CHAPTER FIVE
" You'll change your name,
or change your mind
And leave this fucked up place behind
But I'll know "

          FLASHES OF PURPLE BURNED HER eyes, as screams and cries echoed. Antonia jolted and stumbled as she stared at a man at his desk, in a dark room with one source of light.

"What the fuck," She whispers.

The man didn't hear her nor couldn't see her, as her sudden presence didn't startle him. He places a dark grey cloth on his desk and showed his inner arms.

Antonia looks away and groans, "Not again. I don't want another vision! I don't have time for this! Wake me up right now!" She failed to see the balance scale marking on his inner arm.

The man takes a small glass and pours water into it. He takes his middle finger, dips it into the water, and traces his finger on the edge of the cup; a nice humming sound was made.

"What the fuck?!" She shouts to the void of nothingness that surrounded the scene. "I don't have time! I don't want to deal with this shit."

The girl paces around. "Last time, you expected me to face off a fucking Titian that wanted magic rocks. These warnings are above my qualifications! Warn Dr. Strange or literally anyone else, because the world shouldn't depend on a 17-year-old girl!"

He drank the water and placed the cup upside down on the cloth, and folded it in the cloth.
Seeing as she was stuck, Antonia crossed her arms and watched, reluctantly, cussing up a storm.

The man was old, most likely in his 50s. His long greyed hair swept to his shoulders, his eyes dull and dead.

Suddenly, he quickly smashed the glass with his cane, Antonia jumped to the sound. The man opens the cloth and the cup was broken into glass shards.

Antonia's attention turned to the cane. The cane's head was two alligators. She could feel her heart pounding rapidly, seeing the cane. The echoes of screams vaguely rang.

She snapped her head to the man, seeing him put the shards into leather woven shoes, even separated and spread.

"What the fuck..."

Her eyes widened as she groans to herself, turning away and covering her ears. The man set his foot into the shoes, one by one.
She could hear the cracking and breaking of glass as if feeling it herself. She could imagine the glass cutting and digging into his feet, his skin, and his nails.

Hearing the footsteps and moving glass, she was met with the shadow of a giant figure. She couldn't tell what it was, but it was tall and large, with beady purple eyes staring right back at her.

It pounced at her——

Antonia snapped her eyes open.
The sudden rush of fear pinned her stomach, she quickly ran to her bathroom and began to puke. Her sounds echoed in the toilet bowl, her eyes were stinging and watery.

"Another vision?"

The girl groans as she sticks her head up from out of the toilet, hearing her goddess's voice. "How could you know?"

"You mumbled in your sleep and your eyes were open the entire time, they were white as clouds. Exactly as last time happened."

Feeling that no more will come out, she flushed the toilet and rinsed off her mouth in the sink.

Isis asked, "What did you see?"

"It was... weird," Antonia admitted.

"Your visions typically deal with the uncanny."

"But this is different. It was just a man, a fucking weird man," She explained, "He wore glass shards in his shoes."

"A ritual?"
"Maybe. I don't know, I can't deal with that right now. I have shit to do."

Isis began to worry. "Like?"

"Like dealing with the Baileys."

However, Antonia watched her goddess's reaction. Isis seemed surprised by her answer.
"What else could it be?" asked the girl.

"Do you... remember last night?"

"Barely," Antonia tells, "I remember getting picked up, drinking, then Steven putting me to bed. The middle is completely out of memory. Why, what happened?"

Isis saw the entire thing.
She saw her Avatar's drunkness, how it was taken advantage of, how the neighbor had helped her to bed. She also saw how different he was, compared to the past, and how something was attached to him.

"Bad things, I'm afraid," The goddess answers, "You must never see Drew."

Antonia looked in the mirror. "Why?"

"He's a bad person, my dear. He holds no good intentions."

The Vera faced every girl's worst nightmare. She was drunk and Drew was with her, Isis didn't want to tell what happened. Antonia could feel as if her whole world was crashing on her.

The girl turns her head to Isis. "What did he do?"

But the goddess didn't answer.
She could already see the absolute fear Antonia displayed, she feel how her heart sank down, how her lungs felt heavy.

"Isis, what did he do?"

°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙·̩̩̥͙*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°

ANTONIA had to ignore the ache in her heart, the heaviness of her chest. She sat on her couch, legs curled up to her chest while staring blankly at her dingy computer.

She tried to distract herself from what Isis had told her. She tried looking for jobs and filling out applications, but that didn't seem to work. She tried to figure out her vision, by jotting down significant details to help her.
Nothing made her head forget, nor even for a second.

The girl felt paranoid. Paranoid of where Drew touched her, her imagination making her believe his hands were still on her.

She didn't know how to react to it, she didn't know what to do.

"Perhaps talking to... your neighbor may help," suggested the goddess, "Telling a trusted adult is a great first start."

Antonia put her hands on her face. "That's fucking humiliating. Steven should've never seen me like that."

"I'm sure he is not one to judge, my child. You should not feel embarrassed, you are not in the wrong."

Suddenly, a knock came on her first door. Her mind instantly imagined Steven coming to her place, to make sure she was okay.

"Puta madre," Antonia grumbles, before getting up.
(Mother fucker)

"Antonia, wait——" calls Isis.

But it was too late.
The girl's face immediately dropped when seeing a very familiar face at her doorway.

"Sweetheart," Bridget Bailey spoke, surprised she even opened the door.

Antonia stood dumbfounded. Her first reaction was to slam the door in her face. Her hand twitched in wanting to do it.
But Bridget had already made her way into the apartment, practically pushing Antonia out of the way to get in.

"Mouse, it's me. It's mommy."

The girl closed the door, slowly, continuing to stare at the woman with a cringing look. Her nickname made her want to claw her ears off, make her glue the woman's lips shut.

Bridget truly don't age.
Her pale red hair was put into a messy ponytail, her clothes screamed rich, old money. Her colored eyes held such fake joy, the same as her smile. She was the same Bridget that raised her, that hated her.

Antonia would never admit how Bridget made her feel. Her heart stopped every time she was ever near her, her mind became static, and her soul would vanish and leave her to be an empty shell.

"What do you want Bridget?" Antonia asked, quickly.

"Honey, did you not receive our letter? We want you home."

"Yeah... that will never happen."

Bridget simply ignores her. "Oh, let me look at you. I haven't seen you in, well, years." She walked and observed the girl. "I mean, you're almost a grown-up. When we blipped you were... what, 9?"

"12," She corrected.

The woman immediately hugged it, humming upon contact. Her arms wrapped around the girl and Antonia completely felt herself want to die. She didn't hug her back, her arms were away from touching the woman, while her face scrunched in disgust.

Bridget continued to ignore the girl's obvious comfort and rested her hands on her shoulder. "Sweetie, please, come home. You don't want this. You want to be home, with us."

Hearing her words, Antonia immediately reacted, by pushing the woman away from her and taking several steps back. "Fuck no!"

"Ashlyn!" Bridget gasped, the girl froze at the name, a name she viewed as dead. "Watch your mouth. I did not raise you to use those words. Especially not when talking to your mother."

Oh, how Antonia wanted to scream that she wasn't her mother. She could feel Isis standing behind her, the farthest she could. The inner rage of the goddess was unimaginable.

The woman took a deep breath. "I know you think being an adult is fun. Mouse, you don't want this life. You're 16, working every day, surviving off of cheap junk food and disgusting water. That is not the life I want for you."

"17," The girl corrects again, "I will be an adult soon so you can stop wasting your time with the 'worrying.'"

Bridget calmly argued, "That's what any kid with freedom would say——"

"This isn't about stupid teenage freedom!"

"Of course it is. You always thought we were so strict with you, and I promise, we can be lenient when you come back."

"Are you kidding me? That's what you think?" Antonia laughs, "You think this is about strictness? I mean, since we are on the topic, strict is too kind of a word. Prison is a much better word to describe you."

"Now you are being dramatic."

"Dramatic? Do you not remember how Matthew threw my ass in that closet, for hours or days?"

Her words seemed to just be ignored and forgotten again. "We just need to sit down and talk about this."

"Yeah, sure. I'll be sure to bring a fucking lawyer, or something, because I'm not going home with you. Me denying your request for guardianship letter is me getting away from you and Matthew."

The woman's face contorted. "Honey, whatever you're thinking, whatever that makes you hate us... we can talk about it on our own privately."

"In your dreams."

"God, Ashlyn... your dad and I just want you home. Is that so bad? We just want our sweet baby girl back. We need you home."

"Make me," She states.

Bridget looked offended, as if Antonia called her the worst thing possible. This wasn't the girl she raised. This wasn't the small, obedient kid she last knew.

The woman smoothed out her coat. "I'll be in contact with you then. I'm sure you already know that your father and I already submitted forms to try and erase your emancipation."

Antonia kissed her teeth. "Of course you did. Probably stalked the shit out of me to find out I punched the puto."
(bitch)

Her throat clenched at the last word. She spoke, "We love you, Ashlyn... this isn't over."

Bridget left the apartment, closing the door behind her. Antonia finally felt the tears in her eyes start to form, the sudden flashes of her childhood sprang at her.

Isis appeared beside her. "I'm sorry, my child."

The girl felt her body shut down on itself. Not only did it have to deal with Drew but now Bridget, the looming fear of getting her emancipation taken away.

Antonia made her Sorceress attire appear, making her hands glow in energy. Isis immediately noticed how everything in the room started to levitate. The couch, the coffee table, the chairs, her bed, everything was off the floor.

"Child..."

The girl screams and puts her energy into a beat-up bookcase. The energy blasted it, breaking and destroying it entirely. The furniture and objects fell down on the ground at once, breaking a few things.

"Antonia."

But she didn't listen. She grabbed one of the broken legs of the bookcase and made her way to her bed. Her Sorceress attire was gone and returned back to normal. The girl slammed the leg down on the mattress, causing no true harm but a loud muffled bang.

She beat her mattress over and over again. She didn't stop until her arms felt like falling off, until her throat was parched from her cries and shouting. Pieces of the wood started to break a bit.

Isis simply stood aside and watched it. Antonia needed to let go of her emotions, she needed to release it in some way, shape, or form.

The girl threw the piece of junk out of her hands, as she crashed herself onto the floor, with her back to the mattress.

Immediately, Isis sat beside the girl, in a normal size. Antonia defeatedly began to cry, yet there were no tears left to leave her eyes. Her body was too exhausted to move, the energy in her was nonexistent.

"My child," comforts the goddess, "you will fight through this."

The girl then began to laugh a little. Deja vu hit her like a bus; she remembered the first time Isis came to her. She said those exact words to help her and encourage her to push forward.

Antonia replies, "I can't ever have nice things, can't I."

The goddess gave a smile to the girl and sat with her. As much as Isis did want to hug the girl, it will never be possible.

So the two sat their in silence until Antonia was ready to pick herself back up again.