Potest Esse Nur Unus: Part 8
The next evening, Duncan and Anne sat on the couch talking. They had moved Cat onto the bedroom the night before, and she kept having nightmares. Anne stayed with her most of the night, and tried to calm her down. Finally early in the morning, Anne gave Cat some sleeping pills and she's been quiet ever since.
"I'm amazed she survived with all the damage that was done." Anne said. "Is it always that bad?"
"It depends. The first one usually is, but it also depends on how powerful one is or the older one's is that strong. You get use to it after awhile. She's young, and she wasn't expecting it to hit that hard."
"Didn't you warn her? Tell her how bad it could be?"
"Yes, I did."
"I just hate to think what would've happened if you hadn't shown up when you did."
"She could've handled it. Even if she couldn't, that's the way we have to live our lives. We can't go in expecting to loose our heads, we have to assume we'll win. If not, we will loose our heads. That's part of the Game." At that moment, Cat appeared in the doorway. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired. Can I talk to you for a minute, Duncan? Alone." she said looking at the floor.
"I'll go take a shower." Anne said as she got up and went into the bathroom shutting the door behind her so they could have their privacy.
"We need to talk." Cat said as she sat on the couch next to Duncan.
"About yesterday? It will get better with experience, I promise." he said.
"I don't want experience don't want to be constantly making sure that the person I meet, doesn't want to take my head. I thought being Immortal was going to be cool. Living for hundreds of years, traveling, meeting people... but now, I don't want to. I don't want to be fifteen forever. I want to grow up, get married, have children and grow old with the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. The life I'm suppose to live. The kind of life my parents lived."
"But you can't. Caitlynn, I know this is hard for you to understand, but Immortals are special. No one knows why we are like the way we are, but we just are. There's nothing you can do about it."
Cat grew silent for a moment and for the first time since she walked into the room, she looked into Duncan's eyes. "I want you to take my head."
"I can't do that, Cat. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't feel right. I couldn't live with myself if I did, and neither could Anne."
She stood up and walked to the swords that were crossed over each other on the wall, and took hers down. "Then I'll take my own head." she said as she drew the sword up to her neck.
Duncan jumped up from the couch and ran to her. He grabbed the sword out of her hand and looked at her. "What will that accomplish? Tell me. You'll die, I'll get the Quickening, and Anne and I will be miserable. Don't you see how much joy and happiness you've brought to us. I don't know what we would've done if you hadn't have come into our lives when you did. Now you want to go and blow it all away because your first experience, which I warned you about, was bad. It gets better."
Cat looked at her saber and then Duncan and then towards the bedroom where Anne was at. "I'm scared and I don't know what to do." she said as she went to Duncan. He opened his arms and let her come into them. She just stood there allowing him hold her as she cried.
"We'll find a way, don't worry." he said as he gently kissed her on the top of her head. "We'll find a way."
A month later, Cat was still dealing with that day when she took Jayden's head. She started to go back to her old shy ways, and hardly talked. She stopped smiling even when Richie called. Duncan and Anne did all they could to make her feel better, but nothing helped. She stopped going to all her favorite places, and she stopped doing her favorite things. She no longer wanted to train or even look at a sword. Anne started to get worried.
"It's not healthy for her to sit around the house all day. She needs to get out and be with people her own age. I've tried, but she doesn't want to do anything."
"Maybe we should look for a place where she can go. A boarding school or maybe she has family somewhere. Maybe getting away for awhile would do her some good." Duncan said.
"What if we sent her to America to stay with Joe and Richie for a little bit. Just to see if she likes it. If not, then we can look for a school."
"I'll call Joe and see."