dreamwalker and magical girl angst: “ I wish I believed you. ”
Rain poured, lightning crashed between the trees. The daughter of Hecate raced across the length of camp, her once yellow boots now brown with mud and grass. The pounding of the storm didn’t hold a candle to how hard her heart was racing, or how hard the fear pulsed through her veins.
She tripped, a particularly slick spot near the pavilion had her skidding like a baseball player 20 feet through the grass. Rocks and mud scrapped across her back, clearing her head for just a moment. Grunting, spitting out the fowl taste of dirt, she slowly pulled herself back up to a standing position, her matching raincoat now fulfilling the safe prophecy as her boots.
Nothing would have, not today.
By the time the infirmary came into view, she saw the small hoard of year-round campers who had beat her there, all crowding around the entrance. If only she’d stayed for training, she might have gotten there earlier, she might have been there when they said...
She tore through, grateful that her hood had flown off, so the tears that had fallen down her cheeks just mingled with the rain tangled in her hair.
“Where?” Was all she could huff out, sliding to a stop in front of everyone. The crowd had parted for her.
They knew. They all knew.
She swallowed, ignoring their looks of pity, and some of sorrow. A few girls she knew had their hands clamped over their mouths. A few of the others simply looked shocked. She desperately looked around for a familiar face, someone who could tell her what happened.
Instead, they stared. Slack-jawed and eyes filled, they took in the sight of her, they took in the sight of her beginning to crack.
As soon as she was about to say Fuck it, and tear through the entrance herself, when a familiar blonde head beat her to it. Her heart skipped a beat, just a moment too soon. No, he wasn’t that blonde.
That blonde had been gone for 6 months.
When he should have been back 4 months ago.
Aiden saw her, and his face fell more than it already had.
“Where is he?” Her fists clenched, jaw set, starting through the pity and the loss in his face.
She couldn't accept the loss. It had to be someone else.
They had to be wrong. They had to have gotten something wrong.
“Follow me.” Was all he replied, and again, the crowd parted, all staring at the young girl. She stood, fists clenched, halfway in and halfway out.
She had to go, she needed to know. She needed to see him, with her own eyes.
The other half of her screamed not to. The other half desperately tried to pull her back, tried to get her to run back to the cabin, to fling herself into bed, where she could have ignored Ashlynn, and the bad news she carried. Lived in ignorance the rest of her pitiful life.
And yet, she found her feet walking for her. They took each step at a slower pace, the anger that had once fueled her was seeping out with every pump of her heart.
A look from Aiden. He’d stopped walking.
She stood, dripping wet onto the wooden floors of the infirmary. She could practically hear each droplet fall to the floor, in harmony with the pounding in her ears.
Josephine didn't register the words. All she could do was focus on the white sheet that blocked her view, the smell of bleach, the thick air that was becoming ever harder to breathe.
Aiden pulled back the curtain.
Eileen sat on the bed of the infirmary, her hands held limply in her lap. Her hair, once long and beautiful, had dulled, ratty and matted. Her cheeks were sunken in, matching her caved-in stomach and the hollow look in her eyes.
Eyes that had no tears. Eyes that weren’t even red.
She looked up at Jo, cementing the fate she tried so hard to believe wasn’t true.
She didn't know what happened next. Vaguely, she heard someone scream (looking back on it, she knew it was herself). She remembered falling to the ground, she had the bruises on her knees the next day to prove it. She remembered someone helping her back to the cabin, someone slipping something in a drink to get her to sleep.
She remembered that Eileen didn’t come back.
Go back to sleep, Josephine.
He will meet you there, Josephine.
The next few days felt like a dream (which made it even worse). She didn’t get out of bed, except for the funeral. She was supposed to speak, supposed to give the eulogy.... but she didn’t even last the entire service.
Ashlynn tried to console her, but she pushed off every attempt. Even Chiron had given up, letting her grieve in her own way, away from everyone else.
It was when Eileen tried to talk to her again, that was what made her fully break.
“I need you to know that I tried, Jo. He went back in, I — I couldn’t stop him.” She had said, choking on her words between sobs. They had switched. Jo now held the cold, lifeless stare Eileen had when she first came back to camp. Where, when she returned Eileen seemed to be able to breathe life and feeling back into herself. Only, at the cost of Jo’s.
dailybridgerton
annaxmalina
origamiaround
gummygunk
pixelskylines
baratheonpilled
tangentwithtanner
dededos
snowghoul
