Part 4

At home, Blair found it was hard to keep Des out of her thoughts. His perfect image had tainted her mind, and she could no longer think straight. Blair knew how dangerous this could be. If she got too obsessed, it wouldn’t only hurt her emotionally, but physically. She decided a healthy bit of magic and meditation would help her stay focused.
She went up to her room, and sat on her bed cross-legged. As she closed her eyes, she inhaled deeply. She concentrated on her goal; getting herself into a trance. In her head, she imagined water swirling down a drain. Techniques such as these often helped her successfully will herself into a trance. It was such a simple task, but the steps to reach it were more complicated than one would imagine. It required a lot of practice to get it just right, but even if Blair did not manage to fall into a trance, it would still calm her thoughts.
“I am in a trance…” she thought to herself, hoping it would trick her mind. “I am in a trance..”
Suddenly, Blair woke. But her eyes were not open. Yet, she could see. As she looked around, she found that she was not in her bedroom, but on the floor of the forest where she usually went out hunting. She got to her feet, still slightly dazed and confused. Was she dreaming? Blair had never been in a trance before, maybe this was what it was like… maybe a cross between the two. The last of daylight was filtering through the leaves, making everything in the forest look like it was glowing. A dove landed in a high branch. Blair took note of this.
“How strange…” she said to herself. “Doves don’t usually show themselves around here.” The tiny white bird tweeted at her, and Blair giggled.
“Here birdy.” she cooed, holding out a finger. Of course, Blair didn’t expect that to work, but was surprised when the dove came and landed on her hand. It tweeted again, and leapt off Blair’s hand. Blair dove forward, trying to catch the snowy fowl before it hit the ground. But before her very eyes, it changed. In the dove’s place stood a tall, beautiful woman. Her silky skin glistened just as the forest did. Though there was no wind, her ivory dress seemed to ripple. Slung over her shoulder was a sack of arrows, and in her hand she clutched a bow.
“I know you…” Blair breathed. “You’re Goddess Diana.”
But the women did not respond. Instead, she stared off into the distance, her pond-blue eyes unfocused.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” Blair asked.
Confused, the girl stuck out her arm, trying to see if Diana was actually there. But to her surprise, her forearm went right through the Goddesses body. It wasn’t until then that Blair noticed that it wasn’t Diana who wasn’t there, it was her. Why, when she looked down, she could see straight through herself.
“BEEBEEE” screamed a voice from nowhere.
Blair was hurled back into reality. Once again, she was sitting on her bed. Michael was banging on her door and shouting.
“BEEBEE!” he cried. “GET OUT HERE..”
“Fine, fine.” Blair muttered as she got out of bed and opened the door.
“I’m hungry.” Michael said simply as Blair appeared in the doorway.
“WHAT?! Why did you have to bother me? Aren’t mom and dad around?”
“No, they left for the store. Now make me food!”
“Mike, you’re nine. I’m sure you can use a microwave.”
“NOOOOOO BUT I WANT GRILLED CHEESE. YOU CAN’T MICROWAVE GRILLED CHEESE.”
Blair knew that if she didn’t give her brother what he wanted, he would throw an even bigger tantrum. “Fine.” she said. “Come with me.”

Blair walked downstairs with Michael at her heels. She would try to make this as quick as possible, as she wanted to get back to a relaxed state. She took the bread, cheese, and butter from the fridge and prepared the sandwich on the stove.

“There.” she said when she was done. “Here’s your stupid grilled cheese sandwich.”
Michael devoured the sandwich in under a minute as Blair watched with horror. She never knew he could fit that much food in his mouth. Well, he couldn’t really, as soggy bits of food were falling out of his mouth and onto the floor. Blair winced; she had trouble keeping her own lunch down.
“You’re cleaning this up.” Blair ordered.
“Nuf! You if cweaning uwp.” Michael said, food spraying out of his mouth. Some of it was fortunate enough to land on Blair’s face.
“Ewwww!” she squealed. “This is so gross.”
“Haha!”
Blair went to the bathroom to wash her face with soap and water. She couldn’t stand having little boy spit on her. She vigorously rubbed her cheeks and forehead with the washcloth, trying to get the last bits of grilled cheese off.
“Make sure to clean up!” Blair shouted as she bolted back up the stairs. She threw herself back onto her bed. She was determined to get back to that place in the woods. So she sat as she sat before; cross-legged, and closed her eyes. She used the same technique as before, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not get herself back into a trance. Disappointed, she lay back down on her bed and stared at the ceiling, thoughts of Destry flooding her mind once more. His laugh still rang in her ears. Blair then remembered that she had homework due tomorrow, and covered her head with her pillow. She didn’t feel like doing work tonight. It was late anyways. She honestly didn’t care if the teacher yelled at her. The girl let out a soft moan and rolled over, falling asleep without even eating her dinner.