The New Divine

The Rise Of The Phoenix~The Beginning Nightmare

Through this chapter it's going to be Laurence's POV. Why you may ask, well....you'll see. Hope you enjoy.

Aphmau and Aaron were kind enough to let all of us stay the night here because we all need each other. I can't sleep though. After being back in the Nether brought the memories back into my head. "Why did I go?"

"Laurence? You okay?"

"Yeah. You were talking to yourself."

"Oh no! I'm sorry for waking you guys up."

"You're fine. Are you okay? Aaron and I Heard you ask 'Why did I go?' Why did you go where?"

"Why did I go to the Nether? The memories keep flowing into my head."

"How 'bout this. You at least TRY to go to sleep and if you wake up, me and Aaron will too. When you go to sleep, me and Aaron will go to sleep."

"Yeah. Laurence, we're here for you. We knew it would be hard for you once we got back, that's why we slept literally next to you."

"What did I do to deserve friends like you guys. Thanks you two. I'll.....*exhales deeply*.....I'll TRY to go to sleep."

"Good. Come on, lay down." So I do as Aphmau says and look over to them. Aphmau places her head on Aaron's chest and Aaron wraps his arm around her waist pulling her closer to him. By as if it was instinct, Aphmau places a hand on his bare chest. I'm going to have to get used to this. "Night Laurence." She reaches out to my head and brushes through my hair. I close my eyes and try to sleep.

3 minutes later

I wake up in a sweating mess. Aphmau and Aaron are already awake. I guess I must've done something in my sleep to make them worry.

"Laurence, are you okay. It's not healthy to be sweating hot in a long sleeve shirt and jeans." I look over to Aaron who knows what I'm going to ask. He just smiles and nods letting me know it's okay. I take my shirt and pull it over my head. I have scars on my back, stomach, and arms. "What did this to you?" She runs a hand over my scars with tears in her eyes. She at least cares about me like an older brother.

"When I was becoming a Shadow Knight, they whipped me, beat me, trained me, torchered me, experimented on my, made me loose my identity, manipulated me, and broke me. Theses scars haunt me everyday. One day when I was getting out of the shower, I had my back tot the mirror and I turned around because something had fallen. When I looked behind me, I saw the scars and he memories came flooding in. It was hard to stand because I couldn't tell anyone because I knew I was the first one to have these memories. I was scared to come back here because I knew that no matter what I did, the memories would come back and would haunt me in my sleep."

"I'm so sorry." Aphmau looks up from the scars to my face with a look of sympathy and shock and hugs me. When she pulls away she kisses my cheek then leans her head on my shoulder. I just brush her hair with my fingers. Aaron does nothing about this. He knows that me and Garroth are like older brothers to her. This isn't weird for us believe it or not. Aaron just comes over and sits next to Aphmau and grabs her hand. He gives me a reassuring look.

"Laurence, we are all like family and so we all care about each other. If you need a day out, me, you, Garroth, Dante, Travis, Zane, Levin, Malachi, and Gene can have a guys day out. We know it's been hard and we want to help. We all still have to live with some pain of the past." I'm still combing through Aphmau's hair. She's fallen asleep. "Garroth has to live with the fact he hurt his brother in battle, Zane has to  live with knowing that he almost killed his brother and his best friend, Gene has to live with knowing he betrayed his younger brother, Dante has to live with the fact that he's not the best father mor husband but he's trying, I have to live with the fact that I hurt the woman I loved by sacrificing myself for my own revenge on my past family, you have to live with the pain and suffering from transformation, and Katelyn has to live with the pain and the knowing that she wasn't there to protect Jeffery from Zane. We all have to live with something painful in our lives. I never told Aphmau about me being the Ultima because I couldn't bear the pain of her looking at me different. When Ein had her under that potion.....*exhales deeply and a tear streams down his face*.....When Ein had her under the potion, it hurt. It hurt more that the things she was forced to say were true. These scars I have on my arms, on my chest, on my stomach, on my face, these are reminders of things I didn't do and what he did and what he made her say that was all true. Just know that the scars make you stronger. Aphmau has looked up to you like an older brother since high school. I know that you and Garroth both had feelings for her and she had feeling for the both of you too, she grew to think of you has brothers. You need to be strong for her. She lost someone today..." He looks at the clock. I can't believe it's 12:30 a.m "Sorry. Correction. She lost someone yesterday. Someone she wanted to fix things up with. She wanted thing to be better between her and Ein. When he protected her from that sword, it made her realize that he wanted to make thing right too."

"I never realized that. I was always mad at Ein for what he did to you and Aphmau in the past that....I never truly saw the good in him. He wanted things to go to the way they used to be. Where Aphmau trusted him and looked at him not with fear but with joy and to smile when they said hi or talked. That's all both ever wanted. Now it's taken away and she feels guilty about it. I feel guilty. I never realized that if I keep letting these scars remind me of all that was bad, I should just need to focus on the happiness that's in my life. I never will know when the end is and I feel like if I don't stay happy I'll miss everything. Thank you Aaron."

"No problem. Now let's get to sleep. You want me to take her?"

"Nope. I'm fine. I need to take every moment with her and everyone else. Night Aaron."

"Night." I lay my head on top of Aphmau's look around. This is my family. I have 'nephews' and 'nieces' and I have 'brothers' and 'sisters'. I couldn't ask for anything different. The nightmares I have are nothing more than that. They're nothing compared to my demons. They make me stronger.