Hi! I hope everyone has had a good week. I'll get caught up someday! :)
Next chapter is a bit long but I hope you like it. More warnings though, please understand.
PLEASE READ the warnings:
Dissociative episode (possible), Mild Violence, Decapitation (not descriptive), Injury description (mild), painful magical healing (very brief), Mentions of Nudity (not descriptive but the situation is there)
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This was not like the last time. A white blinding light melting all I could see. A ferocious headache spiking my brain against the volleyball net. I tried to close my eyes and hide away. My body wouldn't do that. It wasn't listening to me. I wasn't in control.
Hot. My body was on fire. My muscles are pulled and stretched into an offensive stance. They were screaming for me to stop. I wanted to agree, but I was being pulled along for the ride, just as they were. I hated that, being strung along like this, but my will was locked in a steel trap. As much as I mentally wailed against the injustice of this, the only thing I could do was watch. Watch as my exhausted body and concussed mind ran against the wind, towards the monster in the center of the room.
I was melting. My arm wound tight, swung against the creature. I felt it hit the core again. My body, if my own, would have been stopped here again, but the steel in my own arm held. My arm pulled back again for another strike, ignoring its retaliation. It was weak, afraid maybe, if it could feel the emotions humans did. My anger, smoldering still from earlier, was the only thing that kept me focused. Yes, I was not in true control, but this was what I wanted. How it was happening, I could live without, but my apathy towards my own life was nothing compared to what hatred I felt for this monster.
I didn't care anymore how it was destroying me. My arm kept swinging, and every time, it cut more and more into the core. The pain I was feeling was temporary. I was not only doing this for Silen. As I grit my teeth, the arm pulling back into another strike, the realization set. This is something I wanted as well: retribution. It was mine for the taking.
I knew who this was. I had to remember what this was for. This parasite was not a person, but a fear of one. Girtin gave me a hint when he broke down. This creature was a horrible person: Silen's birth father. It had none of his features; a shame honestly, I would've liked to see him in pain.
Instead of wondering where that came from, I felt the body prepare for one final blow. I could feel the strength of the connection tethering me to my mind weakening. It was down to the last wire, wasn't it? The repetitive motion that had become second nature to my body, numb at this point, was about to finish the job. Wind up the swing and follow through. Cut through the bone, think about the area past the core, don't stop the momentum. Keep going. Contact made. Keep going. Yes. Rest in pieces. I was done and I had control again. The warmth I felt, the energy keeping me going, left as quickly as it came leaving me feeling empty again inside.
As my body slumps to the ground, the first sense that returns to me is sound. I can hear the bubbling of the body in front of me, the gurgling of a life being drained. The sound of heaving in the corner of the room and the dull realization that Silen saw all of that; he had no explanation for why his friend went to town so violently on it. How she even had that much energy. He's always been weak to violence, my mind supplies from my memories of him. He's going to be alright. My thoughts float around like clouds in the sky. I am utterly exhausted; the energy my body was expending in my absence, the whiplash was coming soon and hard. I had to make sure that I was not in a bad position.
I could hear soft breathing beside my ear, accompanied by the silent tears dropping upon my face. Feeling and Sight were back. Silen held me up in his arms, clutching me like a child does an infant they don't know. His face is a mixture of emotions: surprised, happy, sad.
"Diedre. I'm so happy you are alive." His voice, stronger than I was expecting though still weak from his tears, murmured. "I was worried that you weren't going to make it, but you did, like you always do."
"What are friends for?" I smile through my exhaustion. "We've got to take care of you, we promised. Your mom, Girtin, Betha, and myself; we all are going to protect you."
"You don't have to do that." His mouth turned into a frown, an expression filled with sadness. "I cursed you when you didn't come back. I thought you left me because you hated me, Betha too. How could you save me when not even the police could find me; not until it was too late. The promise doesn't matter now."
"Silen."
"I know you mean well. I know that you aren't going to leave because you want to, but you can't do that. When I wake up and you are yourself again, I'll cry like I'm supposed to, bawling into your shirt begging you to stay with me, but you can't. You have to keep going. I don't know what for, but that lady told me some stuff while she was...making me say that. You have to fight her. She's just going to use us against you, if you don't well I don't know what's going to happen." Silen sniffed a little, but I could only look at him in awe. It made me sad that he had to suffer so much to come to this conclusion. What he said made sense, but I didn't have to believe it.
"I'll always protect you. We are family and that's what we're supposed to do for each other." I murmur, vision fading finally. I could feel this world collapsing.
Silen smiled brightly, grasping my hand, trying to make sure that it was the last thing I saw before I returned to the other world. His thanks are drowned by the static on the edge of my hearing.
I slipped away after that.
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I could hear Girtin talking to Silen when I regained consciousness. It was hard to hear about what for, but I'm sure it was something about running away from his mom and making them both worried sick. I can imagine him standing in front of him, arms crossed on his chest. I think I heard Betha talking, so she had to be on the phone.
"-Diedre almost died because you ran away! She had to come get you. If you are feeling bad, you have to tell someone before you blow up! If she wasn't immune to the Darkness you would have been toast."
"Please just call me, Silen. I promise I won't laugh at you. Honestly." Betha's voice interjected over Girtin's reprimands, offering a soothing hug from afar.
"I know...it just got bad real fast. I didn't want to bother you." Silen meekly whimpered, his voice croaking from having recently cried.
"Bother us, Silen." Girtin scolded firmly.
"Please, Silen." Betha added, making shushing noises. I assume they are hugging now, but my neck is still weak.
Instead of being frustrated at being left out of the conversation, I just let myself rest. I'm sure my muscles are going to ache for a couple of days after this. Not looking forward to that, but I think it was worth it. I just have to remember that I haven't saved them. I've just put off whatever is coming later. That's the impression I got from Silen.
Once I can move again, I'm going to see Betha again. I've got to break whatever is keeping her at that house.
"DIEDREEEEE!!" Silen's scream cut through my internal monologue. "You're okkkkk!! I was so worried that you wouldn't wake up!"
"We were worried that you wouldn't get up." Girtin intoned, patting the back of Silen's hand in a reprimanding but soothing way. Betha voiced her agreement on the phone. "What happened? Silen won't say. You started shaking. Then when you fell down, you had blood on the back of your head."
"It was another world, Girtin." I rumbled, trying to think over what happened back there. "Like before when I saw you, from before." Girtin paled at that, prompting Silen and Betha to give him a look. Silen's being one of naive confusion and Betha's one of impish understanding. Perhaps she didn't know what Girtin did, but she may have been clued in on his little crush on me in the past. She changed her face into a more natural expression before he noticed, much to my surprise.
"Still you are hurt, Diedre." Betha worriedly pressured over the video call. Honestly I don't know how the phones get reception here. I wondered if there was a place nearby that I could recover at. "We can't take you to the hospital, Holy Hope, because it's empty. There should be no one there."
"I heard a gang lives there." Silen bubbled, easily amused by rumors, "Mommy told me that it was dangerous to go there. It's so far and there are too many holes I could fall into."
"Holes?" I ask, distracted by the change in conversation, also very nosy.
"The ground looks like Swiss cheese and you can't get a car there! Mommy told me that the sky rained acid or something. The hospital building is completely fine, Girtin saw it when he was wandering around one day." Silen gushed, smiling widely. I smiled back. Even from my position laying on the ground, it was good to see him so happy about something.
"So that means we have to find someone local with a recovery ability." Betha mumbled, mostly to herself, out loud on the speaker. "I might be bad to move Diedre if she's still not feeling great. What to do? Ugh, what to do?"
"Chill out, Betha, we're going to figure something out. Maybe she can just sleep it off; she's 'special' remember? Maybe she's got some regen powers hidden in her?" Girtin said trying to calm Betha down. It worked somewhat, but she still grumbled to herself keeping more thoughts left unsaid.
"Now I wish I had teleportation powers." Silen whined into Girtin's long sleeved shirt.
"Heh, maybe you do. Where do you disappear to when you have to take medicine?" Girtin jeered. Silen only puffed out his cheeks.
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Time had passed slowly without coming to much of a solution to what we should do about my injuries. I suppose being in the company of people who had short attention spans did that to you, but I let it slide. After all it seemed like I wasn't worsening. Maybe all I should do is just lay here, completely relaxed as my friends laugh and bicker with each other; I've not felt this way in years. Girtin's phone eventually dies, leaving Betha out of the conversation. My ears then pick up some foot falls from down the hall of this abandoned school. I couldn't tell who it was from where I was, but soon enough Girtin and Silen noticed.
"Do you need help, my children?" A soft woman's voice came from the hall.
"It's our friend, she-" Silen starts, stammering, but not before Girtin stops him.
"She is taking a rest. We are fine." Girtin evenly reports, not taking his eyes off the stranger, his hands vainly covering the blood on my pink jacket. This looked bad. I was so out of it that I didn't even think about this. Who was this woman?
"So you say, dear, but maybe she should have a rest on one of the cots in the infirmary." The woman cooed, her voice coating my mind like honey. It honestly felt weird. I looked to Girtin who seemed to be contemplating her suggestion. I had already made up my mind. I felt a little stupid forgetting about the nurse's office. I'm not really in the position to make decisions, am I? Feeling a little antsy about the whole situation, I tried to get a better look at the woman from behind Girtin's arms.
She had shoulder length aqua hair, rosy cheeks, and two odd colored eyes: one pink and one blue. I felt drawn to those eyes. The pupil on the right one, the blue one, had a taller almost feline shape. It felt so strange to be so taken by some stranger's eyes. Then Girtin started to move, shaking me out of my focused attention to wards them. The woman had a hand on my face, kneeling on the floor between Girtin and Silen, who watched warily at her, was checking my eyes. Her own pair were so focused in her task of giving me the once over, that she didn't even notice, or care about the looks everyone was giving her.
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Right. I didn't know what to make of the atmosphere once we made it there. It was so awkward: Girtin was on edge, his instincts kicking in, and Silen was in "stranger danger" mode, for some reason hiding behind the shorter boy. The woman, who had introduced herself as Maeve. She told us, which I figured I had to believe for now, that she was looking for something in the library.
"Miss Maeve," Girtin starts slowly, like he's trying to hold back a little, "I remember you telling us that you were looking in the library. Why are you at this school? The city has its own library. Why would you need to look here?" He's already trying to punch holes in her story. Wow. Vicious. I can see Ms. Maeve's eyes dilate a little, something Girtin cannot see because she is tending to my wounds. She draws the curtains around me. The boys call out in surprise.
"I need to take off her shirt, boys, to apply healing to the skin. I did tell you that I had some salve on me, did I not?" Ms. Maeve's tone was odd while she said this, but the two had no choice but to trust her judgement.
She helped me get out of my jacket and the shirt that I was wearing under it. My chest crackled to life, bringing a gasp to my lips. She shushed soothingly, much like a mother does. Lifting me out of my cami, her eyes look sorrowful at the ugly bruises around my ribs and sides. I assume that there are even more on my back. Her head turns to the little purse at her side and she starts to rummage through it for something. I just watch her as I lay still, topless on the elevated bed. After a time she finds what she is looking for: a small vial of unknown liquid. Acid rushes through my blood. What?!
"Sweetie, I have decided to help you a bit more than I should." Miss Maeve's voice rushes through my mind. I blink furiously at the intrusion. She laughs lightly. "The friends you have, while well-meaning, are kind of stupid. They have no idea what did in there; even that orange haired boy, Silen, who seemingly doesn't remember what you did for him back in there."
"Madn-" I start, but she puts her hand on my mouth and smiles mysteriously.
"You are right, sweetie, but you shouldn't say it. If they knew that you were with the Lady Madness, they would open the curtain. That would be bad right? Considering your state of...undress. You are also full of broken ribs and covered in bruises. You'd be out of commission for too long; much much too long for my sister. That...and your plight, it makes my heart bleed for you, my dear. I cannot speak against her again, but I can help you." She hands me the small vial. "I will but some bandages on later, regardless of your choice."
"What is this?" I ask, not convinced, but seriously considering it. I'm in a lot of pain, the ache in my chest, just from breathing is becoming a little much. Even for my pain tolerance I don't think I would last long on just pain medication alone.
"You don't want to know, but rest assured that it is going to help. Please trust me." She hands me some cloth and begins to motion that it goes into my mouth. What is this going to do to me? Is this going to hurt? I look the "medicine" again, giving it one final look over before I say fuck it and down the thing in one go. My eyes locked on Madness' odd eyed ones, looking for any deception at the very end. I uncap the cork and take the plunge.
It hurt. It hurt so much. I jam the cloth in my mouth to muffle the groans of a person who's body is rapidly humming, vibrating, screaming, and gluing itself back together from the inside. She wasn't kidding I bitterly thought. I screwed my eyes shut, not wanting the extra stimulation of her face, or the possibility that Girtin or Silen would open the curtains and see me. I tried to keep my breathing even. Madness' cold hands started smoothing over the hair that had gotten in front of my face. I couldn't pass out. It was almost over, it had to be. I open my eyes. It didn't hurt anymore. Oh.
Maeve or Madness, who knew anymore, nodded solemnly letting her hand fall from my face almost wistfully. In that moment I remember about the children she supposedly had. I almost had the mind to ask her but I was suddenly pelted with a cold cream on my bruised rib cage. Wordlessly, she wrapped my chest loosely but tight enough so that it wouldn't fall off. Then she helped me back in my clothes. I thanked her quietly in my head, but she shook her head, smiling.
She pulled back the curtain to the sight of Girtin and Silen huddled in the corner. They were deep in whispered conversation. Upon noticing me stand up without help they both jolted to me, smothering me in their embraces. Girtin was red faced as always, but hugged me all the same, in a grip that reminded me that I could have died in that hell I was in. Silen was back. He was bubbly and happy again; sure he still was shy and cried, but he seemingly was "over" whatever transpired in that realm. I knew that one day he would want to talk to me about it, or maybe never, but I would wait for him to be ready to talk to me. Girtin finally let go of me, but Silen snuggled a little longer. I'd forgotten how affectionate he could be. Maeve smiled at the three of us before clearing her throat.
"You'll be tender and your muscles will hurt for a while. Maybe you should hold your scythe in a pocket realm until you are ready to hold it again." Maeve started rattling off to the reunion, before turning to my dumbfounded look of shock upon the mention of a pocket realm. "Ah, so you don't know about that, sorry. It's a little weird to explain, but just imagine it 'gone'."
I nod, slowly, not understanding completely, but willing to try it all the same; especially if that means I don't have to lug the heavy scythe around anymore all the time. If I was going to be in a weakened state after all that "killing" I just did, I would need to suck it up and learn. Ok. Just pretend you are putting it in your pocket.
"Imagine a small bubble in your mind," the mental voice of Madness helpfully supplies, "You just need to put it in there. Pretend the surface of the bubble is a pool of endless water."
A bubble, as deep as the ocean, the surface of water holding what I want. The scythe that's on the ground, left alone. Just put it away. I breathe in. Close my eyes. I breathe out. Cut and Paste it into the folder. I open my eyes and it's gone. I can feel it on my back, latched onto my spine; it feels freaky, but it's kind of like a backpack.
"Wow! It's gone! You did that, Diedre? Awesome!" Silen cheers, laughing brightly. Even Girtin had to smile at that.
"Where'd it go?" Girtin mumbled to himself. It's clear it may have gone over his head, but he shrugs it off anyway. Looking back to me, he asks," Did you want to go see, Miss Ona? We found Silen. She'd be happy to find him safe and sound. Also... he kind of needs a bath. I think we all do."
He's right, I sigh. Silen was covered in purple bile, his own snot and tears, and who knows what else. He didn't seemed bothered however; maybe he forgot about it or just couldn't feel it? I know I had some blood in my hair, not that you could see it, with my hair being bright red, but you know. That and a good hot soak sounded nice. Looking at Girtin you wouldn't know how bad he smelled, it was likely stress sweat, but sweat all the same. He was on the phone with Betha the whole time this was happening, right? Of course he would have freaked out, even with her there.
"That sounds like a good idea. I'd like to see Betha after that; I promised her that I'd visit her again after we helped Silen." Silen's ears perked up at the mention of his name, but said nothing; fiddling with the zipper on his orange sports jacket, pulling it up and down over and over.
"Right, that sounds good. I'll go with you." Girtin nods, not letting me out of his sight.
"Well, kids, I guess that's my time to go. Best of luck, sweetie." Miss Maeve/Madness whittles her fingers at us, not even looking at us as she walks out the door. Of course this bothers Girtin, to no ones surprise, who is still extremely suspicious of that woman. I just looked at her back as she walked out, thinking about what I learned about the sister of the Goddess of Death.
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Well :)
Next we'll get to see Betha and Miss Ona. After that, who knows? Diedre has saved her friends, hasn't she? What more should she need to do here?
If so, then why are there more people here? Diedre doesn't know that. How could she?
I guess we're going to have to find out. Might have the next two chapters to set that up. If they are super short I will consider putting them on Tuesday and Thursday. Then the newer characters will be on the new week and the next arc will start. I think it will probably be Great Graces -> and then either Psychology Skylands/Holy Hope. If you've been keeping up with the blog at all then you'd know which characters that means. I was thinking about leaving Holy Hope last becuase I want that arc to be longer, have more action. (I was even thinking about making some more comics about that.)
So Christophe and Dainin should be next after we set up the next part of the plot. I've had this arc planned since I made the game, long long ago in the past, so I'm going to try to flesh it out some more. The intro has already been written: it's called Brimstone and it covers what's happening with the two before Diedre comes over.
Getting a feeling that the less people actually knew about the girl, Diedre, the more they fill the blanks with nonsense. Even Betha had mentioned this before, with the stories that they told about Lady Death. She didn't tell us everything, not wanting Diedre to get discouraged, and didn't mention that her role in the story was to reap everyone. (This is not spoilers. I have put this fact in other parts of the fiction too. lol.) It's in the back of all these people's minds, even her friends, but they have the know-all to remember that she is a person too. They remind themselves that she is their friend. The strangers we are going to meet have been preparing once they heard the news, they don't have the benefit to know that she wouldn't just kill them on sight. A conflict or something. Ooooh. :)))
Hope you enjoyed, I had a lot to talk about. :)
---Chapter Navigation--
Chapter 11 (Linky) - Chapter 12 (you are here) --> Chapter 13 (Linky)
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