Post by Raina McCarthy on Sept 20, 2008 2:18:38 GMT -5
"Follow your bliss."
--Joseph Campbell
--Joseph Campbell
By the time Raina exited the training room, she was sweaty, breathing heavily, and utterly ignoring the small gash on her shoulder. It was only just beginning to clot, but she continued to ignore it. It wasn't deep enough to cause any kind of real harm, except, perhaps, to her poor, abused workout shirt. Over the years it had grown just as ratty as all her other workout shirts, and blood was so difficult to wash out of cotton. She held out the hem and inspected it. Except for the bloody sleeve, it wasn't so bad off. Perhaps she'd simply cut the sleeves off.
She passed by a window to the outside and glanced at it out of habit, catching only a glimpse of her own reflection before focusing on lights of Chicago. She like Chicago just fine. Sometimes, though, the homesickness for sunny San Diego would hit her without warning, and she'd go on Craig's List and look at apartment prices in her hometown and entertain herself with fantasies of going back to the West coast. Surely she could continue to do her job just fine from there, couldn't she?
She never brought it up, though. Looking at apartment prices and fantasizing about going back were just that: fantasies with absolutely no basis for serious consideration. She was more productive while in close proximity to the Duskoff headquarters, and it wasn't like she was unhappy in Chicago. She probably wouldn't be any happier in San Diego. The pull of her hometown was a result of a minute desire for a regular life. A minute one. She was just fine where she was. Hundreds of others would kill to be in her position, and she refused to let herself forget it.
Raina stopped in the middle of the hallway. The harsh white lights glistened and threw reflections off the linoleum like it was wet. There was no one else around to witness, so she could indulge herself a little. She turned around, hesitant despite knowing no one else was around, and went back to stand at the window and stare at the darkness between all the sparkling lights.
One day, she would have to move on. She didn't know how she knew that, but she intuitively knew that this job, this life she'd adopted, was nothing more than the job a waitress takes and the crappy apartment she signs a short-term lease on until she can figure out what she wants to do and how to do it. Maybe Raina had signed a long-term lease without meaning to, but she wasn't going to work for Duskoff until a Coven member offed her, or until she grew old enough to be sacrificed to some demon Stefen or his successor was trying to raise. She would get out, and she would follow her bliss.