Whumpril Day 17 - Alt: Rival/Frenemy Turned Caretaker
Story under the cut
Lysander had always hated Lilas, which was just fine by her, because the feeling was mutual.
He saw her as gratingly stubborn, she saw him as a condescending know it all. The only reason they even pretended to tolerate each other was their relationship with Gaia. Lilas was her girlfriend and Lysander was her childhood friend. When the first seeds of hatred began to bloom, they had made a silent agreement with each other to never drag Gaia into whatever the hell was going on between them. They'd stay neutral in her presence and save the insults and glares for when she left the room.
It was like that way for as long as Lilas had known him. She ended up learning everything about him against her own will, and because of this, she was able to notice the changes in him almost immediately.
He was a lot more tired, a tiredness that wore down the sharpness of his usual quips and insults. He also stopped hanging out with Gaia as much as he usually did. What was the most concerning, however, was the fact that he seemed more... paranoid. He was always looking over his shoulder when he thought she wasn't looking at him, and he was always fidgeting with the new pendant he had gotten - which was a golden eye attached to a fine chain.
He had been asked where he got the pendant, and all his replies were hesitant and uncertain, as if not even he knew where he got it. It was this fact that brought up the first spark of concern curiosity within Lilas. This strange behaviour from Lysander started almost immediately after he started wearing that necklace. He had gotten very protective of it, and he never let anyone touch it or even talk about it for to long.
This had sent Lilas down a rabbit hole of research, leading her to a series of news articles from ten years ago.
The stories told of a boy named Scotty Serrano and his experience with a demonic entity named Cthylla. She played with his mind through a backpack he always wore, giving him a constant stream of nightmares and paranoia. The only reason he ever managed to break out of her control was because he had the help of a powerful witch.
The more she read about this kid, the more uneasy she grew about Lysander's unusual state. He had to have been going through the same thing. The connections were all there. He could be going through a world of terror without anybody knowing a thing.
This rose conflicted feelings within Lilas. Lysander was a jerk, but at the same time, not even the biggest of jerks deserved to go through something like this. She considered just allowing someone else to handle the situation, but the back of her mind told her that she was the only one who could help him. By the time someone else discovered the same thing Lilas did, it would already be too late.
And so, with the biggest groan in the danceverses, she set off to find Lysander.
