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lepusrufus · 3 years ago

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Double edged scalpel ch.5

Ch.1 Ch.2 Ch.3 Ch.4

Summary: someone please give Nicole a break for the love of Miranda. And there be smut y'all

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Seeing Cassandra's softer side made something flutter within Nicole's chest. The brunette was a sadist through and through. Witness to that fact was the array of torture devices that littered the dungeons. Not to mention the prisoners she frequently killed, only to haul them on the autopsy tables in her study to be examined, chopped and sectioned by the both of them.

But there was an uncharacteristic sort of gentleness in the way their lips slid against each other, sharp teeth occasionally biting down on Nicole's lower lip but never enough to draw blood. In the way Cassandra would drag sharp nails against flushed skin, but not go beyond the pleasurable amount of pain. Even the glint in golden eyes when Nicole went over some old notes of hers on more tricky anatomy concepts. Having an exclusive look at this side of Cassandra felt beyond intimate and the thought almost made her miss when the brunette spoke from where she was leaning over a notebook.

"Okay let's just wrap this up, I have plans."

Nicole hummed, dropping the liver she was holding in a freezer bag. Most body parts were already bagged and ready to be picked up by Cynthia and her undercooks, they were just putting into practice some things the brunette was curious about. She dropped the now blood soaked leather gloves in the sink and went to sit by Cassandra, who was scribbling some final notes.

"In that case I'll go enjoy a cup of tea," she sighed. "Tea that I had to skip because someone was eager to start on this early."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow at her, accompanied by her usual smirk. "I meant plans with you."

Oh? That was new. The brunette laughed at Nicole's wide eyed expression and snapped her notebook shut. She took her sweet time putting it on the shelf with the others and checking the time, pretending not to notice the redhead's inquisitive expression. Then, she lifted Nicole’s chin with a thankfully not covered in blood finger.

"Don't get me wrong I love it here but," she grimaced, "it gets stuffy sometimes. Especially in summer."

Well, that much was true. The undergrounds of the castle were oddly warm, although not downright hot, compared to what one would expect from a castle. Pair that with the annoyingly humid atmosphere and having to wear a leather apron and gloves so as to not completely ruin your outfit and you got the perfect recipe for discomfort. She really ought to ask Cassandra about installing some kind of better ventilation down here.

"Meet me in the attic in about… an hour." She leaned down and their mouths were so close that Nicole could feel icy breath on her lips.

The attic? She's never been to the attic, it was not only off limits for most staff but also dangerous if rumors were to be believed. Not that she had the clarity of mind to voice any concerns when Cassandra finally leaned in to kiss her, complete with a nip on her lower lip that made Nicole’s breath hitch.

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The fact that Nicole had no idea how to get to the attic could be a slight problem. She had asked Anita, but not only did she not know, she also seemed mortified by the idea. Another maid just gave her vague directions to look for a ladder on the top floor. As if that wasn't like trying to find the needle in a haystack. Or the needle in a giant castle.

She was just wandering around the top floor, praying not to stumble upon anyone who would be less than thrilled to see her there. A sigh of relief escaped past her lips when she heard familiar buzzing and steps coming towards her.

"Oh Cas-" she swallowed her words when she noticed red hair spilling from underneath a black hood.

"Nicole! What are you doing here hmm?" Her inquisitive hum was way too exaggerated the same way her fangs seemed too sharp when she grinned.

"I was just looking for Ca- lady Cassandra. She asked me to meet her in the attic."

Daniela's mouth fell open, almost forming an O shape. Then back to her characteristic giggle, almost as if laughing at a joke only she knew.

"What, you don't know how to get there?"

"...Not really," she sheepishly admitted.

And that was a mistake. Nicole would've preferred to wander the hallways until Cassandra eventually got bored enough of waiting and decided to come see where her glorified lab partner was. But her plan was ruined by Daniela wordlessly grabbing her arm and pulling her in the opposite direction she was going in. She even went the extra mile to partially turn into a swarm, which made Nicole's panic skyrocket. She didn't mind bugs. But having hundreds of them fly all around you, accompanied by manic giggling was a whole other thing.

Before she knew it though, Daniela let go of her arm, laughing a little at Nicole's stumbling. She gestured dramatically towards a ladder and said:

"There you go. Say hi to Cassie for me."

"Th- thank you my lady." And with a small bow of the head she grabbed the ladder and started ascending on shaky legs.

"And enjoy your date," she called out, once Nicole was at the top of the stairs.

Blushing, she decided to ignore the comment and start looking for the sister less likely to turn her into fly food.

The attic looked… old. It was obvious that people didn't come here often, although someone probably did clean it regularly as there were no cobwebs nor dirt on any surfaces, aside from some dust. It was full of neatly arranged boxes and crates, their contents as mysterious as the castle's inhabitants. Tentative steps took her across ancient floorboards, navigating old rooms.

"Rah!"

Nicole damn near jumped out of her skin, a string of curses spilling past her lips. "Jesus fucking christ Cassandra!"

The brunette only laughed, hands on her knees and pretending to wipe a tear from her eye.

"That's what you get for making me wait for so long."

"I didn't even know where the attic entrance was! Good thing one of your sisters came to my rescue." Nicole rolled her eyes at the last word.

Cassandra stopped laughing, eyes narrowing slightly. "Which one?"

"Uh- Danie-"

"Did she hurt you?" Cassandra grabbed her arms, golden eyes looking for any visible injuries.

Nicole just laughed softly, taken off guard by the display of concern. "No, no. Just gave me a bit of a fright, that's all."

With an eye roll, Cassandra guided her further into the attic, through more dusty rooms, until they reached a short corridor, light spilling from its other end. The room they entered was relatively small, almost half of it occupied by stacked boxes as if it used to be a storage room like the rest of the attic and nobody bothered to completely clear it out. A few pieces of furniture were also present: a couch with a coffee table in front of it and paintings leaning against a wall to collect dust. This room however had a window, left slightly ajar, that allowed you to see the mountains stretching on the horizon, crowned by the beautiful orange hues of dusk.

Nicole moved to the glass to take in the view, mouth almost hanging open, when an ungodly screech from outside made her backpedal straight into Cassandra.

"What the fuck was that?" She asked, eyes widening at the sight of flying creatures circling the towers.

"Mother's flying guard dogs."

"They sound the same way I'd imagine the souls of the damned do." Nicole didn’t take her eyes off the ghoulish creatures, almost as if keeping eye contact would dissuade them from attacking.

Cassandra just shrugged. "Wouldn't be too far off. Also here." She sat on the couch, gesturing towards a cup.

Nicole went to sit by her side, grabbing the mystery cup. She frowned slightly when the steam reached her nose, bringing with it a pleasant minty and honey aroma.

"Tea?"

"Since you were so disheartened about having to skip it earlier," Cassandra averted her eyes, seemingly finding the curtains very interesting.

After a long sip, she let out a content sigh. The warmth was more than welcomed, despite the weather. She set the cup back on the table and turned her attention on the brunette, now fidgeting with the corner of a pillow.

"Thank you," Nicole said, leaving a small kiss on her cheek.

Cassandra smiled and turned around, locking their lips in a kiss that at first mimicked her gentleness, but soon turned hungry when dainty hands made their way to the brunette's nape, pulling her closer. She shifted them both, pushing Nicole down on the pillows littering the couch, until she was laying on top of her, legs on each side of her waist. Her focus was on leaving a trail of nips and kisses down Nicole's neck when the redhead jumped and barely stifled a yelp at another screech from outside.

"Ugh what the fuck is today, scare me out of my mind day?"

"How are you scared of these but countless dead bodies don't phase you?" Cassandra laughed, sound muffled by her position with her mouth against Nicole's neck.

"I used to work on corpses, not on ugly gargoyles that could chew my face off!" She gestured wildly at the window and the few creatures visible outside.

"You what?"

"You...didn't know?" Nicole couldn't help a giggle at Cassandra's confused expression.

"How was I supposed to know?"

"I thought your mother told you already. Or your sisters," Nicole shrugged.

"They knew?!" And, after something seemed to dawn on her, "Oh I'm gonna kick both their asses."

Nicole couldn’t help letting out a small laugh, placing her hands on Cassandra's cheeks and, with a pout for dramatic effect, "Right now?"

As much as the sight was both funny and endearing, the warmth starting to pool at her core was making her beyond impatient.

The indignation in golden eyes was replaced by an all too familiar glint and black painted lips went back to their work on Nicole's neck. Sharp fangs pierced the skin there, just enough to draw a few drops of blood and a whine. After licking every last bit of it, Cassandra's lips moved to the collarbones and lower, hands slowly starting to undo the buttons of Nicole's pesky uniform that was in the way.

When both the button up and the skirt were discarded on the floor Nicole tangled her fingers through black hair and pulled Cassandra in for a kiss. Her free hand went to the back of the dress, pulling down the zipper and guiding it off of the brunette's shoulders. Once both of them were left only in undergarments, Nicole pulled back to look up at the brunette.

"If I knew I was supposed to dress up I would've asked the chambermaid if there's anything fancy in the uniform stash," she said, taking in the beautifully intricate lace of Cassandra's matching bra and underwear, complete with a giggle at her awful joking.

The brunette only raised an eyebrow. "Mhm I can take care of that. Not like you'll need these for long though." Her hands reached under Nicole's back to unclasp her bra and in mere moments that too was on top of the pile of clothes on the floor.

Then Cassandra bent down to crash their lips together, tongue slipping past Nicole's lips when a wandering hand elicited a gasp from her.

Cassandra was by no means a patient person. Quite the opposite actually. But teasingly dragging her nails across sensitive skin only to feel the girl under her squirm and whine when her hand just won't go where she needed it made waiting all the more sweet. Slender fingers started to toy with the edges of Nicole's underwear. After a groan against her lips and an impatient tug of hair, Cassandra finally gave in, slipping two fingers inside her. She felt Nicole arch into her, a broken moan escaping past her lips when she broke the kiss to let her head fall back into the cushions. Cassandra took that as an opportunity to kiss the length of her neck, occasionally stopping to suck or bite at a spot, enjoying every gasp and moan she drew out of the redhead.

With Cassandra's rough pace it didn't take long before Nicole was clenching her thighs around her hand. Cassandra kissed her, swallowing her moan as she came.

The small room in the attic, Cassandra's drawing room she would later find out, was the perfect secluded spot. They spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other. First evening of many.

#double edged scalpel #cassandra dimitrescu x maiden #unhinged maiden™ my beloved #daniela dimitrescu #fanfic #idk how to smut yall

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johns-prince · 4 years ago

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Let's play the speculation game and say McLennon was real. Going with the common idea that Paul dumped John in India, wasn't the "let's all be friends, write together and go on double dates with our wives" angle Paul seemed to hope for completely delusional? Why would someone with John's issues stick around and celebrate Paul's happiness with someone else after being downgraded?

I have great respect for Paul's decision of not being John's nanny/handler for the rest of his life. But I've always been annoyed by his inability to let the man go for good. Paul, you've made your choice, my friend. Enough with the sad songs about not being called back or turning up on John's doorstep with a guitar when the he was spending time with his own family. People hate that but some things in the world really are black or white. You can't have it both ways.

Why speculate when we know it was and is real

Alright so, let me try to unpack my thoughts cohesively get ya tinfoil hats on y’all;

If we go with the theory that during 1967, when Paul and John were practically living together and conjoined at the hip, taking LSD together and sharing those intense and intimate experiences that even Pau’s girlfriend Jane had become envious of— John had come to the realization of what he wanted, finally acknowledged it and came to accept it.

So in India, John tried to confront Paul about their relationship and their “relationship,” and openly admit to Paul that he wanted more, that he was now willing to leave Cynthia and Julian for a life he truly wanted or desired, and that included Paul (but to what extent is what we debate I guess)

And now that I’m thinking about it, we also know John was sort of beginning to spiral downward in 1968. It was obvious his marriage with Cynthia was at it’s end, and he didn’t want to work on it anymore. He was surrounding himself more with druggies, an unsavory crowd that Cynthia really didn’t approve of (Yoko was part of this crowd) and he was actively pulling away.

I think John was realizing that, he just wasn’t happy. That, putting everything he had into becoming one of the most successful musicians in the world, to become bigger then Elvis Presley, didn’t make him happy. It didn’t fix what needed fixing in him, what needed addressing. He was still drowning despite it all.

So you’ve got the trip to India, the boys going in hopes that perhaps the Maharishi Mahesh Yog and his spiritual teachings would somehow give a new perspective on things, produce the answer that would save the band (save John and Paul) from what appeared to be an inevitable downfall. But as we know, that isn’t what was needed.

John and Paul needed to talk. The lack of consistent communication between them for years and years, and the fact John needed a therapist, he needed rehab. So did Paul, during the White Album era.

I don’t believe Paul dumped John, but I do think John could have easily misconstrued Paul taking a step back and not willing to just go blindly, impulsively jumping off a theoretical cliff with him, as being rejected. We know Paul had to sort of take the position of ‘think before you leap’, to be more conscious of the actions and decisions he and the others decide to take, and how it would effect them as individuals, and especially them as a band (because frankly the others wouldn’t) and we know that John could be incredibly impulsive, only thought of the consequences after the fact. That, and who’s to say such a proposition and confrontation from John hadn’t scared Paul? Got him feeling those insecurities of his own crawling up.

Paul wanted a traditional family, he wanted to have a wife and children. But Paul also wanted John, he wanted and loved Lennon-McCartney, and he didn’t think (or he’d hoped) him getting married and having a family would really change anything between them (because John got married and had a kid and they were still able to do go and do whatever they wanted together, so what was the difference—) that he could still keep what he had with John, that they could still stay together after The Beatles split. Get around to writing that musical, and grow old together still writing and making music, still creating together.

How I see it, is that Paul wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

Paul, being fine with keeping the status quo between them, it was safe and enough (right?), but John vehemently wasn’t fine with it anymore, and it wasn’t enough for him. Nothing was enough for him, as we know; John was a very all-or-nothing individual, and expected complete devotion and love from someone, because receiving less felt like rejection and abandonment was only around the corner. This way of feeling and thinking for John was only exasperated by the drugs, his alcoholism, and his spiraling mental health.

Paul could have tried compromising with John, and John still could have taken that as a complete rejection of his feelings and what he wanted, and what he had hoped and thought Paul also wanted.

I believe Paul probably didn’t even know himself what he had done wrong, or that he did anything wrong. I don’t think Paul believed he was downgrading John to anything either.

If only they had talked.

Then they returned from India, and the rest as we know it...

“To me, a summary is something like: “gifted, disturbed boy with tremendous amount of drive to outrun a bad childhood discovers love for music and creative soulmate(s) and gives everything he has to become the most famous musician in the world, hoping it will make him happy. He does, but it doesn’t, and people who don’t have his best interests separate him from his friends, his creation and creative spark, and ultimately himself. He’s too screwed up by addiction, mental illness, and unaddressed traumas to change things, so he retreats further into addiction and mental illness, wishing he could somehow regain his lost spark. He makes a few halfway steps toward doing so, but they’re not enough, and ultimately he is killed in front of his apartment building where, 24 hours later, his wife installs the man she had been sleeping with behind his back.”"

— Michael Bleicher, The Artist as a Dissipated Man: Fred Seaman’s “The Last Days of John Lennon.”

Right, so both John and Paul made their choices in life. Some choices and decisions that we as fans and outside observers might never be able to understand, or agree with.

But who’s to say Paul (and John), couldn’t, didn’t, or don’t regret those choices and decisions?

I get what you’re saying, I understand. Why can’t Paul move on? He made his choices, why is it 40, 50 years later, that Paul can’t just let John go? Let sleeping dogs lie, all that.

Because Paul loved John, still loves John, to this day.

Because, clearly Paul has some regrets. He regrets how things were handled during the Divorce. He regrets not hugging John enough. He regrets not telling John, when he had the chance and time, that he loved him (and without the help of alcohol) When you love someone so deeply, and suddenly, without warning, they’re taken from you and the world, you regret a lot, and you miss what could have been, the ‘What if’s.’

Paul said that what he and John were, were soulmates. I don’t know how it feels to lose a soulmate. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to know how it feels to get the opportunity to love and be around them.

How awful do you think it is to meet your soulmate, but you cannot freely love them? Can’t just, be, with them? Not in just one way, bestmates, legendary partners, but, as everything that the word Soulmate brings along and includes with it?

That God decided to have them be of the same sex, during a time where it was illegal to love and be with someone of the same sex, and could even be a potential death sentence to be assumed or thought of as a ‘queer.’

So, you take whatever you can with them.

Then that isn’t enough. One grows restless, desperate for more. It can’t happen, not realistically, not without consequences of varying degrees.

Strain, miscommunication to none. They communicate through a musical, artistic language which just isn’t enough. Drugs, alcohol, mental illness and emotional turmoil, it’s all too much. It breaks. Soulmates are still flawed human beings.

You have people who work to purposefully pin them against each other. Parasites and piggybackers.

A nasty divorce and breakup between two lovers that never were.

And then, after ten years, it’s happening. You two are talking again, things are tense and awkward still sometimes, but something’s changed. You’ve planned on reuniting, couldn’t do it this year, because the studio you wanted was booked. So you plan for after the New Year.

Then, your soulmate is killed. Just, taken away from you, like nothing. Violently and suddenly. And all the possibilities... The time... Gone. Ripped away from both of you.

I can’t blame Paul for not letting go. I can’t say I’d ever be able to understand the sort of pain and heartbreak he experienced. He still goes through it! It’s still there. He’s just learned how to manage it a bit better.

I’d say it’s more pathetic then it is annoying— and I don’t mean it in a way to insult Paul. I really don’t. Because John was just as pathetic when it came to his obvious obsession, desire, and love for Paul, too.

Love, that kind of soul-deep love, it can make you pathetic and hopeless. And it’s not something you can just... let go for good.

Wanting, or expecting Paul to let go of John for good... Firstly would be impossible, and secondly, how do you let go of a soulmate? John is a part of Paul, whether some like it or not. Can’t really have one without the other.

Can’t have Lennon without McCartney, and vice-or-versa. Forever intertwined, are they.

#questionsquestionsquestions #mclennon #beatles discussion/discourse #I think all I did was ramble again I'm sorry #this isn't even that good

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alarawriting · 4 years ago

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52 Project #32: Five Minutes

Five minutes from now a man shot me in the head.

It all happened so fast. He rang the doorbell, so I looked through the peephole and saw what looked like a UPS guy at the door. I wasn’t expecting a package, but I wasn’t expecting a guy with a gun, either. I unlocked the three locks, opened the door and there he was, gun pointing right at me. Before I had time to do anything, he fired.

I don't know why he did it. He could just be a racist asshole who’s trying to start a race war or something by randomly murdering a black teenager, but I don’t think so – there’s a lot of girls every bit as brown as me walking around outside on a nice summer day like today. I think it’s more likely because my mother's a researcher into Proximas and my uncle is a known Proxima who works with the Peace Force; he might have been here after them, or he might have shot me to get at them.

It doesn't matter. It's five minutes ago and I haven't been shot yet. Instead I run for the telephone in the kitchen and dial 911.

I hear the doorbell ring. It doesn't matter.

“911, what’s the nature of your emergency?”

“Uh, there’s a guy outside. With a gun. Outside my family’s apartment. I’m thirteen and my family isn’t here and this guy is trying to kill me.”

“What’s your address?”

I tell them, quickly. I add, “He’s an adult, a white guy with brown hair, medium height. Looks like 30-ish maybe. He’s dressed like a UPS delivery man.” I want to make sure they know it’s a white guy so my uncle doesn’t get beaten or shot if he comes home before the police get here. Rodney King was only three years ago.

“I’m dispatching officers to your location now. Stay on the phone with me.”

“Okay, how long until they arrive?”

“They’ll be there within ten minutes.”

That doesn’t mean much to me. Ten minutes can hold an infinite number of five-minuteses. “My name’s Alannah Foster,” I tell them. “My mom and my uncle are both doctors. Cynthia Foster and Daniel Foster.” I’m thinking that if I can’t hold this guy off long enough, the police need to know who to tell about what happened.

The gunman shoots the lock off the door and kicks the door open. I can see him from where I'm standing with the telephone. I could drop to the floor to get out of the line of fire; I’m standing in front of a counter. But to get out safely, I’d have to be able to crawl to the door that goes out to the hallway, and I’d have to do it so fast that he can’t shoot me when I’m not behind the counter anymore, and I’d have to do it before he can get here.

That’s not gonna happen. I don’t go to a superhero academy like my uncle did when he was my age, and I know I’m no action hero from a movie. There isn’t any way forward where I’m getting out of this kitchen before he shoots me.

He aims the gun at me. So I jump back five minutes ago. I don't have as much runway to work with this time. I jump into the middle of the conversation with Emergency Services, and pick up with barely a stumble-- I'm used to this. “--adult,” I say. “White guy, brown hair, medium height, UPS uniform.” He's been ringing the doorbell for half a minutes. In five minutes he'll get the door open and he'll come after me.

My uncle Dan’s a healer. He could maybe save my life if this guy shoots me in the chest – but not in the face or the head. My mom's just a scientist. She doesn’t have any powers. And they're both out for the day, Mom at a conference, Dan with his teammates. There's just me, 13-year-old Alannah, and there's no one I can call that could get here faster than 911 could.

I drop the phone before the 911 dispatcher finishes telling me she’s dispatching officers, and run for the fire escape. The window’s old wood, painted many times, and it jams as I try to lift it. I hear him shoot off the lock.

I jump back five minutes ago. This time as I get off the phone with 911, I don't waste time trying to force the window open. Instead I pick up one of the heavy iron bookends holding my collection of computer books on my desk, and use it to smash the window. I'm small enough that I can squeeze through without getting cut up too badly.

There’s a fire escape outside our apartment building. I start down it carefully, not wanting to move too fast and fall. But I hear him shoot the lock, I hear him head for my bedroom, and as I see him up above me pulling the window open and coming out onto the fire escape with his gun, I jump five minutes ago, to the point where I was smashing the window. This time I run down the fire escape as fast as I can go, trusting that if I fall, I'll just jump five minutes ago and be more careful.

There’s an alley below me, and it doesn’t smell great – garbage pickup won’t be until day after tomorrow. I jump off from near the bottom, and race around the corner, out of the alley and onto the street. He's probably following me. No reason to think he's not. Quickly I crawl under one of the cars parked on our street. With luck, he won't see me.

I can see his feet. I can see him looking for me. It takes longer than five minutes, which makes me nervous. And then he sees me. I scream as he kneels down. "There you are, you little bitch," he says, aiming the gun.

Five minutes ago I'm still under the car and he's out there, looking for me. I roll out from under the car and start to run.

Behind me he fires. The bullet slams into my back, and then I'm half a minute ago-- I can't jump my full five minutes until I've returned to my origin time. Half a minute is long enough to throw myself to my stomach as the bullet whizzes over my head, to roll behind a parked car, trembling. He starts to come around the car. I circle, keeping the car between him and me.

He's faster than me, and he runs at me, the gun out. At that range he can't miss. The bullet is a searing pain in my chest, and then it's five seconds ago, and I'm dodging, now that he's already committed to the shot. It hits my arm. Not good enough. I jump again, ten seconds. This time I dodge too soon, and he’s able to adjust his aim. It hits me in the chest again. Seven seconds. Just long enough that I can get all the way out of the way, just short enough that he can't change where he's aiming.

I drag myself under a car again. I wait until he ducks down to shoot me, and jump ten seconds, giving me time to position myself just where his head will be. As his head lowers again, I kick it with all the strength in my body.

He staggers backward, and I pull myself out from under the car, rolling to my feet and running down the street. We live in a residential neighborhood in Brooklyn, one that’s just expensive enough that everyone here works, so there’s no one on the street in the middle of the day. With gunshots going off, I don’t expect that to last. But I’m not expecting anyone to come save me, either.

By the time he recovers, I've got a nice comfortable margin, a minute or two. When he shoots me again, I use my margin to jump back, to know when he's going to shoot and duck it again.

"Goddamn, you fucking proxy bitch! Fucking stay still!" he screams, proving my theory that this is about me being a Proxima, and shoots at me again. He's got good aim; he hits again. I'm so tired of jumping, so tired of the pain of bullets hitting and the fear that I won't be able to evade the next time. I want so badly to stop... but I don’t want to die. So I jump again, and dodge again, and this time I make it to the cover of a tree before he can shoot me again.

I'm so out of breath. My knees and elbows are all scraped up from hitting the ground repeatedly. And I'm drained from so many time jumps. I've never done so many in a row. There's no way I can keep this up. The tree isn't big enough to shield me if I run now, not big enough to shield when he reaches me. I'm boxed in.

And then the cops pull up.

He runs. They tell him to halt and drop his weapon; when he keeps running, they shoot him. The bullets tear into him, leaving him on the ground covered with blood, and he doesn't jump five minutes ago. He stays dead.

***

They call me the hero kid, the resourceful little girl who stayed ahead of a hardened killer for fifteen minutes, long enough for the police to come. They tell me it wasn't about me at all; he was a small-time hit man, probably hired by someone to take out me out to scare my mother off her pro-Proxima activism. They don’t mention my uncle at all, so I guess secret identities are good for something after all.

My mom comes from her conference, and hugs me, and my uncle comes from where he's hanging out with his teammates, and he tells me how great I was, and how much control I've got over my powers (he says that part privately where no one can hear.) I appear in the newspaper in the local news section. Fifteen minutes of fame, much better than five minutes of fear.

But I want to take self-defense classes, and I want to enter the Peace Force’s superhero academy like my uncle did, and learn what superheroes know about using their powers to survive. Because someday five minutes might not be long enough to get away.

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Takes place in the same universe as “The Cold At The Heart Of The Light”, focusing on some of the minor characters.

This was originally published under “The Common People” fanfic project for Marvel mutants, back in the 90′s, but has been revised since (beyond revision to remove the fanfic elements).

#52 project #proximas #superheroes

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justwritethatdown · 4 years ago

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The Bella's house is haunted by the ghost of a girl who died there in the 80's . They have a seance. Things go very badly...

Rating: M for vivid description of violence

Words count: 3k

Trigger warning: cruent deaths, mention of blood

(I’ve been meaning to tell you)

I think your house is haunted

Beca had moved in the Bella’s house and had been living there with the other girls for just one week when she started to notice there was something weird going on in that place.

At first, she thought it might have been one of the girls – definitely Amy – who was playing tricks on her; it was just annoying silly things, really, like misplaced objects, doors that opened and closed on their own or songs that mysteriously changed to Cindy Lauper while she was listening to her Spotify playlists. All things Amy could have managed to do with little effort.

What made Beca question her believes were the events of that day she was sick and decided to stay home while all the girls went to class and then to rehearsals. She was home alone, so nobody could be pranking her, but strange things continued to happen – doubled even.

It started with her headphones; Beca could swear she’d left them on the desk, next to her computer, but when she came back from the bathroom they were gone. The brunette looked for them everywhere and finally found them in the fridge

“Mh, weird” she mumbled to herself, making her way back in her room to start working on a new mix.

Halfway through her mix, her laptop started to flash and then it showed statics

“What the fuck!? Come on you can’t die on me right now” lamented Beca hitting her laptop, she took her brand-new iPhone 5 and saw it was doing the same thing “what the hell is going on?”

She threw the phone asides and stated that she was delirious, probably due to the fever, so she decided to make herself one of Chloe’s infusions. Beca put the boiler on the stove and started looking in the cabinet for the infusion, when the home theater they had in the living room started to blast Time after Time.

“Who’s there?” she called out but didn’t get an answer. If she was honest, she’d admit she was starting to freak out a little bit.

The brunette slowly entered the living room to see that nobody was there

“That’s not funny” she called out, doing her best to hide the shake in her voice “Amy I saw you, you can come out” she tried, but again, no answer. She gulped and went to turn off the stereo, then slowly sat on the sofa to calm down, but the boiler’s whistle made her jump

“Fuck” she spat out marching to the kitchen.

Beca took a deep calming breath pouring the boiling water in her favorite mug, put the boiler away and sat down to enjoy her drink. The warm bitter liquid running down her throat was starting to relax her and free her lungs, she put down the mug and rubbed her face with both hands, when she heard the mug crashing on the floor.

Chloe opened the door and the first thing she saw was a baseball bat moving in her direction. She dodged it and saw a very startled Beca holding it

“Beca what are you doing?” she squeaked

“I- sorry I thought…” trailed off the brunette letting her weapon fall and tiredly hid her face with her palms

“Hey, what’s going on, how are you feeling?” Chloe asked removing Beca’s hands “Oh my god, Bec, you’re burning up! Let me take you to bed”

“I broke a mug” mumbled Beca while Chloe was helping her under the covers “and my phone” she added

“Your phone is working…” stated Chloe showing it to her “don’t worry for the mug, now try to get some rest” she whispered tucking a lock of brown hair away from Beca’s forehead.

Beca let out a heavy breath and briefly considered telling Chloe what she went through

“Chlo…”

“Mh?” the redhead asked turning around with a soft smile

“Thank you” mumbled the brunette before rolling on her side. “Ghosts don’t exist you’re just delirious” she told to herself before falling asleep.

“You’re such a loser”

“You will never be one of us”

“There’s no place for cowards in here”

“Ahahahah”

It was night, the cold air was making Beca shiver. The area of porch she could see from her bedroom’s window looked different than usual and she couldn’t recognize any of the voices laughing at her. She wasn’t looking down from her window, she was standing outside the window. She was barefoot.

“Come on, we don’t have all night!”

Beca swallowed hard, her head was spinning, she slipped.

Beca woke up in her bed, damp with sweat, her – now working – phone pointed 4AM, she groaned and went back to sleep.

Weeks passed and then months, objects kept disappearing and appearing in weird places and Beca made sure to never be alone in the house again, but she never talked to anyone about what happened, she was too embarrassed about it – ghosts don’t exist.

One evening, after helping Jessica find her bracelet that ended up being in a plant near the bathroom, she decided to talk to Chloe about it.

“Hey Chlo, can we talk for a moment?” she mumbled, still uncertain about saying it out loud

“Sure, what’s up?” asked the redhead putting aside her Russian lit book

“I uhm… this might sound weir but…” she trailed off

“You know you can tell me everything, right?” assured her Chloe leaning in to grab her hand

“I – not that I believe in this kind of things, but uhm… I think there’s a ghost in the house��

Chloe’s face fell and she cleared her throat sitting back straight “Yeah, that’s Molly” she said casually, going back to her reading.

“WHAT?” gasped the brunette

“Molly” repeated Chloe “she died here in the 80’s” she explained

“You don’t actually believe she- she’s living with us, right?” stuttered Beca

“Of course, she is-”

“What are we talking about?” interrupted her Stacie

“Apparently we have a ghost” explained Cynthia-Rose who happened to hear the conversation

“Cool, a ghost story!” gasped Stacie excited “wait, I’ll call the others”

They moved in the living room after Stacie gathered all the girls and Chloe started telling the story

“In the 80’s this house was the sorority house of the θγτ. Those girls were known to be the cruelest sorority Barden had ever seen. They always made their new members prove their worth through impossible dares, like eating worms or doing dangerous things. Most times the new girls run away crying and were thrown out of the sorority, but there was this girl – Molly – who wanted to be part of the sorority more than anything. She was willing to die for it-”

“How did she die?” interrupted Beca, her throat felt tight and her heart was beating incredibly fast

“It was initiation night. They gave her a dare, a test of bravery…”

The crunching of chips coming from Amy destroyed the mood Chloe was skillfully setting with her story

“Amy, would you mind!?” lamented Cynthia-Rose

“What?” asked Amy stopping with her mouth full of chips

“We’re kinda in the middle of something here…” added Ashley

“Go on” spurred her on Stacie

Chloe cleated her throat “they told her that to be a member of the θγτ she had to walk on the ledge from side to side of the house only wearing her nightgown. They knew she was scared of heights, they probably thought she would have given up, but she tried anyway…”

“fuck…” whispered Beca, she had chills thinking about her dream

“She fell” added Chloe in a sad voice

“Do you want to contact her?” offered Lilly in her usual creepy tone

“Yes! Let’s summon a ghost” squealed Stacie

“Dude, no!” gasped Beca horrified

“What? You scared Mitchell?” challenged her the tall brunette

“I’m not scared” retorted Beca

“Come on, it’s Halloween week, it’ll be fun” tried Jessica and the girls agreed. Beca didn’t like it, she didn’t like it at all.

Lilly seemed to be rather expert on the field. She made them move the furniture and drawn a pentagram on the floor in the middle of the living room, she turned off the lights and placed five candles, one on each point of the circled star. The girls were sitting in circle around the symbol while Lilly placed herself in the center and started saying something Beca assumed to be in Latin.

Suddenly a gust of wind turned off all the candles and the room feel silent

“You girls shouldn’t be playing around with seances” Lilly said in a demoniac voice and someone, probably Jessica or Ashley – Beca wasn’t sure – screamed. Some of the girls turned on the flashlight on their phones and they could see Lilly standing up, with her hair down on her face.

“Shit, she looks just like Samara” said Amy

“You foolish girls, must pay respect to the rituals” Roared Lilly

“Fuck, is she possessed?” gasped Cynthia-Rose

“Lilly that’s the best Halloween prank I’ve ever seen” laughed Stacie “You look disgusting”

At that Lilly howled in rage turning to Stacie and showed her face, her eyes were completely white, and her body was still facing forward while her face was turned to look at the brunette. The girls screamed and moved away but Beca noticed Chloe was still on the pentagram

“Chloe what are you doing?” she shouted to her

“Molly” tried the redhead swallowing hard

The monster turned to face her and Beca grabbed Chloe’s hand to drag her away. Molly grunted and started to walk towards Stacie, in the meantime someone had turned on the lights and Beca could see that Lilly wasn’t wearing her clothes anymore, she recognized the white gown she was wearing in her dream.

Molly reached Stacie and cornered her

“Please, please not my face! Or the boobs, please-” begged the girl, but the spirit reached out to her throat and ripped her trachea out making blood splash everywhere. All the girls screamed in horror crying out Stacie’s name and the lights went out again.

The Bellas ran away in different places of the house and Beca had no idea where the others went, except for Chloe who had never let go of her hand. She had dragged her in a room and locked the door behind them, everything was dark and Beca could barely make out the silhouette of Chloe’s face.

“I can’t believe Stacie is dead” sniffed Chloe

“Yeah, that’s crazy” murmured Beca letting the redhead hug her

“I’m glad you’re her with me” she breathed out

“Me too, I can’t imagine being alone right now” confessed the brunette and Chloe pulled away from the hug

“No, I mean… I’m glad that it’s you” clarified the redhead looking into her eyes

Beca swallowed hard noticing how close they were and in the dim light she could see Chloe’s eyes looking down at her lips for a moment. It’s funny how you throw all cares to the wind when you think you’re about to die. Beca leaned in and kissed her. Chloe responded instantly pressing her against the door and slipping her tongue into Beca’s mouth. Her hands were desperatcely gripping at Beca and for a moment the brunette thought that maybe this was worth dying for.

Their kiss was interrupted by Cynthia-Rose pointing a flashlight at them

“Finally!” she cheered making them jump “we need to go to the basement, unless you have something better to do…” she added in a judgy tone

“Why to the basement?” asked Beca clearing her throat “of all places…” she added with a shiver

“To fix the lighting maybe?” retorted Cynthia-Rose

“Okay but why can’t you go?” asked Beca hissing when Chloe hit her with her elbow

“Because the black and the queer characters always die first in horror movies, and if you didn’t notice, I am black and a lesbian! So, I’m definitely not going there alone” explained the girl

“Of course we’re coming with you” agreed Chloe.

“Lock the door” intimated Beca once they entered the basement. They reached the electric cabinet and Beca pointed the light of the phone to it “you know how to do that?” she asked

“Yep”

While Cynthia-Rose was working on the cables Beca let herself get lost in the comfort of Chloe’s body pressed up against her back and the girl’s fingers intertwined with her owns. It caused a weird warm sensation, like if it didn’t matter that there was a murderous demon around the house and that they were all going to be slaughtered by it.

When the lights started working again the girls turned around to find Molly covered in Stacie’s blood standing in the middle of the room. Beca whimpered and pressed herself more into Chloe who had pretty much the same reaction, while Cynthia-Rose threw her flashlight to the monster hitting her in the face and gaining them some important seconds

“Go go go go go!” she shouted, and they started to climb the stairs.

As soon as Beca and Chloe were out of the basement door, it slammed shut behind them trapping the other girl inside. They could hear her scream and hit the door trying to open it, so they started doing the same until Beca couldn’t hear her anymore

“Chlo…” she tried, but the red head wouldn’t stop “Chlo-”

“We need to get her out of there Beca!” she cried

“Chlo, it’s too late… she’s gone” she sobbed “we have to go” she added grabbing Chloe’s hand again, but this time it wasn’t enough to calm her.

They started to run towards the door, when the couch slid between them and their target, they turned around to see Molly slowly approaching them.

“You don’t belong here” thundered Molly tilting her head “you didn’t complete the ritual”

“Yes, yes she does” gasped Chloe placing herself in front of Beca “Bree didn’t want her at first, but then she was okay with it”

“Chlo what are you doing?” whispered Beca, but the monster suddenly turned around and walked away “what the fuck?” breathed out Beca in confusion.

They saw Cynthia-Rose crawl out from the basement and ran to help her

“How are you what did she do to you?” asked Chloe helping the girl up to her feet

“Slowly, slowly, I’m injured” she gasped showing them a bleeding wound on her hip “she pushed me downstairs, I must have caught a nail or something”

“Come on, let’s take you to the bathroom, Chloe has a first aid kit” said Beca pushing the girl’s arm around her neck to help her stand.

On their way to the bathroom, they found Jessica with a tear-stained face standing next to the staircase that led to the second floor, Chloe moved to hug her and saw Ashley’s lying on the floor with her neck broken and some limbs twisted.

“Fuck” sadly whispered Cynthia-Rose rubbing her face with her palm

“Lilly was following us upstairs, Amy got away” sobbed Jessica “I couldn’t leave her”

“It’s okay, come here, it’s okay" tried to comfort her Chloe.

The group made it to Chloe’s bathroom and the redhead was trying to medicate Cynthia-Rose as best as she could

“What else did you see in horror movies?” asked Beca

“About ghosts? They’re usually here because they have unfinished business- ouch”

“Sorry" whispered Chloe

“ ‘s alright. But those were movies I don’t know- OUCH!”

“I’m done" promised Chloe getting up

“I don’t know if it applies to real ghosts” added Cynthia-Rose

“It’s all we have" huffed Beca “I need to try, and we still need to find Amy"

“I’m coming with you" said Chloe

“No, it’s too dangerous I don’t want you to get hurt”

“You’re not going alone” argued Chloe and Beca gave up

“Alright. Jessica, you stay here with CR”

Beca and Chloe started to wander around the house, looking for Molly

“Why did you think the ghost was after me?” whispered Beca

“Her name is Molly” corrected her Chloe “and I don’t know…” she trailed off

“You mentioned Aubrey, did she tell the ghost- Molly, to haunt me or something?” suggested Beca

“What? No" gasped the redhead “I just assumed because she’s been here the whole time I was in this house, but since when you moved in, she seemed to be… more nervous” she explained

“I had a dream about her" confessed Beca “I mean I was her. In the dream. The night she died… I think she just wants to be accepted"

They heard a loud noise and suddenly stopped swallowing hard

“we should check that” said Chloe in a tiny voice

“I hope it’s Amy" huffed Beca nodding

As it turned out it was Amy, but she’d just been thrown against the wall by Molly.

“Amy” shouted Beca without thinking, letting the ghost know they were there

“Beca, finally! Save me, I’m too important to die" screamed Amy trying to free herself, but the monster shoved a hand in her chest ripping her guts out.

“No!” cried Beca “stop it, what do you want from us?” she shouted at the ghost

Molly let Amy’s body fall to the ground and started to walk towards them again.

“You did not respect the ritual" she kept saying, the lights were flashing like crazy and there was wind coming out of nowere

Beca took a step forward “what ritual? What are you talking about?”

Molly pushed her asides and took Chloe by the throat. The redhead gasped trying to free herself from the bloody hand chocking her, but it was pointless

“You must complete the ritual!”

“I’ll do it! I’ll do your ritual” volunteered Beca

Molly instantly let go of Chloe and turned to the brunette

“Bec no" begged Chloe trying to catch her breath

“You are a Bella now!” she declared, confusing both Chloe and the ghost

“I, as co-captain of the Bellas, declare that you have passed the test and are a Bella. You’re one of us" she gulped, her heart was beating so fast it was hard to breathe, like if she’d run a marathon. Chloe had reached her and was standing beside her

“And I, as the other co-captain, approve that" confirmed the redhead.

“Thank you" whispered Molly.

Suddenly the lights stopped flashing and everything seemed to be back to normal. Lilly’s body fell to the ground with a thud and Chloe immediately moved to go check on her but Beca stopped her

“What if she’s faking it?” questioned the brunette

“Why would she fake it?” pointed out Chloe and went to kneel down besides Lilly.

“Is she…” asked Beca

“She’s breathing” assured Chloe relieved

“We should call the police” suggested Jessica once her and Cynthia-Rose joined them.

The police was still taking their depositions and Lilly was taken away with an ambulance, it was clear that the girls couldn’t have been killed by a person, but the policeman refused to believe their ghost story and kept asking them if they’d taken any drugs or were drunk. He kept bringing up an animal attack, almost like if he was trying to convince them.

Chloe went to sit on the porch next to Beca, both wrapped in those panic blankets they’d only saw in movies before that night.

“You saved my life" she stated humping her with the shoulder

“Well, you tried that first” answered Beca looking down at her feet “I noticed you stepping in front of me"

“Yes, but it turned out she was never after you… she just wanted the head of the sorority to accept her"

“If I only figured that out earlier Amy would still be alive, maybe Ashley too" sniffed Beca

“Hey, look at me” told her Chloe reaching out to gently tilt Beca’s face towards her “it’s not your fault, okay? If anything you saved the rest of us. If it wasn’t for you I…” she trailed off shivering at the memory of that cold hand around her throat

“I’m glad you’re okay" whispered Beca with teary eyes before leaning in to kiss her.

#Pitch Perfect #horror story #ghost story #bechloe #halloween #beca mitchell #chloe beale #bechloe horror #bechloe oneshot #pitch perfect one shot

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daydreaming-everyday · 4 years ago

Text

Snow and Fur

(You may need to click the image for better quality)

Happy New Year to @itstrulyastrangerthing! You were my giftee for the @sincerely-us winter gift exchange! I had such a fun time painting the fanart above and writing the fanfic below. I adored your first prompt, but you will find a little bit of your second prompt in the fic. I hope you enjoy, and may the new year bring you good things! <3

Quick Disclaimer: This is an AU where Connor is still alive, and there is healthy Bandtrees!

Ao3 Link

Evan fumbled with his hands. A mix of excitement and nervousness sat inside of him.

When Zoe brought the idea of adopting a dog to him one day, he thought it was perfect. The two had more than enough time to take care of one with the holiday season. Though Evan never had any experience with pets, Zoe recalled having a golden retriever, Sadie, in her childhood.

“Excited?” Zoe asks, remaining her focus on driving. The roads were a little icy in the late December weather.

Evan nods, “A little scared, but I’m excited.”

Zoe pulls into the parking lot of the animal shelter. The cold wind welcomed Evan’s face and lungs when he opened the car door, sending a chill down his spine.

Zoe intertwines her fingers into Evan’s hand.

“You ready?”

Evan looks at Zoe’s face. She gave him a subtle, reassuring smile. It was almost as her calm demeanor was seeping through her fingertips, transferring it to Evan’s hand.

Evan squeezed her hand tighter, nodding.

The shelter had a thick odar hanging in the air when the couple walked in. A lady greeted them, and Zoe explained what they were looking for. She led them to an array of dog kennels. Each dog they looked at, the lady told them their story.

Zoe looked up at Evan each time. What do you think?

Let’s keep looking. Evan would reply by shaking his head.

Soon, a dog finally caught Evan’s eyes.

A smaller dog sat in the corner of the cage. It’s back was to them, so all you could see was it’s thin light brown coat.

“This is Buddy,” the kennel lady explained to him, “six years old. We aren’t quite sure what breed he is, but we believe he is part corgi and part beagle.”

“How did he end up here?” Evan asked.

“Previous family abandoned him when he got older. They preferred cuter puppies, and traded him for a much younger, purebred dog.”

Evan’s heart ached for the dog, even feeling a little sympathy. His own father left, and traded him and his mom for another family. Evan remembered feeling hurt because of it.

Evan knew exactly what Buddy needed.

“Buddy barely moves though,” the kennel lady says, “there are more dogs over here.”

“Um… could I try to…?”

The kennel lady shrugs before unlocking the cage.

Evan slowly enters the cage. Buddy turned his head slightly, looking at Evan. Evan noticed he had amber eyes.

Evan crouched down. He extended his hand outwards, towards Buddy. The dog slowly, and cautiously, stood up, and began to approach Evan. Buddy extended his muzzle to his hand, sniffing Evan’s fingers.

Buddy inched closer. Evan slowly lowered his hand on Buddy’s back. Buddy tensed at Evan’s touch. The dog looked at Evan, and Evan worried he startled Buddy. However, Buddy relaxed, and melted in his touch.

“Well would you look at that,” the kennel lady said, “Buddy usually doesn’t like to be touched by others.”

Evan looks at Zoe, who is smiling at him.

“Can we get this one?” Evan asks.

“I don’t think we have a choice.”

Evan was getting used to having a dog around their apartment, and Buddy was used to having a home.

“You two look comfy,” Zoe smiles, holding two mugs of hot chocolate in her hands. Both mugs visibly had tall whipped cream dollops, and were sprinkled with crushed peppermint candy canes.

Evan was on the couch, Buddy on his lap. They were wrapped in a fuzzy blanket, and Buddy was enjoying the gentle scratches Evan was giving him.

Buddy had started to be relaxed when Evan or Zoe had touched him. The dog had let it’s guard down to them, and was more and more cheerful each coming day.

“Come join us,” Evan patted the spot next to him.

“Hold on, I need a photo of my two favorite boys,” Zoe pulls out her phone, setting the hot chocolate on the nearby coffee table.

Though Evan was usually camera shy, he gave Zoe a huge, goofy smile, making Zoe laugh as she snapped the photo. She then sits next to Evan on the couch. Evan wraps her some of his blanket.

“This may be my new favorite photo,” Zoe comments, “look how cute you both are.”

Evan blushes as Zoe puts her phone away. She reaches over to Evan’s lap, stroking Buddy’s fur. Buddy licks her wrist in return.

“Are we ready to start movie night?” Evan asks, sipping his drink.

“Yep,” Zoe says, popping open a fresh bag of plain popcorn. Buddy looked at Zoe, eyeing the snack. Zoe passed him a kernel. Buddy graciously accepted the treat.

“Zoe!”

“Relax,” Zoe says, “it’s not going to hurt him. Connor and I used to feed our old dog popcorn all the time.”

Evan could imagine Zoe and Connor as children, taking turns to feed Sadie handfuls of popcorn. He could also imagine Cynthia reminding them to stop feeding their dog (of course, they wouldn’t listen).

“Okay. What type of movie do you want to watch?” Evan asks, clicking the remote, scrolling through different genres.

They decided on a dog movie. It seemed fitting, since Buddy was in their arms to watch it. As Evan clicked ‘play,’ he curled into Zoe’s side.

“This is the best way to beat the cold,” Evan says, taking in the warmth of Zoe’s body.

“I’d have to agree.”

“He looks ridiculous.”

“Everyone needs to be bundled up,” Evan says, picking up Buddy, “including pets.”

Evan had dressed Buddy in a thick winter coat. Booties were on each of his paws, and the outfit was topped with a knitted dog hat.

“Besides, I think he is rocking the outfit,” Evan jokes.

Zoe hooks the dog leash to Buddy’s collar, “Whatever you say dear. You ready for a walk Bud?!”

Buddy wagged his tail, and began to pant excitly.

“Before we go, one more person has to put on some winter clothes,” Evan eyes Zoe.

“I’m wearing a coat!” Zoe exclaims, “and it’s just a walk.”

Evan grabs a scarf and hat, “It’s still twenty degrees outside. We don’t want mommy to be cold, right Buddy?”

Buddy barks in reply.

“Fine,” Zoe allows Evan to wrap her scarf around her neck, and slip her hat on her head. Once he’s done, he gives Zoe a quick kiss on the cheek.

Just as Evan is about to open the door, Zoe grabs his hand, pulling him closer to her.

“You missed,” Zoe smirks.

Evan closes his eyes, and leans into Zoe, pressing his lips to hers. Zoe’s hands wrap around the bare spots of his neck that his scarf did not cover. Evan a breath hitches at the touch, and he wraps his arms around her lower back.

A yip interrupted them. Zoe and Evan break apart. Buddy was patiently sitting on the floor, looking utterly betrayed. Zoe and Evan blush and giggle.

Zoe gives Evan one last kiss before opening the door, the cool air welcoming their faces. Buddy quickly jumped outside, hopping into the fresh, fluffy snow from the previous night. He rolled around until snow covered his muzzle.

Buddy led the way during the walk, eager to look at everything ahead of him. Evan had his arm linked to Zoe’s, admiring the winter wonderland in front of them. Dark pine trees were coated with snow. The sky was blue, and not it’s normal grey. The sun was brightly shining on their faces, and snowflakes were lazily descending from the sky.

“The weather is nice,” Evan says.

Zoe nods, “Buddy is enjoying it.”

Buddy was attempting to catch falling snowflakes into his mouth. Evan and Zoe giggled.

The only downside to the winter weather is that when snow mixes with a dirt road, then it becomes muddy. Mud puddles were formed all over the road they were walking on.

Unfortunately, Buddy jumped right into a puddle.

Evan and Zoe gasped, but Buddy loved it. He rolled around and splashed in the sticky dirt.

Evan lifted him up, holding him arms length out. Buddy was smiling as mud was dripping off him.

“Looks like someone will need a bath.”

Zoe carefully lowered Buddy into their bathtub. Buddy had a look of fear on his face. When Zoe mentioned that he needed a bath, Buddy did whatever it took to avoid it.

Even if it meant trailing mud into their apartment.

“See Bud? It’s okay,” Zoe says once his paws dipped into the water.

Buddy splashed the water, still uneasy.

“I cleaned up all the mud,” Evan enters the bathroom, “how are things going in here?”

“I’m just trying to get Buddy to calm down.”

Evan sits next to Zoe. He reaches his hand over to Buddy, scratching his ears. Buddy was still tense as Zoe gently set him down.

“See? Not that bad,” Evan assures the dog.

Zoe squirts dog shampoo into her hand. She allows Buddy to smell it before applying it, lightly massaging it into his fur. The soap helped the mud slip off with ease. Buddy became more relaxed with Evan’s presence and Zoe’s gentle motions.

“The warm water must feel nice after being in the cold,” Evan says, helping Zoe rinse the soap off.

Zoe wiggles her eyebrows, “What if we did this once we finish cleaning Buddy up?”

“I like the way you think.”

A mist of water droplets hit the couple as Buddy began to shake himself dry. The two turn to each other, before laughing.

“Guess he already showered us off,” Zoe chuckles.

Evan reaches for a soft towel, and Zoe lifts Buddy out of the tub. Evan dries the dog off before wrapping him up.

Evan was thankful that the cafe allowed dogs.

“You ready to see mommy perform?” Evan cooed, holding Buddy in one arm, and a bouquet of lavender and carnation flowers in another.

Zoe had gotten a gig to perform at a winter event at a local cafe. Evan was ecstatic to watch her perform (despite listening to her practice a couple times).

Evan finds an open table. A waiter comes by to ask him what he would like, and he just orders a tea.

The show began, and numerous small and local musicians arrived on stage, each singing a song, and playing many different types of instruments.

When it was Zoe’s turn to arrive on the stage, Evan’s heart sprang with excitement. As Zoe got her acoustic guitar tuned, her eyes traced around the crowd until they found Evan and Buddy. Once she did, Evan moved Buddy’s paw to make it look like he was waving at her. A smile appeared on Zoe’s face.

Zoe began to straighten up, and took in a deep breath. She began to strike the first chords of White Winter Hymnal. She began to sing softly and smoothly.

“I was following

I was following

I was following the pack

All swallowed in their coats

With scarves of red tied ‘round their throats

To keep their little heads

From falling in the snow

And I turned ‘round and there you go

And Michael you would fall

And turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime.”

Zoe stopped singing, still strumming her guitar. The guitar produced a soft, warm sound. She hummed along to the song. Evan closed his eyes, enjoying just the sound of her voice and guitar.

Zoe repeated the chorus a couple more times before finishing the song. The audience, including Evan, clapped for Zoe. Buddy began to howl, cheering on Zoe. The audience chuckled.

Zoe grinned before exiting the stage, allowing the next performer to take the stage. Evan left his seat, following Zoe behind the stage.

She beamed at Evan when he approached her.

“Amazing job! You sounded… gorgeous,” Evan compliments.

“Thank you. That means a lot.”

“Buddy also thought you sounded amazing,” Evan states.

Zoe holds her arms out, and Evan places Buddy in them. Buddy nuzzled into Zoe’s chest.

“I also got you these,” Evan displays the flowers to Zoe.

“Thanks Ev,” Zoe leans to him, and Evan pulls her into a hug.

“Do you think you can sing for us again tonight?”

“Always for you two.”

“Evan! How does Buddy look?”

Evan adjusted his tie as he looked over at Buddy, who was in Zoe’s arms. He wore a sparkly black bow tie. Evan and Zoe were planning to take him to the Murphys’ annual New Year’s Eve party. He would be able to meet Cynthia, Larry, Connor, Heidi, and their friends.

“Awwww, he looks so handsome,” Evan pet Buddy’s head.

“I tried putting the rest of his tuxedo on, but someone wasn’t cooperating,” Zoe says.

Buddy gives them a guilty look. Evan laughs.

“I think he looks amazing,” Evan says, “and so do you.”

“It isn’t too flashy, is it?” Zoe asked.

She wore a black top with a metallic gold skirt. It matched Evan’s black suit and gold tie.

“Nope. You look perfect. Don’t you agree Buddy?”

Buddy licks Zoe’s face.

“Thanks Bud,” Zoe presses a kiss to Buddy’s head.

“Could I get one?” Evan smirks.

“Buddy, could you give daddy a kiss?” Zoe teases, reaching the dog towards Evan.

“Zoeeeee,” Evan whines, giggling as Buddy licks his face as well.

Zoe playfully sticks out her tongue before kissing his cheek. Zoe sets Buddy down. Zoe noticed her phones started to buzz on the table. She picked it up. There were numerous different texts from her mom.

Cynthia: Are you and Evan coming?

Cynthia: The party has already started.

Zoe looked at the time. They were thirty minutes past the time they were supposed to arrive.

“Hey Evan.”

“Hm?” Evan asks as he combs his hair.

“We were supposed to be at my parent’s house thirty minutes ago.”

Evan stops, “I knew we shouldn’t have waited for Buddy to wake up.”

“In my defense, he was sleeping on my lap. What was I supposed to do, move and wake him up?”

“Fair point.”

“There you two are!” Cynthia scolds Zoe and Evan when they walk into the Murphy house, wearing a dark dress and holding a wine glass in tack, “what took you two so long?”

Before Zoe can explain, Cynthia sees Buddy in her arms.

“Did you guys get a dog?!”

“Mom, meet Buddy!” Zoe says.

“Well aren’t you the cutest!” Cynthia gushes over Buddy. Zoe sets Buddy onto the ground. He sniffs Cynthia curiously before allowing Cynthia to touch him. He curled up against Cynthia’s touch.

“He’s also such a sweetheart!” Cynthia coos.

Cynthia calls for everyone. At the moment Cynthia said the word “dog,” everyone quickly rushed to see. The moment eyes were laid on Buddy, he was all anyone could rave about.

“I think he’s enjoying the attention,” Evan chuckles.

Jared, Alana, and Connor were crouched on the ground. Jared got the brilliant idea of using his tie for a game of tug of war. Alana and Connor were cheering Buddy on as he pulled the tie, determined to win. Earlier, Larry slid small pieces of chicken for Buddy under the table during dinner, and Cynthia and Heidi had been showering him with belly rubs and kisses throughout the night. No one even noticed when midnight hit the clock. All eyes were on Buddy.

Evan and Zoe were sitting on the couch, watching Buddy like proud parents.

“He’s the star of the show,” Zoe agrees.

“I’m glad we adopted him,” Evan says, resting his head on Zoe’s shoulder, “he makes everyone happy. He makes me happy.”

“He makes me happy too,” Zoe plants a kiss to his forehead, returning her focus to Buddy, who tore the tie out of Jared’s hands. Alana scooped the dog in her arms as Jared claimed he let the dog win.

Evan smiled, closing his eyes. He wanted to savor this moment forever.

#dear evan hansen #deh #bandtrees #evan hansen #zoe murphy #deh fanfic #deh fanart #my writing #my art #okay but this is like my first fanart im excited

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calypsoff · 4 years ago

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Thirty. Part 3

The hospital put us in a private room, the silence is thick. None of us are speaking and mostly I am in deep thought, why are they taking so long. What is happening, is it that bad. I just want to hold him; I want to see his face so I can be angry at him still. We argued, we had to argue, and he didn’t help, he continued the argument with me “god” I said to myself “we argued that night, he just came back from the club and I called him and we argued. That is the last thing he felt, the last thing I felt and that kills me Mel, it really does. I am distraught that we just had that moment of hatred towards each other even though we love each other so much, I need to know if he is hurting. You don’t understand” Mel placed her hand over my lap “I can’t calm down, that is the point” I hate this, I hate this so much and I am worried that something even worse has happened and it’s my fault “I told him to housesit, it’s my fault. This is my fault” shaking my head “will you stop, how the hell is this your fault? Did you know your home was going to get broken into, just concerning that they haven’t told us anything. What is even the issue” I can’t do this, just sit here for what “I am going to ask again” I got up from the chair, Rich shot up also and followed me “don’t blame yourself Robyn, you did nothing” TJ said, they have both been so quiet with me but probably don’t know what to say to me, which is understandable “we argued, that is the last conversation. I will never forgive myself for if I lose him like that” dragging open the door, this is stressing me out.

The receptionist did a double take, she looks like oh not me again “it’s been an hour, what is happening to him. Let me see him, please?” I asked, I need to see him “ma’am I can check again, but he is in ICU we cannot allow you to see him but let me check” nodding my head, taking in a deep breath looking over at Rich. I feel like I am fifty, I feel old with all this stress “I will order some food for you once we get back” he said it like I care about eating “he has left MRI, he is in ICU. They are taking him for emergency surgery” she looked around her “he has no insurance” my eyes widened “you’re joking right?” That is a lie, everyone does or should have “he doesn’t at all, they are going to bill him after, but he has no insurance on the system which is a concern” I breathed out “this is crazy, just do what you need to do. I will pay, just please bring him back. Please” the receptionist nodded her head “if we can take your details, fill this form out so we have it on file you will. I mean they are still doing it but with concern that he can’t pay, but if you can fill this” she grabbed the paper from the printer, Chris is a pain. How can you walk around with no insurance, why is he like this “thank you” taking the paper from her “Rihanna” looking up seeing Joyce and Clinton, I just cried seeing Joyce because she looks just like Chris “don’t cry, oh no” she rushed over hugging me, she has made it worse with me just seeing her.

Joyce really had me crying, she is literally Chris’ twin “no need to cry, Robyn. God got him and god will bring him back to us, my son is always walking into trouble. It’s like he has trouble following him, what are you filling out?” She asked “your son also doesn’t have insurance” Joyce let out a groan “not again, we had to pay out for him last time and he promised he would do it, he promised me. Oh no, this cost us so much last time. I’m gonna murder him” so he knew, once Joyce murders him I will also, what an idiot “well I am going to pay for it, it’s nothing for me. I just hate he is acting invincible” Joyce placed her hand on my wrist “no, this is not your problem! It’s my son, let me” frowning at her “please, let me. He was in my home, it happened under my care. Please, I am not disrespecting you Joyce or Clinton, but it happened in my home, I feel responsible for letting him go there. I don’t want to put you out so I will pay his fees, I rather he gets the best care. Ok?” I won’t have them pay for this, this is my fault and I rather do it then put them out “oh sweetie” she held my hand “you are an Angel, an Angel that deserves the happiness. I pray for you and my son, I pray for your sanity, it’s hard losing a baby” I clenched my jaw “it’s hard on you, I pray god blesses you and blesses my son with a brain, you are a great daughter in law” I laughed putting my head down “don’t scare Chris now with those words” she let my hand go “Chris says a lot of things, but that boy loves you so much, he does. He may act a whole fool, but he loves you” signing my name on the paper “I know he does” I mumbled, he is a pain in the ass but he’s my pain in the ass.

Jay Brown has been trying to contact me all night, but I have my phone on silent, I don’t want to speak to anyone so he’s harassing Mel and he wants to know if I meant it about cancelling all the Canada dates, I meant that shit. I do not want to be on that stage, until I see Chris with my own eyes. I want to see his face, I want to see if he’s ok, is he in pain. Is he bruised, is he injured forever. I need to know, so god help me I will get this person that did this to him. I’ve not even thought of researching or contacting the police on what happened, I don’t want to see my man’ blood in my home so no. I really want to see him “you not tired?” Mel asked, shaking my head “sweetie you can go to sleep, we will tell you if anything happens” Joyce said but nothing will make me move “you have just got off stage and come here, you need to eat and rest” why is Mel exposing this “no thank you” clasping my hands together “Jay is calling again shall I just tell him you’re not coming back” nodding my head, I do not want to speak to him so Mel can “I wonder if Chris’ surgery went well, shall I go and ask? I must ask, maybe there is more” Joyce once again placed her hands over mine “please rest, you look ever so tired” she says this, but I can’t “I can’t” shaking my head “I love him so much Joyce, I just want to see him. I feel at blame, I told him to go there, I told him to stay there. I didn’t know” Clinton frowned at me “do not blame yourself, you did nothing. You could never predict such a thing” his parents are so sweet.

Everyone around me had breakfast, I had some but felt sick. It’s been too long; I can’t do this anymore. I can’t sit here and just do nothing, I need to know if Chris is ok “when I saw Chris when he got beat up, he said to me he can’t go through that again, he said it. He can’t do it, if he is hurting. I don’t want him hurt Joyce” I have a headache coming alone, I really do. I need help, I need to help him “Joyce” the door opened, this is a doctor and a nurse, oh my god are we getting news “bro wake up!” Barry slapped TJ “yes, that is me” the doctor walked in “I am Doctor Simone, my assistant and nurse Cynthia” it’s nice to see a female doctor, a black female doctor “I have just finished and performed surgery on Christopher” I am so excited to hear, I want to know if he is ok “is my son ok, please tell me he is” I am anxious “surgery went great, he is coming around. He lost a lot of blood; he suffered a gunshot wound which lodge in his femoral artery and he bled out a lot on his left leg on his thigh. It was important to get Christopher into surgery, he was losing blood and he was going to falling in and out of unconsciousness. We have managed to repair it, and his leg is in a cast to keep his leg in one place right now” I breathed out, I am just so happy he is ok, I just want him to be ok “can Robyn see him, now. Please? I am content to know he is ok, can she see him” I near got choked up hearing that, putting my head down “erm, he is coming around. Cynthia can walk you to him, we will keep to just one person right now if we can?” Joyce really is letting me go “Joyce you are his mother?” looking at her “baby, you need to rest. So go” hugging her as soon as she said that that is the sweetest thing to let me do.

Rich of course followed along as much as he could, he can’t come in with me, but he is going to be waiting outside the door. I am following the nurse; I am wondering what will he be like “is Chris awake or are they waiting for him to come around?” I asked, I am unsure on what the doctor meant “he is coming around, but he is asleep still. We are waiting for him to come around, we want it to be a slow process” nodding my head understanding “he needs to stay out here now, don’t worry I will stay close to her. We are too busy to even take pictures or harass Rihanna” Cynthia mentioned, Rich smiled and moved to the side waiting outside “I will be here” he added, Cynthia unlocked the door with the key card, she held the door open for me as I entered the very busy ICU, I am shocked they have but I guess they have allowed it. This place is hectic, seems like a lot of machinery and people around “he is in this room just here” she pushed open the door “no movement?” she spoke to someone, I am a little nervous now. I am tired too, but I am going to see Chris, Cynthia smiled at me holding the door open for me. Walking into the room slowly “he is still asleep right now” some guy got up, seeing my poppa with a bandaged head, his left leg in a cast. It hurt me to see him like that, like this again. Not as badly bruised but I hate to see this “please tell me what else has happened to him, why does he have a bandaged head” I pointed “he has a slight cut to his head, just on the right side. We wanted to apply pressure on that so that this why we have the bandage on” nodding my head “how long is recovery for this? Do you know?” maybe I am jumping ahead “anything between four to eight weeks, we need to keep his leg elevated between that, but we will leave you here. You can speak to him, coax him slowly to wake up. I will be back” nodded my head, I am going to be alone with him in this room.

Slowly walking over to the bed, my heart hurts so much to see him like this on this bed. Always getting hurt somehow, my whole heart is here on this bed. He just looks so unwell; I don’t like it. The guy I last saw was so full of life, he just looks, and I hate to say it but lifeless, looking up and seeing the bag of blood, he must have really lost a lot of blood “oh my god, poppa. What has happened to you, you know I would be the first one here. I would give anything up for you. Here I am, here for you. I hate that we argued” lightly touching his forehead “you need to stop frowning, you got frown lines poppa. Is it me, am I making you frown now” leaning over and kissing his forehead “you probably hearing my voice and want to be asleep; I am so happy you are here with me” holding onto his hand “please wake up, I love you so much” I swallowed hard “I am hurting without you with me” shaking my head as I just cried, I cried out because I could have lost him. I could have lost him “I won’t be able to function without you, please wake up” lifting his hand up a little, resting my forehead on the back of his hand “please come back to me” I sobbed out, my heart just feels like a hand is squeezing on it, my heart is hurting so much. The grip of his hand tightened around mine, looking up to Chris “you’re awake” that made me cry even more.

#Chrianna FF #Chrianna #Chrianna Fanfiction #Fanfic #Fanfiction

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maple-writes · 4 years ago

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[Image ID: Banner image reading: The City of Eventide, Chapter 31, Maple-writes. End ID]

I can’t think of anything to say here so hope your day’s going well :)

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Time blurred like a train derailed, cars all folding and crumpling in on each other. Waking up just to fall asleep again, and again, and trying to talk to Ginger and trying to keep up with what she was saying, and trying to kill her, and crying, and screaming, and I didn’t know what day it was anymore. How many days since I got there. How long I’d been there. Ginger said she’d been keeping Striker updated but I hadn’t been able to stay awake enough to talk to him myself yet. Not yet.

Days passed, weeks passed maybe. Ginger never left my side for more than a moment, watching, waiting just in case something went wrong. Just in case I couldn’t, didn’t notice my thoughts spiraling.

I drew blood once, teeth and claws sinking into Ginger’s shoulder from behind, snarling, snarling, swearing to kill her where she stood. To kill her and shred her body into dozens of mutilated pieces. She’d had to pin me to the ground, pin me and talk me into straightening out, slowing down my thoughts all with cold red seeping through the yarn of her sweater.

I drew blood again, a scratch down her back and another across her cheek. Again, swiped across her leg before she could jump back out of the way. Again, probably, probably again even if I couldn’t tell if it was real or only something I’d thought about.

Every time Ginger never faltered. She’d confront me with a firm tone and commanding stature, step by step telling me what to do. Easing myself back to where I had to be. Talking to me, working with me for sometimes hours and hours. She’d coax me, carry me if she had to, back somewhere soft, somewhere comfortable and I’d sleep. I’d sleep again and again and again.

Charlotte would come, every now and then. Ginger told me she came once a week, once a week with groceries and to check on us. I suspected she was checking on Ginger. Checking on her to make sure I hadn’t killed her and escaped.

One time she brought me a little cake for my birthday at Striker’s request. Lemon with vanilla icing with a card wishing me well and promising we’d do something fun next year.

Ginger put on movies for me and helped with everything when I could barely keep my eyes open, and she somehow managed to still have something gentle to say. Even when I lay on the floor, crying and shaking and begging her to give up, to give up on me and kill me already, kill me instead of trying and trying in vain to help me.

“I’m not going to do that,” She’d said, taking her hands off my shoulders where she’d held me down. “Not again.”

I choked on my own tears, lungs sore with every breath and body leaden. My head ached, my muscles ached, I could barely raise my own head. “Why?” My voice, my pathetic voice, it came out as a whine. “I can’t, I can’t do this. I can’t. It’s, there’s…” Cirrus should have let me die. He should have left me there, left me in the rain and the wind on the soaked dead grass. It’d been days. Days. Days and days and weeks and I… I…

Ginger eased her arms under mine, lifting me off the floor damp with my own sweat, my own tears and saliva and blood. My head lolled forward and I didn’t have the strength to try and fight her. Not anymore. Not again and again and again. I barely kept my eyes open all the way, lids drooping and breath coming shallow. She laid me down on the couch and did her best to wipe some of the grime from my face with a spare tissue.

“Please, just, just,” I cried, struggling between gasps. “I can’t, I, I don’t, I don’t want to, to hurt anyone.” I clenched my jaw and shut my eyes as my face twisted, wrenching. My lungs burned, sharp, painful, painful dead center. “Kill me. Just kill me.”

How many times? How many times had I hurt her? Tried to kill her, tried to tear her apart since Cirrus dropped me off. How many more, more times would I try before one time, before I succeeded just that one time. It only took once. Once. Once. Would it ever be safe? Ever be safe for me to leave here, to be on my own? No. No, not when I was, not when I was this. This. There was nothing. Nothing anyone could do. Nothing Ginger could do to help me. So why keep me alive? Why not put me down like the violent animal I was?

Ginger eased herself to sit on the end of the couch, nudging my legs out of the way. “It’s hard, Asher, I know it is.” She leaned back and rested against the back of the couch with rounded shoulders. “About fifty years ago, I woke up in a ditch by some middle of nowhere road with knife in my back and no idea who I was or how I got there. Do you know what I did after that?”

I only watched her, eyes burning and nothing moving the way it should inside my head. Nothing working the way it should inside my lungs. Nothing worked anymore.

“I found a house where a young couple lived, and I killed them both for their blood. They had an infant that I left for dead.” She kept her voice low, private, and her eyes lower. “Then I did it again, and again, until I was killing when I wasn’t even hungry. I killed, I tortured innocents, drawing out their deaths for nothing more than my own satisfaction.” Ginger paused, letting her eyes close a little longer before going on. “I was only caught when I fell for a trap laid out by police and local exorcists hired to stop me. No one knew what to do with me, there hadn’t been a vampire anywhere near the area for almost a century and I would hurt anyone who got close enough. I didn’t know why I did it, but I did.” She paused again, glancing down at me, as if checking to see I was still even awake. “An exorcist, the one who’d just founded Eventide College a couple years earlier, he heard about my case. He took me to Eventide, and kept me there, working with me, for years. It took years for him to help me figure myself out but he never gave up on me, even when I failed and hurt him, or even his daughter Cynthia.”

The couch creaked, woody and soft as she stood again and reached for the blanket folded up on the backrest. The most I could do was turn my head, weakly watching as she opened it up with a gentle shake to unfurl the fabric. She draped it over me, tucking me in warm and snug.

“So I know, it’s hard. It’s hard.” Ginger spoke soft, loose strands of hair falling in front of her face as she hovered over mine. “But I’m not going to give up on you again now that we have this second chance Asher.”

She brushed still-sticky, still sweat-damped hair back from my face with time-worn gloves before standing up straight again. I didn’t know what to say, couldn’t push the words out even if I knew.

“Get some rest, tomorrow’s a new day.”

More time, more days, more weeks, and maybe she was right. I slept less, staying awake long enough to finish the old movies Ginger dug out from Charlotte’s collection. I needed her help less and less and the days stopped blending quite as much by the time fall mushrooms popped up around the tree trunks outside.

The days wavered colder one day then warm the next in the fickle way that fall always seemed to proceed. Rain tatted against the roof, tapping against the windows more often than not with sunny days growing scarcer and scarcer.

The sun shone warm through the trees, probably one of the last few days like this before the seasons changed in full. Sitting on the porch, the air was still cool and fresh and damp where the warm sunrays hid behind tree’s shade.

Ginger slid the door open and stepped out beside me, offering a mug of warm tea. She smiled when I took it with a quiet thanks, settling herself down on one of the other wooden chairs with her laptop in hand. Lately she’d been able to get more work done now that I was starting to feel a little better, could keep myself together a little more.

The wind shifted and I raised my head from my drink. Faint wingbeats drifted through the trees, larger than any of the little songbirds and jays that flitted between the branches. They grew louder, stirring the surface of the lake before Cirrus dropped into sight. Sunlight reflected bright off the white feathers of his head as he shook himself out, folding gull’s wings snug against his sides.

He ducked under some overhanging branches, slipping towards us under the dappled shade. I set my cup on the little table and braced against the chair to push myself up to my feet. With Ginger’s nod I stumbled down the few steps from the porch to the springy ground and met Cirrus with my arms draped around his neck. I buried my face in his feathers and bit back unexpected tears. How long had it been? How long?

Cirrus laughed, deep and rumbling where I pressed against him. “Look who can walk all by himself now.” He purred, eyes closed and content. “How are you feeling?”

I drew back from his side with a sigh. “I’m… Better than before.” That was honest enough.

“No shit.” Cirrus nudged me back towards the cabin.

He led the way back to the porch and tentatively stepped up onto the wood, testing it under his weight. It creaked a little on the stairs but it held and he settled down against the side of the cabin. I grabbed my tea and sat with him, leaning back against his side. Neither of us seemed to know what to say. We glanced at each other as the quiet stretched on, filled by the gentle breeze in the trees.

Cirrus stretched out his legs and I stole a look at what was left of his wound. Still red and fresh, it snaked along the side where his forearm would have been. No doubt it would end up scaring. I sighed, dropping my shoulders and staring down into my drink.

“Hey,” I swallowed against the guilt rising under my ribs. “I’m sorry for, for everything.”

His tail thumped against the wood in cat-like twitches, thought glazing over his eyes. “I’m just glad you’re alright.” He lifted his head, blinking. “You know, I think this might be the longest we’ve been apart.”

Was it? I took a long drink of my tea, already halfway cold. It was wasn’t it? I’d hardly noticed, too wrapped up in trying to get through one day after another. I wonder if he felt the same. It must be strange, to be back at home all the sudden.

I smiled, tired and weak. “How are you settling back in?”

Cirrus rolled his eyes with an overdramatic sigh, resting his head on his crossed wrists. “My sister, you remember her? With the dark feathers?” He waited for my nod, even though she still didn’t seem real, like I’d only met her in a dream. “She’s taken my place as eldest child since I’d been gone. More than likely I’ll be no more than a prince the rest of my life.” He grumbled, but his expression said otherwise. “Probably for the best. Oh, and everyone wants to talk to me all the time about the same damn things. My sisters, relatives, advisors, even someone visiting from another kingdom. It’s tiring.” He huffed. “Then there’s history to catch up on, new faces to learn…”

He kept going, droning on and on about his sisters, his mother, court drama, and more and more that started to go over my head. I just listened, nestled against his feathers and squinting in the sunlight. Eventually I let my eyes slide closed, lulled to sleep by the warmth and the chatter. If he noticed that I’d stopped paying attention he didn’t act on it, his voice fading into the background of sleep.

He must have left before I woke up, opening my eyes to Gingers careful nudge as the sun retired behind the trees.

Cirrus visited a few more times before the weather turned, him being the only one Ginger considered resistant enough against any influence I might try and extend. Rain started to constantly, turning to snow on a few lucky days. The air grew cold and damp and Charlotte brought warmer clothes and blankets on one of her visits. Each day was shorter than the last, the sun setting earlier and earlier and giving way to heavy dark outside.

On clear nights Ginger sometimes took me outside to lay on the lake shore and watch the stars. She’d point out constellations she knew, telling me what she’d heard of the stories behind each until I got too cold.

Frost grew every morning on windowsills and fallen logs, cold and delicate. The lake froze over and Ginger convinced me to try skating on it once it was thick enough, but it didn’t last long before I was sore with bruises from falling a few too many times.

I stayed awake all day now, long enough to start getting bored. Ginger got Charlotte to bring some books for me to study from and started working me more on ways to keep myself safe. To notice when I needed to withdraw for a while, to help myself stay focused when everything started to go wrong. Gradually it got easier, more manageable, more doable. I could stay awake long enough to talk to Striker and Ember and Kyra on the phone and through Ginger’s laptop, though I never really had anything new to tell them. Nothing new really happened stuck out here in the middle of nowhere.

As the holidays drew near Striker said he was almost cleared to go back to work, and he and Kyra spent more and more time together. He’d even talked Ember into studying to get her GED and taking classes online. It wasn’t the same though, not being home with them as December came and went. Ginger did her best but even then I couldn’t help but feel lonely. It was only the two of us after all, and as much as I was starting to enjoy watching movies and playing games with her, I’d never been away from home nearly this long before.

The new year brought colder weather yet in the forest outside, but inside stayed warm and dry by the cabin’s wood-burning fireplace. It had been weeks now, maybe more like a month since I’d last tried to hurt her, gradually starting to catch myself feeling off before anything happened. Before it was too late and she had to talk me down. It’d been weeks since she last had to do that for me.

Some days a seagull would land on the windowsill just long enough to tap the glass with his beak and leave a trinket. Sometimes a seashell, sometimes a worn glass fragment, once a little mitten I could only hope wasn’t stolen from some helpless child.

Other days passed slowly, stuck inside when it was cold and raining. Ginger would put on movies and we would half watch them as she showed me how to knit, how to embroider, laughing at me whenever I stabbed myself in the hand with the needle. As much as I couldn’t see myself keeping up with either, it was nice to have something to do and an uneven scarf to show for it.

Only once bright green buds grew on bushes and shrubs did Ginger start talking about letting me go home. She spoke to Striker without me, saying she wanted to judge how ready he was to have me back, how much better he was really feeling. A week later, she said we could go in a few days and she helped me pack up whatever I wanted to take back home.

Charlotte picked us up on a sunny day in March, taking in the sunshine sparkling off the lake as we loaded into her car. The two of them took the front and I settled into the back. Nerves prickled up and down my skin, tight around my ribs as the trees passed by outside. It had been months now, all of fall and winter since I’d been home. Months. I swallowed, looking down and wringing my hands together in my lap. A lot could happen in that long. What was I going to say? To Striker? Ember? Kyra? Anyone? I leaned back, sinking into the cushion of Charlotte’s car. Would, would they really be happy to see me again in person after the last time?

Ginger and Charlotte spoke quietly with each other at the front, discussing something to do with an upcoming project at the college. The radio played low, soft under their voices and the rumble of the tires on the worn forest road. It should have been normal, it should have been comfortable, but I couldn’t shake the stiffness from my back or the tension in my stomach. It only got worse as the firs thinned out, giving way to the scattered houses, then buildings, then streets and shops and Eventide.

We turned down my street and I had to remind myself to keep breathing as my lungs cinched. The house still stood as if nothing had happened, as if I was just coming back from a day away instead of months in the woods.

Charlotte parked the car and cut the engine, plunging us into silence as nobody moved. No one made any move to open the doors, to drag me out onto the sidewalk, nothing. Ginger just turned around in her seat with a little smile and a nod of her head.

“Do you need a minute?” I nodded, and she turned back around. “Take a sec then, and I’ll go in with you.”

I couldn’t look away from the house out the window, heart hammering against the feeble wall of my chest. Striker knew I was coming. I’d overheard Ginger tell him that much. But, but… I shuddered, the ghost of wet skin in my hands, of wind whipping through my hair, of holding Striker out, of hurting Kyra, of the words I said to him, to all of them.

“You know,” Ginger gently broke my thinking. “He’s probably just as jittery as you are.”

Maybe. Maybe she was right, but it didn’t make it any easier.

She smiled again, reaching for her door handle. “I think we should get out there now, before you can get to imagining worst-case scenarios.”

I sighed, but didn’t argue as she got out of the car. I followed her out, pushing the door open with a shaky arm and closing it too lightly. She led the way up to the front door, waiting for me to catch up. My legs trembled and I could barely hear anything besides my own heartbeat drumming against my inner ears, hammering fearful against my chest. The last time Striker saw me, last time he saw me in person I was covered in blood with a hand around his throat and cruelty on my lips. Was that how he remembered me now? No different than Vena?

Ginger set a gloved hand on my shoulder, gently taking back my attention. She waited until I gave a tiny nod before knocking on the front door. The sound rang wooden and solid between us. I swallowed, soft footsteps growing nearer. They paused on the other side of the door. One second, another, another, another, until the handle clicked and the door swung open.

Striker. He stood in the doorway, frozen, unmoving, staring. Like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, like he didn’t know whether or not to believe I was really here. My throat closed. What was I supposed to say? What was I supposed to tell him? Was there anything I could? His outline blurred as tears welled up, but they didn’t get the chance to fall before Striker pulled me close and wrapped his arms tight around my shoulders.

He all but crushed my ribs as I cried into his shirt. It was so warm, so, so familiar. So real. He was really here, really alive. I could feel his breath faulter, shallow and shaky and deliberate and alive.

“I,” I mumbled the word, muffled by Striker’s clothes. “I’m so sorry, I, I, I’m sorry.” I hurt him, I hurt him and scared him and tried to kill him and he was still here, still holding me like nothing happened. Like he still loved me.

Striker ran a hand through my hair, soft and gentle. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” He took a breath, sharp and shaking. “You’re safe. I, I…” His words caught in his throat and when he pulled away he drew the back of his sleeve over his eyes.

I couldn’t think of anything to say, standing, staring in the doorway as his outline blurred again. Tears ran warm and wet down my cheeks. Striker didn’t seem to know either, watching me as he tried in vain not to cry.

It was Ginger who finally broke the silence. “How about we go inside? Is that alright?”

Striker nodded and stepped away from the door to let us in. For a second, I didn’t move, frozen in the doorframe until I felt Ginger’s gentle hand on my back. I shuffled in, almost tripping over my own shaking legs as I kicked off my shoes. It didn’t feel real, didn’t feel right, taking them off like I was supposed to be here, like I was going to stay here any longer than a moment but I was. I was home.

The floor creaked and the clock in the hall tick-toked softly as I drifted into the house, brought to the living room by Striker’s quiet guidance. Throat tight and aching, I didn’t know what to say, even when he asked if I wanted anything, a snack, some water, some tea… Ginger ended up answering for me, suggesting something warm, and Striker slipped away to the kitchen.

I sat on one of the couches, sinking deep into the familiar cushions. Ginger did the same on the opposite armchair. She caught my eye and gave me an encouraging smile.

“Nervous still?” She paused as I nodded. “That’s understandable. You’re doing well though Asher. I wouldn’t have brought you here if didn’t think you were okay.” She crossed one leg over the other and set her purse on the floor beside the chair. “I’ve asked for your sister and any friends to give you some space for the first little while, as to not be too overwhelming all at once.”

Some of the tension in my shoulders eased, and I leaned back just a little. “Thanks.” After seeing no one but her and occasionally Cirrus in the woods, I didn’t think I could handle coming face to face with everyone at once.

Striker came back with a warm mug and almost cautiously handed it to me, hesitating just a little, as if he wasn’t sure he was supposed to, wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I took it just as careful, holding it between my hands and melting with the warmth against my palms. The tea bag still half-floated in the hot water, deep colour staining the hot water a deep gold. He sat down beside me on the couch and neither of us said anything. Neither of us knew what to say.

So Ginger broke the silence for us yet again. “If it’s alright with the both of you, I’d like to stay here with you a few days. I’m confident everything will be fine but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious. I’ll try and stay out of your way as much as I can.”

Striker nodded, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his thighs. “Sure, that’s, that’s fine. It might be good in case—” His eyes flicked to me and he cut himself off.

I ducked my head, shame and guilt burning deep and heavy in my chest. Was he scared? Scared of me? He had every right to be after all.

“Wonderful.” Ginger smiled. “I have some work to do on my computer, so I may end up spending most of my time tucked away but I’ll be here.” She uncrossed her legs just to cross them the other way, watching the both of us as thoughts seemed to gather behind her eyes. “I suppose now is as good a time as any. Striker, it’s alright if you’re not as comfortable as you’d like to be yet. If Asher does anything that makes you nervous, or scared, or anything you can tell him to give you space, alright? It might not be easy, but try and look after yourself too.”

Striker nodded along, dropping his eyes to the floor. Was this what he and Ginger had talked about when she called, requesting I wait out of earshot?

Ginger seemed satisfied, flashing a gentle smile. “Good. Take it easy, both of you.” She pushed out of the chair and leaned over to grab her purse from the floor. “I’ll give you guys some time to catch up.”

She slipped out of the room into the hall, footsteps fading as she disappeared. Quiet replaced her presence, thick and unfamiliar. I gripped my mug in my hands and stared down at my reflection in the darkened tea. It broke wherever the tea bag bobbed to the surface, drifting slowly up and down. Was Striker scared of me right now? Was he thinking about the last time we were this close to each other, close enough for me to hurt him?

Striker pushed his hair back and turned to look my way. “How are you feeling?”

Good question. “I don’t know.” I mumbled. “I’m alright. I mean, I don’t know what to say.”

He cracked a smile, tired and real. “Me too.” He paused, watching me, just watching, just like I remembered. “To be honest, I’m not sure what to do now.”

Slowly, I found myself matching his smile, nerves thawing a little more with each passing moment. Neither of us spoke as I took my first sip of tea. It ran warm down my throat, helping to melt the rest of the tension from deep inside.

“Ember’s staying with Kyra for a bit.” Striker said. “For a few days anyway.”

I nodded. Probably for the best to stay separated until I’d settled in a little bit more. A while longer, and we settled back into quiet. What was there to say anyway? I drank my tea and Striker turned on the TV to some fluff channel, soft enough to barely count as audible. Eventually the tea was gone and I leaned forward to set the empty mug on the coffee table with a gentle clunk.

I paused, glancing back at Striker as I sat hunched over in front of the table. He did the same and I thought I noticed hints of tears at the corners of his eyes.

“Come here,” he opened his arms, just enough to invite.

My vision swam and I nestled myself up against his side. He leaned against me, curling his arm around me, holding me snug. Snug and safe and warm. I rested my head against his sleeve, breath shaking as I tried not to cry again. This was Striker, he was here, he was right here. Real and solid and familiar…

“I missed you.” Striker mumbled, low and rumbling and comfortable. “I’m so glad you’re alright.”

I swallowed, blinking out tears that ran quiet down my face. He was alive. I was just glad he was alive. Alive and here and safe and sound. I thought I’d killed him. I opened my mouth to tell him but stopped myself short. He didn’t need that, didn’t need to be reminded of what he probably remembered all too well already. Striker didn’t say anything more, only held me tighter. Neither of us paid much attention to whatever show was on as we just sat quietly, snuggled up on the couch as afternoon slipped to evening and it started to feel more like I was really home. At least for now. At least if everything went right.

#the city of eventide #chapter 31 #my writing #fiction #I think this is as good as it's going to get for now #lol

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allicekitty13 · 4 years ago

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Trick Or Treat

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Alice has to take her little sister trick or treating, Jasper has a surprise in store.

Friday, October thirtieth

It was Friday afternoon, and Alice Brandon was impatiently waiting for her final period math class to end. She chewed absentmindedly on her bottom lip in anticipation while tapping the eraser end of a pencil against her desk, eyeing the clock hanging above the classroom door with frequent glances. She wordlessly willed the arms to move faster when she was finally granted reprieve as the bell rang, indicating the end of the school day.

Alice swiftly gathered up her books, shoving them messily into her messenger bag before she fled from the classroom, making a break for her locker. Today wasn't just any Friday; it was October thirtieth. The day before her favorite holiday, Halloween. She'd felt a surge of energy from the excitement all day, causing her to be distracted and restless. All she wanted was to go home, put the finishing touches on her costume, and sit back for her yearly marathon of vintage monster movies after Cynthia went to bed.

She fumbled through her locker, taking little consideration into what items she placed into her backpack, totally enraptured within her own world. She was so preoccupied with her own excitement that she didn't notice when Jasper leaned against the locker next to her own.

"Hey, Alice." He greeted, causing her to jump in shock.

"Whitlock." She responded, hand over her heart as she steadied her breathing after the slight scare.

"You know... you sure scare easy."

"Don't sneak up on me, then jerk." Alice playfully shoved him in the chest with a giggle. "What's up anyway?"

"Perhaps I just wanted to talk to my favorite accomplice?"

She smiled slightly at the moniker, excited about the idea of pulling off an elaborate prank with Jasper and Emmett. "You've got a hells night prank planned then?"

"Maybe," He tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "Maybe I just wanted to hang out with you."

Alice was mildly disappointed by the revelation that there would be no pranking tonight as well as annoyed by the continuing game of flirting they played.

It had started out as a fun joke between the pair back in middle school, but Alice had begun to develop actual feelings for Jasper over time. The flirting, always just a game, never anything more, was starting to make her heart ache.

She slammed her locker shut in annoyance before leaning her head against the cool metal as she looked up at Jasper. "What do you actually want, Jazz."

Jasper looked away from her and took a deep breath before answering, "Are you going to Rosalie's party tomorrow night?" He seemed nervous, but Alice assumed it was her imagination. There was no reason for the popular Jasper Whitlock to be anxious about a party.

"Oh, I'm actually taking my little sister trick or treating tomorrow. We're going to watch some movies after; it should be a good time... Have fun, though; maybe I'll see you at the next one."

"But you love parties?"

"If I don't take Cynthia, no one else will."

"Oh..."

"It's okay," She cut him off. "I'll make the next party." With that, she walked away. Yes, she loved parties, but she loved her sister more. She wondered why Jasper was making a big deal out of the whole thing.

"Do you want a ride home?" Jasper asked, having followed her outside into the school parking lot.

"Isn't my place a bit out of the way?"

"Normally, yeah, but I need Emmett's help with something, and since your place is along the way." He gestured west in the general direction of both the Brandon and McCarty households as they approached the spot where he'd parked his truck. "It's not a big deal. Do you want the ride or not?"

Alice shrugged as she opened the vehicle's passenger's side door; she threw in her bag and attempted to climb in. After a few short seconds of struggling, Jasper came around, picked her up, helping her inside.

"You know, I could have done it myself." She glowered at him in a huff when he got in the car himself.

"Of course, but I don't have all night if I'm gonna make this work." His words were distant, as though he had something urgent he needed to get done.

"Make what work?"

"That my darling is proprietary information that cannot be released to the general public at this time." He flashed her that charming smile of his that made her melt.

"You can tell me I won't spill. Pinky promise."

"Nope, this one is between me and Emmett."

"Fine, I'll just ask him what trouble you're getting yourself into this time."

"Not a prank." He smirked in her direction with a side-eye.

"What could the two of you possibly be up to that doesn't involve chaos and ending up grounded for at least a week?"

"I can't tell you." He grinned at her as he pulled up in front of her house.

"I hate you."

"You know you love me."

Her heart skipped a beat at the comment as they locked eyes, the air feeling suddenly thick with tension. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. That is proprietary information." She finally joked with a mischievous smile as she threw his own words back at him before grabbing her bag and jumping out of the vehicle, gently closing the door behind her.

Jasper rolled down the passenger's side window shouting out in amusement. "That hurts, Brandon."

Alice rolled her eyes with a smile before blowing him a kiss as she ran inside.

"ALICE!" Cynthia shouted upon her entrance, tackling her in excitement.

"Hey, kiddo."

"Come, look what I made!" The ever excited eight-year-old tugged on her older sister's hands, pulling her over to the kitchen table where construction paper and crayons were strewn about the surface. "Esme helped me make a map of town so we can move faster and get ALL the candy."

"Yes, she did," The woman in question entered the dining room with a bowl of steaming macaroni and cheese. "But, it's time to put your art supplies away and eat your dinner."

"Hey, Esme." Alice greeted her sister's nanny as she helped Cynthia gather up her crayons. "Did mom get called into the hospital?"

The older woman nodded in affirmation as she gathered her belongings. "Yes, and don't you dare say you'd have come home sooner if you knew. Cynthia is your sister, not your daughter; I don't mind watching after her while you spend time with your friends."

"Thanks, Esme, tell Eddy I said hi, and I can't wait to see his Romeo costume in action."

"Of course, sweetie." Esme paused at the door. "Are you sure you don't want me to take Cynthia tomorrow so you can go to Rosalie's party?"

"Yeah, there's plenty of parties. Cynthia only gets so many Halloweens to trick or treat. We'll have fun."

"Okay, goodnight Alice. You've got my number if you change your mind." With that, Esme took her leave.

Alice remained in the hall momentarily to reflect on life; her parents had split up four years ago. While it had been the best thing for the family, Esme had a point. Alice stepped up immediately without being asked to help care for her sibling, with her mother spending much of her time at the hospital working as a nurse. She loved her sister more than anyone, but maybe she should put herself first more. Deciding those were thoughts for another time, Alice ventured back into the dining room, where Cynthia was finishing her dinner. After cleaning up, she helped the younger girl finish up her homework as she finalized the last details on their costumes.

Around nine, Alice noticed Cynthia, who had long since finished her word search on the solar system, was starting to drift off to 'The Wolf Man' DVD Alice had put on the TV. "I think it's time for bed, little miss."

"I'm not sleepy." Cynthia yawned.

"I beg to differ, come one." She scooped up the tired girl carrying her to her room and setting her on the bed.

"Are we gonna watch movies tomorrow?"

"Of course, silly." Alice reached out to ruffle the younger girls' hair. "It wouldn't be Halloween without 'The Great Pumpkin' now would it."

"And will you make those sugar cookies with the ghosts on them?"

"We're going to have cookies with ghosts and pumpkins. But," Alice reached over to switch off the lamp sitting on the table next to Cynthia's bed. "You have to go to sleep so it can be tomorrow." she grabbed her sister's favorite cat plush off the floor. Cynthia took the stuffed toy squeezing it tightly to her chest with a sleepy smile.

"Night Alice."

"Goodnight, little sister." Alice pecked the top of the girl's head before pulling the blankets over her sister.

Saturday, October thirty-first

"Alice, hurry up! We're going to miss all the candy if you keep taking forever!" Cynthia stood in the doorway of Alice's room, hands on her hips. She donned the Ariel costume she'd impatiently put on three hours ago to her sister's protest. Rather than purchasing off looking costumes from Target, Alice had opted to make both of their costumes herself that year and consequently was protective of her work.

"I'm finished, you hyper little mermaid," Alice responded, capping her lipstick and giving her hair one final check in the mirror; satisfied with her work, she donned the tiara, completing her look as Rapunzel at the end of Tangled.

"What do you think?" She asked, doing a little twirl for Cynthia.

"You look JUST like Rapunzel! Now let's GOOOOO."

"Okay, okay." Alice straightened out her sister's red wig that had been knocked off-kilter during a round of hide and seek with Bella, who'd been kind enough to look after the girl before heading to Rosalie's party while Alice got dressed.

"But first." She pulled out her phone from one of the hidden pockets she'd sewn into the skirt of her dress and crouched down to Cynthia's level. "Pictures for mom." They snapped a few poses before an impatient Cynthia had enough, grabbed her bag, then dragged her sister out the door.

They went to a few houses before ending up three doors down at The Cullen's, where Carlisle and Esme had a king-size Kit-Kat waiting for Cynthia, who took the candy excitedly; happy to pose for yet another photo in exchange. They made their goodbyes, making their way back to the streets.

The siblings had been out for an hour, hitting up every house with a light on collecting candy when they reached the impeccably decorated Hale residence. Alice beamed with pride, noting a few projects she'd worked on for Rosalie in art class as they made the trek up the path to the door.

Cynthia had hardly just rung the bell when the door opened to reveal Emmett dressed as Gomez Addams. "Alice! Cynthia! My favorite Disney princesses." He pulled a candy bowl from a table sitting by the door. "Rosalie said only two pieces, but I think you deserve a handful."

Cynthia excitedly reached out to grab as much candy as her small hand could hold but was shushed by Emmett. "No, not a Cynthia handful." He reached into the bowl filling up his own much larger hand to overflowing proportions, and dropped the exuberant amount of candy into her bag.

"Did I hear you say, Alice and Cynthia?" Rosalie exclaimed, appearing seemingly out of thin air beside Emmett. Alice had no idea how she'd done it but appreciated Rosalie's commitment to her part as Morticia. "You guys should come in for a second." Rosalie beckoned the pair inside by dramatically reaching out a hand palm up and curling her fingers inward.

"I don't know..." Alice looked down at her eight-year-old sibling. "Cynthia probably wants to hit up some more houses and increase her candy stash."

"Nope," Cynthia gaze up at her sister with a devilish grin. "I wanna go inside. Emmett will give me lots of candy. Please, Alice, let me show your friends my costume."

"Yeah, Alice, please?" Emmett chuckled as he leaned against the doorframe holding a full unopened bag of candy.

"Fine, but just for a second." She relented, pulling Cynthia behind her as she walked past Rosalie into the crowded entry hall as Emmett slipped the full bag of candy into Cynthia's bag.

Bella, now fully decked out in a Juliet costume, spotted the pair as they entered into the crowded home, immediately ending her conversation with Leah, who was dressed as Pikachu to come over and greet the pair. "Hey guys, you made it! Have you gotten lots of candy?"

"Emmett gave me a big bag of candy, and Esme gave me a whole entire big Kit-Kat bar."

"How nice of Emmett." Rosalie glared at her boyfriend, who wore a sheepish expression.

"Rosalie, mon amour. Please forgive me." He dramatically threw an arm over his eyes.

"I suppose I can let this one slide. For dear Cynthia's sake."

"Cara Mia!" Emmett exclaimed, grabbing Rosalie's arm pecking kisses from wrist to shoulder. Alice had to admit, The Addams Family costume idea suited the couple perfectly.

"Alice darling, you should go mingle while you can. Let me take care of our lovely little mermaid for a moment."

"You don't have to, Rose."

"I insist, my dear." She waved her hand dismissively in Alice's direction. "Now go."

Confident that her sister was safe being doted on by her friends, Alice relaxed, allowing herself to enjoy the party as much as possible in the short amount of time she would be there. She made her way through the large house. Stopping to chat occasionally with friends, receiving compliments on her outfit. She laughed at some dad jokes from a zombie Eric as witch Angela rolled her eyes from his side. Complimented Jake, who donned an extremely impressive hulk costume.

Eventually, she found herself at the back of the room where a snacks and drinks table was set up. Mike and Jessica, dressed as Woody and Bo-Peep respectively, stood talking to Jasper, who, to Alice's shock, was not dressed as a cowboy despite wearing the same costume every year since childhood. In fact, he seemed to be dressed as... Flynn Rider.

Unable to believe her eyes, she tapped him on the shoulder with a raised eyebrow. "No cowboy costume?"

Jasper stiffened at the comment, slowly turning around with blushing cheeks. "Yeah... I wanted to do something different this year."

"Okay, but Flynn Rider? You definitely fit the part, but I didn't take you as a Tangled fan."

"ohmygosh." Jessica piped in before Jasper could defend his costume choice. "Flynn and Rapunzel, you guys like... match. It's too cute."

"Isn't it crazy!" Jasper responded a bit too excitedly. "How Alice and I randomly got matching costumes. What a coincidence!"

"Yeah, definitely a coincidence." Alice crossed her arms. "What's going on here, Jasper?"

Unfortunately, once again, the pair were interrupted, this time by Bella and Cynthia. "I'm ready to leave, Alice." The youngest of the pair bounced up to her sister.

"Wait a second! Is Japer dressed like Flynn!" Cynthia's eyes widened in joy at the realization turning her attention to the tall man who appeared extremely uncomfortable with all the attention. "Jasper! You've gotta come trick or treating with me and Alice."

"I don't think Jasper wants to go trick or treating Cynthia." Bella giggled at the child's outburst.

"But he has too!" Cynthia crossed her arms and stamped a foot on the ground. "He matches Alice!"

"I'll go." The man in question cast a nervous side grin at the sisters. "Who am I to deny the request of princess Ariel. Besides, I haven't been trick or treating in years. It'll be fun."

"You really don't have to." Alice turned to look at him with apologetic eyes. "She'll get over it as seen as she gets more candy."

"Nope, I'm going. Come on, Alice."

The now trio made their goodbyes to the party guests and made their way back to the streets.

To his credit, Jasper did a great job keeping up with Cynthia's high energy as she dashed from house to house. Alice smiled happily, watching her crush happily interact with the most important person to her. The scene caused her heart to flutter as he fell for him just a bit more.

"So," She'd asked as Cynthia made her way through the first floor of an apartment complex. "Are you going to explain yourself?"

"Explain what?"

"Why you're dressed like Flynn Rider?"

"Do I have to?"

"I would like to know the answer, yeah."

"Okay, um." He abashedly placed a hand behind his head. "So, I know this is your favorite holiday and all. Because of the pranks and scares and wanted to..."

"Alice! Jasper! I got all the apartments we can go now!" Cynthia appeared, cutting him off. The small mermaid grabbed both of their hands and pulled them out the door back to the streets to continue the candy hunt.

Alice tried at every opening to find out what Jasper was going to say. Unfortunately, Cynthia cut the moment short every time. Turns out, it's tough to figure out why your best friend is acting weird when you're trick or treating with an eight-year-old.

After another two hours of candy collecting, they were nearing the end of their journey. They'd run out of houses, consequently resulting in Cynthia's excited energy wavering as they made the way back to the Brandon residence. When the group was a few blocks from their destination, the two teenagers noticed Cynthia started getting tired. Alice was getting ready to assure her they were almost home when Jasper surprised her by asking the younger girl if she wanted a piggyback ride. The smaller girl was elated by the idea and readily agreed.

The action made Alice happy; she loved that he was willing to be so kind and placate her little sister. He really was a great guy, even if he rarely let others see; she felt lucky to witness the sweet moment. After everything she'd witnessed that night, her heart fluttered at the idea that maybe... just maybe it was all for her.

Once they'd reached the girl's home, Jasper swung Cynthia off his back and set her back down gently. "That was fun!" She'd exclaimed.

"Okay, little one. Run along inside so I can talk to Jasper for a second." Alice nervously instructed her sibling.

"Alice and Jasper sitting in a tree." The girl had begun to sing the popular children's rhyme between giggles.

Alice swiftly but gently clapped a hand over Cynthia's mouth in a panic, finishing the classic rhyme with her own edit. "B E D T I M E." She chuckled awkwardly as she picked up her offended sibling. "I'll be right back, just gotta take Ariel inside."

"But The Great Pumpkin and cookies!" Cynthia protested as Alice sat her back down inside the house. "It can't be bedtime yet!"

"We'll do those things, Cynth, I promise. I've just gotta tell Jasper goodbye first. Go put on pajamas." Shooting her sister a warning look, she jogged back outside where Jasper was still waiting under the tree.

"Okay, Mr., there's no more little kid to interrupt you. Please tell me what this is all about." She crossed her arms over her chest, determined to get answers this time.

He took a deep breath and stared at his feet. "I was going to ask if you'd go with me to Rose's party... like as my date. But you had to take your sister trick or treating, and I know how important she is to you. So... god, I feel so stupid."

"So what, Jas?"

"Emmett said I should do a couples costume with you as a surprise and when you guys stopped by to trick or treat at Rosalie's comment on what a funny coincidence it was and leave with you. But then everyone was watching us, and I got nervous because I really like you. I know we play that stupid flirting game all the time but I kind of really want to go out with you..."

"Why didn't you just... ask if you could come with?"

"Emmett said I needed a big romantic gesture."

"Why would you listen to Emmett?"

"I'm an idiot?" She shot her an embarrassed smile.

"You're lucky; I like idiots."

"You do?" He looked hopeful.

"Yepp, at least I like the kind of idiot who does something as sweet as dressing up as a character from one of my favorite movies and goes trick or treating with my sister just because he wants to spend my favorite holiday with me." As ridiculous as his actions were, she really did find the gesture sweet.

"That's the kind of idiot I am!"

"So here's what you're going to do. You're going to call me tomorrow, and you're going to ask me if I want to go get a coffee with you. I'm going to say yes, and you're going to take me to that shop on main street that I like."

"Did you just plan a date I haven't asked you on yet? How do you know I'll even call you?" He was teasing her now.

Alice stood on her tippy toes to peck jasper on the cheek... or rather the lower jaw as even at the highest she could stretch, she still couldn't actually reach his cheek. "Goodnight, Jasper; I'll see you tomorrow." With that, she skipped back into the house.

#jalice #alice cullen #jasper hale #Fluff #Twilight

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lawdtl · 4 years ago

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Two Ghosts

AO3 Link

summary:

5 years after pushing Chloe away, Beca tries to gain Chloe's trust back at a Bella's reunion.

------------

It’s been five years since they were all together in the same room, five years since all of them were complete and in short, five years since beca actually agreed to see them. Chloe didn’t really know anything about beca anymore, after Europe they tried to keep in touch with each other but somewhere along the way beca started to drift further and further away from her. She wasn’t sure what happened between them, she remembers the feeling she had when she realized that things with beca aren’t the same anymore and it hurt her a lot.

Chloe didn’t stop reaching out to beca but when the time came where beca’s voicemail or beca’s assistant was the only one answering her, she got the message; she wasn’t dense. That was 3 years ago when she decided to stop trying, she almost called her again a year after that when her engagement with chicago was called off, she needed beca with her, to hear her voice or maybe just have her beside her but she figured nothing would happen out of it, so she stopped herself, she didn’t need another rejection from beca.

Aubrey told her it was going to be a big bella reunion set up and funded by the bellas before them but when she walked inside the venue, she was still caught off guard by how huge of a party it was, she felt sort of nervous but at the same time excited. She needed this, her life was stuck on replay, work, eat, sleep then repeat. She wanted to have fun for a change and even though this night can go about in many ways, she's still happy she gets to see her old friends and have a good time with them.

She was ushered to the table that had her name on it, to the right of it was Aubrey's and to the left, was beca's. Her name card also had "co-captain" printed on it, so is the years that she was in barden. She looked down the long table and saw the names of the bellas she shared many years with.

"I had them put me in the same table as you"

She knew that voice from anywhere, she turned around to see aubrey, with a big smile on her face "well i would've dragged you back here either way"

The two friends hugged tightly and before she knew it, a couple of girls were running towards their way to join them. Unlike with beca, she remained close with the others, sure they didn't see each other quite often but there were always video calls and group chats that kept them updated with each other and she's thankful for that.

"Damn red, looking good tonight" amy tells her

"Yeah well, i don't go out too often nowadays so this was a perfect excuse to finally dress up"

"Oh i know that, having a kid is great and all but bella is really handful these days, i needed this" stacie interjects

They took their designated seats to wait for the program to start and when the lights dimmed, two bellas appeared on stage to say a couple of words, she turned to look at amy to ask her if beca was still going to attend like she said but before she could speak up the name beca mitchell was said aloud and there she was, on stage with a mic on her hand wearing a suit that was clearly tailored only for her.

"I didn't know she was one of the people who funded this" chloe hears aubrey whisper. Her mind was going all over the place, she knew beca would be there and she planned everything, just say hi and that's it but right now as beca gives the mic back to the older bellas and starts to walk towards their table she feels unable to speak or move, she looks down to her hands that had somehow gripped the tablecloth "chloe you okay?" She hears stacie asked who is in front of her, she's frozen in her place and jumps when she hears amy shout "stranger danger!"

Beca's hands were sweaty, even before she left the car, her nerves were in turmoil and her heart was beating too loud and too fast. A small voice in her head was shouting "5 years" to her, reminding her of how awful of a friend she has been to every single one of them.

She didn't want things to turn like this, never did she wish for her and chloe to go back to being strangers. She doesn't remember when exactly she started to avoid chloe, she has no clear idea why either. Maybe because chloe meant a great deal to her, something along the lines of more than just a friend, and being away from each other, beca knew they were bound to go their separate lives and that thought scared her. To her it was better to end it earlier than wait longer and have it hurt even more, maybe it's that, and if it is that, then she knows how selfish of a jerk she is because of it.

She arrives at the place early, as she enters she sees the people who have reached out to her, asking if she could attend and say a few words to start the evening, she approaches them walking ever so slowly and when they saw her, she was engulfed in a hug, the next thing she knew she was being brought backstage

She uses the free time to prepare her speech and while reading it aloud, she can't help but feel guilty, it kicks her inside and out. She never would've been in the bellas without chloe and yet, the person she pushed away the most was her. She imagines what chloe looks like now, she imagines the blue eyes that always kept her grounded.

She felt like shit and she felt like throwing up. However this night may end, she hopes that she can apologize to chloe. A couple of months ago while she was about to move into her new place she saw a dusty old box that had "bellas" written on it, allowing herself to be emotional for once - she opened the box and saw so much of her memories.

Pictures of her with the bellas, every performance they did, the scarf and letters that were left unopened. Most of them were from chloe, she picks one that was sent years ago, she couldn't stop herself from opening it and when she read the letter, tears began to leave her eyes.

"I'm not sure if you're even going to read this, but I just want you to know that I'm so proud of you beca. You're finally out there showing people your amazing talent and when I see you on the news I can't help but smile. I'm always going to be thankful that I met you and that I had you in my life……..."

That day, where she cried on the floor of her old apartment she decided to do some changes in her life, she decided to own up to her mistakes and finally talk to chloe, she has no idea how and when and as if the aca-gods were hearing her, on that same week the older bellas reached out to her about the reunion.

She decided to take a break from her work- to relax, she also needed time to think through some things and to be able to reflect on all the stuff that is happening around her. She's been planning everything she'll say to the bellas when she sees them again, throw a couple of sarcastic remarks here and there, then apologize for being a dick, yup it's a solid plan she thinks - very old beca.

But the thing is she knows she's changed a lot ever since they were all together, she wonders if chole has too, she wonders if they would still accept her apologies even if she pushed them away. She hopes they do but in case they don't, she promises herself to try again and again until she proves to them that she really is sorry - very new beca.

After a couple of minutes the venue started to fill with more people, she can hear it, she didn't want to see it though because she's scared to see some of the old people she spent her bella days with

Delivering the speech was easy, walking towards the table filled with people she betrayed was hard. Her eyes immediately went to chloe, who wasn't moving, she sees her stare at her though and it made her nervous because Chloe's eyes never looked at her that way before, eyes that looked at her with questioning and disappointment. In just a few more steps she'll be able to reach the table with chloe still looking straight at her. She is pretty sure chloe knows about her attending, she messaged amy last week and she's certain amy told everyone about it too so it makes her wonder why it still feels like chloe has no clue about her being there.

The shout amy did startled her back to life, it was a joke. A joke that made everyone look very uncomfortable. Before sitting down, she decided to go for it, all or nothing right? She takes a deep breath and prepares herself for whatever may happen

"Before anything else, I want to say something, to all of you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for pushing all of you away, for avoiding the calls and texts. I'm sorry for not being a good friend. It could take forever for you guys to forgive me but i can wait because you guys mean a lot to me and when i realized that all over again, i know now that i can't go on with life without having you guys with me along the way...so uhm yeah, that's all"

There was just pure silence, the venue was loud but it's as if they have created a little bubble in their area and it cancelled all the other noise from outside. "Look beca we get it, it's hard to keep things balanced especially with your life now. But just so you know we were really hurt by you. I can't speak for everyone but i forgive you, because like my father always said "forgive others, or else you wouldn't be able to sleep at night" beca feels a smile creep into her face, of all the people to talk first, aubrey posen does "thank you aubrey, thank you". Cynthia rose stands up and looks at her with stern eyes for a few seconds, then proceeds to hug her tight, beca sinks in into the hug, wrapping her arms around CR "we missed you beca" she feels tears building in her eyes as other bellas stood up to give her a hug as well and when she had a chance to hug them all back she take a moment to smile at them and say thank you once again

"go on then, sit down shawshank" she hears amy tell her, eyes pointing to the seat beside chloe who remained seated through it all, she sees amy give her a little nod heading towards chloe, giving her the saddest frown and apologetic smile

She goes to take her seat beside chloe, her heart beats fast and breathing suddenly feels like a difficult job to do. She turns to look at chloe who was avoiding her eyes while taking a sip of water "hi chlo" beca says in the softest way possible, "hi beca" chloe replies dryly with a forced smile as she turns to finally face her and in a few awkward seconds the whole table began to laugh, quietly giggling amongst themselves. Beca felt her face boil in embarrassment and judging by the color red on Chloe's face, she felt the same thing

Thankfully it wasn't as awkward as she thought it would be, the girls asks her how she's been so she tells them some of the good stuff she did the past years but mostly she's been very interested in hearing how everyone's been, to just keep up with their lives now, she listens to them as they tell her about their jobs and families. "You do know that you're going to have to do better than a speech for chloe right?" Aubrey tells her when chloe went to the toilet "i know and I'm going to do everything i can to get her to forgive me" beca replies to her, eyes filled with determination

"you better, you really hurt her you know"

"Yeah..i just... she's important to me bree, I'll do whatever it takes"

The food was served, and everyone kept quiet for a little while but once food was finished there were programs lined up, one of the performing groups were Emily's generation of bellas, she waved hi to beca before taking the stage, beca mouths the words "I'm sorry" to her and emily looks at her with sad eyes mouthing "i know"

Chloe has been through many things in her life, she had the nodes things, her engagement being called off, her problems with school and many other things, so she knows her heart is strong but right now, being seated next to beca felt like a weird movie scene that will make her cry anytime soon. She can feel beca looking at her often, thinking twice in starting a conversation with her and as much as chloe hates that beca pushed her away she can't help but feel bad because it's beca, and somehow no matter how long they haven't seen each other, beca still has a hold on her like no one else.

All of a sudden she feels a hand on her shoulder, a feeling that has been lost for so long, suddenly creeping its way back "chloe, I'm.. I'm sorry" she turns to look at beca

"it's all good, i get it and it's nothing"

"It's not nothing chloe, not to me"

"It sure seemed like nothing for the past five year’s beca, now if you excuse me i will try to enjoy this night"

She was walking towards the bar when she sees beca follow her, in all honesty, she wants to talk to beca, she just doesn't know what to say, she's also scared that when they finally talk, her emotions will burst out to flames and it will just turn things into a mess

"Chloe, I don't exactly know what to tell you but I know that I've disappointed you, that I've hurt you. I will understand if you never want to see me again but please hear me out"

"Dance with me"

"What?"

"Now, let's dance"

"Like right now?" Beca hears slow music playing and it seems slow dance is what Chloe's asking her to join with

"Yes, you wanna talk? Fine dance with me"

"Okay"

Chloe goes to the dance floor and waits for beca, she has no idea what came out of her mouth when she suggested dancing but there's nowhere else to go now except here. She feels beca's hand hold her as they sway slowly with the music, she sees the bellas look at them with curiosity but leaves them be

"Chloe"

"I hate you"

"That's a strong word"

"It is, i hated the way you made me feel beca, you acted as if i never mattered to you and it was torture. You made me doubt all our years together"

"I'm sorry chloe"

"Is that all you have to say?, You wanted to talk, then talk"

"I got scared, that us, that you and I will eventually grow apart, so I did what I thought was best, thinking that it would've hurt less if I just pushed you away"

"Do you know how selfish that is? Just because of that? You threw me away"

"I know chlo, and there are no words, no sentences strong enough to tell you how sorry i am but believe me when i say that i regret it all, that i missed you, that every day for the past five years i wished i tried harder"

"Then why didn't you?"

"Because i was a coward"

“you meant so much to me, and as those years passed, as those rejected calls, as those messages, those moments that i needed you, as they all pass by…i felt so small as you drifted away"

"There's no excuse for what I did chloe, I hate myself for it too. You were my best friend and you...you didn't deserve any of that"

Chloe started crying, tears were beginning to fall down from her face, feeling heavy after the both of them throw words at each other, she backed away to look at beca's eyes and when she sees it also filled with tears, she did something unexpected. She ran to the door, wiping the tears from her face and stopping at the parking lot, she sees beca running towards her and she knew if she gets in a taxi now she can avoid beca but instead she's standing still, as if waiting for beca to actually catch up to her

"Chloe please don't go" beca says, breathing out the words and panting from the run she did

"Beca what is it? Why do you want to fix this?"

"You know why chlo, you have every idea why"

"I.. I'm"

"Engaged? I know, but i want you to know how i really feel about you, at least before you go"

"I wasn't...going to say. I'm not engaged beca, but you couldn't have known that since, you didn't answer to anything"

"What about chicago?"

"What about him? You know what, I'm leaving"

"Chloe i love you"

"No beca, you don't get to say that"

"I can, because it's true Chlo. I love you"

Chloe can't really move anymore, she doesn't know exactly how to react with beca telling her she loves her, she's waited for it for so long, too long. It became clear to her that she needs to move on from beca when chicago broke off their wedding, it became clear to her that her feelings for beca was keeping her from falling for anyone else completely. So hearing beca tell her this now, it cuts her deep, she always thought that her and beca we're inevitable, but reality denied them of this inevitability because beca had jesse then she had chicago then beca pushed her away, and now? She asks herself what will she do now, will she push beca away or will she stay

"Chloe? Say something please"

"Beca, you don't even know me anymore, you only love the memory of me"

"Chloe, i can love you all over again, i know we're not who we used to be but we're here now. Don’t you feel the same way?"

"Beca, i have loved you for years but right now i have no idea who you are, how your life is and"

"Chloe I'm still me, sure i changed, and hey i got a couple more tattoos and i wear contact lenses now but underneath all that crap is me"

"Don't you think we're making a mistake?"

"If it's the both of us, then how can it be a mistake?"

"I'm scared"

"I am too"

"My heart's been through enough, I'm not sure if it still even knows how to love"

"Mine does, whenever it remembers you"

There was silence, noise only from the beatings of their hearts that were too loud, too powerful. It's as if the hourglass that has been going on for years has finally been turned around in favor to them.

"Come with me" she hears beca calling out to her, her hand stretched out for her to take

Chloe takes her hand with no hesitation. She leads them to a car which she assumes is beca's "Becs what are we doing?" the nickname slips out of her unexpectedly

"Come on, i know a diner somewhere near here"

"We're leaving?"

"Yeah, I'll text amy and besides, i know you're hungry"

She really is, all this back and forth was exhausting and the whole night was draining her, not focusing on the fact that beca knew that, she nods and goes in the car. She watches beca start the engine and back away from the lot "i wear glasses now"

"What?" Beca asks her, Wondering what she meant

"You said you wear contacts now, i wear glasses..well i mean not now of course but yeah.."

"I'm sure you look ridiculous in them" beca says, laughing at her and chloe can't help but smile as well, it was stupid but if they were gonna do the whole getting to know each other again then she'll try "shut up, at least i call my friends" her eyes widens, not really meaning to say that "okay i deserved that" beca replies while smiling and looking down the road.

They arrive at the diner faster than what she was expecting, it was already 11 pm and the diner had no customers other than some truck drivers and a couple of kids who recognized beca right away, asking for a picture with her, they take a seat at the back corner and ordered some burgers and fries

"Sorry about that"

"its fine, I mean it's something to get used to but I'm happy for you, with your fame and fans and all that"

"At least someone's happy about that"

"You're not?"

"It was never my goal chlo, all i wanted was to make music but when people keep telling me how releasing three albums in 5 years will be one of my biggest achievements and don't get me wrong I'm proud of the albums, it's just that sometimes i feel like I'm not actually doing what i dreamt of"

"Producing music"

"Yeah…"

"This pop star thing isn't really suiting me well"

"I mean you can't basically just quit"

"I'm taking a little break from it all now"

"Oh, well that.. that's good"

"What about you, how's everything been going?"

"Well..you already know about the engagement so there's that and besides that was years ago but anything else has been really boring"

"It's not, I'd love to catch up on everything"

"Fine but remember you asked for it so don't go snoring" chloe tells beca, it's a lighter exchange of words and it's also a breather to have someone else listen to her again other than aubrey. The food arrives and they eat as she continues to tell stories about her work and how her parents keep asking her to visit them every single week, she tells how one of her co-workers keep hitting on her and when she gave him a chance the dude literally was a creep so she left him at the restaurant after saying she was only going to the bathroom, she tells her about the fling she had with a woman named sally who was a music teacher at a school near her workplace, not mentioning how sally looked a whole lot like beca, she mentions Chicago's name and focuses on the cringe on beca's face when she hears his name, she never really did like the guy.

Chloe hadn't felt like this for a long time, excited and yet a little nervous, hesitant and yet full of hope. It was like high school crushes and slushies on a summer day by the lake but this was getting to know someone all over again, someone she admired before. It all feels very nostalgic especially when they reminisce about their days in the bellas, it was a night of endless coffee and endless conversations about everything they've been through the last five years

It was 30 minutes to 4 am when they decided to order some snacks since the conversation wasn't clearly coming to an end anytime soon. It was amazing, chloe thinks. Five years all laid out messily in just a matter of hours, it was surreal to her how they were tossing stories to each other with ease, the good and the bad and it wasn't going to erase what happened between them but right now as she laughs at a story beca was telling her about a paparazzi tripping while following her she wonders how is it possible that even after everything she still has this connection with beca

"Hey chlo, you okay?" Beca asks her, waving her hand in front of Chloe's face

"Yeah, I am. I was just thinking how weird this is"

"Oh..uhm, i mean i can take you to your place now if you feel uncomfortable, i didn't mean to like, keep you here this long, I'm sorry"

"No dummy, i was thinking about how just a few hours ago i was so mad at you and now we're here, as if nothing's wrong"

"Is there..something wrong?"

"There is"

"Oh" there's the beca she knew, the shy and timid beca that somehow carried the bellas to all its greatness, she's not going to complain about this "new" beca though, the confidence looks good on her

"The wrong thing is that, this isn't weird"

"What do you mean?"

"Well i was thinking about how a few hours ago i was ready to ignore you the whole evening and yet here i am, talking at a diner with you as if you never left"

Chloe didn't mean to hurt beca with those words, she thinks that maybe it was a way to let beca know that she still needs a little more time to get used to this again, she was about to say something but beca, who was now looking at the table, inhales as if her life depended on it, looks at chloe straight in the eyes

"Isn't that crazy though? we spend five years apart and yet in just one night we find a way to fix.."

"Well it's not fully fixed yet" chloe cuts beca off

"Progress is progress, and I'll understand if you decide to go, I know I'm pushing my luck on this but being with you here now it..it makes me really happy chlo, so thank you..for giving me this chance to explain everything and just..thank you for everything chloe.."

"You're an idiot, you know that. I just...i don't understand why you had to push me away, I would've never given up on our friendship, I would've done everything to actually prevent us from drifting apart, how come you didn't beca?"

"Well it's no excuse but..i was stupid, and scared and i mean, you had chicago and your whole life ahead of you, i would've just held you back, your life was set and perfect"

"Nothing's perfect beca, what hurt me was, you didn't even try, you keep telling me that i mean a lot to you, that wasn't how i felt when i keep getting my calls rejected and messages ignored"

"I'm sorry. I can't change what i did in the past but i can promise that if you let me, i will do my best to never disappoint you again"

"All those years, back in barden...do you even have any idea how much I loved you?"

"I..i don't know. I wanna say i knew but i always told myself that it was all in my head, that you would never like me"

"See it's funny because that's what I used to tell myself too"

"Victims of circumstances...”

"Hmm, we really are quite a pair huh?" chloe replies, she's feeling so much lighter now than she did when they were entering the diner. This wasn’t what she thought would happen when she decided to step inside beca's car, the next moments that followed were all just unplanned and spontaneous, it was all a blur to her ever since beca told her that she loves her "i missed you becs" she tells her wholeheartedly

"I missed you too chlo, a lot... I'm sorry i didn't do anything sooner"

"Well for future purposes just tell me how you feel so i can tell you that you're being crazy"

"So there's a future?"

"Maybe…"

"That's all i need, a maybe..i mean I've waited this long"

She looks at beca who's wearing a sincere smile on her face, it was a smile she really missed, she missed everything with beca and she feels a little sadness in admitting that. She has no idea what will happen to them now, she only hopes that maybe all this will make their friendship a little more solid in the future, she knows she has feelings for beca but now isn't really the right time to act on it, she needs time to be sure and not just let her heart act on impulse.

She asks beca if she had any clothes in her car because as much as she wants this moment with beca to last longer, she can't take her dress anymore, it was four am in a diner and they've been sitting there for hours

"Yeah i have a duffle bag in the back of the car with my clothes, do you want me to get it?"

"No it's okay, I'll check it out" beca nods to her as she gives her the keys to the car

She looks through the bag, wondering why beca has a duffle bag filled with clothes in the first place. As she searches for something to wear she sees a familiar shirt, a white shirt that she had back in barden, it looks overused now though, she takes it out and finds a letter, addressed from her to beca. It was the letter she sent when she saw beca in the news, she felt so proud that day, seeing her friend get the recognition she deserves, she wonders why beca still has it and why she keeps it around. She keeps the thought for another time, she grabs a hoodie and sweatpants heading towards the toilet in the diner to change.

When she got back to their table beca was looking at a big map on the table, with multiple crosses on it "hey, what's that?" chloe asks

"Oh it's uhm…I'm on this road trip, since i left work i kinda wanted a little adventure, a change i guess"

"That's nice, I've always wanted to go on a road trip"

"Maybe you should join me" beca says as she laughs at the thought

"Maybe i should"

"Wait what?.."

"Yeah, i don't know..it seems exciting..i mean only if you're okay with it.."

"No I mean, I would love to have you with me chlo, but are you sure?"

"Yes. For a long time now my life's been quite stuck, i need a little breather, to have a time for myself"

"Except you'll be with me, your former best friend, who you formerly like and who has now admitted to her feelings for you"

"See? Who else better to be with?"

"Okay, I did not expect..Wait what about your job, your apartment back in?"

"I can handle all that" chloe cuts her

"Chloe.. please think about it, I don't want you regretting this decision"

"I'm a big girl beca, I'm old enough to know what I'm doing, and if it's a mistake then at least"

"At least what?"

"Whatever happens, I'll be able to get myself back up, i know that"

"Well…okay then, tell me where you wanna go?"

They spend a couple more hours inside the diner, just discussing about this whole impromptu of a situation, when beca sees a hint of sunlight on Chloe's face from the sun that's starting to come out, she sees the blue eyes that keeps her going every time she's feeling down, she sees chloe look up to her, with furrowed brows

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing weirdo"

"You're the weirdo"

Chloe's happy, like genuinely happy. It's beyond her wildest imagination on how one night can change so much but also bring them back to what once was. She relishes how they opened up to each other, how they were honest, how they remembered all the memories they had and it all felt so normal, like no time and pain had come in between them. It will be a journey for her before she can forgive beca with everything but there's no more waiting, no more wondering, no more what ifs. There's no need to forget what happened because it still brought them back here together and she'd be lying if that wasn't what she always hoped for to happen.

"Hey becs, i think we should go... it's sunrise and I'm a little tired"

"Yeah same, i asked the girls last night if we could all have lunch together, they all agreed, are you going?"

"I would love to"

"Let's go?"

They pay their bill and head out to the parking lot, the sky was beautiful, darkness from the night being filled with orange streaks "so where do you want me to drop you off?" Beca asks her

"I'm staying at the hamilton hotel"

"Okay then, let's go get you some rest"

Chloe looks at the rear view mirror as they drive away from the diner and sees the letter and shirt she brought out while looking for clothes and felt the need to ask beca about it

"Becs, just wondering.. Why do you have my white barden shirt and letter tucked in your duffle?"

"Oh uhm..well, they're important to me. Can't leave them behind. You know what? i got something in the glove compartment, take a look"

Chloe opens it and sees three notebooks placed neatly "what are these?"

"Open the red one" beca tells her as she continues to drive

Chloe opens the notebook, it was like a diary, except every page started with "dear chloe,"

"Yeah... I know I didn't reply to those letters you sent but every time i felt like sending you one, i wrote them in a notebook. Those are all of them, words left unsaid i guess..you can have them if you..if you want"

Chloe thinks she's too sleep deprived for this. She can't wait to read all of them though, to read what beca was thinking about then, they are the filler episodes in their series

"Nah, keep them here... something to read on that road trip"

Beca smiles at the thought, they stay quiet for the remaining drive, she glances at chloe from time to time and sees her looking at the window, definitely feeling sleepy, beca on the other hand feels giddy, feels very optimistic. Everything was better than what she hoped for and she's grateful for it. She thinks she doesn't really deserve their forgiveness, especially chloe's but they're giving her another chance, Chloe's giving her another chance. Positivity fills her up and life has never felt so much fuller than now. She parks at the front of the hotel to drop chloe off but before chloe opens the door she feels Chloe's hands intertwining with hers

"Beca….i just want you to know.. i want you to know that my feelings for you never left, but i also don't want to promise you anything yet because that wouldn't be fair to either of us"

"I know chlo" beca replies to her, looking at her with those dark blue eyes and soft smile

"Thank you, for tonight. It means a lot"

"No chloe, Thank you….so can I pick you up later for lunch? If you want we can go straight ahead on the trip after it"

"Yeah, definitely"

"Okay then, go get some rest beale"

"You too Mitchell, you'll need it, we're headed for a lot of roads"

"Can't wait"

She exits the car after kissing beca on the cheeks, feeling her face go red as the butterflies in her stomach go alive after a very long time. She waves goodbye to beca before she enters the hotel, heading back to her room to have the best sleep in her life because of all the worries that left her mind, it all seems very euphoric and scary at the same time and she loves it.

Beca watches chloe until she's out of her sight, the kiss on her cheek still lingering, she feels herself smile widely as she imagines how she's on top of the world right now. It's like they were teenagers who were starting to fall in love, and no one else ever made her feel like this, it was only chloe. It was and will always be chloe.

#bechloe #fanfic #angst #a little bit of fluff #i had fun with this and i have no idea why

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lepusrufus · 3 years ago

Text

Double edged scalpel ch.10

Ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7 ch8 ch9

Summary: scary moms are scary

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Nicole stilled.

Moms.

Well this just got a million times worse.

Surprisingly enough, Nicole could count on her fingers the times she had crossed paths with either of the Ladies. Lady Dimitrescu was often busy and not bothering with the staff. Most things that needed communicated went through the Steward. Mistress Esteria was, as some would call her, a ghost. She preferred her solitude or time with family so it wasn't unheard of for new staff members to take months before they even see her around the castle. Paired with Nicole's job that had her in the dungeons almost all the time, she never got an actual introduction to either of them.

Not that she complained. It didn't take a genius to realize that both women were to be feared.

I think I'd like to bleed out now.

"What about?" Her voice was barely audible, due to fear or pain was anyone's guess.

"... I don't know." Cassandra's quiet voice mimicked her own.

"Should I assume it is about your um… choice of partners?"

The realization that, to anyone outside Cassandra, she was little more than a maid turned butcher hit Nicole almost as much as the bullet that until not long ago was wedged into her flesh. Would they forbid Cassandra from seeing her? Or perhaps decide that Nicole has committed an unspeakable offense to their family and punish her? She gulped and Cassandra's reply wasn't of much help either.

"I don't know," she repeated.

Nicole sighed, a slow drawn out exhale, all too aware of the pain it would cause otherwise. "When?"

"Soon. They told me to let them know when you wake up."

Nicole just nodded and laid back into the cushions. May as well be comfortable before facing death. But Cassandra didn't move. Instead, she interlocked their fingers and brought Nicole's hand to her lips, leaving a kiss on bony knuckles. They stayed like that, silently, for a full minute before Cassandra got up and, with a be right back, exited the room.

Left alone, Nicole looked down at herself once more. To say she looked awful was an understatement. Definitely not going to rely on appearance to make a good impression. The painkiller was also yet to do its job and any movement still shot jolts of pain through her body. Wonderful.

It wasn't long before the door opened again and Cassandra came in followed by Lady Dimitrescu, her trademark hat making her look even taller and more intimidating than she already was. Immediately behind, Mistress Esteria took light steps, her long white hair flowing behind her like a silky mantle.

They looked so in contrast with each other, and it went beyond the almost opposite color schemes. While the Lady had the expression of a mother about to scold her child for carelessly running up the stairs and scraping a knee, the Mistress looked about to take out the bandaids. Her eyes, blue and gray, looked at her with something akin to kindness.

"What's your name dear?"

God her voice sounded like rivers deep in the forest. Flowing and ancient and just as powerful as she probably was.

"Nicole," she gulped.

The Mistress came to a stop right by the bed, tall frame bending down and grabbing Nicole's chin between two fingers. She moved her head from one side to the other and hummed.

"My my, what a pretty face. You've always had quite the taste in women, love." She looked at Cassandra who only nodded stiffly.

Then, she was up again and moving towards the other matriarch, who by now was sitting in an armchair. The Mistress leaned on the armrest, opting to ignore the many other places to sit and Nicole had to wonder for a moment if they were the clingy type. What an oddly human trait.

A long drag of a cigarette was drawn out before golden eyes finally fell on Nicole and the Lady spoke.

"I was actually surprised to learn about how… deeply Cassandra cares about you. To actually come to me and ask for help saving your life." She narrowed her eyes slightly, just enough for it to be a clear warning. "I sure hope such kindness was not wasted on you."

Sensing where this conversation was going, Nicole groaned internally. Of all things, she would rather not have the break my daughter's heart and I'll break your legs conversation with Cassandra's mothers while a damn hole in her abdomen was still sending waves of pain through her body if she didn't move just right. In her defense, the painkiller was yet to kick in and there's only so much holding her tongue she can do while in pain.

"With all due respect my Ladies, I'd rather throw myself off the highest tower in this castle than pretend to love Cassandra. Have you met her."

That got a snort from the brunette, who quickly masked it with a cough. The Mistress however laughed. A melodic laugh that, in another situation, would be the most soothing thing.

"Oh dear. While the reassurance is appreciated, we do trust Cassandra's judgement."

"For the most part," Lady Dimitrescu added, eyes still narrowed.

"And we would love to have you for dinner soon," the Mistress went on, ignoring the small glare from her wife.

Another drag of the cigarette. "Well anyways. We didn't come here for a welcoming party. We'd like to make you a proposal."

Judging by Cassandra's furrowed brows, she probably knew as little about this as Nicole did. A proposal from Lady Dimitrescu could either be wonderful news or a death sentence. She couldn't help a gulp when the Lady continued.

"Contrary to popular belief, I do care about my staff. At least those who prove themselves useful." The cigarette was finally done and now Nicole had the luck of having her full attention. "And, as you may have guessed, medical training is not particularly common around here. I do happen to want a castle physician, a position that could be filled by someone skilled that also has a good reason to do a good job and be loyal to my family."

Wait what-

Nicole blinked in confusion, an expression mimicked by Cassandra. Did she mean…?

Lady Dimitrescu raised an eyebrow. "Do you accept?"

"Y- yes." The words spilled from her mouth without a second thought. And why would she have second thoughts after all?

Lady Dimitrescu watched her for a long moment. Then, when she seemed pleased with her findings, she rose to her feet.

"Very well. We will discuss the technicalities once you're in a better state. Now try not to bleed out before you even start your job. And," she sighed, "you are expected at dinner as soon as you're able to join us."

The last part caused her wife's lips to turn into a warm smile. The Lady simply turned around and ducked out of the room while Mistress Esteria lingered by Cassandra. She whispered something only the brunette could hear and then leaned in to kiss her forehead. The Mistress had a couple inches on Cassandra, which meant she was towering over Nicole. Then, with a smile in her direction, she too was out of the room, leaving only the two of them to stare at the door in disbelief.

"Well that went… well."

"Oh for the love of Mother Miranda," Cassandra sighed in relief, hands running through her hair.

Her shoulders lost their tension when she came to sit by Nicole's side, a smile now present on thin black lips.

"Your mothers seem… lovely women."

"Shut up you were scared shitless."

There goes Nicole's attempt at being polite. Not that Cassandra was wrong by all means, but part of her wanted to be on good terms with her lover's family. Maybe it was simply due to her relationship with the brunette, maybe it was due to how her own family never seemed to care much for each other. Not the way the Dimitrescus did, despite how they were seen as monsters by most outside eyes. She didn't let herself dwell on it, instead she took one of Cassandra's hands and started to play with slender fingers.

"Are you hungry? I can ask Cynthia to fix something for you."

Nicole smiled at the effort to make her feel better. She would never get tired of seeing Cassandra's caring and gentle side, especially when she knew how ruthless she could be otherwise.

"In a bit. I'm waiting for the painkiller to fully kick in so I can actually sit up."

Cassandra nodded and looked to the side, seemingly lost in some kind of thought. Nicole wanted to ask what got the brunette pensive all of a sudden, but before she could, golden eyes snapped back to her.

"Also. Don't you dare jump in front of a bullet for me ever again. It wouldn't have hurt me anywhere near as much as it hurt you."

There was a subtle growl in her voice that would have scared any other person. But Nicole recognized how the anger was just veiled worry at how much worse their situation could’ve gotten.

"Sorry. I just saw him with the gun and panicked." There was a reason she didn't pursue her father's idea of becoming a surgeon after all, and pissing him off was only part of it. "And I'm glad you didn't get hurt at all."

Cassandra narrowed her eyes, but her expression quickly softened. The big bad sadist couldn’t stay mad at her lover and Nicole almost teased her about it, but a gloved hand slowly caressing her cheek stopped her.

“I’m just happy you’re alive.”

#cassandra dimitrescu x maiden #unhinged maiden™ my beloved #lady dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu x maiden #fanfic #double edged scalpel

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collecting-stories · 5 years ago

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Ease My Mind - Connor Murphy

A/N: Angsty but happy?

TW: Mentions of attempted suicide

Help me leave these lonely thoughts behind, when they pull me under and I can feel my sanity start to unwind, darling only you can ease my mind. - Ease My Mind, Ben Platt

\\\

The hospital room was filled with small touches of color, meant to be comforting. The glass rainbow mural that hung on the wall seven floors above the emergency waiting area reflected into his room in ICU, painting the floor in different colours. The vinyl couch that could be rearranged into a bed for a guest was a maroon color and the chairs that were pulled up beside his hospital bed were a navy blue. They empty but hours earlier his mom had been sitting in one.

So far she was the only one to see him. Larry and Zoe both stayed outside the room, in the waiting area, and Cynthia said it was too hard for them to see him like this but he knew that wasn’t it at all. They were keeping him for observation.

“Because you tried to kill yourself Connor, do you remember?”

Of course he did. After the first night his mom sat on the couch while she assumed he was asleep and called everyone in her address book to tell them that Connor had ‘been in an accident’. Bible study, the ladies luncheon, book club, and bridge were all cancelled because of him.

On the second day there she announced she was going home for a change of clothes. Larry had already left the night before to sleep in his own bed and Zoe had gone with him. His mom stayed so that she could whisper to the nurses about his psyche while she presumed he wasn’t paying attention. She left early in the morning, pressing a kiss to his forehead and asking him to “please just listen to the doctors okay sweetie”. Her change of clothes lasted all day. But 9am that Tuesday morning someone besides hospital staff came into his room.

Your mom had gotten the call the previous night. You were playing video games with your younger brother when she came in the room to tell you that Connor was in the hospital. An accident, she said, though she confided that Cynthia had told her he tried to kill himself.

“Your mom said it’d be alright to have visitors,” you said, walking further into the hospital room. “I brought twizzlers and I borrowed Sean’s Nintendo switch.”

“Hey,” Connor sat up further in bed, a little caught off guard to see you there. He expected his mom, maybe Larry and Zoe eventually, Evan if he ever heard the news and could brave the trip into the city but not you.

Your mom and Cynthia had been college roommates and best friends. For the entirety of your elementary school existence you had been best friends with Connor. You were at his house constantly, jumping on the trampoline Larry installed, trick or treating at Halloween, having pizza every Friday. When your family moved into the city after your mom got remarried that relationship changed. Soon you were only seeing him once a year at Cynthia’s annual New Years Day open house. Your mom relayed every bad story that was shared with her about Connor and his out of control personality.

The time he tried to burn all his childhood photos or when he painted his entire bedroom black without his parents knowledge, that time he got into a fight with Larry so bad that his dad punched him, when he destroyed the trampoline. You heard about it all, and some of it you had witnessed. But it was difficult to see that boy, to know that Connor. Because you saw him only once a year and when you did he was sweet. He’d find you in the kitchen and suggest hiding in the basement while the party went on, playing video games and watching tv. He was nice to your little brother and always made an effort to behave on New Years.

“I’m not gonna fuck shit up so much this year, I’m gonna be better.” Connor always swore.

Once you had cellphones keeping in touch was a little easier but sometimes Connor got in his own head. One minute you’d be texting and the next you wouldn’t hear from him for days while he decided that everyone was better off without him.

The thought had briefly crossed your mind that he might not want anyone to see him like this. Larry and Cynthia certainly didn’t want anyone to see him like this. But you had to go, you needed to know he was okay. Or at least that he was still breathing.

“How’d you get here?”

“The subway.” You shrugged, “my mom and your mom were supposed to go to lunch today and I figured while they were there I’d come here.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know,” you pulled one of the navy chairs over to the bed and sat down, laying your backpack on the ground. You’d packed it with stuff for Connor and skipped school to come see him. A little outside of your usual character. “I just wanted to see you. My mom told me what happened.”

“What’d she say?”

“I think something about your appendix burst.”

“Yeah.” Connor nodded.

“Well anyway I brought some stuff,” you said, looking away from him to rummage in your backpack. You felt like you were going to burst out crying if you just looked at him and you weren’t sure if he would be comfortable knowing that you knew what happened.

Though Connor had made off-hand comments about feeling depressed or angry he never really talked about his emotions with you. He never talked about wanting to end things but you knew he did. Likewise though, you had never broached the subject before because you were never sure what to say. You doubted that Connor would appreciate you interrupting a game of Mario Kart on New Year’s day to talk to him about his feelings. So you just didn’t.

“Scoot over.”

“Scoot over? This is my hospital bed,” he pointed out even as you sat beside him on the bed.

“Don’t start with me Murphy, I skipped school for you.” You teased, smiling at him as you settled the backpack in front of you to pull out the contents.

“Do you remember that time when your hair was just passed your ears and you let me put tiny braids all over it with those little rubber bands that Sean had?” You asked.

It had progressed into lunch and you sat there with Connor, the tray table pulled up so he could eat the pancakes he ordered, and you were painting the nails of one hand black. The nail polish you’d bought specially for him though you didn’t say so.

“Yeah, you took a picture even though I told you not to.” He replied. You were looking down at the hand in your lap but he was watching you.

“I still have it.” You mentioned, glancing up at him and smiling, “I keep it in my day planner.”

“I wish you’d trash it.”

“I love that picture!” You brought his hand up to your face and blew on the polish, “this stuff is supposed to dry matte, it’s not so shiny.”

Connor only shrugged.

“Hey, Connor, my mom told me why you’re here, not the dumb appendix story.” You mentioned.

You had been thinking about it all morning, since you woke up and decided that you were not going to school. You were going to mention it right away, rip the bandaid off the whole thing and dive in the deep end but you chickened out when you saw him.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Could I just...we don’t have to but could I just say something before we don’t?”

“Whatever.” He leaned back against the bed and looked away from you, toward the window and the rainbow reflecting in it. Of all the rooms.

“I didn’t wanna...I like how easy things are between us and I don’t want to jeopardize that and I don’t want you to feel bad but when my mom told me what happened I was so scared. I just thought, what if something happened and I didn’t get the chance to tell you how much you mean to me. I love you Connor, you are my favorite part of the entire year and I wish we hung out more and every year I swear to myself that we will and I never follow through with it. I always let it slide and I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want you to feel alone and I know I can’t take that from you but I just...when you aren’t sure, I want you to know that I’m here and that you’re always on my mind.” You confided.

Connor turned his head back toward you, staring openly at the way your skin looked with fresh tears tracked down your cheeks and even fresher ones threatening to fall from your eyes. You had cried when your mom told you that he had tried to commit suicide and you had cried on the way over here and you had cried riding the elevator up to his floor. But you had been trying your hardest not to cry in front of him. He frowned and reached up to brush some of the tears away.

“Don’t cry.” He pleaded, “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, this is not okay. We’re supposed to be playing video games in your basement on New Year’s day or facetiming while I do homework or sending each other stupid pictures on snapchat. Not this, not sitting here.”

“I know,” Connor pulled you into his arms, ignoring the nail polish still drying on his hands. He held you against him, his forehead resting against yours, “I know.”

“I love you.”

I decided to write this because Dear Evan Hansen is very personal to me. When I was about twelve a family friend killed himself. He was seventeen and he was just the coolest person in my life. I thought he was wonderful. He had a lot of anger issues and mental health problems and not a lot of help dealing with any of it. But he was always so nice to me and always made me feel so important and I kind of wanted to capture that feeling in this writing. There are a lot of things that I wish I could’ve said to him and this is my way of dealing with that. So, hope you like it?

#Connor murphy x reader #Connor murphy imagine #Connor murphy fanfic #Connor Murphy fanfiction #deh fanfiction #deh imagine #deh fanfic #deh au #Connor Murphy au #dear Evan Hansen imagine #dear Evan hansen fanfiction #dear Evan hansen fanfic #dear Evan hansen au #collecting stories imagine #cs discography series

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eternal-scripts · 4 years ago

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Short Horror Stories: The Doctor

Dr. Maurice Butler was making his daily commute back to work. For more than thirty years, that half-hour drive had been the walk before he got to work at the Rockfield Mental Asylum. Maurice was one of the institution's veterans and a man who had seen, in his judgment, all that this twisted world had to offer.

His journey was as routine as it was his life, a hoary pine forest were his only companions during their way to the institution. The place, sheltered by those dense guardians, was far from the city, as if that perfectly fulfilled that old premise of leaving people with mental illnesses out of the public eye. A repulsive place at times, but one that had been a fundamental piece of his life thus far. His life outside of there was like that of any other average man: a house, a family, a fishing trip and many others as a family. His wife, Cinthia, and their two children, Patrick and Annette, were the other fundamental pillar of his life. The pair of children had grown up by now and were slowly making their lives, leaving Maurice and Cinthia to lead an adult life, a life that slowly drifted into monotony.

Rockfield Hospital opened its doors to him once more, the smell of sanitizer that sometimes made him lose his sense of smell and the silence of the building that was only cut off by the distant screams of the most unhinged patients was what always welcomed him. Doctor Maurice, at almost sixty years old, had reached the peak of his employment, no one could object to him about any lack of knowledge, less whether or not he deserved that general position as director of the institution. For the workers, he was a man who looked undaunted by the extreme situations that patients could sometimes generate. Doctor Maurice was the type of person who knew how to face a patient who had taken some sharp object and seemed to be willing to take away anyone besides himself with an absolute coldness that made those people stop their attacks; He was a man who had seen the most horrendous scenes that work could bring him, neglected patients who, from one moment to another, appeared without their eyes in their sockets as was Patient Stokes, fifteen years ago, or others like the Harmon case where a patient had gouged out his guts after spending the entire night scratching his belly all the way to them and then strutting down the hallways with his trophies in hand. Many of his old colleagues had resigned after such cases, others did not cope with the situation and ended up housed in facilities similar to the Rockfield mental asylum. Suicide was something that was never mentioned but was always there, among those who fell into that world or simply jumped into it.

Nothing seemed to get him out of his stoicism. Nothing except Mr. Stangley.

Few in the institution wanted to talk about Stangley. Mr. Stangley was a patient who had been there longer than anyone wanted to admit, a man who practically spent most of his life behind those walls and who no one wanted to cross. The man was very tall, with an almost absurd thinness and a lanky appearance; He was a figure that no one wanted to meet because, it was said, talking to him was like losing part of your sanity. In all his years of work, Doctor Maurice was rarely in front of him. Stangley was already hospitalized when he had started working, his first contacts with him were through attending interviews with this subject, when some of his mentors such as Dr. Barron or Dr. Wells proceeded to question him about his stay. As far as he knew, Stangley was there voluntarily, although his story and motive were really vague. "Due to a cause of a traumatic situation, Mr. Bernard Stangley opted for hospitalization.". His file had those words along with the old stamp of the institution that highlighted it at the end of the page, Dr. Maurice had never had the opportunity, in his years of work, to interview this person, his tasks had become much more administrative over the last decade, but he was always aware of the information that the Doctors and interns were writing down on him.

Sooner than later, he had started to draw a pattern around Stangley. Many of the young doctors who had spoken with him had given up this exhausting job; Others, as was to be suspected, suffered some breakdown of their psyche to the point of being admitted to a mental asylum. It could be coincidence, Stangley was not an aggressive or dangerous patient and many times these doctors saw patients much sicker and more dangerous. However, the pattern began when they approached Stangley during the month-long interview with him. During the month, the doctors interviewed him and, from one moment to the next, the sanest ones gave the interviews to other doctors who needed more experience. In doing so, those who continued with the interrogations apparently reached a point of unease that ended in an immediate resignation or, in other cases, in a period of very acute depression that ended, in the best of cases, in their confinement in some other state mental asylum.

Doctor Maurice, with years of experience on his shoulders, chose to finally take matters into his own hands. It was time to put himself in Check, and from that point on, he would take over the Stangley case.

His first visit to Stangley was in the interview area, separated by six feet or more. A non-reflective glass separated them and where several doctors like him in his youth were behind it. The doctor on the left, the patient on the right. Maurice began with routine questions that Stangley answered with a smiling calm, the slender old man in front of the doctor maintaining considerable lucidity despite so many years locked in that place. When Maurice asked him about his life before then, Stangley liked to ramble a bit about the things he used to do, something that seemed to be strange because he spoke like a person who had done countless things in his little time outside that place; He liked painting, architecture, he could recite curiosities from countless families of insects and then take a jump and talk to you about the causes of the Spanish civil war and the belligerents. Stangley seemed to be carrying the thread of the conversation, but it was only because Dr. Maurice allowed him to.

"How’s Cynthia?"

Stangley's question threw the Doctor for a brief moment, a personal question that escaped from Stangley after skipping through various topics. Maurice answered simply, a disinterested "good" that masked a miserable momentary unease. Perhaps the patient had overheard him talking in a corridor with another doctor about his life outside that place, something that in turn was difficult since he didn’t usually talk about private matters in that place. That must be the reason, otherwise, how could he possibly know his wife's name?

The talk with Stangley ended very naturally, as it had been nothing more than the first meeting. Maurice had perhaps found a reason behind all that crazy movement that was brewing around that patient, Stangley perhaps had a good ear that listened at the right time to some personal information that was what scared the doctors.

Another day another routine week, Dr. Maurice again traveled the road where the pines were his only companions to Rockfield asylum. One more week had passed and few changes occurred in his life. The only great news was the surprise of knowing that her daughter had been hiding the first three months of her pregnancy from her along with her husband, the news of her first grandson formed a small smile on the face of that veteran doctor. A good day for him.

That afternoon, another interview was to take place, Stangley was once more taken to the room to which he had been directed so many times. The doctor sat on the left where the exit door was a few steps behind him, and the patient on the right, near the wall and in a metal chair.

Maurice spoke with his classic naturalness and characteristic stoicism with Stangley, the patient rambled once more about events that occurred throughout the nineteenth century, the Napoleonic wars on the one hand, the findings of Darwin on the other, he went back in time with his jumps to the ones Dr. Maurice tried to follow with little interest.

“By the way, Doctor, congratulations on the news. He's your first grandson, isn't he?"

Disbelief crossed Maurice's face. Again, how could he possibly know that? this time, it didn't make any sense. He hadn't mentioned it to anyone, he was the only one who knew that news at the Rockfield Asylum. Maurice stammered a few words before questioning what he was talking about, but Mr. Stangley simply asked to be allowed back to his room.

"Doctor, don't be sad, this is how life works."

Maurice was shocked but also confused, trying to hide it from the view of the doctors who were watching him behind the mirrored glass. The doctor agreed to the patient's request, and Stangley marched back to his room.

Did he have someone out there to help him with that strange show? No one, as far as was known, Mr. Stangley had no family and no one outside of Rockfield. Maurice wanted to use logic before all that. Perhaps a doctor or intern should have known his daughter and that is how he found out. Yes, that must be it, right? False, his daughter was a librarian, he had no connection with his work. What was to be a happy day with pleasant news became full of doubts. What did he mean by sadness? He didn’t understand what was happening. In his opinion, he was very happy at the time and nothing was going to take away his smile.

The following week had turned into chaos that tried to loosen Maurice's stoicism with every hour he spent there. The pine trees that accompanied him seemed more distant than usual, within Maurice there was a very deep pain. His daughter, his beloved daughter, had been attacked by his husband in a fit of fury, had fallen down the library stairs, and his future grandson had died due a forced abortion. He and Cinthia were devastated, but what was he to do? Sometimes he cursed their coldness, at that moment they must be closer than ever, and yet there he was like every beginning of the week, ready and heading to work at the Rockfield Mental Asylum.

The Doctor had almost completely forgotten about the interview with Mr. Stangley. The tall, thin old man was already waiting for him when he arrived at the meeting. Once again, the doctor sat on the left, near the door, and the patient on the right, in front of the non-reflective glass where several doctors were watching them.

Maurice was trying to reinforce his head under a layer of stoic and tenacious coldness, he would not allow that patient to use his pain against him while he was listening to the comings and goings of that man's thoughts. Stangley had started by talking about the French Renaissance and jumped to the Italians, Lorenzo de Medici, and the Italian Wars, only to mention some additional rant about some giant rodent species that inhabits South America.

“I am very sorry for your loss, doctor. You must take good care of Cinthia and Patrick from now on"

In his interior he cursed that wretch in front of him, had he once again raised something in his future? No, he had to keep his composure, the subject was a patient and he was a doctor, what harm could a subject do in an asylum? He didn't care how he got that information, but he wouldn't let him win. As he left the interview, Dr. Maurice called his son to work, a contracting company that had flourished very well and as a result he had a very good job. He chatted in spite of him for a little over half an hour before saying goodbye to him. After that, he called his wife.

He didn’t know what was happening that week, the pines seemed more dead than usual, his mind barely stayed on the road to the point of, perhaps, wishing to come across a truck. The tragedy struck him and his family again in less than a month, his son Patrick, his precious son, had an accident with a crane that collapsed due to an error in the wiring of the machine, causing a pipe to crush him. In less than a month he lost who would be his future grandson and now, he lost his son. He must have been home, comforting his wife, but his life was in the Rockfield Mental Asylum.

The time for the interview was coming, the fragments of his life were on the desk in his office. Perhaps he should finish it all, take the revolver from the right drawer and bathe the bookshelves behind him with his red ink. One of his assistants snapped him out of his trance when the time drew near, but this time it had been for another reason. Mr. Stangley had a fit of rage and had to be handcuffed, such a thin and old man had to be held between four people to stop him, and demanded to speak to Dr. Maurice. Maurice was devastated, but he wanted answers.

The doctor entered the interrogation room once more, taking a seat facing the patient, the image of Stangley in the straitjacket so strange. Stangley kept his rambling way of being, talking about subjects that, at the time, Dr. Maurice was not paying the remotest attention to. Stangley had noticed that the doctor's almost blank stare was evident.

"Why did you come this time?" Stangley asked.

"I want answers," said Maurice, as if with that Stanley could solve what was happening in his life.

“You are the one who has the answers. You neglected Cinthia, you neglected your daughter by letting her forcibly marry that guy, you neglected your son by telling him to choose a "male" career, rather than what he had longed to be. Maurice, you have the answer to your question."

"Am I responsible for everything that has happened to me?" Maurice asked aloud.

"Who else would be responsible for the mistakes you have made in your life?" Stangley replied.

Maurice looked down with regret, Stangley's words were penetrating his mind and made him see beyond everything. Maybe he was right.

"I see we have made progress today, Maurice." Stangley said with a slight smile of satisfaction "Let's see next week, is that okay?"

Maurice nodded, then Stangley upped from his seat, walked the few steps to the door behind him, and then was lost in the hall. Maurice wanted to get up, but the straitjacket made him need, in one way or another, someone else's help to do so.

#horror #writers #my writing #write #new here #hope you like it #writing #writing community #original fiction #writing tags #short stories #creative writing #am writing #original writing #short horror stories

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yukiwrites · 5 years ago

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Doubts, Fears and Acceptance

Thanks for the support as always, @breeachuu! As before, i think i got carried away, heehee! I hope you like it!

Summary: Still shaken by the shock of reality Remire Village cause on him, Wolfram can’t help but feel completely out of place in Fódlan, with the only person he could call friend being the one he was scared of the most. But perhaps with understanding, he might come around and actually get along with everyone...

Commission info HERE and HERE!

______________________________

Wolfram could still feel his hands stinging with how much force he used to grip his weapon.

The tingling sensation that burned the tips of his fingers as he fired magic left and right, under Byleth's command, still brought shivers down his spine. It had been three days since the incident at Remire Village, but it was still too soon.

Everything was still much too soon.

The smell of burned flesh stuck into his clothes like thick mud, refusing to be washed off no matter how many times Wolfram rinsed them. Black death, championed by an armored skull that could only be rightfully called the Reaper, brought destruction to wherever its gaze pierced.

It was only by the intervention of the Heart of Immortals that the Death Knight could be stopped, though it brought Remire Village little consolation -- its inhabitants had already been cursed with either madness or eternal solitude. The results of the inhumane experiments they were victims of would drag them down for as long as they lived, until the beyond of death.

Wolfram's stomach turned, making him unable to lie still. "Urk-" he shot himself up, covering his mouth with both hands. "No good -- if I keep thinking about it, I- I won't..." he sniffled, trying to keep his siblings' words to heart. The agony of taking a life, even if one that had been plagued by madness and anguish, was nothing like he ever thought it would be.

Truthfully, it was as though he had never taken this into consideration in the first place. The reality of war had always been something so distant to him -- something out of the stories his mother, father and siblings used to tell him as he grew up. Stories of how their continent was founded, about the millennia of history his own Mother witnessed; about the cursed future whence his elder siblings came from.

Scary bedtime stories he never truly managed to take it to heart until he had to experience it for himself; and his own experience could barely scratch the surface of the anguish and suffering Cynthia and Meliodas had to go through while they were even younger than Wolfram was at that moment.

Tears welled up the half-manakete's eyes, his shoulders shaking so badly he could barely keep his hands in place. That tiny, dark and lonely room did not help in making the boy shift his line of thought -- if there was no one there with him, he might as well simply break down.

It wasn't as though he could simply ask, either. The first person that came to mind to help him cope with these terrible, terrible feelings would be none other than Dimitri. The kind boy who first accepted Wolfie without question, wanting to simply deepen their bond as well as to help him without asking for anything in return. The selfless prince who took the brunt of his fellow House leaders' distrust simply to defend Wolfram's claims of amnesia. The fastest friend Wolfie had ever made, or so he thought.

'Crush their skulls.'

'Kill them all.'

Shivering, all Wolfram could do was wrap both arms around himself lest he broke apart, there and then.

Even after uttering these dreadful words, Dimitri wasn't seen for quite some time after the battle had been over. In truth, Wolfram hadn't seen the prince ever since then, though he did overhear Dedue and Byleth reporting Dimitri's arrival in the monastery a while later.

Wolfie was just so scared.

Everything in this world terrified him.

Rhea's constant presence; the wild, unstable power tapping against his own whenever he approached the cathedral or the audience chamber.

These horrible enemies they've been up against -- experimenting on people? Rejoicing in watching them slaughter each other? Manipulating them into infighting simply to prove a point? Wolfram's never heard of this!

And now... Dimitri. The boy Wolfram had latched onto like a newborn duckling. As the main reason for his summoning to this world, Wolfram had to stay beside Byleth, it was true. But Dimitri would, more often than not, also be there with them.

Being with one meant staying with the other, as well. They shared a bond that easily surpassed one of student and teacher: they were comrades in arms.

Would Wolfram be able to keep upholding his duty of staying with Byleth if it meant being beside Dimitri? After seeing and... and hearing him like that? He spoke as though he were possessed! And although Wolfie hadn't seen the prince since, he couldn't shake away the feeling that the darkness released that day from Dimitri's heart was only a taste of what was to come.

Could he control his unshakeable fear he felt whenever he remembered the boy he thought of as his first friend?

"This isn't good, my thoughts are spiraling." He huffed, hearing his own voice echo inside the room. Suddenly, a memory of one of his Father's stories made the half-manakete blink in surprise. "Oh, yes! I remember Father always used to tell me about how Mother took a longer time than a human did to process her feelings... and that every time she did so was during a long, uninterrupted flight."

He grabbed onto the locket he always carried with him -- hidden inside were his most prized possessions as well as his dragonstone. "I'm gonna stretch my wings. I'm sure I can clear off this fog... I kinda wanna call Aquilo to come with me, but maybe we'll attract much attention if it's the both of us." He monologued, wanting to share this conversation with someone instead of with himself. Before stepping outside, he checked his bandana just in case -- boy, was he glad he did, for the moment he set his foot out of his room, he almost bumped into Dedue. "W-whoa!"

"Careful." The large young man held Wolfie's shoulders lest he fell from the startle.

"Dedue! Are you only just returning to your room? But it's so late!"

"Yes; I have been tending to His Highness. He refuses to rest, so it is my duty to accompany him until he does so."

Wolfram flinched. "Dimitri..."

Dedue tilted his head to the side. "Is something the matter? Perhaps you should return to rest, Wolfram. As you yourself said, the hour is late."

"Um," Wolfie fidgeted, lowering his gaze. "C-can I talk to you for a bit? I was gonna stretch my wi-eeegss. My legs. I was gonna stretch my legs for a bit, but I actually wanted to talk to someone. Is now okay? I mean, I know it's late and all, but-"

"Breathe." Dedue lifted his chin as he himself took a deep breath, compelling Wolfie to follow. "If you are alright with me, then I do not mind talking, no. We should move away from the dorm, however. I do not wish to wake the Professor or a student up."

"O-of course! Thank you, Dedue. We can just stroll around 'till the greenhouse and then back? I don't wanna take much of your time."

"That is reasonable, yes, though do not concern yourself over my time or the lack of it. We shall talk until you are satisfied."

Wolfram wanted to smile at Dedue's kindness, but his heart was still much too heavy about the subject he wanted to discuss about: Dimitri, of course.

As they walked, the silence stretched on, however. Dedue raised an eyebrow. "Did you not wish to talk?"

Wolfram jumped out of his skin, fighting back the tears. "How- how are you still doing so much for Dimitri after- a-after that day?"

"I am unaware of any specific day you are referring to." Dedue's puzzled tone made Wolfram raise his teary gaze to the tall young man.

"T-that! That day, in Remire! Dimitri said- he did- he was so scary- I was-" he sobbed, quickly lowering his face. "So scared...!"

"His Highness was not different from usual. I seem to have heard a few of the other students voice such complaints, though they puzzle me: He was not different from how he had always been."

"Wh-what? How can you say that? It was like he was a completely different person! He was talking about killing with such a- such a CRUEL way! Dimitri's not like that!"

"His Highness is a kind man who would step in the middle of a volley of lances to save a complete stranger, even though his body was so much smaller than such stranger's." Dedue hardened his chin, turning his gaze to the moon. He looked at it as though it brought him fond yet bitter memories. "He is above most men I have ever met in my lifetime. His kindness knows no bounds. A bright light shines inside of his heart, and, as any light, it casts shadows inside of him, as well. He is plagued by these shadows like any other man fights with the duality within himself. However, unlike the common man, he has many a duty to perform. Many a face to wear. Dimitri is kind at heart, as he is shadowed -- but he does not allow others to approach that wound, and it festers." He looked down at Wolfie, his eyes reflecting the moonlight. "I will stay by his side through anything, no matter if shadowed or bright, for what I know of him is what binds my loyalty to him. If you do not share the same belief, I will not force you to. Neither would His Highness."

Wolfram felt warm tears streaming down his face, itching the corners of his eyes. "Dedue-"

The loyalty he inspired! The caring way only someone who deeply trusts someone else would use... Truly, Dedue was a kind, soothing soul.

"I seem to have spoken too much. You were the one who wanted to talk."

Wolfram shook his head, a smile finally making its way to his lips after Naga knows how long. "Uh-huh. Thanks for saying all of that. It made me feel a bit better."

Dedue smiled fondly. "I simply spoke what I felt on the matter. It is still something you must decide on your own."

"Mhm," Wolfie nodded, drying his face with the back of his hands. "Thanks again, Dedue."

The following morning, Wolfram tiptoed through the grounds towards the training grounds. Although Dedue's words DID make him feel better, he was still too shaken to meet Dimitri head-on. Instead, he decided that he should gather intel -- to hear other people's opinion regarding Dimitri and what were their thoughts about Remire.

Of course, the first one Wolfram found at the training grounds was none other than Felix, who was always willing to hone his skills with the sword.

"You here to train?" The swordsman asked after a few mock thrusts at the training dummy. "The techniques you know are really interesting, so keep me company." He gestured his head to a wooden sword placed right beside the entrance.

"Um, I actually wanted to talk-"

"Talk with the blade in your hands!" Felix jumped, holding nothing back in trying to hit Wolfie.

"W-whoa!" The half-manakete jumped out of the way, quickly taking the sword to protect himself. "If I manage to knock you down, will you answer my questions?"

"Hah!" Felix sneered. "I won't be knocked down by you again, newcomer. I've watched your footwork closely and now you'll need to work twice as hard to even try to bring me down."

Wolfram parried an attack, immediately countering. "Fair enough... Close combat isn't my strong suit anyway." He muttered as he scooted away from Felix's range. "Then I'm just gonna straight up and ask: what do you think of Dimitri?"

Felix's stance stiffened. "You saw who he truly was back there at Remire. He's a boar who only charges ahead without thinking about the destruction around him. It's good that you saw it while you're still new: now you won't carry stupid misconceptions about how he was a completely different person in the past or some nonsense the others keep saying." He breathed out all at once, shaking his head as he stood upright. "Associating with him will only bring you pain."

Wolfram relaxed his fighting stance as well, though his shoulders were still stiff. "But... that's the complete opposite of what Dedue told me-"

"Hah! That guy's too blinded by loyalty or whatever. He's stuck on a person who died four years ago while ignoring the mindless monster that took his place. I won't be fooled by that princely mask he wears: a wild boar will be a vicious animal no matter how much it tries to hide it." He groaned. "I'm done with this, now I don't feel like training anymore." Felix threw his practice sword on the ground, walking at quick steps past Wolfie towards the exit.

"Four years ago... Did something happen?" Wolfram whispered to himself long after Felix was gone, his brain taking everything it had to process everything it had heard. "Light and shadow -- a kind man plagued by duty and darkness..."

The boy felt his shoulders finally sag.

"I gotta go talk to him."

It didn't take much guessing to find out where Dimitri would be. Wolfram simply followed Byleth's presence (even though it was still early for lessons) to find that it led straight to the blonde prince. Before he could call out to them, however, he noticed how crestfallen Dimitri looked and chose to stay quiet instead.

"Professor... I...I'm sorry you saw that side of me in the village. It must have been quite a shock to you and the others." Dimitri's voice was strangled, seeping with regret. "I'm mortified by my behavior. When I saw the chaos and violence there...my mind just went completely dark."

Wolfram gasped, quickly hiding himself. It wasn't good to eavesdrop, but...

Byleth reached out for Dimitri's hand, taking it within both of hers. "I felt the same, though I must admit that you weren't yourself." She said in a warm voice, making the tension seemingly leave the prince's body.

"I always strive to keep my emotions at bay, but... Sometimes the darkness takes hold and...it's impossible to suppress. It just shows you how lacking I am... I have much to learn." He said between shaky breaths, making Wolfram clutch his chest.

It was just as Dedue had said.

Dimitri was fighting a losing battle within himself.

Wolfie's eyes burned with tears as he hit himself mentally for even feeling afraid in the first place. Everyone has their troubles! Everyone has their deep, dark fears and secrets. Dimitri was a single young man with too much on his shoulders and it didn't feel right for Wolfie to ever doubt him like that.

It didn't feel right to listen into their conversation either, but when Wolfram was about to step out to leave, he heard Dimitri gasping loudly, as though plagued by a sudden illness.

"Ugh... Gah... My father...my stepmother... Four years ago, they lost their lives to those flames." The words were shaky, his breathing uneven. Byleth held him by his shoulders, the only support he had lest he fell on his knees. Wolfram slapped both hands over his mouth to muffle his own sobs. "I'll never forget... I still remember their faces. Their screams. The tortured last moments of every person who died that day..." As Dimitri confessed, it got increasingly harder for Wolfram to breathe, his own legs shaking.

Byleth never hesitated to give Dimitri her support. "You don't need to say this if it brings you this much pain; but if you do want to let it out, I'll always be here for you." She said softly, stealing a choked sob from the prince's throat.

Wolfram ran away as fast as he could while still keeping quiet, the urge to bawl his eyes out too much to bear. Once he ran far enough, he allowed the tears to fall, realizing he cried loudly for all who could hear, though his feet never stopped.

Only when he arrived at the stables did he stop, but only so he could throw himself into Aquilo's cot, using his friend and mount's wings as a hiding place for him and his tears.

Needless to say, Wolfram arrived late for that day's classes, though he felt completely refreshed.

He sneaked beside Dimitri, bowing a silent apology to Byleth, who was pointing at a diagram at the blackboard. "What did I miss?" He whispered almost playfully, fighting against a shy yet proud smile.

Chuckling, the prince scooted closer, lowering his head so as to whisper the contents of the class to Wolfram, pointing at his own neatly written notes.

Wolfie breathed with relief, glad that he managed to approach Dimitri so readily. Relaxing his body, he scooted closer until his shoulders touched his friend's. "I think I'm gonna need you to explain this to me later, is that okay?" He said in a low voice.

"Of course, I'll be glad to help." Dimitri smiled readily, no signs of the tears Wolfram had listened in on earlier that morning.

"Thanks," Wolfie turned to his own open notebook, "and sorry." He mumbled more to himself than to his friend, taking it upon himself to stay beside Dimitri for as long as his mission allowed him to.

Apparently, apart from the month's mission -- to investigate an abandoned chapel for missing students -- the Officer's Academy would also hold a ball. It was a tradition, it seemed, to hold these kind of festivities at that time of the year: something about it being the anniversary of the Monastery.

One couldn't neglect their training in favor of partaking in festivities, of course, but the entire atmosphere around the Monastery felt different, whether the students were focused on one matter or the other.

Even more so for Wolfram, who was still struggling to even remember everyone's names and original affiliations. As a student, he had to uphold his first and foremost duty of, well, studying. Yet, as a young man, he couldn't help but look forward to the ball. He wasn't a stranger to such events -- his family had very close ties to the rulers of Ylisse, after all, so they had attended a birthday ball more than a few times during his life -- but precisely because him and his mother weren't used to being around in large crowds, he was a tad antsy about it all.

Take now for an example: he was at the library, trying to uphold his student duty, but his mind was wandering, thinking about this or that decoration he saw being carried around by the servants. He couldn't help but wonder what everything would look like and what kind of people he was going to meet.

The more, the merrier, for sure! Though maybe not all at once so he wouldn't be overwhelmed...

A loud thud startled the boy out of his soul, making Wolfram jump on his seat. A large stack of books seemingly appeared out of nowhere, but that was just Wolfram's mind playing tricks on him: there was a small girl behind the stack, who had dropped them all in front of him and now was hidden behind its massive length.

"Um...?" Wolfie stretched his neck to the side so as to look at Lysithea in the eyes. "Are you alright, there? Those seem to be a lot for you to carry-"

"You can stop with the worrying right there -- I'm not a kid; I can take care of myself and lug my own books around, thank you." She divided the stack into two, then into three, placing them in order of subject. "Besides, the reason I came here was to talk about you, Wolfram."

Blinking, the boy tilted his head to the side. "About me? Oh! Are you gonna help me decipher this exercise? How did you know I was stuck?"

"What? No! I didn't." She frowned, making a sour face. "Though I can help you out, of course; but after I say my piece."

"Oh, okay, I can listen." Wolfie pushed his notebook to the side, resting both elbows ont he table to as to give Lysithea his undivided attention.

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Was your hair always that color? I'm not trying to pry or anything, but I must know about, well, your Crest. Or Crests." She whispered the last word as though it meant something terribly big.

Of course Wolfie knew what Crests were since they've been a constant topic of discussion during classes. But apart from Hanneman being utterly disappointed at finding out Wolfram bore none during his very first week there, the boy considered that topic as good as dead when it concerned himself.

Increasingly confused about the connection Lysithea made with his hair color and Crests -- or lack thereof -- Wolfram frowned so deeply it made the girl gasp.

"If it's too painful, you don't need to answer. I don't know how much you remember or if your lack of memory is actually a result of it, but..."

"Wait, wait; you're saying you think you know the reason for my amnesia?"

"Well, I theorized something, yes, but I can't say anything for sure without talking to you first, can I? So here I am. You could tell me everything or nothing; I'll only pry for a long as you let me. I wouldn't want people to ask me about this kind of stuff, either."

Now he felt plain bad for deceiving everyone like this. There was no amnesia to diagnose! "Oh, um- I guess first I gotta say that I was born like this. I think. I'm pretty sure."

"Huhh..." Lysithea crossed her arms, leaning her back on the chair.

"And that I also don't have any Crest. Or Crests." He said in his usual tone, which made the girl jump on her seat to shove her index in front of his lips.

"Shush! Don't say that so loud!"

"Uh? Crests?"

"Ugh, yes. Anyway, what do you mean you don't have a Crest? You can't possibly-"

"You can ask Professor Hanneman about it? He practically dragged me to take the Crest test almost as soon as I arrived."

"And it came back negative?" She threw herself over the chair again, her frown deep. She messed with a tuft of her white hair, comparing it with Wolfram's. "It can't be... But even Edelgard..." She mumbled, surely not for Wolfram to hear, though he heard it anyway due to his sensitive ears.

"We cannn go check right now if you want." He said tentatively with a hint of doubt. "We're close to Professor Hanneman's office anyway-"

"No, I- well, that's tempting- but... no, I'm sorry about all of this. I'm just going to focus on my books for now, okay? Show me the thing you had trouble with earlier so I can explain it to you now."

"O-okay..." Confused but now about to try to understand, Wolfram counted his blessings, considering he wouldn't need to lie more to cover for his failure at appearing amnesic.

As the day of the ball approached, so did the Blue Lions' collective interest in their representative for the White Heron's Cup: Dorothea. Since she was originally from another House, her appointment to represent the Blue Lions brought a little discord amongst the students, though the judges didn't seem to mind it: Dorothea was a Blue Lions student at that moment, so that was what mattered.

More and more students could be seen practicing their dancing steps throughout the academy as opposed to combat training.

Of course, combat was never neglected, but the rapid growth of dancing youths taping their toes all around the monastery was staggering.

One particular evening, after the lecture was over, some students gathered around to talk. Mostly the ones originally from the Blue Lions, though Raphael, Caspar, Dorothea and Ignatz also mingled with them.

Mercedes, Annette and Dorothea huddled beside Ingrid, allowing the girl no escape from their plans of doing a make-over for her on the day of the ball. Raphael and Caspar agreed that the most they were looking forward to would be the yummy food there, exchanging a very heated fist bump to seal that moment.

Ashe and Ignatz fidgeted on their toes. "I'm kinda nervous about it," Ashe confessed. "I don't know about this noble kind of dance -- the only dance I know is the one from the common folk, but I'm sure I can't use that there, can I?"

"I confess I'm not confident on my footwork, either..." Ignatz agreed, adjusting his glasses.

"Oh." Wolfram blinked. "Oh yeah. I don't know anything about ballroom dancing. I'm pretty sure I've never done it before in my life, especially after seeing so many people practicing all over the place."

"Oh, well, I can teach you all how to dance!" Annette puffed her chest cheerfully. "I love dancing!"

"Oh, that would be wonderful-" Wolfram and Ignatz started at the same time, but Caspar intervened.

"But then what about on the day itself? You're not gonna dance with all three of them, are you?" He crossed his arms. Annette let out an exclamation of surprise.

"Well, I don't see how I couldn't change partners..."

"No way; and what're the other two gonna do while you're with one of them? Isn't it better to just invite one already? Here, I'll keep Wolf, you can choose between the other two."

"Huh- weh?" Wolfram looked at them as though watching a sports match, suddenly pointing to his own face. "You're inviting me to the ball?"

"Sure, why not? We gotta get to know each other better anyway since we're classmates, and seeing as neither of us knows how to dance very well -- though my dad tried to have that beaten down on me for a long time -- I'd say we make a great pair, hah!" Caspar threw his head back in laughter, proud of coming to that conclusion by himself.

Surprised and flattered, Wolfie smiled widely. "Okay, we can do that, yeah! Thanks for inviting me, Caspar!" He grinned, receiving another one in return.

"You're welcome! Thanks, too!"

"You can always come to the lessons, too, Caspar..." Annette jabbed, smirking.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I have two left feet and I made peace with that already. But if you think Wolf here isn't a lost cause, you gotta teach him so at least he's the two right feet one! That way we'll match!"

"Huh? But wouldn't having two right feet be as bad as having two left ones?" Raphael scratched his chin in thought.

"Whatever!!" Caspar threw his hands in the air, laughing loudly. His contagious laughter soon set the rest of the group off.

"You know... There's no telling where life will take us after we leave here. If only we could find a way to come together again, just like this..." Dimitri said after the mirth had dissolved into smaller giggles, enjoying the pure warmth being around these friends made him feel.

Dedue smiled, bobbing his head to the sides. "A fine notion, Your Highness. Perhaps five years from now?"

"Five years from now?" Dimitri mused at the idea for a moment before remembering something. "Ah! That's when Garreg Mach Monastery will be holding the millennium festival."

Wolfram had heard about this festival -- it was supposed to be the day Garreg Mach Monastery would complete one thousand years. Surely a party to remember!

Oh, how exciting! And it would be within the time he had agreed to stay, too! Wolfram couldn't help but wonder how his and his classmates' lives would change in these five years...

Well, surely not as much as his own life did the day he stepped into Fódlan, right?

Surely!

True to her word, Annette did give Wolfie, Ashe and Ignatz a few pointers regarding ballroom dancing, which made all three of them feel less nervous about the notion of it all. That only added to Wolfram's workload, but that didn't bother him in the slightest -- in fact, it excited him. He did nothing but learn ever since he arrived, so he was looking forward to every new interaction if only to help him grow as a person.

The day of the ball, although the students still wore their uniforms to attend, the atmosphere felt different -- as well as did the girls. They dolled themselves up to shine in the ballroom while most of the boys wore a wide variety of hats, as though they were peacocks trying to attract the right one for them.

Wolfram was amazed at the craziness of some of the hats (one was just 15 hats stacked together in a very shaky tower) so much so that he bumped on his partner before realizing he was there since Wolfie had been looking up instead of down to Caspar's short stature.

"Oh! There you are!" They said in unison, grinning. "Ready to hit the floor?" Caspar took Wolfie's hand, already pulling him to the center without waiting for confirmation.

"W-whoa, wait!" Wolfie tripped on the polished floor, though Caspar's strong grip on him didn't let him fall. "I suddenly forgot everything Annette taught!" He said in a panicked voice.

Caspar threw his head back in laughter. "Then it's my two left feet against yours! Let's see who wins!" He put a strong arm behind Wolfie's lower back, clearly taking the leading stance.

"You're leading? But I'm taller-"

"You're the one who said you don't know nothing! Let's just dance, alright? Here we GOOO!" He yelled atop of his lungs, deafening out the ambient music as he started spinning the both of them around as though they were a pair of whipping tops.

"W-wahhH!" Wolfram yelped before full-blown screaming, dissolving into a loud laughter. They bumped into couples here and there, but ultimately only came to a stop after slamming into a nearby wall.

Which led them into being expelled from the ballroom for the entire duration of the dance in less than ten minutes.

"HAHHH, THAT WAS FUN!" Caspar gurgled a laugh as they were being escorted out, nibbling on a salty treat he had taken on their way out.

"Hahaha!" Wolfie dried one tear from laughing so much, his abdomen hurting. "I can't believe we got kicked out! What're gonna do all evening?"

"Let's just kick around and do something! We can ask Raphael to smuggle some food out of the party for us or something. Ohhh, we can explore the monastery!"

Wolfram already knew most of the Academy by heart since he stretched his wings every other night, making sure to fly really high so no one would spot him. But seeing from the sky was MUCH different than exploring by foot.

"I love exploring! Let's go!" He pulled Caspar by the hand, being eagerly followed.

If his new friend weren't so loud, they would've managed to sneak around most of the monastery unnoticed -- even as Caspar tried to muffle his own laughter he let out a loud pig-like noise, which only set Wolfie off as well.

Needless to say, they were expelled out of the Faculty Office as well as the Goddess Tower in a single night -- Seteth had them 'marked for dead', his own words. Being with Caspar might be a 'bad influence' for Wolfie, but he was too busy having fun to care. He was such an interesting guy to hang out with, Wolfram couldn't wait to spend more time with him!

After the eventful ball -- from Raphael eating contest, Caspar and Wolfie's antics as well as Dorothea's absolute KILLING it at the White Heron Cup -- the Blue Lions House was the talk of the entire week throughout the campus, for better or for worse.

Their expedition to the abandoned chapel was scheduled to happen sometime in the next following days, though that didn't stop Wolfram from surveying it from the sky at night as he had been doing for the past few weeks.

A dreadful presence itched at the corners of his consciousness, making him shiver despite being quite used to the growing cold weather. He saw shadows of people walking in and out of the chapel, but the most worrying part wasn't the people -- it was the large scaled beings whose tails swished in the dark.

They didn't feel like shape shifters, though. Giant lizards? Ah! Perhaps the Demonic Beasts he sometimes heard of during classes? "Oh, no! Those people are in danger!" He gasped midair, quickly turning around to return to the monastery. "Byleth- Professor Byleth’s gotta know about this!" He dived deeply, cutting the air.

Although it was the middle of the night, the alarm of Wolfram's report (he covered the part about him being flying in the middle of the night as an excuse to let his wyvern 'stretch his wings') made most of the Knights of Seiros on duty to step up into positions. Byleth had Wolfie wake Dimitri and Dedue up so they would get the rest of the class, though they would only be deployed once dawn broke, a few hours from then.

That gave them the time they needed to prepare and gear up. Wolfram could feel his hands shaking as he readied his weapons, though he felt much better knowing that the enemy this time around wouldn't be people, but monsters.

Although he could still understand what they said, it was much less difficult to fell a monster than to do the same to a person.

Clutching his locket, Wolfram threw a light prayer to Naga before departing, following the rest of his class from the sky, on Aquilo's back.

With the sunlight, the picture became much clearer once they arrived at the chapel -- the shadows of people he had seen were students being pursued by the demonic beasts.

Once again they had to rescue people from being killed, but this time not by their fellow men, which was a relief. Fighting these beasts was scary, yes, but not as nearly as being under the overwhelming pressure of the Archbishop.

These beasts had nothing on Rhea, whose power could easily topple over their own with the simple lift of her tail, or at least so believed Wolfram. The battle was still hard-fought, however, since they were hardy monsters -- their scales were rough as were their defenses.

But fall they did, one by one.

The students were rescued as quickly as possible -- Byleth made use of Wolfram's wyvern to make him fly throughout the map so as to pick the students up while the rest of the students drew the beasts' attention. A truly splendid work of action from their Professor's part if Wolfram could be so bold.

Yet, something unexpected and unprecedented happened right before Wolfram's eyes as he was about to reach for the last student, a bright redhead girl who had been hiding behind Jeralt for the past minutes.

It happened so fast Wolfram had barely any time to react.

One minute Jeralt was there, patting the girl's head, saying that everything was going to be okay.

On the next one, he was falling on the ground, a dagger stabbed so deeply on his back one couldn't even see the blade anymore.

By the time Wolfram processed what was happening -- death, death again! Death again! -- a crazed scream came from behind as Byleth activated the Sword of the Creator to reach Monica from afar, to no avail.

She simply disappeared into a smokescreen, under the protection of a powerful mage.

Wolfie was so devoid of action it made Aquilo land on the ground so as to stretch his neck backwards to check on him.

What... had just happened?

#fire emblem three houses #fe 3h #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd #byleth #dimitri fire emblem #dedue #my writings #fodlansona #yuki's commissions

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presleepthoughts · 6 years ago

Note

Bechloe prompt-- Sadie Hawkins dance

Uh, it kinda turned into a promposal fanfic? I’m sorry?😬🤷‍♀️ And I kind of love it. Hopefully you’ll still like it.

I don’t want to give anything away so I’m going to link of the song that I used at the end. 😘

Pulling into her usual parking spot, Chloe killed the engine on her car and grabbed her bag from the passenger seat, stepping out onto the concrete. Students were lurking outside the building just like always but there was a different energy about them then usual. The hugh banner hanging above the double doors with the sign A Night To Remember leaving a sour taste in her mouth as she sighs.

Senior Prom. The night every girl has been dreaming about since walking through the doors as a shy, terrified freshman. The moment the announcer would call out her name, crowning her Prom Queen and have the pleasure of dancing with the Prom King in front of the whole school, the lights flickering beautifully around them, the night she would never forget…

But the prom was on Friday, as in four days time and nobody asked Chloe yet. Not even her girlfriend of five months.

She was shaken out of her thoughts when Aubrey suddenly appeared by her side and fall in step, walking into the school together. Chloe forced a smile on her face looking at her best friend, pulling the straps higher on her shoulder.

“What’s got you smiling so much?” Aubrey was possibly beaming with all of her teeth showing, green eyes sparkling with joy.

“Nothing, nothing…” Aubrey shrugged nonchalantly as they arrived to Chloe’s locker. The redhead raised her eyebrows at her while punching in her locker combination and pulling open the metal. Aubrey leaned her shoulder against the wall, the smile never leaving her face.

Chloe stayed silent, knowing Aubrey wouldn’t be able to for long.

“Stacie asked me to prom yesterday!” She exclaimed excitedly. The instant jealousy that risen in Chloe made her angry at herself. This was her best friend and it was an important night for her too. She should be happy for her. She’s got to experience all the wonderful things that they had been talking about since they were little.

She tried to force a fake smile on her face but it just wouldn’t reach her eyes and Aubrey immediately saw through her.

“What’s wrong?” Her happy expression turned to concern as she laid a hand on her arm. Chloe sighed.

“Beca hasn’t asked me yet.” She admitted quietly, urging her shoulder to lift up in a shrug, hoping it would come off as non-caring. She didn’t want to be that girl whose entire high school experience depends on the perfect prom. She has a beautiful girlfriend, great friends and amazing grades to get into a great college. She has everything that she needs. So why did she want this so much more?

“What?” Aubrey gasped surprisingly. “She hasn’t asked you yet? But - prom is on Friday.” She was flabbergasted that Beca would leave such a big thing to the last minute.

Chloe bit her bottom lip and pulled out her history book, holding it tight to her chest. “I know. I’ve been leaving hints but it’s like she’s oblivious. Like a week ago, we went to the mall and I saw a beautiful cocktail dress and I said ‘Wow, this dress is so pretty. Maybe I should wear that to prom.”

Aubrey’s eyes widen as she intently listened to the story. “And…”

“And…she said ‘Yeah it’d look great on you, babe.’ and she went back to fiddling with her phone.” Chloe shook her head, still not believing Beca didn’t figure it out that she wanted to go.

“Chloe…” Aubrey let out a disbelieving laugh. “Those are not hints, those are slaps in the face and she still didn’t realize?”

Chloe sighed and shook her head no.

“Well, Beca was always famous for being blind.” Aubrey tried to lighten the mood as the first bell rang above their heads. “I mean, she didn’t realize you were crushing on her for years and let me tell you, you wear your heart on your sleeve. Everybody knew you were smitten with her except - “

“Except Beca.” Chloe finished the sentence, an ironic laugh leaving her mouth as she closed her locker.

“Yeah…” Aubrey grimaced, not knowing what to say.

Silent stretched between them as the two turned to head toward their shared classroom but before they could step inside, Emily ran up and stopped them.

“Hey.” Aubrey greeted the freshman confusedly as she watched Emily pant lightly. “What’s up?”

“Um…” Emily shifted her eyes back and forth between the two girls. “Beca called an emergency Bella meeting in the auditorium. It’s urgent.”

Chloe frowned. “But we have class in five minutes.” What is her girlfriend up to?

Emily’s deep caught in headlights look would’ve been funny if Chloe wasn’t so confused.

“I - um, she said to get everyone.” Emily stuttered. “It’s very, very important.”

The two seniors looked at each other before sighing.

The auditorium looked suspiciously empty and dark as the three girls pushed the doors open and walked inside. The curtains were drawn shut on stage, the deep red color creating an intimate atmosphere.

“Where is everybody?” Chloe asked softly.

But before anything else could be said, Beca anxiously walked out from backstage nervously fidgeting with her fingers as she took center stage. Chloe’s frown deepened further as she unconsciously took a step forward.

“Beca?”

“I - umm, can you take a seat?” She asked, pointing to the front row seats, right in front of her. Chloe’s mouth opened slightly and slowly started walking forward until she sat down and looked up at her girlfriend.

Beca’s mouth twitched into a nervous smile as she tried to maintain eye contant despite feeling uncomfortable. Chloe bit her bottom lip as she waited for an explanation.

“I - I just wanted you to know that I’ve noticed.” Beca said lowly. “I know you, Chlo.” She smiled softly before mushing her lips together. “I know you and Aubrey had been planning this for a long time and I’m sorry I made you wait for it. I just didn’t know how to do this.”

Chloe’s chest rose up and down quicker as she realized what Beca was doing.

Beca gave a humorless laugh as she rolled her eyes at herself. “I sincerely apologize for what I’m about to do because it will be super cheesy and utterly nerdy and I’ll probably never hear the end of it from the girls but I hope you are going to like it.”

Before Chloe could’ve reacted in any way the lights suddenly shone right on Beca as the curtains were pulled open and the rest of the Bellas appeared on stage. Including Aubrey and Emily.

Chloe’s jaw dropped as she looked at Aubrey while the blonde threw her a wink. You sneaky little…

“Chloe, I know your sister turns everyoneBut you’re the one I wantBut you’re the one I want”

The full belly laugh that broke out of Chloe when Beca yelled out the first line of the song, with the Bellas’ backing her up, made the brunette’s smile brighter. Her hand rose up to cover her mouth as Chloe’s eyes widen, watching the scene play out in front of her.

When Beca finished with the verse, Cynthia Rose jumped beside her and took over the rap part, delivering the lines with a playful smirk on her face, making Chloe shook her head fondly.

Beca couldn’t help the massive smile that took over her face watching her girlfriend being stunted in disbelieve of what was happening and she knew she pulled off the surprise right. She wanted to be the reason behind that beautiful smile that grace Chloe’s lips as long as Chloe would let her.

Emily harmonized with her when it came to the pre-chorus as they sang out beautifully.

“If only you could see all of the beautiful things that I see in youIt’s true ooh ooh ooh…”

Beca jumped up and down, couldn’t believing she was actually having fun with this. She thought she would be forever embarrassed, never wanting to bring up the fact that she sang a super predictable and fitting song to impress her girlfriend enough to bring her as her date to prom.

“Chloe, I know your sister turns everyone onBut oh baby, I have no doubt your the one that I want (ooh ooh)You think she’s got it all but that don’t make her betterYou got my heart and that’s the only thing that matters”

“Chloe, I know your sister turns everyone onBut you’re the one I wantBut you’re the one I want, yeah.”

As the girls finished the melodies behind her when she sang out the last lines, Beca panted slightly spreading out her arms widely.

“Chloe, will you go to the prom with me?”

However, Chloe’s sudden straight face made her scared. Maybe she was too late?

“Chlo?” Her voice carried that fear as her arms slowly fall to her sides as Chloe remained silent.

The redhead slowly got up from her seat and walked to the flange, the stage coming up to her shoulders. Her fingers beckoned Beca closer. The brunette swallowed nervously as she fall to her knees and leaned down until her face was mere inches from Chloe’s.

The bluest eyes Beca has ever seen hypnotized her, reddening her mute just like they did on their very first date as Chloe took her time torturing her.

But as the corner of Chloe’s mouth turned up just the slightest Beca sighed a sigh of relief.

“I’d thought you never asked.” Was the answer she had been waiting for as Chloe didn’t waste a second grabbing her by her t-shirt and pulling her into a deep kiss, the rest of the Bellas’ celebrating behind them.

The End.

Song: Emblem3: Chloe (You’re the one that I want)

#bechloe #Pitch Perfect #pitch perfect 2 #pitch perfect 3 #Beca x Chloe #beca mitchell #chloe beale #Anna Kendrick #brittany snow #aubrey posen #staubrey #stacie conrad #promposal #emblem3 #song-fic kinda

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