(Trigger warning)
Mentions of suicide and death.
Unedited.
HOME. A heavy heart carried Gola home. Her feet carried her at their own accord. 'Onward!' 'On and on and on!' Her head sang. Quietly she obeyed.
Sometimes moving along slower than a walk. Other times she'd explode with tears shinning like a river of pearls under the moonlight trailing the length of her pained face, feet racing for safety.
Safety seemed like such a foreign concept now. Like an illusion shattered by light.
Ill intent crept not so far behind. Patiently stalking. Frothing and kicking back dust.
But there home stood. Like doom looming on the horizon. The empty halls beckoned her. The ghostly memories of her family stood with too wide smiles and opened arms. 'Come join us, Little mouse!' They laughed, they sounded happier than they'd ever been.
She violently shook her head every which way. Tears leaped from bloodshot her eyes out into the rain. It was impossible to tell if this was the torment of a shadow demon or a hungry demon of her own.
And she wanted so badly to give in. To let it all go. This loneliness that was the only thing she'd ever have to love and hold, the heart wrenching grief like an anchor in her chest and the boundless putrid guilt coating her hands like blood.
'Disgusting!' She thought with a kick at a gathered puddle. 'I am disgusting.'
I don't get to be angry. I deserve to be sick from standing in the rain like a fool. I deserve to suffer. I'm a monster...And don't deserve to die.
Not yet.
A strangled sob escaped her throat and was swallowed whole by the night. But no one heard a sound of the girl who'd once stood taller than the trees. This was her decent. And only silence and the pitter-patter of the rain coed comforts in her ear.
With one last muffled whimper, her hands clenching and unclenching again, she started up the hill.
Inside the lights were still on, something delicious smelling simmered on the stove and Ethan sat with his head in his hands on Yona's bed. His voice croaking as he wept list of things he should have done differently.
Gola felt she should've gone to him. Offered him comforts and soft coos, reminded him that he wasn't suffering through this alone, told him stories of how Yona always fought like a lion and would continue to do so.
But she was too exhausted. The type of tired felt in one's soul. She felt like she could sleep for a thousand years.
And maybe that's just what she would do.
"I'll never forgive you if you leave me, Yona." Gola sighed falling back into her bed, starring at the ceiling.
Of course Yona didn't answer. And the silence that followed was a knife twisting in her chest. People weren't supposed to vanish like this.
Here one moment then gone the next.
Through the blur of tears she'd caught movement in the corner of her eye. "Who's there?"
The sound of something hard hitting the floor and rolling resonated through the the room. The object hit her foot and fell still.
It was the amulet.
The one she wore in her dreams and in her memories. It burned in her hand as hot as coal fresh from fire, glowing softly.
With a sharp inhale of breath she made to drop the wretched thing right back where she found it. But something came over her in a dizzying tidal wave. Yet again she felt nocked off of her feet a thrust into another world. Recalling a distant memory.
Gabriel had barely repressed the urge to run to Elenora. His dark hair was disheveled, his eyes large and wild. "I have a surprise for you!" He'd announced taking large strides across the empty ball room floor.
"Oh dear, another surprise? Hopefully not another library. I've only just begun working away at the first one." Elenora chuckled, pointing to the book in her other hand.
He'd scooped her up. (Not without protest.) And carried her out to the ballroom balcony.
Honey suckle and ivy clung like a summer coat to the manor. All while roses burst into bloom in clay pots on either side of the iron gate.
"It'll keep you safe." Gabriel explained putting the girl back onto her feet so he could dig in his suit pocket.
"What will?" Elenora demanded impatiently snatching the amulet out of his hand before he had time to show it.
The massive rubby, embroidered with a border of diamonds twinkled brilliantly in her hand. She stared at it for no short period of time, dazed with astonishment.
When her gaze returned to Gabriel he was before her on one knee. Eyes both terrified and hopeful. "Elenora Smith, light to my darkness—marry me."
Gola's eyes snapped open and she took a shaky deep breath, feeling as though she'd been underwater.
"Yikes! The both of you really do look alike. I'd say imagine being a clown in two life times but looks like you don't have to."
"Nyx, you saw that?"
Nyx pushed through the shadows of the doorway to stand in front of Gola. There was more mascara on her checks than her eyes and she was chewing an innocent nail down to the stub. "Look I don't know how any of this magical malarkey works."
"Malarkey?" Gola scoffed amused.
"Precisely."
"What are you a stalker now or do care more about my wellbeing than you'd like to admit?"
Nyx merely hummed. "Kinda, but not quite."
Gola hummed too, thinking of a snarky reply. She found herself grateful for this little distraction. Even if it was Nyx. "Oh so you're here to murder me."
Nyx didn't laugh like she was supposed to. No, the smile that slowly crept across her face seemed painful in addition to the tears in steady fall from her eyes.
As usual it was too late. But Gola voiced her concerns anyways. "Nyx What is that you're holding behind your back?"
Nyx shook her head regretfully, pressing the gun she'd once held behind her back to Gola's head. "I'm sorry." She apologized in lower than a whisper. "But this is the only way and you know it."
"Nyx, I—"
"Shut up and move!"
Death march style Nyx guided her out of the house and into the small wood. It seemed that they were walking in a large circle but Gola knew better. Gabriel had showed her this path though dreams a thousand times. Nyx intended to take her to the sunless world to bargain for Beaumont.
The situation had sunken into the bone. And Gola found herself surprisingly unafraid but furious. "If you would have listened instead of acting like a psychopath you would've known I was already on my way here to show a shadow demon or two a piece of my mind. After a nap of course bu—"
"Your really gonna argue with me now? With a gun pressed to your head?"
"Someone needs to talk some sense into you. It's all the same to me."
"You aren't taking any of this seriously. You're the reason Ethan is dead, prue and Beaumont were taken and you've done nothing to get them back or so much as pretend to care."
"First of all I'm trying! It's not exactly like they make guides for when your crazy demonic ex tries to lure you to hell by ruining your life with the assist of his gay lover. I'm dealing the best way I can. And I'm sorry that it isn't fast enough for
Second of all I just saw Ethan, I know he thinks it's the end of the world since Yona's in the hospital but everything is going to be fine because I'm marching to hell to retrieve my sister as we speak."
"Ethan committed suicide twenty minutes after reading those viral post morning Yona's supposed death. They haven't taken his body away yet, he's current your sisters room mate, fitting right?" Nyx was smug until she followed Gola's line of sight.
"Then why is he standing right in front of us?"
