Chapter Three…

"Of Daily Proportions"

…in which the voices come to a startling realization.

Never let it be said that Natalia Ryerton was a morning person. Often, it seemed she was anything but. It usually took her over an hour upon waking to fully return to her conscious state of mind. It was to the benefit of both Natalia herself and everyone around her that the voices in her head took control for this hour or two of weakness.

The voices did so by simply instructing Natalia as to what she needed to do. They told her to get out of bed, to change her clothes, to go to the bathroom and brush her teeth, to feed her cocker spaniel, and even told her to finish some last-minute homework before she had to leave to school. Natalia obeyed as she was wont to do simply because they had retained this routine since she was a small child. The fact that she was now nineteen years old and in college did nothing to end this habit.

Staring blankly at the lanky, knotted-haired vision reflected in the mirror as she brushed her teeth, Natalia wondered in a haze whether this habit was healthy or not. She quickly decided it didn't matter as she was always ready for the world by the time she was completely awake, and promptly forgot she'd had the thought at all.

Minutes later, Natalia found herself in the kitchen making French toast for breakfast. Out of habit, the voices told her to set out two plates. They remembered, moments too late, that she needed only one plate. The other was promptly set on the floor for Jaggy, her cocker spaniel, to eat.

She glance at the clock once she was done eating and noted aloud that it was only seven-thirty. She didn't need to leave the house for another hour as it was a Tuesday. After a while of pondering as to what to do in the meantime—homework? cleaning? studying?—they decided to go ahead with the plan they'd revealed to Natalia only the other night. Natalia walked over to the computer desk and sat down.

Now that she was rather close to consciousness, Natalia turned on the computer and logged onto her account without any internal instructions. She opened up the Internet to the familiar search engine and typed in the search bar exactly what she was told. Seconds later, the first twenty matches out of a total of several thousands displayed themselves on the screen before her. The first three she opened in new tabs before closing the tab she was currently on.

The Go-To Online Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology was the first of the three to load. On the homepage, links several well known Greek Myths and links to descriptions of all the Olympic Gods were openly displayed. A brief glance at the other two tabs at the top of the browser—still loading—and she came to a realization.

"We don't have enough time to read all this," she mumbled to herself.

True, admitted the masculine of the voices. Print it out and put it in your backpack so we can read it later on, pet. We have enough paper and ink to last us forever, with how little you've used of it since you bought it all in bulk.

"Mmkay."

Obediently, Natalia opened up and printed, one by one, the descriptions of each of the Gods, the pages of common myths, and even several links off of the other two tabs.

By the time these had finished printing, which was a while as there was about fifty pages of material that needed to print, Natalia was fully conscious and able to question her voices rather than simply listen to them. "Don't I know most of the basic mythology, though?" she asked. "I mean, the Gods and such? Because I remember learning a lot about it in my English class sophomore year in high school."

Ah, but you are a very forgetful person, pet, said the feminine voice. You likely do not remember the very details of anything you have learned in the past. Now, now, calm down, pet. I'm merely stating facts. If you need an example, tell me what Artemis was Goddess of.

"Artemis was the Goddess of the Moon," Natalia said instantly, tone rich with a tone she couldn't describe except for the phrase "know it all."

Wrong, said the masculine voice. She was the Goddess of the Hunt. True, she ruled the moon and nighttime, but she was Goddess of the Hunt.

"Then I have you to tell me these things," Natalia insisted. "I don't need to study them; I can focus on the more detailed things that they'd want to talk about."

The closest thing to a sigh that could be made without air came from both of the voices.

We may need to refresh our memory as well, pet.

Natalia huffed, but put the papers in her book-bag nonetheless. Once a few other things were put in—books and such—and a mental check-list was walked through, Natalia slipped on her shoes and peeked in the bathroom to see if the voices had yet to listen to a particular daily request of hers. She rolled her eyes upon the sight of the long, tangled, curly mess she called her hair.

"Guys," she started in a chastising tone, "I told you, please make me comb my hair when I'm half-awake. It's the only time I have time in the morning to do it."

No way. If you comb that mess in your 'morning state' as it is, you'll pull it all out, and I definitely do not want to have to deal with the amount of complaining you'll spout afterwards.

Natalia wrapped her hair into a messy bun, still grumbling despite the fact that they'd had this same argument literally thousands of times in the past. Every day, it was the same routine.

With her hair now looking somewhat decent, Natalia grabbed her bag and keys before rushing over to the door. Jaggy sat there, seemingly forcing her not to leave, as her always tried to do. Natalia sighed and reached down to scratch his ears. She whispered a soft goodbye before nudging him out of her way with both hands and rushing through the door, closing it behind her. Two seconds later and the door was locked with Natalia making her way down the outdoor staircase that led to the parking lot.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, a woman only a few years older than her was turning the corner to go up the stairs. The result was a somewhat painful slamming of bodies that knocked the both of them to the floor and skidded Natalia's keys onto the pavement of the parking lot. The two women locked gazes and blinked before the other woman burst into laughter.

"Sorry, Nattie," she said between laughs. "I wasn't paying attention."

Natalia blinked three times in succession before giggling a little on her own. "Apparently I wasn't either," she said, standing up and brushing off the backside of her pants. "Sorry."

Natalia scanned the woman with her eyes. Something about her was familiar. The idea that perhaps they had known each other before was very much supported by the fact that she'd just called her "Nattie." As it was rude, Natalia refrained from asking aloud who the woman was, but that didn't stop her from asking her voices.

A brief moment of silence passed, but soon one of the voices said, albeit rather slowly and hesitantly, That's Elizabeth. You've known her since you were five and she was nine. You call her Lizard, remember?

Natalia didn't remember, of course, but she still greeted Elizabeth as such and received a rather sad smile in reply. "Lizard" knew that Natalia didn't call her that out of nostalgia, and it was obvious that it hurt. Not knowing what to do about it, Natalia simply located her keys. She turned to look at the woman she'd apparently known for fourteen years, but the moment their eyes made contact, all the muscles in her body seemed to freeze in worry at the profound sadness she saw in those eyes.

"See you later," Natalia said softly in an attempt to lighten the suddenly tense mood.

"Yeah," said Elizabeth in reply before she stood up and looked away.

Natalia laughed nervously and made her way to her car, all the while wondering how in the world she forgot that she had a childhood friend. However, the thought was dismissed as Natalia opened the door and got in. She had a class to go to, and there was no way she was going to be late.

The voices in her head, although currently silent, did not let the thought go so easily. Was her memory really so weak? Had they really made her that dependent on them for survival? The possibility itself was more than a little upsetting…

A/N: These chapters seem to be steadily growing. I think that's a good thing, but one of these days, everyone will expect a long one and I'll write a really small one...