Crashing the Boardwalk (Human Lapidot)

8. Restless

     She gave in. Peridot reached under her pillow at eleven in the night, dimming the brightness and re-reading the article she found the night before. The Diamond patches, the Cluster mentioning.. It was all terrible.

Peridot woke up tired, only having about an hour of sleep at best. Her environment was dark, but she knew she wasn't in her barn. She was tied up, and felt cramped. She shifted, and felt a prick in her arm. A splinter! She tried on to panic as the coffin she occupied shook. Suddenly, the area felt slightly warmer, and people shouted around Peridot.

     "Stop! Let her out, quit it!" Screamed somebody outside the box. "Let her go, please!" It was Lapis. She sounded heartbroken and wounded.

     "Shut up you traitorous peasant! For the longest of times you've known the penalty for treason."

     "I-!"

     "You've abandoned us, when we, as a society, helped you the most." Peridot struggled further and more vigorously. "And you took the side of a low-class geek as you abandoned us-you, Lazuli, should burn first."

     "Yellow-"

     "Blue, it's been decided."

     There was silence when Yellow Diamond demanded it, and Lapis was heard struggling beyond the walls of Peridot's coffin as it dropped to the ground. Soon, murmurs were heard, but they were soon replaced by cheers as a blood-curdling scream erupted from Lapis. The fire cracked and popped loudly, and Peridot fought tears and gasped for air beyond her gag, near-screaming.

     Then, the coffin was almost opened, the lid of it just above the walls. Peridot pushed to continue prying it open, but it wouldn't budge, and soon, she felt warm and cold at the same time. She felt like a hand reached down her throat and ripped the air out of her lungs. She convulsed, unable to control herself, and bit hard on her gag, her bottom lip feeling the pressure from her top layer of teeth. Her veins bulged in her neck, and her wrists bled, cut by the rope that bonded them. She, in her final painful moments, saw the area around her grey, as if a light layer of smoke clouded the coffin.

...

Lapis rose in a panic to a scream of death. Peridot, shaking beside her, was holding her own neck. She was suffocating herself, her skin turning purple with the pressure she was applying. Lapis screamed and grabbed Peridot's hands, tugging and pulling, until finally they were forced off her neck. The blonde was sweating and gasping for air, tears beginning to stream down her face. Lapis worked on steadying her breath as she watched Peridot opened her puffy eyes.

     "Oh my God, oh my-Peridot what the hell!" Lapis exclaimed. "Don't-don't do that to me again!" Lapis wrapped her arms around her friend, feeling relieved that she got a small nod from her.

     Peridot hugged back slowly. "Lapis?" The girl shook, and the bluenette found her crying.

     "Peri, what's going on?"

     "Just.. Just a bad dream."

     "You were choking yourself." Lapis said sternly while pulling away.

     "I-I just need to rest, is all." Peridot shoved her face into her pillow and tried to sleep. Lapis couldn't. She was too worried.

     "Are you sure you'll be fine?" Asked Lapis after a literal minute of hesitation.

     "Yeah."

...

The next night, Peridot woke up to her barn doors being busted down. It was a group of famous Quartz soldiers and their large guns. They shot her cans, her mirror, and Peridot, hitting her square in the right shoulder. Lapis woke up after that, shouting curses at the soldiers. They shot at her, but she ducked away. Lapis grabbed a dagger from under the bed and threw it straight in one of the Quartz's face. It cracked her skull right between her eyes. Lapis was shot in the heart, and the soldiers moved to the top floor. The blonde screamed. She punched one down the ladder, but the other two grabbed her and shoved her back. She was beaten with the butt of a gun and killed, her skull stinging throughout when she woke up in pain.

     Lapis was grabbing onto her, shaking her awake. Peridot groaned, grabbing her head and closing her eyes tight. "Peridot! Come on, wake up!"

     "I'm up..."

     "Peridot, tell me you're just having bad dreams and not Night Terrors." The blonde felt guilty hearing the concern in her friend's voice.

     "There not Night Terrors, those are much more serious."

     Lapis rolled over, her hands pressed onto Peridot's shoulders and her body slightly diagonal over the blonde's own. "Then what's going on?" The girl under Lapis nearly couldn't breathe. They were so physically close.. Peridot swallowed.

     "Nothing."

The next few nights were hell. During the first, Peridot and the Gems were hunted and killed by Yellow Diamond herself. The next, the people of Beach City turned on them because of the danger in the rest of the states, killing Amethyst and Steven, and driving the rest of them over-sea. On the third night, The Diamonds released Corruption on the entire city and killed everyone, Garnet and Jasper being the first to die. Then there were shootings. Raids. Beach City once joined The Diamonds. The night after, Lapis was enslaved and sent to kill Peridot, watched by the terrifying image of White Diamond. Lapis was very reluctant, apologizing so many times before finally driving her dagger into Peridot's chest. The night after that, Lapis found out that The Gem empire was cruising through the states and fled across the sea. The Gems, the next night, found out Peridot's ties with The Authority and left her to wait for they themselves to come for her. Even Jasper left that time.

     Every one of those nights, Peridot felt aches from wherever her dream-wounds were, and they felt so real that she was struck with emotional pain and fear that they, one of the dreams, would become real. She was holding everything in, hiding things from Lapis for nine nights straight, and was aching going through the day without them. Then, one night, she had enough.

     She woke and went into town with Lapis, preparing for work just like any other day. In the afternoon, she heard fearful shouts, and ran from the T-shirt shop to the beach where Lapis worked at. People were running in panic, but Lapis wasn't to be found anywhere. Peridot dashed into town through the chaos, and the two met up a few streets away from Jasper's house. On the roofs of the theater, the shops, and even the houses, were soldiers with guns. The guns aimed at numerous people, but five of them pointed at the pair. Peridot trembled, sweat rolling from her neck to her back. She could barley even tell Lapis what was going on, and felt weak when her shaky words came out. "The Cluster."

The girl had enough. The night after, just before Lapis fell asleep, Peridot started talking. "Lapis..?"

     "Yeah?"

     "I-I can't sleep. I don't want to."

     "Yeah, and I can see why. Sort of. Are you ready to tell me what's going on?" Lapis rolled sat up to face her friend.

     "Sorta. Well, yeah.." Peridot hesitated. She couldn't say that she was hiding The Diamond's approach. She had to reveal the other half of her secrets.