ficlet request?? But maybe Claudia wondering around in the woods before she decides to go back to Terry
ps. Every time soren and opeli were on screen together I thought of you
I'm so honoured to be the freak that everyone thinks about when it comes to sorpeli ❤️
Claudia has never liked being alone.
She knows this, of course. She has always known this. She'd been six when she first tried tried dark magic and she remembers the fever dream clearly, even now. There were her father's footsteps in the sand, and an ocean of deep red; snakes that wrapped around her wrists and her ankles that clinked together like chains, but most of all, it was her, and only her in darkness so deep and endless that only the stars could light her way. Her mother had already left by then, and she woke two days later distraught and terrified but it was easier to hyperfixate on the books and magic than it was to deal with the feelings all knotted up inside her belly.
She's done the impossible since: hunt unicorns, slay dragons, breathe life and movement back into her brother's legs, and now...
Her father is alive. She'd done that too. He should have been dead twice over, but he is living and breathing because of her, but he is also living and breathing enough to walk away, even after everything she's done. In her madness and delirium, she'd walked away too, so afraid of being left again that she'd run from the only person she has left.
Now the sun is setting and Claudia is lost. Her limbs are numb and the sun staff has grown slippery with her literal blood, sweat, and tears. Her good leg aches, her throat is parched, her lungs burn with exhaustion but if she went back to Terry now...
How can she go back? How can she face him after she treated him the way she did? After she left him on the beach while he promised her he would never leave? Claudia knows what she is and what she's done. She knows her hands are covered in blood and that they'll only grow bloodier, and Terry deserves better than her. He deserves someone who won't drag him down with their poor mental health, someone who won't leave because they're scared of being abandoned and of being alone.
Would he even still be there? Would he really have waited? Claudia doesn't know—but she knows this: in her state, she'll die if she doesn't go back.
So she goes back. It's not as difficult a decision as it sounds. She's not so proud that she can't admit leaving was a mistake. Maybe he really can help her. Maybe he really will stay. And maybe she'll die anyway, from blood loss and exposure and thirst, but at least if she dies, she won't be alone.
At least if she dies, he can't leave her too.