The Fates (Book II)

10.6 - Worse Yet

Let's see what fate has in store for #Axria...

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Scene 6: Worse Yet

A.D. 2015

More than anything she'd ever done, she hated this. Every cell in her body - and every fiber of her heart, in spite of the fact that it didn't exist - screamed against it, struggled to resist.

For one thing, she was giving credence to a warning from the creepy scissors lady, letting the freak's foreboding coos control her actions, basically. Even though she'd sworn to herself to never listen to a thing that woman said. But the words she'd heard last night had not stopped echoing darkly inside her mind: 'Vengeful enemies who may seek to exploit your greatest weaknesses... Ruthless foes who will not hesitate to threaten or to harm whomever you love most...'

And worse yet, worse than the fact that Atria fully believed what Charliese had told her recently... even worse than that was what it meant. What she now knew she had to do.

The only thing worse would be staying, becoming his ruin. Being the death of him. Just as she always was, to everything she touched, to anyone her shadow of a heart might ever love.

Given how... physically attached they always were, it was hard for her to snag a moment apart from Axel, a moment long enough to put on clothes for once and pack a bag. Today, she decided to do it right after his fine ass had hopped in the shower, while he was impatiently waiting for her.

"I'll join you in a minute," she lied.

Then scrounged around the house gathering what little she owned, anything she needed, cared about, or couldn't live without - though honestly, all of that applied only to the one she was leaving behind.

His sinfully, stupidly beautiful voice called out to her over the sultry patter of the shower, slicker than the steady stream of steaming water. "Been way more than a minute, babe..."

Ugh, of course he had to call her babe. "Yeah, uh, I meant more like ten."

"What the hell for? I'll be out by then."

Atria stuffed her hairbrush in her bag, atop the crumpled up, handwritten draft of her admissions essay. "Fine, I - I don't need a shower now anyway. We'll just fυck in bed when you're done, okay?"

"Um, okay..."

Once she'd finished packing, she sat at the edge of the bed, looking at the bathroom's open door, burying her face in her hands, then releasing a tremulous whisper. "Axel, I... I have to say something, but I can't let you hear it. It's the reason for what I'm about to do."

And then, for once, she let spill from her lips words she had never breathed aloud, to anyone, in all her life till now. Words that killed her because they were true. "I love you."

She knew there was a time when he had loved her, too. He had all but told her so. Whether he felt anything toward her anymore, she didn't know. But, for the sake of his sinfully, stupidly beautiful soul, she hoped to hell that Axel had stopped loving her long ago.

A.D. 2014

Shıt between them had officially reached an insane, unacceptable level of serious. Ever since they'd gone to Paris - which should so never have happened - they were all giggles and giddy smiles every time they got in bed, and it was straight-up stupid. Even stupider was just how much she loved it, but that was a secret she'd never admit.