She was having an episode.

A Bad Episode.

"The merchandise in today's auction is quite rare, even among our current offerings." The red curtain in front of her was pulled open. From the other side of bars of the cage she was trapped in, she could see a large auditorium filled with people. They all wore white impersonal masks. Cloaks were pulled up over their heads, hiding theirs eyes and casting eerie shadows over them. "We will start the bidding at 500,000 pounds."

"1 million!"

"Everyone is bidding, but what is it?"

"1.1 million!"

"1.8!"

"It's a Slay Vega."

"2 million!"

Clara closed her eyes and covered her ears. She tried to block out everything that she thought she saw happening around her. She ran through all of her mental techniques. Mindfulness. Grounding. Deep Breathing. She opened her eyes again, but the hall of people were still staring at her and calling out numbers. Someone was walking down the aisle to the stage she was being displayed on. She pulled on the bars of her cage with growing anxiety. She tried taking more deep breaths. She mumbled her reassurances to herself.

"None of this is real. None of it is real. Nothing that I see is there. The things I am hearing are in my imagination. Monsters are not real. Fairies are not real. Magic is not real. I am still in the hospital. None of this is real."

As usual, her chanting did nothing to dispel what she saw. The dress that she imagined herself to be wearing was short, and made it hard to move about without accidentally revealing herself. A large white cloth had been placed on her head, and Clara moved it so it covered herself more. It was hard to effectively move the large cloth because of the chains that she was bound up with. Shackles were clamped around her neck, wrists, and ankles. She could feel bruises forming on her skin from where she had struggled against her restraints. This vision was much more intense then the ones she usually had. At least all of the living beings that she saw were human.

"5 million pounds." A deep voice echoed in front of her, and she could hear gasps emanating from the audience as someone called out the exorbitant amount. The man who had earlier been walking down the aisle, had now made his way up the steps to stand on the stage in front of her. He wore a long black cape that barely brushed the floor as he walked. Around his neck hung a bolo tie with a green gem. From his head, two long twisting horn sprung up. His face was not covered by a white mask like the rest of the people attending the auction. Instead, a deep red cloth was draped over his face. A draft swept across the stage, causing the cloth hiding the man's face to flutter to the side, revealing a skeletal skull.

It certainly was not human.

Clara stared at the 'man'. His skull at first seemed to be one of a crocodile, then the stretched out snout of a jackal, and the next moment it seemed more like a dinosaur's fossilized skull. Where his eyes should have been were empty sockets, where small red orbs glowed and seemed to study her. "It's decided. You will be my apprentice. "

Clara didn't say anything. Clara didn't do anything. She couldn't do anything. She could practically feel the shattered piece of her mind clinking around in her head. This couldn't be real. It couldn't be. She just had to keep telling herself that until her brain decided to function normally again. The staff quickly escorted the man off of the stage, and carted her cage to a back room. A group of well dressed men opened her cage and grabbed ahold of her so she couldn't run. She was dragged to a back room where another well dressed man and the man with the skull were sitting. At her entrance, the man with the cloth over his skull turned to study her. Clara ducked her head in an effort to avoid looking at him. She was directed to stand by the window, and a small threat was whispered in her ear about not trying to run off and keeping quiet. With the heavy shackles that were chained to her, it was hard to walk, let alone make any sort of escape attempt.

"20 years old. American. She is a bit timid and confused, but not aggressive. Given time, training her should not prove difficult." Clara tried not to think about the implication of the well dressed man's words. Training for what? "While it was an unexpected honor to see you at the auction, we must ask that you follow the same rules as everyone else, including staying off of the stage." While his voice and mannerisms conveyed poise and polish, Clara could tell that he was irked by the 'man's' behavior.

"I'm not here for small talk, or a lecture." The 'man' stood up, and Clara could hear feet shuffling about as she stared at the floor. "You, come." The room was silent. Clara wondered if that command was directed at her. Should she comply? Or should she stay where she was? Her choice was made for her as the 'man' came to stand in front of her, and harshly yanked on the chain that sat around her neck. Clara's head snapped up, fear and terror evident in her eyes. She steeled herself for a reprimand for not listening, a punishment. "No need to keep your head down. Back straight, chin lifted, eyes forward. Understood?" Clara silently nodded as the 'man' let go of the chain. Her hallucination was becoming stranger by the minute. "I'll be borrowing your lobby."

"By all means." The group of men that had escorted her in moved to grab her again. However, the 'man' threw up a hand and they stayed where they were.

The 'man' walked to the door, and called over his shoulder, "Coming?" Was that also directed at her? No one else in the room moved, so she had to again assume that it was her he was referring to. With difficulty, she gathered her manacles and clutched the thin blanket that covered her as she slowly shuffled along behind the 'man.'

As they left the room, Clara could hear people taking about the 'man'. "Who's that eerie dude?"

"They can hear you. Stop talking. He's neither a scammer nor a sorcerer. Rare to see the 'real' thing these days."

The 'man' in question either didn't hear them or chose to ignore them as he didn't react to their conversation and kept on walking. He led her through a door that led out into the main vestibule of the auction house. She kept her head down as creatures past by her view. Mermaids. Wolfmen. Monsters of varying shapes and sizes. They were nothing that she hadn't seen before.

But that is what bothered her about them.

More people in white masks were milling about. As she passed them, they would turn their heads to watch her and would begin to whisper amongst themselves. Occasionally, she could hear their whispered words. "What a shame."

"I can't believe we allowed him to win it."

"The Slay Vega is his."

Slay Vega? It was quite obvious that they were referring to her, but the new vocabulary confused her. She had never heard of those words before. Perhaps it was a nationality that she was unaware of. Perhaps it was a strange modern slang term for the mentally unstable. She did her best to ignore their stares and their words as she continued walking. She took a moment to study the 'man'. He was impossibly tall, his horns towering above the people that surrounded him. From behind him, she could see that the back of his gleaming skull was attached to his body by a fleshy neck. His flesh, however, was not skin. It was purple and had a rough scaly texture to it. A teal monster floated through the air and slithered up his shoulder. When the monster saw her, it flew over to her and perched itself on her shoulder. She took a deep breath and reminded herself for the millionth time that day that it wasn't real. It wasn't real. She could feel it's wings create small gusts of wind as they fluttered. It wasn't real. It's small claws dug into her skin and poked her in an attempt to steady itself. It wasn't real. She could hear it making chime-like noises an attempt to communicate. It wasn't real. The creature nuzzled her cheek, and Clara couldn't help but flinch away as it attempted to lick her.

"So you can see them." The 'man' abruptly stopped walking and Clara almost ran into him. At his words, the small monster floated away, and Clara let go of the tension she hadn't realized that she was holding as it left her be. "Excellent."

Clara gasped. In her astonishment, she dropped the heavy chains she was holding, causing them to clatter to the ground loudly. "You-...You can … You can see them too?"

"Who else here would I have been speaking to, if not you?" The 'man' opened a door and gestured for her to come inside. She gathered up her shackles once again and entered the small room. It was brightly lit and lavishly furnished. The room was empty, and she was glad to no longer be surrounded by the strange creatures her mind conjured up or have prying eyes staring at her. "What is your name?"

"Clara Devlin."

"My name is Elias. Elias Ainsworth." He lifted up the cloth that had previously covered his elongated skull. His mouth didn't move as he spoke. How was he communicating with her then? This fact only confirmed what she had known all along. This was all just a figment of her broken mind. "Pleased to meet you, my little puppy." He held a gloved hand out to her. He wanted her to shake it, she presumed. Puppy? She stared for a second at the man's hand, before tentatively reaching a hand out and giving it a weak shake. She then withdrew her hand and took a step away from him. "From what I have observed so far, it appears you have the sight. How fortunate."

"Fortunate?" She grabbed her head, the chains smacking her forehead. He was mocking her in the cruelest way possible. "It's not fortunate. I'm not fortunate. I'm broken!" Her breathing was ragged and heavy. She could feel herself crumbling, unable to cope with what was going on around her. She felt something heavy begin to stroke her head. She looked up to see he was patting her. He seemed undisturbed by her outburst.

"Well, perhaps we will be able to change that." Did he mean cure her? The way he had said it made her doubt it. Besides, men who purchased girls at auctions couldn't really be that nice. He dipped a hand into the pocket of his coat. With a flourish and a shower of sparkle, he pulled out a long staff. Clara blinked and rubbed her eyes. How had he done that? There's no way that could have fit inside his pocket. She was amazed at how he had done that, until she remembered that she was hallucinating. Hallucinating very vividly. "Some people may appreciate passivity, but I am not one of them. He twirled the staff in his hands and another shower of seemingly magical sparkles sprang from the stick. "I paid good money for you. I didn't come here looking for a doll." He approached her and laid a hand on her shoulder, with a tug, he pulled her close to him. "Carry yourself like you are someone worth looking at." She stared at the man, speechless. Those were awfully nice words for a someone who just purchased a person. "Now hold on to me. You may feel at bit dizzy." Clara was about to back away and distance herself from him, when he suddenly pounded his staff on the ground. The floor beneath them began to rumble, and she clutched onto his cloak so as not to fall. A swirling circle of mist began to entwine itself around their ankles, and brambles and thorns sprouted up from the ground.

"Nettle in the shadows,
False holly in a ring.
Twine your branches
Entangle
Enmesh
Spin a spider's web"

As he chanted, he did not react to or acknowledge the thorns that began to grow in a dome over them. A gust of wind swept past them, and she adjusted her shift so it wouldn't blow up. She closed her eyes as bright lights started flashing and the earth seemed to tilt. She could hear fairylike music echo around her. He was right, she did begin to feel dizzy. Soon, the feeling went away, along with the wind and music. "You can open your eyes now."

Clara tentatively did as she was told, and was astonished to see what she saw. They were no longer surrounded by thick thorns in the classy lobby of an auction house, but standing in the open field of a picturesque countryside. Clara coughed as she took her first ever breath of fresh country air. They were surrounded by small flowers of all colors that seemed to spring up in bunches. Trees heavy with leaves swayed in a gentle breeze as birds brought back sticks to build their nests. In front of them stood a small cottage, the kind that were painted with oil by artists that lived a long time ago. A small wisp of smoke curled lazily out of the chimney, and ivy creeped its way up the brick all the way to the roof. Clara had thought that houses like this only existed in fairytales. "As I expected, we made it in one leap." He turned toward her. "Welcome. This is my home, and as of today it is yours as well."

A home? Clara's mind swirled and was filled with the word. Home. She had never had a home before, at least not one she could remember. Elias walked to the door of the house, seemingly unaware of the impact his words had on her. Clara looked around, "Where is 'home'?" The word felt both strange and wonderful on her tongue.

"We are west of London, in the countryside in the outskirts of England."

"England?!" She looked around her. It certainly looked like what she supposed her mind would think an English countryside would look like. She put a hand to her head. Her visions usually consisted of just seeing strange creatures, not full on kidnapping scenarios where she was auctioned of to the highest bidder and somehow magically whisked away to England.

"Here." He bent down and touched the manacle that sat around her neck with his finger. "You won't be needing that anymore." In a flash of light, the metal that entrapped her exploded into millions of tiny pieces. The shrapnel scattered to the wind. She was free. Free.

"As of today, you are my pupil. An apprentice mage." Clara looked up at him. His arms were crossed, and he seemed serious as he looked down at her. He wasn't kidding or joking around.

"A mage?" It was too fantastical to believe. A mage? Magic? It would explain all of the seemingly impossible things that had transpired in the last few minutes. If magic were real, it would also explain the creatures she could see. Perhaps that is why her mind had dreamed up this situation, as a way to make her illness not a bad thing, but something good.

"We are a dying breed, and I warn you that you may find me a bit old fashioned. I welcome you into my home as my new apprentice, Slay Vega. No," There was that word again. He stopped walking towards the house and turned around to face her. "Clara." She stared at him, and then the house and the field, then back at him. To have this all be real was tantalizing, a dream beyond imagining come true. However, she also knew how dangerous it would be to accept what she perceived to be happening around her as reality. This couldn't be real, but for right now, she couldn't find her way back to reality. The easiest and really only thing she could do now was follow her mind on whatever strange dream it was taking her on, until it decided that enough was enough and returned her to the real world. She followed Elias into the house, and twitched as long blades of grass brushed against her leg. She had to give her brain credit. It was doing a marvelous job of being crazy, now if she could only get it to work properly.