Close Your Eyes - Open

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna couldn't believe what her life was becoming. She was no longer the happy girl she had once been. Naive and innocent as she had been, it had been easier to pretend that the world was better than what she knew now. People were assholes. Life was a bust. No one was happy unless they somehow found something that pulled them out of their sluggish lives. Most of the time it was a person. That person. The love of their life. And it was all bull shit. Her mother told her that when you found that person, you'd know and things would fall into place and you'd be happy. Well, Adrian had found 'that' person twice, or so she thought and both times ended in her going a little bit crazier and becoming less happy, naive and innocent. It all started with Lani and then Venn and here she was again, back to her best friend.

What the hell was the matter with her? Oh right, she was a masochist. She enjoyed making herself miserable by loving all of these people that couldn't find it in themselves to love her back. The question had always been there; why wasn't she good enough? What made her so undesirable? It wasn't for the same reason that her father left her mother. She hadn't gotten pregnant, she hadn't even come close to it. It wasn't for the reason that her step father left her mother. Which in turn had been her fault too. It was just something about her, everyone dispersed from her life when they figured out what it was, but no one ever told her. It was the least they could do.

Amelia had always told her 'Close your eyes, when you open them, you'll see the world differently.' And when she was younger, it worked. She'd close her eyes, take a deep breath and when she opened them, the world was brighter and filled with happiness. But now, she was afraid to close her eyes. For when she closed her eyes, it brought images, flashes that wouldn't leave her alone. Be it the kidnapping, or her recent mental and emotional instability, she couldn't handle it. It was part of what made her incapable of sleeping regularly. So she worked herself until she was run into the ground with exhaustion. Dancing, running, working, it left her little time for thinking. All she had to do was ignore the world, and she was fine.

Today, she didn't have to work until later so she was running as if she were training for a marathon. Lap after lap, song after song, she just let go. Eventually though, she had to take a break and ended up crouched down by the edge of the frozen water. Her breathing was becoming more regular and she tried closing her eyes. As soon as they shut, she was met with a face and she snapped them back open again. Adrianna stood up from the edge and clenched her fists, with the most recent ability she'd held up being that of a pyrokinetic , she felt her blood boiling and her hand sparked. Next thing she knew, the ground around her was no longer covered in snow, she was in a circle of green, damp grass. "Just close your eyes and when you open them, you'll see the world differently.... Yeah well now the world is full of shit!" She screamed to no one.

[Dakota Hyde]

Dakota wasn’t having as bad of a life as he knew some other people were having. Or a lot of other people, really. Life seemed fair to him, then again he had trained his mind a long time ago to let go of the things that would chain his heart. That had been tough, yet emotionally lighting; he didn’t feel the burden of having everything on his shoulders like he did before he let everything chain his heart. He felt free to be happy, and free to do as he pleased. Even if he didn’t show it, he was a pretty relaxed person, other than the anger trips he had kind of often. Finding out that life was life and you just had to move on was a heart wrenching realization, but it was one that he knew everyone needed to realize. Or else no one would ever be happy.

Walking down the side of the lake, Dakota was trying to leash train his Australian Sheppard puppy. He had drove here from his apartment, there was no way he was walking in the snow. He was fine with it, they had an okay relationship, but they didn’t have a ‘great’ one. So no walking long distance in the snow if he could help it; which he could, because he owned a car. Not to mention the snow might not be ideal with the puppy. This wasn’t Luna’s first time in the snow, but every time she got more and more fascinated by it. She also had to jump in the snow instead of walk, which Dakota really wasn’t sure if that was her playing around or if that was something she really had to do.

Between the car and the middle of the lake, Dakota would stop a pick Luna up for a few moments so she could relax, and so she wouldn’t get too tired by jumping in the snow. Once they got to the middle of the lake, on land, not like actually in the middle of the lake. Kota found a rather unusual site; his brow furrowed in curiosity, while Luna started barking. There was a girl standing at the edge of the lake, with melted snow in a circle around her, but that wasn’t even the strange part. Nope, the strange part was her shouting at thin air, someone seemed to have a lot of weight on her shoulders. Dakota got closer, and the more he got closer the more Luna wagged her tail. Once Dakota was in the circle of brown grass Luna started to sniff at the ground, and the lady. “Are you okay?” That was probably not a great question considering. “Also, the world is only as full of shit as you let it.”

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna could have gone on for much longer had she not been interrupted. It was the barking that caught her attention, with an ability lingering nearby to momentarily distract her. An animal shifter. Not one she knew by the feel of it. The color was a bright, sort of icy blue and she knew that if she turned around, that's what she would see in the eyes of the shifter that accompanied the barking dog. Why her ability worked that way, she wasn't entirely sure, but it always found that color and rang out like a vibration in her mind. One would think different colors would associate with the different abilities, but that didn't take with her. She was all about the eye color being who and determining who it was that she was mimicking. The power itself was more of a feeling, one that typically went with what one felt when they were using said ability.

Her head swiveled a bit and she turned to look over her shoulder at the man and his very adorable puppy. She knew she should have just up and left before he could say anything about how psycho she was, but instead, she lingered behind. Only to have him ask if she was okay. Her initial reaction was snorting at him and shaking her head, "Clearly not." But that wasn't even the worst thing that he said to her. Who did this guy think he was? Telling her that the world was only as full of shit as she let it be? Really? She wanted to laugh, or rip his face off, but she settled for a look of frustration, that looked moreso like a child pouting.

"I'm fairly sure today is not the day I wished for a stranger to give me life coaching, thanks though," She folded her arms across her chest and looked down to see the puppy. For a moment, her frustration slipped away and she found herself smiling a tiny bit. Adrianna knelt down in front of the puppy and offered her hand to be sniffed before scratching the top of its head. "On the bright side though, you're puppy is cute," She looked up at him and offered a sheepish grin.