Here’s a 1st draft of a new idea. This scene was inspired by Florence Welch’s new song “Cassandra” and the references to the mythological story of Cassandra – the prophet who was cursed to have no one believe her. Tell me what you think of this new idea!

My mother hated me before I was born and knew exactly what she was doing when she cursed me with my name.

Cassandra.

To most families, it would be a normal name. But to my family, a family of foreseers, it was a name to be avoided at all costs.

My mother hadn’t inherited the family gift, and thought her mother’s whole family was crazy. When Grandmere told my mother she would give birth to a child with a strong gift before she was 25, mother laughed in her face.

Grandmere tells the story that my mother left home when she was 18, as if she was chased by a swarm of angry bees. She went to college in the city and majored in science because she wanted to be the opposite of her woo-woo family. And she fell in love with her professor.

The professor didn’t tell mother that he was married. But they romanced each other, and my mother built her dreams around the man. But then mother got pregnant with me.

The professor not only broke up with my mother, but he also accused her of plagiarizing on her research papers, which made the other scientists wary of hiring her for new projects. And then the professor brought his wife to a function and announced they were pregnant with their second child.

My mother went a little crazy. Or so others thought.

She began to see things on the edge of her vision, whipping her head around to look at something that wasn’t there. When she managed to fall asleep, she saw intense, vivid dreams that began to come true in reality.

She saw the professor’s wife having a miscarriage. When she tried to warn the professor’s wife, they got into an argument about the affair. The argument turned physical, and the wife fell, leading her to have a miscarriage.

Mother was arrested as a result, but the judge was kind and let her off on account of her pregnancy – me. However, she told mother that she either needed to leave town or the judge would commit her to one of the hospital wards that deal with the insane.

With no choice, Mother, who was still seeing things at the edge of her vision, returned home to Grandmere.

Grandmere welcomed her home as if she expected Mother, which she did. Grandmere had prepared the nursery and excitedly talked of the baby’s arrival.

Mother resented her. She felt that if Grandmere hadn’t foretold my existence, then she would have been able to have her happy ever after with the professor.

Grandmere told her it was foolish to pin her heart on a married man who was willing to stray. Only heartbreak lay at the end of that road.

Mother questioned why Grandmere didn’t warn her when she saw the failed relationship. But Grandmere said that the baby would revive the family line and make our lives better.

That was when Mother realized that Grandmere didn’t love her own child as much as she loved the family reputation and the power that ran in the bloodline.

And her hate deepened. Not just for the family, but specifically for her own mother and for the “demon spawn” that was housed in her womb.

She vowed never to love the child. My mother was determined to find a way to make me as miserable as her own life had become.

Grandmere said my mother quieted down and played obedient for the rest of her pregnancy. But mother was just plotting.

When the time came for me to arrive, Mother refused to let Grandmere into the hospital laboring room. She made sure to put my cursed name on the birth certificate before she was discharged from the hospital. And she didn’t take me with her when she left.

It was only after Mother disappeared that the hospital called Grandmere to pick me up. But the damage was already done. My name was on my certificate and in the system by the time my Grandmere first held me.

Grandmere always said that when she first held me, she could feel my power, and she wept that my name would forever limit my ability to be believed.

After all, how could a foreseer who isn’t believed rebuild the family power and reputation?

Mother wept tears of anger.

Grandmere wept for her broken plans.

I weep for myself.