Envision your Future

Posted on Wed Jun 12th, 2024 @ 11:04 by Phoebe Hunter & Catriona Reid & Claire Cavendish

Chapter: Besieged
Location: Teacher's Lounge, Avalon Institute
Timeline: Friday, 22nd of January, 1993
1510 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

Catriona had heard a strange sound from the teacher's lounge as she had jogged down the corridor. She slowed her pace, listening intently for any further sounds, but the hallway remained eerily silent. Despite not wanting to pry into matters that did not concern her, but the quietness that followed the initial sound made her want to investigate.

“Hello? Is everything okay in there?” It looked like any other staff room that she had ever seen apart from the woman lying on the floor not moving. “Miss Hunter!” She whispered and ran over to the woman and turned her on her side and backed off as she saw her eyes were pure white and open but she was not at all seeing the room or the worried teenager. Catriona shifted and bounded out the room down the corridor coming to an abrupt stop as she found the headmistress walking down the corridor.

"No running in the corridor, Miss Reid." Claire called to the panther bounding her way, "No exceptions for panthers." She folded her arms and waited for the large black cat to slow down.

Catriona shifted in an instant and shook her head. “Sorry Miss Calvendish, but it’s Miss Hunter. In the teacher lounge. I heard a noise and when I heard no answer I went in.” Catriona explained not sounding sorry at all as she started to run back down the corridor.

It was hardly an explanation for the running, though the panic in the eyes of the young student told her everything she needed to know. Well, that and the location of the source if the panic. Rather than run after Cat she focused for a moment on the location, grateful that the old building gave plenty of shadows even during the brightest day. With a fizzle and a pop the Head Teacher appeared in the corner of the lounge and immediately spotted Phoebe laying in the floor.

Kneeling down next to her Claire put a hand on her shoulders and gently shook. "Miss Hunter. Phoebe." Another firm shake. The cloudy white eye staring right through her.

Catriona skidded into the staff room and stopped gingerly in the doorway. She watched as the head teacher shook the history teacher several times before she bolted sitting up. “I … I am … “ The woman looked around at Claire and then the worried looking teenager in the doorway. Her head ached more than she could ever remember before so it took her a few moment to focus her eyes and vision on what was being said.

Claire sighed and slumped back onto the floor next to the history teacher. "Are you alright?" She put a hand out on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "What happened?"

Phoebe opened her mouth to say something but stopped as she heard a cough from the doorway. "Um... I am going if this is okay." Catriona said.

"Thank you Catriona." Phoebe said weakly but watched as the girl nodded and quickly got out of there. Phoebe waited until she could no longer hear the girl's steps. "It was a vision. I once told you that my powers are like stepping into a river of time but what I never told you is sometimes a tsunami comes and I get washed away."

"That sounds.." Claire wasn't quite sure exactly what that sounded like. "Does it hurt?"

Phoebe thought to lie but decided against it. She inclined her head and nodded. "Yeah." She rubbed her face and looked around before slowly pulling herself up from the floor to stand rocking on her feet as she tried to find her balance. It was odd for her to feel for vulnerable but she could not fake it until she made it after that.

Claire quickly got up from the floor as well and guided Phoebe to the couch nearby. "Cuppa?" She offered, it seemed appropriate , tea made everything better. Or at least a lot more palpable. Besides whisky at this hour was frowned upon. Once she was confident Phoebe wouldn't just slide off the couch she made her way to the kettle in the small kitchenette. "Do you have any idea what brings on these tsunami's? Any rhyme or reason to them?"

Phoebe tried to think of what had brought on the vision. She had been stood at the window listening to the radio. “It was news. They were talking about the governments new policies.” She said darkly. “I remember thinking oh fuck and then it hit. I should have drawn some of the visions before it became too much. See if you can see any of the things over there.” Phoebe could not remember what she had grabbed to draw with but it could not be far from where she had fell to the floor.

Claire looked around the area when she saw a history textbook on the kitchen counter, a pen nearby on the floor. "I think this might be it." She grabbed the book, which had things scribbled across the already printed text.

Phoebe's face fell as she looked at the book, a wave of guilt washing over her. "Oh dear," she murmured, her voice tinged with regret. "You really did it this time, Phoebe." She sighed as she started trying to decipher the scribbles and then flicked through until she found a drawing that was on a blank page.

Looking over Phoebe's shoulder Claire tried to determine exactly what the history teacher had envisioned. The fact that the first quick sketch was interlaced with a dissertation about the ongoing Troubles in Northern Ireland didn't make things easier. "We can get a new one, I'm sure Miss Bright has a stack of them in a cupboard somewhere." She didn't like wasting materials, but to her books didn't hold the same reliquary attributes as some of the faculty seemed to hold. It was a good carrier of information, a way to convey ideas. In most cases, especially with modern books, they were easily replaceable. When Phoebe leafed to another page with a drawing Claire took a moment to take it all in.

"This might not... this cannot happen." The red-headed woman commented as she looked at the picture she had sketched with confusion. The castle was surrounded by police, fire and what looked like the army. The image was a crude picture that she would never be able to replicate in her right mind but right now it served as a warning.

It was not as readily apparent what Phoebe had drawn for Claire. But once it came into focus she felt her heart in her throat. "What the actual fuck."

Phoebe raised an eyebrow at the words that came out of the woman’s mouth, she had never heard her swear before. “I don’t know. I…I’m sorry,” Phoebe stood unsteadily to destroy the images.

Claire drew in a deep breath, allowing it to slowly escape her. "I'm not about to kill any messengers, Pheebs, thanks to you we have something they don't." She looked at her colleague and friend with a wink and a smile. "We get time to prepare. I think it's time to dust off the contingencies. Check the escape routes, makes sure the tunnel exits are still in working order and hidden from view. Stock up on conserved goods." She saw how Phoebe ripped the pages from the book and held out a hand. It was going to be useful for her to wave it around in the faces of people that needed convincing. "Do you recognise that logo?" She pointed at a vague emblem on one of the military personnel's sleeve, it wasn't one she recognised but she wasn't well versed in military structure.

Phoebe gave over the pages reluctantly and chucked the husk of a book into the bin. Phoebe still felt terrible so her usual filter was lost as she staggered into the chair near rest the door and sighed. “Yes… MI-13 knows of its existence as part of the Mutant Registration Act. I have no idea how it connects to anything else or what the hell is going to happen to lead to all of that.” She indicated the papers. Maybe there were more answers in her scribbles that she had not seen in her panic over upsetting Claire.

"They only just got that through the commons, how do they have a unit like that already?" Claire wondered if the future Phoebe saw and her perception of the present was perhaps bleeding into each other. "I've got to go.." there were about a million things that needed doing and since there was no way to know when this would occur, or what would trigger it, she'd be better off arranging all of it today rather than tomorrow. She had to get in touch with Warden.

Caught up in her thoughts on the matter she started to wander out of the room in the direction of her office, completely forgotten why she had set out in her trek through the halls in the first place.