I took a long time to write again! Sorry! Ah, I can't promise it won't happen again! Thanks anyway!
A little in between chapter. We go back to visit the gang! :))))
Warnings: mention of a burn, blood, temporary loss of control of body, death mention
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Girtin's mouth is set into a hard line as he drives us back to town. His eyes are firmly set on the road, but occasionally I can feel like he is just waiting to ask me. I can feel the gears in his mind turning. Just every time that he opens his mouth to speak, to ask me what the heck is going on, something stops him. A little fragment of doubt makes him clench his jaw tighter and fall further and further into himself.
Christophe sits motionless in the backseat of the old pickup, bouncing along with the road like luggage. He, much like Girtin, hasn't spoken at all the entire trip. I keep looking at him in the side mirrors, but he doesn't even give me a second glance. His blank stare looks out the window, unfocused even through what must be unbearable pain. We were lucky that Girtin had something that could wrap it up, even if it didn't seem like it would help much. The further we drove away from the orphanage, the further he retreats into himself.
I don't really know why I care. Christophe probably should've stayed behind, Girtin's silence told me in no uncertain terms. If he hadn't been hurt I might have. He has answers, but to what I don't know. I'll just have to figure out the questions I have later. For now, I'd have to fix whatever darkness resided at Great Graces. I clenched my hands in silent rage. After all it's her fault this is happening to these people. My beef is with Death, not these two kids that were going to sacrifice me to her or whatever. She told them the lies that brought them to this point.
"What are we doing Diedre?" Girtin speaks hesitantly, softly. "What happened?" I swallow hard, carefully considering my options. I could spill everything, and risk Christophe freaking out or even finding out too much, or just the basics. It's an easy choice to me; how much Christophe knows could keep him safe. I'm not the kind of person who would throw him out, even if I want to. A little part of me still wishes I could, but it's so small I can safely ignore it.
"Something happened and I panicked. Christophe got hurt. We've just met, so I just want to get him some medical attention." I can tell from Girtin's initial silence that he doesn't believe me.
"Surrrrre. You'll tell me the rest later right?" He huffs. I nod stiffly, and don't say anything else. Girtin sighs, defeated. "We can't go to the hospital, but I know Ms. Ona has stuff in her house for burns." He stops talking after that and the conversation dies. I let it, knowing that I'll have some explaining to do once we get there.
-
Getting to the Ona household took less time than I thought it would. Left to my own thoughts, it felt like seconds. I just still don't know what I'm going to really say to Girtin and the others. Like: hey, this kid tried to get another kid to kill me, but he got hurt-. Even to myself it sounds like shit. Just somehow I have to convince everyone that Christophe ultimately is an asset towards Death. If that's not possible, then at least get him some burn cream and set him loose. I have no idea how to start the conversation.
Betha answers the door and instantly knows somethings wrong, her bright smile dimming when she sees Christophe. Our silence must've spoke volumes because she let us in without a word. I led the way, followed by Christophe and Girtin. Behind me I could hear Girtin huffing in annoyance, roughly pushing Christophe ahead of him, almost knocking into me. I pretend not to notice.
Silen is sitting on the living room couch, the ugly thing almost swallowing him whole. He looks up from the tv, a nature show is on about snakes. His eyes widen when he sees Christophe, completely overwhelming him, and he leaps up out of the room like a startled rabbit. No doubt he's getting his mom.
The woman in question quickly follows soon after, smiling distantly at the group, led by her son. She looks unfazed by the situation, like always. After her accident, she told me once, she learned to take every situation as it came, seeing as she could no longer look fear in the face. The memory fizzles in me as I look around the room in a daze. Ms. Ona is the first to speak.
"Oh, Diedre, dearie you're back so soon! I'm glad to hear from Silen that you're safe. It can get quite lonely here, but enough chit-chat. Silen told me that you made a 'friend' and he needs some burn cream. Is that right?"
I nod lightly. Betha's head whipped around, eyes locked on to the blond's hand, walking over to take a look. Her suspicious gaze was lightly tinged with concern for the other boy. She pales at the damage, gingerly rotating his wrist. Walking over slowly, I almost do a double take: his hands are charred black, dry and frankly very dead looking. I blink rapidly at the sight. It wasn't like this before! After all how did I miss something this obviously bad? All Christophe does is look at them without much emotion on his face.
"What happened to you?" Betha asked Christophe slowly, not meeting his eyes for a time.
"I touched a boundary. My friend locked me out. It was a doorknob." He painfully replies, each word spoken deliberately to avoid revealing too much. Only the most important was let out, as he held the gate very closed at risk for his life. Although his head was kept down, bangs hiding his face, I could see the almost frantic movement of his eyes.
"The hospital was too far." Girtin adds, speaking to no one in particular.
"It's also closed, isn't that right Ms. Ona?" Betha mutters, turning away from Christophe and I. The white haired woman nodded serenely, blinking slightly. She absentmindedly begins to thread her fingers through Silen's hair.
"Yes, the Night closed it since there was no reason for it. I understand it's abandoned now, but I'm not sure how much is still inside. The shades rarely need medical attention." She thoughtfully supplies. My ears perk up at the words. Shades? Night? Curiosity bubbles within me. Betha bites her lip, holding back a laugh at my expense. I guess I'm too obvious. Girtin coughs loudly.
"So is there anything you want to tell us Diedre?" Girtin speaks up, almost demanding. He speaks slowly and is gritting his teeth.
"Sure...where do you want me to start?" I acknowledge, meeting his eyes. They narrow slightly at that, but he raises his eyebrows to say, 'what do you think?'.
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"Everyone knows about Great Graces, right? Well I went there and met Christophe. One thing led to another and there was this other kid, Dainin, who started acting crazy. Christophe tried to reason with him and then, next thing we knew, he kicked us both out. This guy panicked and grabbed the door handle, burning himself. There: now you're all caught up!" I shrug through the most tedious parts of the summary, trying to act like it didn't bother me.
"How can you make it seem so simple!?" A very conflicted shuddering voice asked, looking up I noticed Christophe, his green, sometimes blue, eyes wide, pupils dilated. He was sweating and beginning to breathe hard. I saw Girtin's grip on the blond's sweater: a death grip. So even he sensed something was missing. Boy, am I easy to read?
"Well they might have mentioned wanting to sacrifice me, but that was before Christophe distracted him. Otherwise that was the plan, well from what I could gather. Right?" I try to look at Christophe, but he dropped his eyes to the ground, refusing to look at me again. He does nod lightly. I can see Girtin shake in apparent anger, but he will do nothing, not yet.
Betha shakes her head wildly," You can't be serious! Did you really think that killing Diedre was going to appease...Her? Why would you do it do someone you just met!? I mean-"
"Betha..." Silen whimpers, pulling himself towards her, as she lost her words; as she was shaking too much to think, much less speak. "Why would Diedre bring him back?" Everyone turns to him, utterly shocked. He hasn't left his spot in Betha's side, but he continues:" Shouldn't we trust her? Diedre knows what she's doing. She wouldn't have done this if she didn't want to."
"Exactly right, sweetie." Ms. Ona agreed. "Diedre is a kind girl, she always has been, ever since she was a little one." Betha and Girtin quickly begin to look guilty.
"Well, it's not a big deal or anything, but I was thinking he'd help me get back at Death." I shrug. "I mean, it's worth a shot. These guys don't just wake up in the morning deciding to kill me. She's led them to it."
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-What makes you think I'd let you?-
The hollow voice of Death bleeds out of Christophe before he slumps forward, almost hitting the glass coffee table, Girtin catching him just in time. He curses loudly, much to Ms. Ona's displeasure. She gives him a look in which he mumbles a quick 'sorry'. I smile a little. My heart begins to settle after that; knowing Girtin hasn't changed at all brings me relief, allowing me to relax a bit. It gives me a chance to think about the situation.
We heard that, we all heard what she said. It's not the first time this has happened, first was Ether, but this guy isn't at all related to her. I just didn't know that she could speak through other people, regular people. I had no doubt that Ether wasn't human, but Christophe, he's human right? I look to the unconscious boy, as the two beside him, Betha and Girtin, pull him gently back on the couch. I'm shocked to see that even though he never even hit the glass, his nose had a gentle stream of purplish blood. Betha quicker than I was, grabbed her handkerchief, mopping the blood in an effort to contain it. She grit her teeth, giving a quick look at Girtin and I; he mouthed 'Silen can't know'. We both nod. This would only freak him out, right? I hadn't even noticed that he'd moved back to the table with his mother.
Girtin decides to pull him and his mother away. They were a little suspicious, but didn't say anything; I figure that Ms. Ona has caught on once we got real quiet. Betha grimly smiles as she continues to hold the napkin, once white now a deep purple.
"We need to wait for him to wake up." Betha muttered, mostly to herself, but aloud enough for me to hear. "What do you think?"
"I think it'll be much easier with Dainin if we had Christophe." Betha doesn't like that.
"You'd bring him back there?" Betha grimaced. "What are you going to do?"
"The other guy, Dainin, if the two of them were actually friends, would probably relax if he was there. I think he was being controlled. I guess it was the Darkness, but it felt weird. I'll just rough him up a bit, get him to calm down, and figure out why he's still here. Simple. Easy. I have don't have a plan B, so I hope the heck it work." I grit my teeth at the last bit, utterly frustrated with how this is going. Sure I guess I didn't want to give up, but I don't know why this stuff has to get so freaking complicated.
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"Maybe I should tell you a story..." Christophe's weak voice startled the two of us, Betha finally releasing the tissue from his face. He looks at the flecks of purple on his finger tips, and I realized that his hands were back to normal. Looking up at me, he sighs and explains:" It's when I get stressed out, the books at the orphanage say that it's a trauma response. I have no idea who wrote them, but it seems like that's all I've got. The burns, I mean, not the blood. She caused that."
"Death." I spat, but his eyes only widened.
"The Darkness can do what it wants, we are her children. She lets us live here after all." Christophe says as a matter of fact, like it's gospel.
"I'm just going to ignore that!" angrily I mutter to him, not liking what I'm hearing. I poke my finger square into his chest. "You will tell me what you know! THEN, we are going back to your friend, and you are going to help me help him." Not even Betha's astonished call of my name could get me to calm down. Oh no, you don't just get to give her any reverence. She may call herself a goddess, but she isn't someone you should be worshiping. Is that what he's even doing? Or is he keeping himself safe, just in case she's listening like before? I don't really care much. I've decided on what I'm going to do, screw anything else.
I'm tired of just waiting around for her to hurt someone else! It's getting exhausting just hearing about it.
"Guess I'll get the truck started." Girtin sighed, swinging his arms as he left without another word.
We look at each other for a bit, before Betha looks at Christophe one last time.
"Well, it's just been you and your friend right?" She smiles at him like she does at Silen, a soothing and open smile. Often this one accompanies a bandage, but today, a smile is all he gets.
"I guess I did offer...didn't I?"
"This may seem callous but I need to know everything so I can be ready for anything."
"Plus wouldn't you feel so much better just letting it out? But don't do it just because we told you to, do what you feel comfortable with." Betha adds softly. Christophe looks down and nods slightly.
-
I know I didn't do anything to be left there are the orphanage. I just latched onto Dainin, since he was picked on so much. He was nice, funny, and seemed to like being around me. I don't think he knew what he was doing all the time. He'd freak out and yell at kids, and swipe matches to start little fires.
The people that ran the place would just pray he'd get better and that would be that.
It just got bad one day and he ran up to the attic on a visitor day. I don't know what exactly happened. Just everyone was running and freaking out. Once I got out I noticed he wasn't there, so I ran back in.
So I died, easy. Not much more I can say.
-
"But that's so horrible." Betha said, mostly to herself.
"Not much to it." Christophe shrugged. "Dainin means the world to me. If there's anyway I can stop him from being killed again, I would do anything. I don't care what it is, as long as we can stay together."
"Ok, let's go then." I announce, "Girtin has got to be waiting on us."
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"They are gone now." I mumble, squatting down to the ground to get a better look at his face. "Do you want me to get you some bandaids?"
"No." Dainin whisphers. He doesn't look like wants to talk to me, his eyes are darting around the room, wanting to look at anything that isn't my face. He's starting to breath heavily, and suddenly he pushes me away from him. I fall down and land hard on my back. Startled I yell out, grabbing for air. There's nothing to break my fall. Lifting my head, I can see that he hadn't moved an inch. We just stare at each other, not wanting to break the fragile, whatever this is, that we have here. The scared look in his eyes doesn't leave.
"Oh..." I start, before stopping myself, realization hitting me. "I'm not going to hurt you. No one is going to hurt you anymore. They took that too far, you weren't doing anything to them!"
He doesn't answer and instead looks away. Then he starts to bite his lip, causing it to bleed. This gives me a start, and I hastily grab a box of tissues on my side and dab his lip. Dainin starts to shake again. I try to lighten the mood a little with conversation.
"Your name is Dainin, right?" I ask, sitting down beside him.
"Why are you so nice to me?" He asks, ignoring my small talk, pulling his knees up to his chin before looking away from me.
"You honestly act like you don't deserve it." He starts to shake and sob beside me, putting his head down on top of his knees.
"I don't- I don't deserve anything nice."
"That's a lie." He turns to me shocked, eyes wide with his tear streaked face, sniffling a little. I brush the bangs out of his eyes.
"Of all the people I've met here, you deserve happiness the most." I take a deep breath before continuing. "The other kids here are total brats! They just get all over you and expect you to let them. Like honestly, have some class!" I snort a little in my anger, the suddenness causing him to look away. "Dainin, you on the hand. Are a gentle, kind, intelligent person. You just need to have a little space and a little time and l-love to get on your own level. You are better than them in almost every way. Don't let them tell you that you are trash! Because you and I both know that it isn't true at all!
"You can't mean that! That isn't- it isn't true." Dainin starts to close in on himself. He keeps opening and closing his hands rapidly, trying to comfort himself. That's it, I've made up my mind.
"It is and I'm going to keep staying by your side until you believe it." I proclaim, utterly and hopelessly hurting for him. "Can I give you a hug, or someting? We don't have to do it, if it makes you feel uncomfortable-"
Suddenly I'm enveloped in a tight hug, and I don't want to let go. I relax, after tensing unconsciously, and allow my head to fall onto his. I breathe in his smell, of the cheap shampoo we all use. Of the scratchy sweater you wear. I can hear tears and I can't help it, tears leaving my eyes as well. It feels so nice to hold someone, to protect them. The warmth in my heart that had left me when mom did. Being so unlucky, that we, the both of us, were lost to society. This place was killing us, we couldn't let it. We had to learn how to support each other. We had to know what it meant when people talked about unconditional love.
I won't have you lose yourself to despair. Only after a few months of knowing Dainin, I knew I couldn't leave him alone. I won't let you go.
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Even in death I'll always be there for you!
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It felt like a good stopping point here.
More to come!
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---Chapter Navigation--
Chapter 15 (Linky) - Chapter 16 (you are here) --> Chapter 17 (not yet)
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