I Thought I Knew You

The Library

Elizabeth's P.O.V

Time had passed in long, stretched out moments for me. Ever since my guide had left me to the privacy of my accommodation I'd been lost on what to do. Although I was in a room located on a large school campus there was nothing to do, nothing to see. To limit my chances of communication or escape, the room was quite bare and void of the usual things I'd have with me. Only a few books, personal favourites of mine I'd noticed, gave me a chance to do anything productive.

Sighing, I picked one up and tried to flick it open and read. It started with- I couldn't get through the first sentence. At all. I found myself itching, craving, to do something other than just sit here, trapped in a room and reading silly novels. People were out there suffering. People I knew were out there worrying about me and hoping that I was alright. How could I just sit here, reading, and be content with that? How could I sit here knowing that they were worried sick?

Frowning, I glanced out of the window. Glass stared back, printed with the faint ghosts of the grass outside. A few students were still prancing around on the green, their wings flitting excitedly as they played some sort of game. My own wings twitched with the anticipation to join them - then the pain came, jolting me back to reality. Here I was, in this room, injured, slowly healing, and trying to work out how to save Meliodas. What a predicament...

"Why do I always dive in head-first?" I sighed, shaking my head as I turned away from the window. "Why didn't I think with my brain for once!"

I never did. Not now, not ever. With no look back, with no regrets, I left King, Diane and Ban behind. So caught up in my own emotions, my own plans, I forgot to tell them, warn them, about what I was going to do next. How were they now? Elaine was surely not much better and they must have been worrying ten times more now that I was gone. The hope I gave to them, the hope of having someone who could heal things, did help. In its own way, it helped.

Then there was Merlin, who would have known that I would try something like this. Would she tell them? Would she let them know that I was fine? I bit my lip. I didn't know. I didn't know if she would even know if I was ok.

"Why did I even think to do this?" I ended up berating myself, tossing the book aside and beginning to pace the room. My shoulders ached, mainly from the weight of my bound and injured wings, but I couldn't do much about it. Like the professionals said, it would take a while to heal - even with goddess powers. But I deserved that. My injury was just another thing that was my fault; it came from my own naivety.

Shadows flicked in the corner of my eye. Estarossa. The wall. Fear. Then there was Meliodas, furious, saving me, but oh so furious. So much was bothering him in that moment. So much was chipping away at his shoulders. And I had just cried. Like the victim I was, like the damsel in distress, I had just cried and thrown myself into his arms, feeling more damaged than I'd ever felt in my life. How selfish of me. How horrible.

A shiver traveled up my spine. I was a terrible person. I didn't deserve to be forgiven.

"Elizabeth?" Two solid knocks to the door. A voice I did not expect to hear. I tensed. "Are you in there?"

Although that voice was nothing but a friendly memory, someone I once knew, I couldn't bring myself to smile. Not when I knew that he had gone down his own path that was twisted and riddled with dark patches. I didn't know if he was the same. I would hope that he was - I would have liked to think that he was - but I didn't know. And, unfortunately, hope was not enough to be certain; not knowing was dangerous when you were someone in my situation.

"Y-yes," I answered as solidly as I could, telling my body to stop trembling and feeling so nervous. Nerves were something that they would exploit here. I knew that and they knew that. The less anxiety I showed the better. "You can come in."