was always supposed to know what to do, no matter what happened. She was the one Hope looked up to--or at least, she was, before Clarity's stupid god damned power had decided to make its rude appearance. She was frozen, and couldn't even move when Hope fell through the costumes, concealing her completely from sight. Clarity nearly laughed in her crying--it would be this way, wouldn't it? Clarity freezing up, and Hope always the one to have her movement, no matter what. It was just so. Freaking. Ironic. She found herself cursing the universe.

When she could move again, all she did was drop her head and move so that she was relatively sitting. Other than that, no change. She was stuck on another line of thought, one that was hard and complicated. Did Hope have a power? She mentally smacked herself. Of course Hope had a power. How else in all possibility was Hope even near Hammel by herself if she didn't have a power? But what power could Hope possibly have? She hoped it was something kind and gentle. Like talking to birds or healing or something. Just anything but the dangerous powers.

When Clarity heard movement, it took her a moment to look up. Her head felt heavy, but completely hollow at the same time, and some tears were dripping off of her chin. She was trying to keep it together, for Hope, so she took one last shuddering breath and wiped her eyes. Then, she heard her voice. It was only one syllable, and it was a whisper, but it was unmistakably Hope, and Clare was very close to crying again. But she held together, even when she realized that her sister's voice and features were tinged with something she recognized from every nightmare she had had for two and a half months: fear.

"Hey, Hope." Clarity attempted to smile, although it was a little watery. Then, although she wanted to say, "I missed you. Mom told you that, right?", Clare ended up only saying, "Why didn't you tell me you were here?" She wanted the answer to be more along the lines of Because I haven't been here long or Because I didn't know where you were, and be true, rather than the answer she knew was the true one.

[Hope Ryder]

Hope could see tear streaks down her sister’s face and she wanted to let the costumes go and hide again.
Why on Earth was Clarity crying?
Hope felt so incredibly small it wasn’t even possible to imagine being seen amongst the costumes because of how small she felt. She licked her lips and tried to keep her breathing steady as Clarity tried to smile and start a conversation. Hope looked past her sister to the door and wondered if it was possible to make a run for it. It was a stupid thought that barely lasted an instant because of the fact her sister was right on the floor of the empty space between the rack or costumes, Hope and the door.

”Cause... I...” She felt her chin quivering and she couldn’t find the air to speak the words. She took a deep shaky breath and shook her head. ”I didn’t want to. I...” She wanted to let go again, to crawl backwards and curl up in a corner safely somewhere far away from Clarity and the cold. She bit harder on her lip and sniffed again. ”I was scared. Am...” She understood that her sister might not have meant to freeze her arm, but that had been the last time they’d seen each other. Their relationship had ended with a terrifying fight and Hope had felt like she’d lost everything that day.

[Clarity Ryder]

Clarity;; ♥

Clarity felt her heart constrict painfully. It was the exact answer she was expecting, the one she was waiting for, trying to brace herself internally for before it could make its way in and crush her, unprepared. This was harder than she'd expected, though, and she still felt the words physichally, like something between a stab and a punch. She released her breath slowly through her teeth.

It would be this way, wouldn't it?

It was extremely hard, but Clarity moved so that she was standing, and stood for a moment as she caught her balance. "I guess I expected that. She breathed, her words mingling with the sad sigh that escaped from her mouth. She was looking at some Romeo-and-Juliet type costumes like they held the ending to a very sad book--she still couldn't meet Hope's eyes, although she very much wanted to be able to, and sincerely apologize. For now, all she could say, although it was nowhere near enough, was "I'm sorry."

Clarity shuffled a few inches closer to Hope, and paused, rubbing her forearm with the other hand. "So, ah..." She didn't know how to apologize better. She just couldn't apologize, no matter how she put it. It was unfair, to the both of them, but she couldn't find the words that would sound even halfway right. "Do you talk to mom much? She doesn't..." She tried to find a way to phrase it so that it wouldn't sound like she was bitter towards her mother. But how could she? Their mother was not answering her calls, or her e-mails, and Clarity was on the verge of giving up.

[Hope Ryder]

Hope looked at her sister for a few short moments in time and then looked down as her sister stood. She didn’t want to see her; she didn’t want to be trapped in this room. She could feel her shoulders trying to tremble and she took a deep breath trying to contain the motion.
Two words rang out in the closet in the air between the two sisters and she swallowed a lump. Hope was sorry too.

She looked up and saw that her sister had moved closer, instinctively she shimmed back and her arm let go of the skirt of the dress she held. The material closed like curtains and Hope looked at the swishing with wide eyes.
It was the question about their Mom that made it worse. She felt her eyes watering as she thought about when Ella had come and collected her. Clarity clearly had no idea how much their mother hated them, hated Meta-humans.
”She doesn’t like us.” was all that Hope could muster and the words were barely audible through the material. ”Can you control it?” The question was a little louder. The truth was, she wanted to hear the three letter response. Yes. If Clarity wasn’t something that Hope was afraid of, then Hope would completely fall to a blubbering mess and start crying just because she needed family, she needed love.

And once upon a time, not so long ago, Clarity had been all the love Hope had ever needed.

---sorry about the delay. Started working 2 jobs this week and all I’ve done is sleep, work and travel to and from work…---

[Clarity Ryder]

Clarity;; ♥

Clarity jumped a little when the movement of the dresses alerted her to Hope's retreat. Her eyes were wide, staring at the fabric swaying between them that had closed, completely shut, like a thin, extravagantly decorated door. When the movement faded, it was as if nobody was there, like Clarity was standing in a secluded closet for no reason, completely alone.

So that was it, then. No more complications, they'd said. Nothing wrong, and you can even go home once you've figured out your power. Not so. No. The world seemed to totally hate the idea of Clarity's happiness. Just look at the proof: Her little sister was completely terrified of her, she had a power that really, the only time it wasn't acting up was, well, now, and her mother not only let Clarity suffer through the cold shoulder--excuse the pun--but also forced Hope into it. Goddamn. The woman was supposed to be their mother, the one person who loved them no matter what. She had called Clarity a monster, and god knew how she'd reacted to Hope, her favorite little girl, being a Meta. Sera Ryder was the real monster, anbody could see that.

Clarity took the opportunity, with the wall of fabric still between them, to move so that she was but a few inches away from the rack of dresses Hope hid behind. She crouched there, looking sadly at the dresses, trying to see her sister beyond the folds of heavy skirts. She seriously wanted--no, needed to hug her sister. She didn't think that she would put a name to the homesickness she'd been feeling since her first night at Hammel, but there it was, in her mind. Hope. Hope, growing up and smiling an laughing, and always looking up to Clarity. It was time to be the big sister, but she found it was difficult, with so much time being in invisibility mode, and being apart from any reason to act in such a way for months. In response to Hope's question, she sighed and closed her eyes a moment. She didn't need to ask what it was. She knew. "No. I-I'm getting better, honestly." She nearly whispered. "I'm still not... not there, but I'm getting better?" She looked at the door, ready to leave. If the response was negative, she would. She'd walk right out that door, go out of the auditorium area, and go to art club. She wouldn't talk, but she had just gotten up any kind of courage to ask for things often, and who would notice if she was absorbed in a sculpture? Everybody got that into their work every once in a while.

She loved Hope more than herself so much of the time, but honestly, Clarity couldn't take many more emotional jabs to the heart--soon she would just stop functioning. And Hope didn't need to see her big sister stop functioning. If anything, it could wait until that night, when she was in her dorm. Yes, she'd keep it stuffed down until nobody she knew was watching, listening. She'd use her brilliant fine-just-fine smile, which she half applied just now, to keep her ripped and scattered heart from showing.

[[OOc: Listening to Paramore songs, apperently a good idea.(Careful and Turn it off are way too close to this plot. o^o) And no problem, dearest. School and family kept me from replying anyway. 83]]

[Hope Ryder]

Hope felt safe beyond the curtain of skirts and to be honest, she was kind of glad that they were remaining shut and Clarity wasn't opening them. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her insides, she could feel herself heating up and she shook her head trying to mentally tell herself to couldn't do anything, that she couldn't let her emotions get out of control, she couldn't control her fire power if she lost it.

She bit her lip, opened her eyes and looked back up at the curtains as Clarity answered her question with a stutter. It wasn't a very convincing or hopeful answer, but, Hope could tell it was honest.
She bit her lip and shuddered slightly, the room suddenly feeling cold compared to her heating skin. Clarity hadn't asked why she was here, she hadn't asked what she could do, there was so much to talk about, but neither girls were brave enough to carry on conversation.

"Clairty, I-I..."[/color] Now she was stuttering. She didn't know what to say, or where to begin, but she wanted to be held, protected... She wanted to be loved again, and she was so close.


----sorry again XD --- ps. paramore is awesome. saw them live twice last yr... <3

[Clarity Ryder]

Clarity;; ♥

Clarity was going on an internal monologue on how much of an idiot she was and how much the world hated her when she made the decision and walked to the door. There was nothing more to say, even though so much more needed to be said. Clarity felt that it was taking about an eternity, but she made it to the door without breaking down somehow. Taking deep, slow breaths, focusing on lifting her hand, she made to open the door--

And nothing happened.

The only reason Clarity noticed anything was amiss at all was when she realized that her moving forward was hindered by the door still being in the same position as it was before. She attempted to turn the knob again, and then jiggled it. Frowning, the pucker in her brow deepening, she frantically tried to turn it with no better results. Crap. She thought, remembering a warning about taking the shortcut backstage at the auditorium. It went along the lines of: If you go into the costume closet, make sure the door stays open. It locks by itself. What an idiot she was that she forgot that so very important warning. She would need Hope's help now, and that meant that she would need to talk to her. Well, she thought to herself, maybe it's not a bad thing. You still need to know what power she has that made her come here in the first place. Yes. Of course. She had no clue what thoughts she was having anymore, but at least it had kept her from panicking.

Walking back over to the dresses where Hope had disappeared, Clarity sat down with her back to a surprisingly revealing pirate costume, sighing. She opened her mouth to speak, and her voice was steady, surprisingly. "Looks like we're locked in. What do you suppose we do?" Because she only had one plan, and it didn't work unless somebody was nearby enough to hear them, which was unlikely at this time of day, today.