The Burning of the Palace at Versailles (or, Butterfly) [REWRITING]

Chapter 19 - Naltrexone

The next morning, Melody took the stairs two at a time, and almost crashed into Colt.

She felt good, better than she had for a while. Over the past few years, she had noticed that she usually felt good after a short blackout episode. It was probably just a minor influx into mania, but she would take what she could get. She stretched her muscles and spun around as she changed her clothing three times despite every piece looking the same. Once she decided there was only so much she could do to change a T-shirt and sweatpants, she found her slipper under the bed and picked the other one off the stairwell. As she picked it up, she noticed an odd strain embedded in the grain of the wood. She pushed her fingertips into it. It was dry to the touch: completely and totally impossible to get rid of. She pulled her slipper on her bare foot and looked at the next step. The stain continued, and she skipped down the stairs, watching the stain as it went down the wood. Her eyes were so focused that she didn't notice Colt until she nearly ran into him.

"Oh!" she said, jumping back. "Hi."

Colt gave her a long, confused look, as if he had never seen her before. "Oh, you're the new girl," he said in a startlingly sweet, feminine voice. A bright red lipstick was carefully applied to his lips, and his hair was styled to curl over his forehead.

Colt walked away and left Melody there, gaping with her mouth open, stain forgotten.

"Oh, there you are!" Diana's voice said brightly from somewhere to Melody's left. "Heidi wants us to help with breakfast. Key's busy right now, so— what happened to you?"

Melody stared at the dining room door that Colt had walked to. "What. The. Fuck?" she said.

Diana moved so Melody had to look at her. "What?"

"Why did Colt— or Zac— just do his best Mean Girls impression and walk away?"

The girl slowly blinked her long eyelashes, looking like she was unsure whether to run away or back away slowly, Then a huge smile split her face, lighting up her eyelined eyes with a joyful tint. "Maria!" she said. "I've missed that girl!"

"Excuse me?" Melody said, but Diana just looked around.

"Where'd she go?"

Melody just pointed at the dining room, and Diana ran into the room. Confused, and more than a little offended, Melody followed. "'She?'' she muttered under her breath.

The dining room, of course, was chaos. Puzzle was standing on the table, screaming at Cypress, who was standing and yelling back. Diana and Colt— or Maria, whatever was going on there— were sitting down with their heads together, giggling like they were hatching a grand scheme. Key was nowhere to be seen. Jordan sat at the head of the table, clapping at Puzzle and Cypress like it was an amusing puppet show.

Melody shrugged and grabbed a piece of toast.

She walked into the kitchen and looked around. Heidi was standing in front of a counter chopping carrots, but Key was nowhere to be seen.

"Mel!" Diana said, and Melody went back to the dining room. The girl had a huge grin across her face. Her hand was resting gently on Colt's knee in a friendly, comfortable way. "Have you met Maria?"

"Who is Maria?" Melody said over Cypress's yelling from a few feet away.

"I'm Maria," Colt said.

"Maria is one of the Others," Diana said. "She's awesome."

Maria blushed, her nose turning pink. "Thanks. You're not bad yourself, Amazonian princess."

"An 'Other?'" Melody repeated. "What— oh." Suddenly, it all made sense, from the story to the lipstick. She blushed, feeling more than a little ashamed. She should have guessed one of the alters could be a girl. "Multiple personalities."