On the Edge of Insanity

Visions part 1

Lucy's P.O.V

"Enca, Enca! Eea tyon mya! Eea!"

The older girl stopped running and turned to the younger with a look of exquisite disdain on her face. 

"Yayaia, Awaxiopti! Shnu shya! Mya!" 

She picked up a rock, hefted it in her hand. 

"Yayaia!" She raised it. The other, younger girl realized this and turned to flee with a shriek.

Too late.

"DAPPA!" 

She hurled it with deadly accuracy. It hit the younger squarely in the back of the head, and she crumpled to the ground, motionless.

The first girl started running again, but then she turned around and looked right at me.

A small smirk appeared on her face.

"Lucy!"

My eyes flew open. "What?!"

I scanned my surroundings. I was sitting next to Lockwood, my head in his lap. George was in front of us.

I quickly sat up, heat rushing into my cheeks.

Lockwood looked at me in concern. "Lucy, are you feeling all right? That ghost zoomed right at you, and then you, well, you just kind of fell over. Your breath caught - I could hear it from across the hall - and you collapsed on the floor. We couldn't tell if you'd been ghost-touched or not." He took a deep breath. "I... I thought you were dead, Luce."

George removed his glasses, wiped them very thoroughly on his shirt, and returned them to his nose. "So, anyway, when you hit the floor, Lockwood here"—he patted our leader's hand—"seemed to go on autopilot. He raced across the hall, threw a flare, picked you up like you were a cat or something, and carried you all the way back here. We've been trying to wake you up ever since."

He lowered his gaze.

I swallowed. Everything came rushing back.

We had been investigating the house of a woman who claimed to have seen disembodied hair floating in a cloud of mist. It had turned out to be the ghost of Isabella Meler, pronounced mailer. She was a phantasm.

We had set up base in the kitchen where she died, at the end of the hallway that connected all the rooms. I was wandering down the hall, looking for psychic traces, when out of nowhere at six o'clock PM, she had materialized rushing towards me. I had raised my rapier to ward her off... And then the vision started.

I shook my head. "I really haven't got a clue as to why I blacked out, but while I was unconscious, I had a vision."

Lockwood's eyes lit up, and I developed the sudden urge to blush and look away. I tried not to blush, but I was pretty sure my cheeks were on fire right then.

I told them what had happened in the vision.

George whistled. "That's... Malicious and sadistic. What's her name again?"

I thought for a moment. "Encanda. Or Izzy. The younger girl said, 'Izzy, Izzy! Wait for me! Wait!'"

Lockwood nodded, looking down at me. His eyes sparkled. It was only then that I noticed-

"Lockwood! You're ghost-touched!"

How had he not noticed?

"Where?"

Wordlessly, I took my rapier and cut a large hole in his shirt, right next to his shoulder.

"Hey! This is my best..."

He and George both stared, dumbstruck, at the swelled-up star of blue skin visible through the hole.

"Holy crap..." George breathed. "That, my friend, means we need to go to the hospital now to get you treated."

"It's not that bad," Lockwood protested, "it's just a-" 

That's when he uttered a sharp gasp.

That's when he slumped to the floor.

That's when I saw the grinning face of Enca.

That's then the world went black.