A Fate Hung in Blood

Chapter 2: The Power to Change Fate

‘You open your eyes and they fall on a large wooden bookcase, this particular bookcase was one you immediately recognized and panicked at the sight off. In the small room, decked out in colorful pictures and lights, it was a pretty coat of pain on the cage of a house you were kept in for your formative years. 

You hear footsteps coming down the hall, and voices soon accompany them. By the sound of the steps, it was your mother, and you knew at that moment exactly what was about to happen. You scrambled to the closet and muffled your breathing with a shirt as you hid amidst the piles of old, hand-me-down clothes.

Your mother reeked of alcohol and her pupils were dilated, her scattered breathing and drunken snarl giving away that she was having an episode. You clutched your backpack, you had packed it just for moments like this, alone with your mother. “Come on out Y/N, I need to tell you something before your father gets home.” she slurs out in a low tone, checking under the bed and behind a dresser, all places you have unsuccessfully hidden before.

“If I find you before you come out on your own, you're gonna wish that a god existed to take your pain away.” she snaps her head toward the closet, creeping closer. I jump out of the closet, backpack on and hands raised in defeat. She smiles wickedly and grabs your hand. Her grip is firm and bruising as her nails bite into your skin, making your wrists bleed as you try so desperately to tug your tiny arms away from the larger women. 

Your mother was a tall and strong woman, she easily trumped your feeble efforts, the actions only serving to anger her. You knew you would be in trouble for even trying to run and hide, but it did not stop you. She runs her nails along the cuts, deepening them and making sure they run all the way down your arms as you screamed in pain. “ That was your own fault, I wasn't the one thrashing. I am taking you to the St. Uragan physiatric facilities, they finally agreed to take you after your last violent outburst.” 

Your mother had been trying to be rid of you since the day you had shown signs of requiring more work or attention than your peers. You were incredibly intelligent for your age, reading and writing and thinking faster than the other kids did, but that came at the cost of sensory issues, panic attacks, a constant need for new stimulation resulting in ‘stiming’ as the doctors called it, and the most frustrating for your mother, an Over attachment to the people you care about. You couldn’t get it from your mother which left you in a bad situation and since your father was constantly working, most days consisted of you drowning out your thoughts in music to stop yourself from spiraling into a panic attack. 

When the doctors wanted to run tests and figure out what was going on with you, your mother had immediately declined and denied that anything was wrong with her daughter, convincing herself that you were doing all of the negative things on purpose for attention. She grew to resent you for your behaviors, calling most of the things you did and you as a whole ‘wasted potential’ and  had been trying for years to get the local asylum to take you off her hands behind your fathers back. It looks as if all it took was a third outburst to get them to take in an eight year old.

Your eyes began to well up with tears as you began to realize that she was not joking or toying with your head again, dragging your small body by the arm over to the beat up old truck and strapping you into the back seat. You did not fight it, you knew what would happen if you did. You silently wept and panicked as you ripped bits of your shirt off to try and stop the bleeding on your arms. The blood soaked through and saturated the thin fabric as you held pressure, ‘yup, that's definitely gonna scar’ you thought as your unstable mother violently pushed the key into the car and it roared to life, al, to take you to your final destination.’

You woke up in agony, it felt as if your veins themselves were on fire. You writhed in pain, this was no pain you had ever felt before, and it was torture. When the throbbing agony had died down you realized you were in a cell, your backpack was in the corner and open, your papers had been taken out. Looking around the cell, you saw nothing but bloodstained concrete and bars. You slowly grab your bag, only to see movement from outside the cell in the darkened corner of the room. Your head quickly shoots up and you find the woman from before, flipping through the pages of a book with a strange golden symbol on it and frantically writing things down. You tilt your head in confusion as you creep closer to the bars separating you. You sit down and cross your legs, now staring with your head still tilted at the woman. 

“ Your name is Y/N Vizcaino, correct?” she asked softly, almost a whisper as to not scare you. You nodded and continued to stare, it felt like she was talking to you as she would talk to a cornered animal. “ Can you speak?” she asked, getting a little more confident. “ Where am I?” you asked, your voice horse and rough, not sounding as confident as you would have liked as it wavered and wobbled. She seems to be documenting all of this in the book from earlier. You could now make out the symbol on the front, it seemed to have a golden rattlesnake in the middle, a prickly pear cactus behind it with one large flower blooming near the tip of a low arm. 

“ I am Mother Miranda, and I have blessed you with new life, a gift of several lifetimes.” she stated. You looked at her in confusion. ‘New life, what does that mean? Where am I? Is she going to turn me in? Take me back? I can’t go back!’ you thought in a panic, quickly spiraling into your own mind. You feel a hand on your shoulder and it brings you back to earth, looking to find that Mother Miranda had put her hand on you and seemed to understand what had happened. “Ok, how about you ask 20 questions, and I answer honestly, then we begin to discover your new abilities.” she whispers, you nod and begin to fire off questions left and right. She chuckles and implores you to slow down ‘ You're safe now’ as she puts it.

By the end of the questions you find out that she had read your file and implanted you with something called Codou. You found out that she is on a search for the perfect vessel to bring her daughter back and you are now part of the effort to help in exchange for these new abilities. You find out that she runs the village and you are now part of the lords of the village that help her run it. It's all a lot to take in and you have a hard time processing. She gently reassures you that the worst of the pain is over and she will not be returning you to the asylum. You thank her as best you can and you both get up to test your abilities.