Leave Out All The Rest pt.15

Leave Out All The Rest
Chapter Fifteen: Bang Bang/Miranda
I stared up at the person in front of me and he smiled, I couldn't see his face, not really, no distinuishing features, but I could sort of make out his smile, it was wide and happy, and I knew that I knew him, it was like some sort of twisted nostalgia, like it was from my childhood.... I had no memories from my childhood.... I had amnesia from the time I was about fifteen, maybe this was a memory? I stared at him for a few moments and looked down at the toy horses we were playing with, so this was a memory from childhood... maybe I was five and he was six... maybe we were younger, maybe we were older, I didn't know, he wore black, black shoes, black pants, a black shirt, and I wore white, a simple, plain, white dress, he smiled at me again and put down his toy horse, "Stand up Terra," he said, his voice was gravely and sort of broken, a little sqweaky, and why had he called me Terra? That isn't my name... but I stood none the less and stared into the mirror behind us, I could tell that I was just a small child by my reflection and I stared at the mirror image behind us instead of watching the boy in front of me, his hand raised and he had his pointer finger towards me, his thumb sticking straight up, his other three fingers curled into his fist, "Bang bang!" he laughed, I felt myself fall and hit the ground, then stared up at him in shock, he laughed and leaned down, offering me his hand, "Oh come on Terra, I'm not that scarey am I?" I stared at him in utter shock and silence, his hand- that he had pretended to be a gun just before- held out to me in an offer of peace, I slowly reached forward and took his hand, pulling myself up, when I looked in the mirror again I realized we were older, ten or eleven or maybe twelve, "Remember when we used to play? Cops and robbers remember?" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pink squit gun, "Remember? I used to shoot you down," he said, pulling the trigger, water squirted me in the face and I instinctively closed my eyes to keep it from hitting me there, the water stopped and I opened my eyes, rubbing the water out of them and looking forward again, this time it was only me in the mirror, the boy was gone and I stood alone at around age ... fourteen... I heard a laugh coming from behind me but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't will my body to move, a cold hand suddenly landed on my shoulder and in the mirror I saw a shadowy figure, my face depicted fear and horror and all I could see of the man's face was half a mask... an orange-ish copper mask with one slit for the eye and three small holes near the mouth, "Now he's gone, Terra.... you should hate him, he left you, he didn't even say goodbye, he didn't take the time to lie, he just got up and left, doesn't that make you angry Terra?" I felt myself begin to shake, "Stop... I don't know who you are.... I don't know you.... I don't know what you're talking about..." I choked, speaking for the first time since this bizzare .... reality began... "You don't need him Terra, he shot you down, don't you hate him? Don't you feel angry towards him?" "No... I don't even know who you're talking about..." he leaned down near my ear, "You're lieing," he said, suddenly I felt something press against my temple and stared at the gun in the mirror, "Bang bang Terra,"

With a gasp Crystal shot up in her bed and felt her heart racing against her ribs, she put one hand to her chest and used the other to sweep her hair behind her ears, she sighed deeply and closed her eyes for a moment, "What kind of weird dream was that?" she wispered quietly, shaking her head slowly and putting it aside as just another one of her crazy dreams, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, screaming slightly and putting her hands on the wall when she started to wobble and almost collapsed, "Ugh... I hate running track..." she muttered, figuring that that must be the reason why she felt so weak and dizzy and why her legs could barely keep her up, with one hand against the wall she started to walk out of her bedroom and down the stairs, she decided to just take a shower and brush her teeth and hair later, Saturdays usually had great cartoons on and she had slept in quite a wile so she was worried that she had missed them, she went into the living room and flipped the TV onto Cartoon Network, jacking the volume up so she could still hear "Young Justice" wile she made breakfast, and went into the kitchen, she started towards the cabinets when she noticed a note sitting on the counter, with one eyebrow raised, she picked it up and unfolded it, "Crystal- I'm so sorry about not being able to spend time with you lately, I hope my work can slow down for me soon, in the mean time, there's money in the bank, go buy yourself something nice like a new camera or something, see you soon, -Mom" read the note, Crystal stared at it for a few moments and walked over to the cabinet, grabbing a bowl and a box of cereal, the words twirling and swirling in her head, maybe she would redecorate her room... it could stand to be redecorated, after all she wasn't so much into the bubblegum pink design that she had when she was younger, she nodded to herself as she poured the cereal and milk into the bowl, that would be what she'd do today, she'd redecorate... after all she was always alone, she may as well like were she lived... she grabbed a spoon and started back towards the living room- right then, "Young Justice", then off to the home repair store, she went into the living room and cringed at the light seeping through the windows, all the daylight is poisen to her eyes so she slipped down the shades to cover it up, 'Why do I feel so tired?' she wondered to herself

~+~

"Thanks again Mr. Kartson!" Crystal hollered as she looked over her shoulder, happily walking out of the home goods store with bags of supplies and buckets of paint, "I think this'll look great..." she mused with a smile, her eyes closed in delight as as she walked, she gasped as a horrible scene flashed across her eyes, it was the sight of Raven on the ground writhing in pain, she stopped dead in her tracks and nearly dropped everything she was holding, her eyes springing open and her heart pounding in her chest, she sighed, "What is that? Why does it keep happening?" she wispered, closing her eyes for another moment and adjusting everything in her arms so that she was better balenced before she started walking again, this time keeping her eyes open... however her mind was still distracted, 'Why have I been having so many of these weird visions lately?' she thought to herself, looking down and falling over when she realized that she had almost collided with a small yellow dog, "Woah!" she shouted as she landed on her behind, everything she was holding crashed down around her and the little dog continued to sit in the middle of the street looking sad and dejected, she tilted her head, she knew she shouldn't just reach out and touch strange dogs but she felt so sorry for the poor thing... "Hey little guy, are you out here all alone?" she asked, hesitantly reaching out and petting the little dog behind her ears, the dog looked up at her in fascination and slowly crawled into Crystal's open lap, 'I wonder...' she thought, she was always alone, and she hated that, and her parents had never said anything about NOT being allowed to have a pet.... she picked up the little dog and then picked up her stuff and stood up, "Come on, let's go," she said with a smile as she started walking back towards the house

~+~

"There! Oh you just look amazing!" Crystal said happily as the little dog in front of her barked happily and wagged her tail, the girl smiled and leaned back against the bathroom counter, "Now all you need is a name..." she mused, "I mean I can't just keep calling you 'Puppy' forever...." she muttered quietly, scratching the back her head, she walked out of the bathroom and into her bedroom with her new puppy following right behind her quite happily, "Let's see... a good name..." she muttered as she looked around her room, she walked over to one of her cameras and started glancing at it, hm, she couldn't exactly name her puppy "Camera" or "Photograph".... puffing her cheeks out, she started looking through some of her other things, CDs, photographs, posters... when she came across one of the photos she had taken a wile back wen she was in her first year of high school, "Oh yeah! I forgot all about this!" she mused, smiling and turning the photo over since it listed all the names of the kids in the photo, "Ginger, Brandon, Brittany, Elly, Sid, Nicki, Miranda...." she paused, looking down at the name for a moment and sitting down at her desk, cranking up her laptop, she did a quick Google search on the name "Miranda", "It means admirable..." she muttered, looking down at her puppy and smiling, "Do you like that name? Miranda?" she asked rhetorically, the puppy barked and wagged her tail, "Alright then! Miranda it is!" she laughed happily, getting up from her desk, "Now to get to painting this room..." she mused, smiling at the little dog and walking over to the entrance of her room where the cans of paint and other supplies were

~+~

She started by taking the stars down from her ceiling, she had previously hung fake, styrofoam ones there a year or two ago, but now she was going to paint the ceiling like the sky, dark and with glow in the dark stars painted on, she thought that would be better and less childish, after she had prepared the ceiling she started laying newspappers around the floor of the room and put the ladder she had right where she needed to start, since she couldn't move all the furniture out, she had just covered it, too in newspappers, but as she took the lid off of her first can of paint she realized that she had forgotten to cover her bed, sighing with irritation at the tedious task, she ran downstairs and went out to get some magazenes, since she was out of newspappers, she circled into the living room and opened up the chest in the corner where she kept magazenes, picking up a few random ones and running back upstairs to her room, she started tearing the pages out one by one until her bed was almost covered, she reached for another magazene and opened it up, staring at it for a moment and grinning, this was the magazene that had published a photo of her's at the beginning of the year after she won that contast... she couldn't use that one... she got up to put it in her desk drawer and looked down when she heard a little bark, smiling at the little doggie in front of her, "Hey Miranda," she said happily, reaching down and petting her new dog happily, she loved that dog already, even though she had only met the pup about three hours ago, she was a little something to call her own, and Crystal loved that about her, having her there... it meant that Crystal wasn't always alone like she thought she was... she was always alone before but now... not now... not anymore.... she hoped...

~+~

Crystal took in a deep breath and looked at the work she had done on her ceiling, smiling and wiping some sweat off of her brow, "I think it looks pretty good, don't you Miranda?" she asked with a smile as she stared, the ceiling was dark, midnight blue with tiny, glow in the dark stars painted all over it, she had shut the curtains and turned off the lights wile she worked so she could tell were would be good to put the stars and how big to make them, she only had a lamp on at the time and now even that was turned off, she smiled at her work and was truly proud of the effort, then flipped her lamp on, "Now to clean up this mess," she said as she walked over to the window and opened the curtains, she hissed and shut her eyes as the sunlight entered the room, all the daylight is poisen to her eyes so she slipped down the shade again, blinking to take the stars down from her eyes, she then walked over and turned the light in her room on low and turned off the lamp, "Alrighty... just gotta clean up these pappers and then I can be done," she said, she had spent all day working on this but it was still bright outside due to it being summer, she looked down at her little dog and frowned, "You're probbably pretty bored aren't you? Alright, I'll go to the pet store and get you some toys after this ok?" she offered with a smile, bending down and starting to clean up the pappers, she gathered papper after papper and then suddenly paused, raising a curious eyebrow at what she found right below her bed, she reached over and picked up a scrap of dark blue fabric and stared for a moment, none of her clothes were this color.... "Odd..." she muttered, in fact, the color even reminded her of Raven's cloak... shaking her head of the thought, she set the fabric down on her nightstand and went back to cleaning up the newspappers

~+~

The lights shined down on the marina as Crystal and Miranda walked, bag from the petshop in hand and Miranda on her newly aquired leash and harness, she hummed softly and smiled at the idea of getting back to the house, more importantly, the thought of getting back to her newly painted room, now THAT was an exciting thought! "Crystal?" she heard, turning around and blinking, "Beastboy, hey, what're you doing here?" she asked with a smile as she leaned against one of the railings on the boardwalk, the shapeshifter smiled at her and leaned against the opposite post, "I had to come and get some herbs for Raven," Crystal frowned, "Is she not feeling well?" "Nah... well.... there ... something happened last night and she got really sick, but she should be fine so don't worry about it," Crystal smiled and nodded, "Who's your freind?" she looked down and grinned, "Ah Beastboy, this is Miranda, my new dog, Miranda this is Beastboy," Beastboy ofcourse couldn't resist and walked over to the little dog, happily petting her and speaking to her, Miranda ofcourse loved the attention and loved Beastboy just as much, Crystal laughed slightly at their interactions and leaned back, smiling as she watched, had Beastboy... had he always been that cute? She watched for a few more moments as they played and started to realize that she was ... she was feeling something for him... and she didn't know what it was... but it was strange, "Stop right there," she heard, jerking her head up... it was that VOICE again.... "Don't get attatched to him, don't even try," Crystal frowned, "I thought you left.... and why shouldn't I?" she grumbled under her breath, "You say something?" Beastboy asked as he looked up at her, Crystal blinked and shook her head, "Just that... I hope Raven feels better," he nodded, "Right, well speaking of that I've gotta go, I've been out too late anyway, see you and Miranda later ok?" he said with a happy smile and a wave as he took off and dissapeared into the crowd, she put her arms up over her chest and stared down at he ground, something felt wrong here... like something had just come across her safety zone or something... and she didn't know what it was, all she knew was that a strangely familiar feeling of lonliness was entering her, it was as if lonliness FOLLOWED her.... but she was always alone, why was she surprised...?