The Lost Element

Chapter 12

"Look, Ardiel, I know what I do to you was cruel. I'm not here to to bother you, I just want to apologize. I was a troubled kid, but there's no excuse for how I treated you. I'm sorry."

Ardiel's heart was beating so hard she could feel it in her head, she could hear it. She couldn't respond, so she turned and walked away from her at a brisk pace. She got up to her room, dropped her books and sat down on her bed.

*Just when I thought I'd left it all behind.*

Her mind flashed back to that day, her face pressed against the pavement. The bones in her hands being crushed. Her hair being pulled out. Brise showing up.

*BRISE!* She thought to herself, getting up and running back down the spiral set of stairs. She ran outside and called out for Brise, and she came bounding toward Ardiel, tongue flopping around. 

"There you are girl. I need you." She knelt down and stroked Brise's head in an affectionate manner. Placing a thumb on the side of her face, stroking back, just like Brise loved. She stood back up. "Let's go for a walk."

They wandered around the grounds for an hour before sitting down at the trunk of a massive tree and crossed her legs. Brise walked over to her, set her chin on Ardiel's lap and looked up at her. Beautiful, piercing blue eyes stared into her soul. Giving her dog a kiss on the nose, she told Brise she loved her. 

Ardiel ran her hand over the bark on the massive roots sprawling out away from her. They looked like veins, bulging out from the ground in a display of power. The peace started to sink into her heart again, running her fingers through the blades of grass and watching flecks of dirt fling upward.

"Everything okay?" Illya made herself known. How long had she been standing there?

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just needed some time to breathe, and to talk to Brise."

"Shouldn't you be with your new friends?"

"Probably. Something popped up and I needed to process it."

"You know you can talk to me, right?"

Ardiel hesitated, should she open up to this woman about her past? She didn't know Illya, she didn't know anything about her really. Why should she trust her?

"When I was a young girl, I was always a strange person." She started, almost as if she heard Ardiel's thoughts. "So strange that no one would come near me. It was like they were repulsed by me, and I never understood why." She sat down beside Ardiel, and Brise squirmed over to pay attention to Illya. Illya stroked her soft fur, much to Brise's content.

"Eventually I learned to cope with having very few friends. It was lonely, and when I was younger I acted out and did foolish things. At one point in my life I went out of my way to exact revenge on the people who made my childhood so isolated."

"I don't blame you. Being isolated as a child sucks." Ardiel was talking from experience.

"I was wrong to do so, Ardiel. I did awful things to people. Eventually I grew up, realized the error of my ways and tried to change. But I was only able to do so with the forgiveness of those I had wronged."

"Why are you telling me this, Illya?" Ardiel asked

"To try to get you to open up. I figured if you don't trust me, I'll trust you first."

"There's this girl, her name is Kaylie." Ardiel started, "I went to highschool with her. She's here now."

"Oh, was she your friend?"

"No. Far from it. She beat me when I was younger."

"Why would she do that?"

"Because I was different I guess. I don't really know." Ardiel lied, she knew exactly why.