Amor Caecus

Chapter Three

           

"You're a liar."

"I'm telling you the truth."

"Everything you just said is bullshit and I'm leaving."

"You are free to leave whenever you wish but unless you learn to control your abilities, you will not make it far."

"I. Don't. Have. Abilities. And I don't need any to survive, I've trained eno- "

"Your father clearly has taught you nothing and yet you idolize him."

"Shut up. Don't. You don't get to talk about him."

"He lied to you."

"You killed him!"

"I can teach you."

"I said sto- wait, what?"

"I told you. I've known other Partials. I can teach you. Then you can leave."

"Why?"

"Without the use of your abilities-"

"No. Say I did believe you and I did stay. You'd teach me and then...what? You really trust me not to kill you first chance I get."

"You trusted me not to, didn't you?"

"Of course not."

"The minute you crossed over into my home, I had the power to kill you. There is nothing you could have done to stop me. I could kill you right now if I wanted to. You trusted me, and are currently trusting me, not to. Whether you want to admit that or not."

֎֎֎

She didn't have a good response to that. Even now, sitting at the mouth of the cave, she still couldn't come up with an argument. She supposes that's why she found herself still cohabiting with Medusa a month after the argument, slowly extending her senses like she's been practicing for the last two weeks. She still couldn't believe that she had actually agreed to train with Medusa.

Training.

With Medusa.

She shook her head, dispelling the thoughts from her head and went back to focusing. The other senses came to her quickly. She could hear and smell a mile away; she could make her sense of touch hypersensitive, so much so that she could feel the individual threads of fabric on her clothing. These things came to her easily, but she still struggled with her sight.

You're still thinking like you're blind, Jane. You must destroy that belief. You must find something you want to see bad enough for you to break through this mental barrier that's been created.

She heard Medusa's voice in her head, a constant source of encouragement, of guidance. Or nagging, depending on the mood Jane was in. She closed her eyes and opened them again. Black. Then silver. She knew that hundreds of trees stood in front of her, and there was a nip in the air, much more noticeable than we she first arrived. Autumn. She thought about the trees just starting to turn brown and gold, about leaves falling and starting to cover the ground beneath them. She saw the picture-perfect scene in her mind and willed herself to see it in real life.

It didn't work. She tried changing the scene. More gold. More green. Less leaves on the ground. No matter how she tweaked the image in her head, it never seemed to align with what was in front of her. She sat there for hours, but the silver haze never so much as wavered. Maybe visualizing the area wasn't the key. Find something you want to see bad enough. Okay, she could do that. As the air got colder, she knew night was starting to descend and soon Medusa would be out to bring her back in. Hunters weren't the only things they had to worry about out here.

She had never seen the moon before. Something so basic, so constant, and she had never even seen photos of it. She knew its description, a big white round thing in the sky with what looked like craters all over it. She tilted her face up toward the sky and silently begged whatever gods were up there to let her see the sky. Even for just second. She stared and begged and sat there for so long that her neck started to ache from keeping it an angle. Clearly, this wasn't going to work tonight. She unfolded her legs and brought her knees up to her chest, resting her head on her knees. She extended her hearing and sure enough, she could hear Medusa walking towards the cave's entrance. She got up, brushed the dirt off her jeans, walked back inside, and leaned against the interior wall to wait. She didn't have to wait long.

"Any progress?" She asked as she stopped a few feet from her, as always. Always keeping her distance. Jane knew it was so she would feel comfortable, but in the short weeks they had spent training together she had found that she wasn't.....afraid anymore. If Medusa wanted to kill her, she would have by now.

"Not today. Which is, you know, hella depressing. I'm supposed to be focusing on something I want to see badly, but I want to see everything. And because I want to see everything, nothing is working."

"There must be something you want to see more than everything else."

You.

She coughed, choking on the word as the thought comes unbidden into her mind. Her steps faltered only slightly before picking up again, distancing herself from the woman beside her.

"I guess not." She responded. They continued the trek to Medusa's cavern silently and Jane hurried to her little corner, tripping over a chair on the way. "Actually, what I'd really like to see is where the freaking furniture is in here. How the hell does that damn chair keep getting there, I move it every time."

Medusa actually giggles at this, and Jane ignores how her palms start sweating.