SUSAN
She had just arrived at the university on the coast whose very campus had a bigger population than the small prairie city she'd grown up in. Susan was supposed to be starting first year Nursing, as pre-med, with the eventual goal of becoming a GP in Family Medicine; but, at the moment, she was overwhelmed. Too much, too fast, too soon. She suddenly felt she wasn't in complete control of her life and circumstances, and she wasn't used to that. She didn't like that feeling one bit.
Susan Montrose had been an honour-roll student throughout senior high; a top athlete in several sports; and valedictorian--as well as working as a part-time barista at the downtown Kaffeehaus. Her parents were very successful lawyers in corporate law; retained by several multinational corporations, despite being headquartered in their relatively small prairie city. So, Susan, an only child, had been born, if not exactly with a silver spoon in her mouth, then a silver-plated spoon; meeting her, you would never have suspected it--she exuded such a wholesome innocence.
She could have easily afforded off-campus digs--she had, in fact, got a generous education trust fund from her great-aunt, enough to live on for her entire degree program: tuition; books and supplies; an apartment; and living expenses--food, clothing, entertainment, and mad-money! For a student, she was exceedingly well-off. She chose, however, to live in student residence in order to get the full college experience, although, she had to admit, to herself, at least, that it was also something to do with having someone else prepare her meals.
In any case, Susan arrived at Burrard Towers student residence all wide-eyed and straight-laced--innocent, virginal, and naΓ―ve. She was taken up to her floor, and shown her room by a student volunteer from the check-in desk. While she was introduced to some of her new floor-mates, who were, themselves, just moving in, most of them were too flustered and focused to offer more than a brief hello; however, Susan was very much relieved when a slightly older--and, apparently, immensely more worldly--fellow resident offered to take her under her wing, and show her the ropes, as it were. "Welcome, Frosh!" she said, in a soothingly seductive voice, as the placement volunteer left. I'm Benedicta, your next-door dorm-mate."
"Nice to meet you, Benedicta. I'm Susan."
"Okay then, Sue. Call me Dicta!" Susan sputtered, a bit rattled. No one who knew her ever called her Sue. But, she figured, now was not the time to correct this person, who, so warmly welcoming, picked up her bags and began helping her move in.
Susan immediately liked her larger-than-life neighbour, and gladly accepted the advice and assistance offered by the veteran. She admired her frank, no bullshit, attitude. Dicta revealed that she was a third-year Psychology student, with, coincidentally, similar goals to Susan--intending to follow up a Bachelor of Psyche with med school--eventually specializing in Psychiatry. When asked where she was from, she responded with a vaguely dismissive, "From the 'burbs'," before changing the subject.
Over the next days and weeks, Susan continued to be impressed by her confident and charismatic new friend. In Susan's eyes, Dicta was a fascinating, worldly non-conformist--her current idiom was sort of Goth-ish: black hair, black lips, black eye make-up; black Doc Martens beneath severe black and white clothing. Susan continued to be awed whenever she was in Dicta's presence, experiencing an odd and unfamiliar tingling growing in her core.
While Susan had been sweet on one or two guys over the last couple of years, she had not made time to form any meaningful relationships with them. She had figured there was time enough for that later on, so, as she suddenly found herself tongue-tied and goofy whenever she was near Dicta, she didn't recognize the classic signs of serious infatuation. She was blindsided by an intensity of emotion she had not only never experienced but never thought possible. 'Love at first sight' seemed such an inadequate description of what she felt. Her awareness had quickly become absolutely dominated by thoughts of Dicta, especially when in her presence. Dicta, it seemed, possessed an almost supernatural abundance of charisma--a sort of emotional or spiritual magnetism.
The speed at which Susan's self-reliance, indeed, her individuality was overwhelmed--blotted out--frightened her. Objectively, she felt her sense of self melting away, to become a gelatinous mass on the floor of her psyche; her will crushed under the weight of Dicta's easy confidence and personality.
DICTA
I've known about my--what would you call it--talent ever since I was young. It wasn't like it was a Gestalt moment or anything, but, when I was about five, I became aware of my ability cast a spell over others--turn on an irresistible charm at will. Of course, it wasn't all roses. I was raised in a series of foster homes, and I pissed a lot of people off when I got seemingly undeserved favours; notwithstanding, I learned, early, how to use my gift judiciously. It serves me well.
My name's Benedicta Alexis Calevecki, but I generally go by Dicta. The current version of my history--the one I've maintained so far through university--is that my parents had been Croatian Gypsies--killed by the Serbs near the end of the Croatian War of Independence. I was a very young orphan, rescued off the streets of Zagreb, adopted by a well-meaning, devout North American couple, from whose home I later ran away, to become a child of the streets once more. From there I usually leave the details up to the imagination of whomever I'm speaking to.
A truer version of my heritage, which I deduced during my years in foster care, is: that I was probably born somewhere on the east coast; my birth-mother was too young and unable to care for me--most likely a teenage crack-whore. My first run-in with the law was at age thirteen--a B&E. Eventually, after a few more, I was labeled NPD--narcissistic personality disorder, and, subsequently, was institutionalized for much of my remaining adolescence. So it goes. At eighteen, having aged out of juvie, I was declared borderline sociopathic. And, I admit, I can be vicious and mean or sweet and charming or anything in between depending on the situation. I'm no different from anyone else--just playing my part, looking out for number one! I mean everyone--every sane person, basically just looks out for themselves; incidentally, I once scored 160 on a standard IQ test, for what that's worth. Just words, it's all just words. Nowadays, I try to stay social--and not give the appearance of being a loner. To that end, I'm usually accompanied by a few of my, for lack of a better term, disciples--a side-benefit of which is that I never the need to dirty my own hands.