Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.

Now that Blair was ‘chosen a path’, the three of us have fallen into a fairly consistent pattern of searching for a campsite, passing it over if it’s daylight, and returning once it’s dark unless any of us feel we know of a similar site not too much farther.

Since making that decision, none of us were certain how Blair would sleep, afterwards.

There’s a ray of hope in that The Vision’s haunting appear to have stilled, for the time being; either She is recognizing xir choice, or simply sitting back to work on a new approach.

However, when xe woke up as wild-eyed as before, pulling xir knife and looking as though xe expected to be murdered right then, I questioned.

“Nothin’,” xe exhaled, trying to calm ximself. “It was. I thought I was somewhere else.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Was She showing you something new?”

“Nah. Somethin’ old. Not even Her, I reckon,” xe was putting on a brave face, for my benefit, an almost-smile that didn’t entirely reach xir tired eyes playing on xir lips. “Feel almost like…got so caught up worryin’ ‘bout the future She was showin’ me, my brain only just now remembered that it wants’t’ get in on makin’ my nights Hell, too.”

“Are you alright?”

“’ll be fine,” Blair muttered, and xe was lowering xir voice, giving Alyssa a considerate glance. “I just – sometimes I blink, and the sky ain’t the right color. Or the grass ain’t so green, and my eyes play tricks, like it’s checkered. We’ll pass strangers, and for a sec – I’ll think they got masks on their faces…”

Blair went silent for a moment, and Alyssa’s breathing was the only thing breaking the stillness. I had nothing to say, being uncertain as to what was appropriate.

“Sorry. Don’t mean to dump my issues on you,” Blair broke the silence after a while, rubbing xir face with the palm of xir hand. “Ain’t had the time to get back to real life, is all.”

“The situation doesn’t feel much like ‘real life’, does it?”

Blair laughed, a little. “You c’n say that again.”