Abalar sat in the waiting room, tapping her foot impatiently.
“Do you think you’re crazy?”
The young woman flinched and quickly turned to the speaker, a young female twi’lek child, beside her.
“Pardon?” Abalar said.
“Do you think you’re crazy?”
Abalar gazed into her eyes, that reflected only innocent curiosity, much opposite to what Abalar’s eyes showed. Abalar knew her tired eyes exhibited her successes and failures, the deaths she’d seen, but most dominantly, the murders she had committed. In part of her daily morning ritual, ever since leaving the army, Abalar spent almost two hours just staring at herself, her scarred face, her missing arm, her brow that was permanently scrunched in concentration, and the eyes that seemed always to be sad. It was true that she did not feel joy in her life anymore, but even in her youth, living with her whacked family, Fyre had been able to at least pretend. Not anymore.
Abalar paused before answering. She had gone over this question a multitude of times. Of course, any normal person would have said, “Uh, no. I’m quite sane”. However, Abalar had long suspected something was wrong since her very first mission with Jester. That was a long time ago, by her standards. In reality, it was only five years. Abalar wasn’t even sure why she still referred to herself as Abalar. Her real name was Fyre Stone, only daughter of the wealthy Stone family.
“I… I’m not sure,” Abalar said, turning her head away.
Abalar’s foot stopped tapping, her hands crossed, fingers interlacing, and her head lowered itself, hunching her shoulders as it went.
“Oh, that’s okay. I figured you thought you were, considering where we are. But if you’re not sure, it’s cool. My parents think I’m special. They keep telling me so, they say this is where people with special talents go. Though, all the kids at school call me crazy. So I asked other people here, and they said being special meant being crazy.”
Abalar could only nod slowly. Oh how she knew it. From her rapid graduation from the Academy, Abalar had been branded as special, first serving in the exclusive Jester squad, then in the Elite Blackjack Squad. Just look where she had ended up.
"Miss Fyre Stone?" a female nurse said.
Abalar raised her head.
"Abalar," she said, correcting the nurse.
"Er, yeah. If you'll just come with me."
Abalar got up, and took a couple paces. She then turned back, to say good bye to the child. There was no one else in the waiting room.
