Black and Blue

20 - The Reason

We didn't end up going back to the arena.

I found myself, as we made our way out of the realm, more and more afraid of what this would change in the atmosphere of this place. The few people who found out about it over the next couple of days (if some of them could even be called people) weren't exactly thrilled. The news was annoying to some, disgusting to others, and apparently amusing to watch from far away. The only thing in my life I could see my relationship with Jack affecting was lessons with Nyx—and she didn't take it so well at first, either.

"You two are..." she coughed into her hand discreetly, shaking her head with shut eyes. "I-I'm sorry, what?"

"Uh. Dating."

I gave her time to process that, though I wasn't sure why she thought of it as such a big deal. She already knew we were friends, she already knew he treated me better than he did the majority of people. Yet she still seemed apprehensive. After a good minute, she mustered a tiny, polite smile and twiddled her thumbs, gaze fixing itself on the same obscure corner of the room it always did.

"Sawyer...I'm not so sure this is the best idea."

"Look, I know you two have this whole grudge, and that you can't stand each other, and everything. But Jack's really sweet to me, we've known each other for a while now, and if I'm being honest, your sister..."

I trailed off, realizing it probably wasn't my place to say who was in the right here, although the answer seemed fairly obvious to me. I rested my head in a hand, wishing to take back my words, while Nyx raised an eyebrow and folded her arms. She had shifted into full defense mode.

"No, no, go on. What about my sister?"

I sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just...I've only heard one side of the story, and it seems to me so far that she was the villain. She basically killed him, dragged him into something he shouldn't have been a part of, tortured him, and now he's like this. It's not like family defines you, or whatever, but if you've kept defending her after all these years...I think he's right to be hurt. Just a little."

Nyx huffed in a very well, excuse you sort of way. "Jennifer was the one who sealed his destiny. Our destiny, everyone who's ever worshipped the Highest. She found his rightful son, the one who would enact his every wish on Earth—"

"Nyx."

Her name came out harsher than I intended, but she stopped talking and fixed me with a curious look. I laced my fingers and closed my eyes, starting to get real fed up with all of this "destiny" and "purpose" stuff everybody here kept pulling out of their asses. My words were dragged out of me, slow and sharp.

"Jack died. For the greater good or not, he died. Just...think about that for a little while."

Nyx's face turned to a blank slate. I doubted she even considered that before; she'd always thought of it as what Jack's death had affected rather than how it had affected him. Did she even know how Chernobog treated him every day, as the demon's so-called "son"? Would she have cared?

She huffed after a while and stood up, brushing herself off as she reached for a bowl of that infamous demon-healing paste she'd invented. She looked far more distant from the room now, far more invested in something I couldn't see. I would've thought for a moment that she was jealous of Jack and me, if not for the weirdly smug gleam in her eye I caught when she looked back at me.

"Well, good luck with it anyway. That boy, his skin's made of stone."

Like I didn't know that already.

—

I could barely remember how much time had passed since then. A week, a month, a year? Maybe just a few hours. I couldn't even tell what time it was right now, for Christ's sake—when I reached for my alarm clock on my desk, it wasn't there. Must've knocked it over. I didn't bother looking for it on the floor when I got up.