The Bad Fairy (girlxgirlxgirl)

26. Regrets

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"I'm surprised that you waited for me to wake up."

Anemone is done vomiting blood. She wipes her mouth clean with the sleeve of her shirt, spitting out whatever's left of the iron flavour on her tongue. She stands up straight and lets go of her grip around the nearest tree, having held on to it while she vomited out every last piece of poison and poisoned blood that gathered in her stomach. It's natural, so she's not scared. It's the fastest way to get rid of the drowsy feeling and terrible stomach-ache.

Her eyelids still feel heavy, though, and her body is harder to control than usual. Her movements feel sluggish and muscles sore. She must've slept for a while. It's been just a few minutes since she woke up on the forest floor, nothing but grass, bugs, leaves and dirt around her. You can imagine how surprised she was to see the archangel Evangeline sitting there, her back against a tree and head tilted up against the sky. The red stains around her mouth signalled that she, too, had just vomited, a classic trick for both angel and demon soldiers alike.

"I didn't."

Anemone smiles at the angel's indifferent tone, letting out a scoff. She takes a step towards her. The angel is still looking at the sky, sitting on the ground. Anemone tilts her head. "You didn't?"

She doesn't bother feeling wronged or angry about being poisoned. She remembers all of it. Seeing the mischievous look in Chepi's eye. Seeing the way she walked up to her. Feeling the way she was suddenly kissed, and then tasting the familiar blue poison that entered her mouth before she could stop it. The kissing-back part was fully planned. Anemone recognises poison when she tastes it. The moment she felt it on her tongue, she knew that it was too late. But since Chepi was already kissing her, she thought it'd be fun to kiss her back. Demons are opportunistic, and Anemone considers herself quite the classical demon.

Evangeline refuses to answer her. It's quiet for a long while. The wind howls in their ears, but it is a warm wind. The sun shines down upon them, drying up the forest and making the river smaller.

"Aren't we going to talk about it?" The demon mumbles out her question, deep in thought. It's too awkward to just stand, or sit, here in silence, while the question hangs heavy above their heads. Suddenly, Evangeline's eyes are directly on her.

"I'd rather not."

Her snappy tone makes it clear. She is not happy about this. In fact, she is fuming. Angry beyond belief, in the traditional angel way of bottling it all up and snapping at everyone and everything for the smallest of mistakes. They don't want to talk about it, they don't want to resolve their issues. All they want to do is ignore the problem until they can put a solution into practice. Anemone is not impressed. She shakes her head.

"You might be the kind of person who sticks their head into the sand whenever trouble comes their way, but I'm not. I'm going after her."

Evangeline scoffs. Actually scoffs, with her mouth forming an unbelieving smile. She stands up from her seated position, and takes a step closer to Anemone, who hasn't moved or changed her expression one bit. "You're going after her? Now?" She raises an eyebrow. "And you're asking me to come with you?"

Anemone frowns. Is she? A part of her kind of assumed that they were going together. Evangeline did wait for her to wake up. When Anemone opened her eyes, the angel was already awake, and it seemed like she had been that way for quite some time. Why would Evangeline wait for her otherwise? Another part of her didn't think of that at all. She was only making a statement. She doesn't care about what Evangeline is planning to do, but Anemone is going after Chepi. She stole her once, she can steal her again.