The Girls of Virtue

[03-2] Such Fragile Things as Hope

Eyes snapping open, a hand flying to her mouth, Beginning flinches at the crash. The gate, now little more than a bent, twisted wreck a good ten feet away, has skidded all the way out into the street. The hinges, worn almost solidly together, have been snapped like they were rotten wood.

There are deep gashes on her knuckles, already blossoming with purple bruises and healing right before her eyes.

Beginning sucks in a half-panicked breath. Her head is spinning with the same rush as when she landed her first jump, and she knows, knows that this is something that she's not meant to be able to do.

"Wow. That was destructive. Let's hope that Jealousy isn't mad at you for ruining her gate..." It's Negativity, hovering a street away like a particularly unpleasant shadow. For a split second, Beginning thinks that she'd like to do the same thing to Negativity that she did to the gate. She breathes again, and just as quickly, the feeling passes. She's not going to sink to their level. Hurting people will make her just as bad as the rest of them. Beginning is not going to lose herself to them.

Not quite sure what to say, Beginning just looks up, meeting Negativity's red gaze. The other girl has eyes that nearly glow, a solid, brilliant red shining out of the fog from this distance. Beginning can feel herself trembling. Maybe she did just make a terrible mistake.

"What, not gonna talk? That means you know you did something wrong, huh? You really messed it up this time. Jealousy's gonna be mad, and she'll hurt you for breaking it, stupid." Negativity's low voice slides over every syllable, and despite her nearly somber tone, Beginning gets the feeling that she's greatly enjoying having someone to pick on.

"You don't need to be so rude," she replies, trying not to sound bitter or afraid. "I didn't... d-didn't mean to break it. I didn't think that I was strong enough to do... that. I wouldn't have done it if I knew!"

"Yikes, you are dumb..." Negativity sighs, "What kind of stupid person doesn't think that they'll break something if they hit it? I was going to say that you were pretty strong, for an idiot, but you went and messed it up. You don't even know how strong you are, useless." She tilts her head, hair spilling over her shoulders like ink. Thorns emerge from her mouth with every word, drawing blood, and she pauses to yank them away.

Beginning thinks again that maybe she'd like to smack her.

"Okay, sure," she says instead, unable to keep the irritation fully out of her voice. "You can say whatever you want. But I'm not going to listen to it. Goodbye, Negativity." Beginning turns and tries to leave, fully intending to walk off and leave the awful situation behind her.

No sooner has she taken a step than she's stopped by a cold, thin hand on her shoulder, grabbing with enough force to bruise.

"Hey, where do you think you're going? I was talking to you, you know? It's rude to just walk off when someone's speaking to you." Negativity tilts her head, and the thorns move with her. There's one on her lip, just poking out of her mouth. Beginning winces. It looks awfully painful.

Negativity's hair is like a curtain. All that beginning can clearly see of her is one red eye, all but glowing in the low light. The hand on her shoulder feels much too thin, cold, bony fingers digging into Beginning's skin like thorns themselves. There's a stench of something rotten in the air, like dead plants, rotting and wet, or something long forgotten and left to decompose.

For a second, she almost thinks it's funny that the girl with such awful words is calling her rude for wanting to leave. Then, the second passes, and she's just as disappointed with these girls as she's always been.

Beginning thinks, distantly, that she should be scared. She's been so nervous around the lot of them so far. She knows by now that most of them could probably kill her if they wanted to. But just as acutely, she's aware of the strength that came out of her when she broke the gate.