Anybody But You

56

Chapter Fifty-Six

Vibe: Haunted by Evanescence

Somewhere through the pain, Alice felt strong arms pull her hands from scratching at her skin as she desperately tried to remove the burning substance.

"It burns! It burns! It burns!" She screamed, everything hurting. "Make it stop or... or just kill me—" She gasped, needing the peacefulness of nothingness as the blinding pain suffocated her with agony and made her feel every second of it.

"Alice! It's not real!" The person constraining her, shouted. "There's a spell on you, Alice! Fight it!"

"No..." she cried, her body shaking as violent sobs exited her body, "I can't fight—let me die." She begged, quaking in his grasp.

She couldn't even breathe or think straight—how was she supposed to fight it?

"Alice, you promised you'd stop my assassination; that you'd protect Lucy and the knight. Are you just giving up now?" He whispered roughly into her ear, "Open your eyes."

Her tears fell silently as she held in the screams, listening to his voice like a beacon—his arms wrapped around her arms and waist protectively.

"Good girl." He whispered against her ear as his lips brushed cooly across her burning skin, "Now open your eyes, Alice."

She was terrified everything would be red again as she shook her head, crying pathetically through the mind numbing pain as she bowed her head. She just wanted to surrender to the darkness.

"Don't give up," he spoke, as if reading her mind, "the spell only works and has power over you if you let it—open your eyes."

After a short moment, Alice's wet eyelashes fluttered as she opened her blue eyes. She felt her body stiffen as she instantly saw the red everywhere.

How wasn't it real?

"Don't be scared." Narcisse spoke quickly, his chest against her back as he encircled her tightly with his arms. "The blood is from you scratching yourself—not the spell."

Looking again, she could see the clear scrapes from her nails all over her body to the point where even her dress was torn from digging into herself.

"The only pain you're actually feeling if from yourself," Narcisse's calming voice spoke through the said blazing but slowly lessening pain, "—that's what the spell does, Alice. It makes you hurt yourself, making you believe in the spell more, which makes you hurt yourself more and more, until—" he stopped, unable to say the words as he clenched onto her tighter, "So you need to fight it... Please."

As Alice processed Narcisse's words, she felt the truth to them first hand as slowly the burning in her brain fizzled out until she could finally breathe without it hurting.

"It's not real..." she mumbled, her stiff muscles slowly relaxing as she exhaled—deflating into Narcisse's arms.

Narcisse seemed to deflate with her as his forehead fell onto the back of her exposed shoulder. "You're okay." He whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "You're okay..." Everything stung as Narcisse carefully peeled his now bloodied arms off her self inflicted injuries.

Looking up, she was met with the cold eyes of the king as he sat on his throne, staring at Alice and his slumped over son. "I think we've seen enough." He spoke to the overly excited room, making the entire room hold their breath. "By the king's order, after witnessing the clear use of forbidden magic here in the court, I declare the defendant, Alison Arvel—"

The oxygen in Alice's lungs became stuck in her throat as her heartbeat sounded out in her ears.

"Innocent of all charges in the event of being manipulated by forbidden magic during the time of the offences."

~*~*~

A.N.

I am currently manic, and I make no apologies for the commentary below :)

Lazy writing? Or genius writing? Y'all choose, but I'm personally sticking with *smerrrrt* and *swoon worthy* and *sperkalay clenn*

I love me a good clean and easy solvin' —not that you should always expect an easy solve from me (that'd be no fun).

Ok. But. That "good girl" got me all like 🦋🦋🦋 ... ex-squeeze me. SIR. SIR. don't use such filthy language. Narcisse, my strangely alluring nightmare, please stop this inappropriate behaviour.

Thank you for reading~

Forewarning for the next chapter: a scene with a 5/10 *intimacy* score occurs next ✨🦋

Please keep all hands and feet inside the ride at all times. Thank you for joining us at It's Seggsy Hour, we hope you enjoy your time. Alice's ho phase now initiating in:
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