Chapter Six - Part Three

"Claudia?" Tidus said, placing a concerned hand on her shoulder. "Claudia, are you ok?"

Claudia said nothing, but her eyes remained wide and glassy, as if she were just now seeing Tidus for the first time. And she looked at him for the longest while, as if transfixed by her own fear. But in the end she shook off his arm, roughly, and then fled the room, muttering something about needing a drink.

Tidus and I stared at one another, nonplussed, and listening to Claudia as she rummaged through cupboards in the kitchen. Clearly, whatever it was that she had seen, had taken quite a toll on her, which left me wondering if her vision had been good news for me, or bad. But unfortunately, I had a strong inclination towards the latter.

When Claudia returned, she held a half empty bottle of Jack in one hand, and a small, clear, tumbler in the other. Wordless, she dropped heavily into her seat, perfunctorily unscrewing the bottle's cap, and then filling the glass to its very top. I noticed that her hands were shaking.

"What is it?" I asked slowly. "What did you see?"

"I... I know what I saw, I'm just having trouble figuring out how to explain it." she said dully, her voice quivering with either fear or shock. Maybe both.

"Try." Tidus urged.

Claudia's gaze snapped immediately to him, but she looked away almost as quickly again, deciding instead to turn hungry eyes to the allure of her drink. She took a sip, swallowed with a sigh, and then drained the glass before quickly pouring another.

"Tidus, you were torturing Naomi." Claudia said finally, looking down at the floor.

"What?" I said, unable to sit any longer.

"You were... sitting in a chair. And Tidus... he was... torturing you." she went on, stiffly.

"No," I said shaking my head. I refused to believe it. I couldn't. "No, you're wrong."

"He tortured you and then he stabbed you, Naomi. It was like I was there, in the room. I saw him do it."

The three of us stood there, passing looks from one person to the next, as if trapped in some ugly triangle. Claudia was obviously shaken, and I was feeling strangely numb, as if my feelings and emotions had all conveniently disappeared. But of course, Tidus was the only one of us who didn't seem afraid or even the slightest bit surprised. It was the oddest thing - he remained calm and composed, as if he were accused of this sort of thing all the time.

"I think I could use one of those drinks." I said, feeling some of my earlier dizziness returning.

"Yeah. I'll go get you one ..." Claudia replied distantly, and retreated from the room.

"Is any of this making sense to you?" I asked Tidus.

"Oddly enough, it doesn't." he replied.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, in the first vision, she said that you were standing over me, watching as I died. But now, in this one, she says that I kill you. And Claudia's visions always come in the same order as future events, so I think she must have been mistaken about the first one. She must have seen something, and interpreted it the wrong way. You didn't kill me in the first vision, Naomi. You couldn't have."

"Well, I already told you - I'm not the bad guy here. It had to have been someone else that hurt you."

"Or... maybe you just didn't succeed the first time around, and I took it upon myself to exact a little justice..." he replied slowly, eyes glittering and hard.

"So I guess you've already decided then. I'm guilty, right?" I said, hearing the bitterness within my own voice. "Well if you really believe that, then what are you still waiting for? Make your move, hot shot."

I steeled myself as we gazed at one another, preparing myself for the worst.

"Uh, seriously?" Claudia's voice broke out from the doorway. She held two more glasses in her hands, looking from me to Tidus and back again, repeatedly.

"Yes, please, by all means - duke it out. Have a Vampire-Werewolf showdown and effectively destroy my trailer in the process."

With an exasperated sigh, she marched into the middle of the room, stopping between us, and promptly pouring us each a shot of the liquor. Never taking my eyes from Tidus, I accepted the drained the contents and then set the glass down on the table.

"Look, there's no denying that you two are involved in some heavy shit, but you can't go losing your heads over it. So let's just be calm, and think rationally about this for a minute, ok? Now, in my first vision, all I saw was Naomi standing above you while you lay dying, Tidus - and that was mostly it. But now, in this vision I just had..." Claudia trailed off and I felt the impatience within me beginning to rise. I almost wanted to reach out and shake her in order to get the information flowing more quickly.

"Tidus, you started asking Naomi these questions, but it didn't seem like she was giving you the answers that you wanted. So, you started.... hurting her, and then you stabbed her and -"

"What did he ask me?" I interrupted sharply, not quite wanting to hear the rest.

Claudia paused, bit her lips, and eyed her empty glass.

"Claudia?" It was Tidus that had spoken this time.

"Alright. Look, one of the things you asked her was if she still thought she had made the right decision about something - you didn't clarify what. Naomi, you answered yes, and then Tidus you asked her if she still loved you, and she said -"

"Stop!" I said, raising my hands as in defense from her words. "I don't wanna hear it. I don't wanna know what my answer was."

"Ok, then I won't say it." Claudia replied. "That isn't what's important right now anyway. What's important, is figuring out why this happens. Nature always has a reason for choosing which visions to show Witches. This shit doesn't happen at random."

"Claudia what other details can you tell us about the visions?" Tidus asked.

"Uh, well," she began, with a sigh of concentration. "The first one was kind of quick - more like a flash than anything. And I couldn't tell where you guys were, but I do remember that Naomi was wearing a pink shirt. But the second vision was a lot longer. And I recognized one of your living rooms, Tidus. Naomi was sitting in one of the chairs, tied up, and in really bad shape. And Tidus, you were wearing a... a bloody tuxedo. And that's it, mostly."

Claudia stopped talking to roll the glass of her drink across her forehead, eyes closed and lips pursed from stress. Looking at her, I couldn't help but have pity. Seeing someone tortured, and then killed, would have been traumatic for anyone. And this unfriendly, miserable girl was obviously an exact mirror of how I felt too - drained, exhausted, and afraid of a future that was filled with horrifically dark possibilities.

But then, when I looked at Tidus, I just couldn't seem to muster what it would take to make myself loathe him. Because even as terrifying and dangerous as I knew him to be, something else buried and secretly hidden whispered that I not turn away from him.

That maybe he could be worth the risks.

"So where do we go from here?" I said, quietly. "How do we fix this?"

Tidus said nothing, and neither did Claudia at first, as her face was occupied by a frown. But after a few seconds, she relaxed again, and her face brightened with the possibility of a good idea.

"I could do a truth spell." she suggested. "Actually, it's more of a truth serum, really. I can make one, and Naomi - you can take it. They last about a minute a pop, so I'm thinking we should only need one."

"Hey, hold on a minute." I said tersely. "How come I'm on the only one who has to take it? Why not him?" I said, motioning at Tidus.

And instantly, the situation tensed as tempers flared in our sudden desperation.

"Truthfully? Because I think you sort of suck." Claudia replied, with an honesty that held no hesitance. "And, because unlike you, Tidus is actually my friend."

"Yeah?" I said, with an anger that was perfectly masked by casualness. "Well you're no walk in the park yourself, Suzy Sunshine. And are you sure it's not your jealousy that's causing you to be biased right now?"

"Jealousy?" Claudia replied, taking a step forward. And what the hell would I have to be jealous of?"

And as Claudia continued to make her way across the room, I opened my mouth to reveal a set of teeth that had mutated into needles. With a growl, I spread my arms at my sides, opening my hands to unsheathe fingernails that had sharpened considerably. The saline solution had permitted me from a full shift, but I knew that a single slash was all that it would take...

"Ladies..." Tidus interjected coolly, speeding between us at the very second before Claudia and I would have collided.

He held one solid arm against both of our chests, as Claudia and I continued to glare at one another. But even though I could sense that I was the angrier of us both, I still backed down first. I turned away, and when I faced them again a few seconds later, I was back to my normal, seemingly human, self.

"There's no harm in both of us taking it, right?" Tidus said, with gentle guarantee, as he looked down at his friend.

"No. I guess not." Claudia said, but in obvious disappointment. "So if that's really what you want, Ti..."

"It is," he said to her firmly, before addressing us together. "Naomi and I will both take the serum. That way, Claudia, you can ask each of us our intentions, fair and square. And then we'll all have the truth... with no way to hide from it."

But was the truth something that I really wanted to hear? And especially after having heard from Claudia what I had? Because skeletons were only known to surface at the worst possible times, and it already looked as if the truth was headed in a bad, bad, direction...

"Well, I guess that's it for tonight then, right?" I said, looking plainly at the others. "We're done here?"

"Yeah." Tidus replied, flashing me a small, knowing smirk. "For now."