8 years ago in Caerleon, England....
7/18/2001

The young ginger haired girl refused to sit still, constantly moving about the bright and colorful room filled with shelves full of various toys and craft supplies. Ezra like coming here with her daddy, there was all sorts of things to do, she didn't, however, enjoy her lessons with Miss Cara as much. Miss Cara tried to get Ezra to talk to her and speak properly, Ezra didn't like this. She tried to speak, but it never came out how it sounded in her head. The sounds were all jumbled up and mixed with other sounds that shouldn't fit together. It was very frustrating that no one could understand her. The poor girl.

This was all said to be a result of the brain trauma she had received from the accident. Henry had been advised by a few of the doctors to sign her up for a unique form of speech therapy, which he promptly did, seeing as she greatly needed it.

"Look at this," said Miss Cara, sitting down next to Ezra as the little girl way playing with some dolls in a large plastic house in the corner. "What pretty gowns, are they princess'?" She asks. Ezra thinks for a moment then nods avidly. The corners of Miss Cara's lips twitch upwards at the corners. "You've got so much to say don't you, Ezra?" Ezra shrugged her shoulders and went back to twirling the dolls golden hair with her nimble little fingers. Miss Cara takes the dolls out of Ezra's hands and holds up for her to plainly see. "What color is this?" Miss Cara asks, pointing to the blue sparkly dress the doll has on.

"Blí-áse," the girl hopelessly fumbled over her words. Miss Cara really didn't understand the strange accent that the girl put over some of the words. It didn't really fit any variation of English pronunciation, so she wasn't sure at all what Ezra was trying to say. Miss Cara caught Henry's expression out of the corner of her eye. He seemed upset, hopeless, almost devastated. Miss Cara pushed her glasses back up and swiped a piece of strait blonde hair out from in front of them.

"Buh-lew," Miss Cara sounds out very brokenly and firmly.

"Ba-lew." Miss Cara grins at Ezra's good effort and repeats the word, albeit faster. "Blue," Ezra says after her and it comes out a little shaky, but otherwise correct.

"Very good," Miss Cara praises and Ezra only shrugs again and goes back to her dolls. "Let's take a break then." Miss Cara gets up and smooths out her khakis pants upon doing so, lifting herself up off the ground. "I'm sure it will go away," the speech teacher tries to assure the father.

"It's like she's replaced the whole English language with gibberish," frets Henry "it doesn't make a lick of sense, none of us can make heads or tails of it all."

"I know, I know, but she's getting there. She is. These little alterations will be gone soon."

"I hope," Henry says. There were so many medical issues that had arisen since the accident. Ezra had been hit the hardest than anyone by the crash, well, besides Helena...
Ezra had had a long psychical recovery in the after the accident. She couldn't even walk for the first six weeks afterwards, Henry or Aaron had to carry her up and down stairs if she needed to come out of her bedroom, but eventually she'd managed to regain the strength. Ezra had also sustained quite a bit of brain damage, no internal bleeding thank god, but there were various other altercations. Ezra had much trouble speaking, she could babble, but no more. Though even now she was learning English again. The girl was young and had much spirit, she was proving to knock down all that stood in her path. This last part, however, worried Henry the most.

Ezra had taken a liking to myths and fairytales from a very young age, as did most girls, however, by the age Ezra was currently at it was about the time for children to move off of these fantasies. At least move off the belief that these legends were real. Ezra had, in fact, been doing that herself, but as soon as she woke up from the accident, the one thing she verbally claimed was that the princess' in her story books were real. It was concerning to say the least.

Henry had also been taking Ezra to a psychiatrist in hopes to help straiten her out. A young new up and coming doctor was who Henry had employed and though he was not as experienced, he was becoming greatly know through out the city for being near revolutionary in his inventive methods. Henry was more than happy to give it a try if he thought that it might help Ezra in any way. The doctor, Ryan Morris, had claimed that her fantasy was due to the apparent loneliness that Ezra felt with the absence of her mother and though Ryan quickly amended also saying that Henry was making great strides supporting her as a single father, there's a certain void that can't be fully filled by that alone. A certain bond by mother and child that can't be fully psychologically explained. This point saddened Henry much. It was his fault the car crashed. It was his fault his daughter was like this now.

__________________________________________________________________

Present Day....
9/9/2008 11:00 pm

Ezra had showed up to the party despite her many, many worries about it, but she didn't have the heart to stand Elaine up despite herself. Ezra still didn't like parties, she never had really been a fan of crowds. She was a bit of an introvert... minus the bit. Plus, a lot of people that she and Aaron used to know were here. Ezra thought it would have only been people from their school, but this was certainly more than that and Ezra was becoming wary of the gathering more and more. The alcohol was the first thing that made Ezra uncomfortable. Despite her father's considerable efforts when she was younger, he did occasionally drink himself into a stupor and pass out wherever he was. It was a rare occasion really...

"Come on, dance with me," Elaine says, pulling Ezra out onto the outdoor park late at night where the party was being held. Some guys had dragged a small stereo here and had gotten a few good CD's and records.

"I don't know-" Elaine held her hand up.

"Iz, if there's one thing I know you and Aaron both used to love, it was dancing." Ezra shrugged sheepishly. It wasn't wrong. During parties like this when they were younger Ezra and Aaron would entertain themselves by flouncing around like maniacs. As they got older they got gradually better and it was all just good fun.

Before Ezra knew it she was in with a large group of people who were also dancing to the song being played. Ezra was facing opposed to Elaine and soon enough they were both dancing without a care. One of the guys also dancing had gotten a little too close to Ezra and Elaine. Ezra had moved away from them, but Elaine didn't seem to take notice apparently, until one of touched her in a way a woman shouldn't be. Elaine slapped his hand away. "No free rides," she said flirtatiously and with a wink. Ezra couldn't believe Elaine would flirt with that. It was completely inappropriate and yet she was just going with it? Ezra wasn't sure if this was just an image thing with Elaine, but she didn't particularly like it.

Later Elaine had gotten a drink for herself, but Ezra had refused. Elaine had become a bit... wilder than Ezra remembered, though Ezra was herself incredibly cautious. "Just try a sip?" Elaine offered. Ezra still shook her head and held her hand out to decline. Ezra glanced down at the her friends digital watch, noting that she had already been here way longer than she'd intended to be, but every time Ezra would try to escape her brunette friend would beg for just a few more minutes and everyone knows how that all goes.

"So she's still a mute," says someone that Ezra pleasantly thought she was rid of. Or rather Aaron was pleasantly pleased he was rid of.

"Veronica, hi," Elaine says and Veronica grins mildly. Ezra supposed they were all friends once upon a time. All of their parent's knew each other and so they all had seen each for get together's and birthday parties, holidays. Veronica wasn't someone Ezra had ever particularly like though. She was a bit of queen bee, like cliché mean girls style. She and Aaron had dated for a time, mainly only because each others friends had set them up. It lasted an amazingly long duration of two months before Aaron couldn't stand her antics anymore and broke it off. His friends weren't all that happy, but Aaron hadn't been able to breathe that easy in a long while.

"Elaine," Veronica greets with weak fake enthusiasm. Her smile is so superficial. Ezra mentally rolled her eyes, not doing so psychically as to draw attention to herself. The best thing to do in these situations was to just ignore it. It's what Aaron had claimed along with many others. Veronica looked over Ezra and raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"Yes, I can," Ezra says lowly, answering Veronica's non-verbal mocking inquisitions. Veronica rocked back on her heels and wore a fake expression of surprise and bemusement on her face.

"Ladies and gentlemen she speaks," Veronica exclaims louder than she needed to. Ezra just stayed silent, glancing around at the rest of the party, trying to take her mind of the uncomfortable conversation. "Is it your bed time, Princess? Waiting for your daddy to come pick you up?" Ezra's eyes shoot to Veronica, staring up at her with a kind of stricken expression of pain. Veronica's brows furrow slightly in confusion.

"V, don't," Elaine warns lowly.

"It was just a question," Veronica states, mildly confused and all too innocently.

"Guess you were just hoping that it would be Aaron," Ezra snaps coldly, still with the same odd expression as before. Veronica's eyebrows shoot up in surprise of the usually shy reserved girls retort.

"Wow, I didn't really expect that from you," Veronica admits "and we are long since broken up, FYI."

"Boy do I know," Ezra mutters, but then chokes on all further words as Veronica's next expression of astonishment hits center stage. Ezra turns to Elaine and speaks very quietly. "I need to go."

"Um, okay, I'll drive you," Elaine starts, but Ezra's already walking away. She's moving so hastily that she bumps into someone and she gets beer spilt all over her shirt and part of her jacket. There are several verbal notes of acknowledgement of this by the other party goers, but Ezra tries to pay them no mind as she runs off.

"What the hell was that about?" Veronica questions, still with a mild hint of bitterness.

"Didn't you hear about what happened to Mr. Aldebourne?" Elaine asks shocked and a little upset for her friend.

"No, I had a semester in America when it happened," Veronica explains "what happened?"

"I..can't say," Elaine says downing the rest of the contents of her cup. Veronica wanted to know badly and knew if Elaine kept going like this, soon she'd be too stoned to keep a secret anyways.

__________________________________________________________________

Ezra had showered that night, cleaning all of that disgusting smelling beverage off of herself. It was sticky in her crazy red curls and it matted them to her pale skin. She sniffled under the hot shower water, but she never cried. She was so awkward. She could blame it all on the accident. Really. But she never did, though that's what everyone else did with all of her flaws.

Ezra had later tucked herself up in bed, leaving Aaron alone to his university project that he was working on with one of his friends. Aaron hadn't known that Ezra had been out so late, he didn't like her being out that late alone. The teenaged girl pulled a hard cover book off one of her big black bookshelves and opened it up. It was another Shakespearean novel. Romeo and Juliet was a tragic story, but she loved it nonetheless. Many thought it had a stupid and pointless ending whereas Romeo had killed himself to be forever with his love in death, through the gates of Avalon and what ever lied ahead. It was dark, a bit depressing, but it was oddly comforting to a situation Ezra had been through...

The next morning it was only Tuesday and so Ezra was off to St. Elyan again for the second time in what would be many times until she graduated and headed off to university. Ezra walked inside the large school building after Aaron had dropped her off and the two had gotten breakfast at a small café they liked. Aaron expressed how dead tired he was, being up almost all night working on a school project of his with his partner and friend Luke Williams. Aaron must have been so tired that he didn't notice his younger sister's nervous distress that morning.

Ezra noted, as she walked up the front threshold stairs to St. Elyan's, that there were several kids here that were at the party last night. No one she really knew though. Ezra figured by now that she was just overreacting. She'd made a few insults and gotten a little wet, that was not by any standards a huge embarrassment. Ezra walked into the halls as swiftly as usual, trying not to get bumped by any of the other kids, Ezra was a short for her age and was easily pushed around. Ezra looked through the mobs of people to the left hand wall, trying to spot her locker. She froze in the middle off the hallway when she saw it. She was bumped and nearly knocked over by one of the girls who passed her. There was something written in red all over her locker regarding her father. Ezra's eyes instantly went wide and she started quivering. Who would do this?!?!

"Oh no, Iz, I am so sorry," someone mutters from next to the red head. Ezra turned to her friend Elaine with tears welling up in her eyes.

"You knew about this?" She squeaked sadly.

"No, I just-"

"Elaine, what?" Ezra demanded sternly and Elaine cringed a little at the smaller girls upset antics.

"I had.. a few too many last night and it just slipped out, Iz, I'm so sorry," Elaine begged her apology. Ezra just shook her head, tears threatening to fall at any second.

"I can't believe you'd tell anyone about that," Ezra says lowly, in a tone with nothing else but hurt mild shock "you knew what it meant."

"I know, but it wasn't my fault, I was drunk," Elaine tried to plead her case, but it didn't seem to be allaying Ezra any. How could someone blame something like this on the fact that they'd intentionally wanted to drink so much? There was no excuse.

"Don't talk to me," Ezra says lowly, still pained "just don't." Ezra walks off with Elaine not even bothering to call after her friend- Maybe friend- at this point. Elaine looked at the red painted words. Henry Aldebourne, death by- Elaine shut her eyes tight, not wanting to read the last few words. She knew how it went and she knew that she'd betrayed Ezra's trust in an bad way.

Ezra moved through lots of people. Some of the other classmates looked back at her as the girl frantically moved passed them with tears starting to fall. Ezra had to get away. Just anywhere, any place she could be alone. Ezra had ran up to the second floor which was way less populated at this time and Ezra shut herself inside the first classroom that she found. She closed her eyes and leaned against the door, when she opened her eyes her vision was blurred with tears, but at least the classroom was empty and she had some solitary. Ezra moved a few paces away from the door before collapsing and sliding down against the plain cream colored wall. Ezra clutched her knees up against her chest so that she was all folder up and her red puffy eyes were hidden as she buried her head in her knees, though the shaking of her sobs couldn't be stopped. Elaine had betrayed her families biggest secret. One that should have never been brought out, one that the rest of Ezra's family tried so hard to keep concealed and Elaine had thrown it out there without a second thought. Her old best friend. Was nothing sacred anymore? Ezra bet not.

One of the two doors, the door on the north wall of the classroom, swung open and Ezra didn't even notice it currently. The old teacher, Mr. Emrys, doesn't fail to notice the curled up kid in his classroom, even in his senile age. "What are you doing in here?" He asks and it's all in a concerned tone as opposed to the snippy one Ezra had only ever heard out of him before. The ginger quickly sprung to her feet brushing herself off and trying to compose herself in front of her tough teacher.

"I was- I'm sorry- I just wanted to be alone, um-" The teacher grunted in, what was it, understanding?

"Many an idiot walk those halls, I don't blame you for trying to escape all that," he muses as he walks over to his desk for something. Ezra sniffles and doesn't answer. Mr. Emrys hands her tissue and Ezra takes it, thanking him quietly and then uses it to dry her eyes. "I won't ask what's wrong," he says, rummaging again through his various shelves and desk drawers "because I know that won't help and I doubt you want to tell me anyways." Ezra chuckles wetly.

"It's all true really," she answers with a weak half-grin. Mr. Emrys grunts again as an answer. He seems to do that a lot.

"Ah ha!" He says victoriously as he pulls something off of a high shelf. Ezra can't see what it is exactly, but it's big and looks kind of heavy. Mr. Emrys glances back at the girl without turning around and mutters something under his breath that Ezra can't understand. He then swiftly, as swift as he can at his age, turns around and walks back over to Ezra, offering his a large brown leather bound book. "A distraction might help and a little birdie told me that you like to read." Ezra looks up at the teacher whose expression is very calm and almost welcoming, so the girl gingerly takes the book in her own hands.

"Thank you," she says. Ezra opens it up and begins to skim a few of the pages. She grins legitimately now. "This is like a fairytale," she muses happily.

"Mm, yes, of Camelot. Have you heard of the tale?"

"I've read the Shakespearean novel over a dozen times," Ezra announced, excited about the prospect of a possibly follow up of the story. The Quest for Camelot was an amazing, well written story. It had enough action adventure and romance to please just about anyone. That it until it reached the ending. It seemed unfinished in a sense.

"As have I," the teacher says, nodding approvingly "as have I."

__________________________________________________________________

"Veronica," calls Aaron. Veronica's already waiting at the local coffee shop that he'd asked her to meet at. Aaron had went inside, ordered a double and then sat down at a table outside with the woman.

"Long day?" Veronica asks as she sips her own hot beverage. The inner warmth the liquid spreads was very welcoming in the cold autumn months.

"Been on a crazy wild goose chase already," Aaron explains to the other "still on one actually." Veronica sighs and toys with the end of her scarf a little. She knew where this conversation was going. She had an idea of what Aaron wanted to talk about the minute she got a call from him.

"And here I was hoping you just wanted to catch up," Veronica muses wryly. Aaron raises an eyebrow warningly. "You may think I'm a piece of white trash, but I have a little bit more integrity than that." Aaron sets his foam cup down and leans over on the table, speaking lowly and harshly.

"It said bourbon and bedsheet, who else really knew the details, V?" Veronica sets- slams- her own cup down on the table and holds her hands out.

"Stop, just stop. Look, I can't exactly prove anything, but I wasn't the only one Elaine went blabbering off to."

"Now see," Aaron interjects "when Elaine called and confessed the whole thing to me, she claimed she only remembered talking to you."

"She was completely wasted, Aaron," Veronica admits softly "she was literally passed out in the backseat when I got her home." Veronica had decided to give Elaine a ride considering the fact that the younger woman was completely out of it and Veronica didn't want to have her driving in that state.

"Well, that does sound like Elaine recently," Aaron mutters "but then who was she supposedly talking to."

"Some perverted morons from the Saxons Gang-" Aaron scoffed and snorted with Veronica's accusations. Aaron knew that Veronica had always been obsessed with these guys ever since they set that church chapel fire in '04. It had been quite a big thing in Carleon for a while. Veronica was now currently working on becoming a freelance solo journalist and so far the two stories she's partnered on had been about the Saxons Gang.

"Just hear me out, okay? I know the scores, they have a lot of reason to hate the Aldebourne's." Aaron quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah?" Aaron challenges "why?"

"Think about it. The Saxons Gang are a major problem back in '04, they practically run this city. Then they start to get cocky and start hitting richer, private owned business on their robbery's and raids. Those business owners take issue with it and start to fund security and more safety measures in the community, ultimately putting a stop to the Saxons reign," Veronica explains "that gives a whole host of reasons right there, because you know who first started funding that security program?" Aaron curses under his breath. "Henry Aldebourne."

"Stop, even if this was the Saxons Gang or whatever, why would the settle to just pull some cruel idiotic on Ezra?" Aaron challenges. Veronica sighs and picks up her coffee cup again.

"That I don't know."

__________________________________________________________________

Ezra waited at school Aaron was late for picking her up. Ezra wished that she could just drive herself. She hated waiting around this place while everyone else roamed passed her. She got some passing glances for her antics today, but nothing more, though Ezra was so sensitive and insecure that in her mind she saw people were completely full on staring at her. Confrontation of any kind, even imaginary apparently, frightened her.

Ezra looked up at the large, roman numeral clock docked high up on the white stone wall in the main hallway. School had officially let out at 3:30 pm, it was now passed 4:00. Ezra sighed. The halls were completely empty at this point. All student's had either gone home. Even the teachers were starting to head off. Some stopped to ensure that Ezra was going to be picked up, the principal opted not to leave until someone came for the girl, but now the principal was back in her office and Ezra was alone. Not really knowing what else to do, Ezra decides to take out the book Mr. Emrys let her borrow to try and stave her boredom.

The brown leather bound book isn't actually as heavy as it seemed to be before. It looked so old and antique Ezra was so careful with it. There was a crest on the front of the cover. A golden, upright dragon. The symbol of Camelot as described in The Quest for Camelot. Ezra opened up the book, even the pages were old parchment. This book was probably older than Mr. Emrys was and Ezra had guessed that he was maybe about eighty years old. She had some trouble reading the scrawl on the pages, it was cursive after all, but she can make out the letters just barely enough so that the words of the story made sense.

It was already proving to be a wonderful story, even though the beginning was dark.
King Arthur Pendragon had been mortally wounded with a cursed blade, so no mortal medicine was able to cure him, so claimed the anonymous author. The King's servant and loyal friend, Merlin, had tried all in his power- which was a lot considered the legendary warlock that he was- to try and bring the King to the one place he could be saved known as the isle of the blessed, a small island in Camelot, a little patch of sacred land in the great sea's of Meredoc. During the two's efforts to try and get to this place, they were attacked by Morgan la fey and her dark knights known as the Saxons. Morgan la fey was a powerful priestess of the old Religion and was only slain by Merlin wielding a godly weapon known as Excalibur.

Ezra had been so enraptured in her story that she jumped a mile high when a school janitor came by with his trolley full of cleaning supplies. He was now currently trying to clean off the red writing on Ezra's locker. Ezra peaked over from where she was in a narrowed hallways right near the front door. She sighed heavily at the words and she felt a lump in her throat. "I wanted to make sure that was cleaned up before tomorrow," says a voice near the large front double-doors. Ezra slowly tears her eyes away from the locker and the writing and her eyes trail upwards to her brother. "I'm sorry you had to see that at all."

"The words or the event?" Ezra whispers softly as her question. It goes a little higher pitched at the end, her voice revealing her sadness. Aaron holds a hand out.

"Come on, if we stick around much longer they'll kick us out for sure." The corner's of Ezra lips twitch upwards ever so slightly at his efforts. She slips the large borrowed book back into her bag, grasps Aaron's hand and the two are on their way. Ezra walks out the door, but Aaron can't help but look back at the horrid writing one last time.

-Henry Aldebourne, death by bed sheet and bourbon. Suicide.