A/N: Ahhhhhh! This is my first ever story on this site and I am so excited! I had just decided to spread out my fanfiction work not only Archive of Our Own but here as well to a bigger audience! I was heavily inspired to start a POTAs fanfiction series after watching the last of this epic film trilogy (it still has screwed me over emotionally BUT if you haven't watched it, I command you to get a ticket and see it ASAP!). For those who do like to visualize, the AO3 version of this fic do include picture that help a lot with the details especially with the four main OCs' in this story! I will leave the link at the end of this Prologue/Chapter! For now, enjoy lovelies and be sure to leave some comments, follows, and favs so i can up with all of you and this story! XOXO- RowenaAngel aka LittleSideKick327 on
FATE BETWEEN US
For almost three years they had lived with them, ate with them, worked with them, and learned from them. Three years of living with the apes and living under their great leader Caesar, who had been the reason why they were still alive and why they had become apart of a great colony. They were apart of them. For so long, not a day went by when one of them thought about their own kind, if there were any humans left, for they were accepted- but, when the sudden occurrence of humans near the boarders of their home, their memories of their past lives start to ease back into them once more. Making them come to terms that they aren't the last of their kind and with the decision of staying with the Apes or finding a new life with the humans.
Prologue
~ 6 Months Before DOTPOTA~
"No! you can't do this!" She was screaming. Begging.
None of them heard her. None of them would listen to her, no matter how hard she screamed or how much she begged. It wouldn't redirect the head of their guns targeting them. Them, being the three girls who were huddled together, crying and shaking, as the hard rain poured down from the thunderous skies. Their used hospital gowns were soaked and the color of their skins were paling.
"Get her the hell out of here!" A man with greying chestnut hair and even whiter coarse hair surrounding the upper part of his mouth and down to his chin, and glasses framing his maturing face demanded.
A man with dark skin wearing a red beanie swung his rifle over his broad shoulder before hesitantly making a move toward the girl who had forced her way to stand in front of the other girls as if she was a wall. There was dark red splattered all over her shirt, dried blood smeared on her coco-brown cheek, her thick, dark, mid-length, frizzy hair was soaking wet as it stuck to her body. The rain and the cold did not stop the girl's protest.
"Listen to me! They aren't sick, please! It was an infection!" the girl begged as she tried to get out of the hold of the man she knew. But still, the rest would not listen, their guns were still drawn on the three helpless girls. Two were near the same age as the girl fighting for their lives, no older than eighteen years of age, while the one in the middle looked no older than thirteen.
"Liar! I saw them for my self, you dumb bitch! They've caught the flu and we're gonna get rid of 'em before they can get the rest of us sick!" a Latino man with hatred and anger in his eyes stormed at her, his eyes and gun not leaving the three other girls.
The girl with blood glared at the man with glasses, "you know this isn't true! You know they don't have the flu-"
The man in the glasses raised his gun in the air, "the symptoms were there! They all had it-"
"The same symptoms you declared the old and sick had! You fucking lied to the rest of us, you killed innocent people. Your own people."
The man yelled back even more defiantly, "they were a risk to everything I've built! Ready your weapons!"
Time froze. Thunder boomed throughout the apocalyptic city of San Francisco sending birds flying out of the tall Redwood trees as the thunder cracked in the sky. No hesitation except adrenaline coursing through her veins as she twisted in the man's grip and reached for the glock in the large front pocket of his worn out cargo pants before the man could react. Without aim and ignoring the hissing voice in her head, she fired sending a flash of bang and the sound of a bullet flying through the air, and seeing the bullet skim right through the arm of the man in glasses was the last thing she could see before she felt a hard thump in the back of her head sending her down the wet crumbling decayed asphalt. The sounds of yells begin n cut off by the sound of something heavy against bone could be heard from around her before her world turned black all while being shattered.
I jolted up right in the comfy made-up bed of lush moss and tattered scavenged pillows, my breath came out labored and visible as the early cold of the upper mountains surrounding the woods came through the hut. The back of my head ached as if I had physically felt the impact the girl in my dream had, I reached back to caress it for a few moments before looking around the large hut. I heard soft balanced breathing coming from beside me and I look down to find Alyssa asleep peacefully, the blanket I had draped over her in the middle of the night was curled tighter around her. I looked to my left of the large made-up bed to see that Sailer 'Sai' and Maracell 'Mara' were gone and their spots absents. I sighed as I dropped my head into my hands, masking the pain of a thousand things bouncing around my head flooded through me.
Every time I awoke from these kind of dreams- nightmares, actually- it always left me with the same type of side-affect. The flush of voice and glimpses of moments I didn't feel like I recognized, came at me all at once, like a flood that left the inside of my head feeling dizzy, but painful at the same time. It was like some type of spell, only it was getting worse, and the dreams were getting more sharp and clear. Getting more common through the nights. It hadn't been like that before, when we were adapting to life in the village, the dreams never came to me; the only difference between then and now was how it felt like I was missing a piece of me, now with the dreams and voices in my head, it almost felt I was getting lost pieces of me, slowly getting put back together. As strange as it all sounded. Almost three whole years of not knowing what the events that led to where we are now had taken a toll on all of us, but it felt like I was the worse one out of all of us.
The girls never mentioned dreams or voices or glimpses of the apocalyptic life we endured before our life in village, and I never brought it up. I didn't want to scare them, neither of us had ever brought up the old life we had and none of us could remember why we didn't bother to, none of us knew why we could barely remember who we were during he dark times of the world ridden by the Simian Flu Pandemic.
A soft hand gripped my wrist and feeling the familiarity of the hold, I let them bring my hands down as I lifted my face up and opened my eyes to see soft dark orbs starring pitifully at me. A look I had seen on her face too often; a look she would give me when she would be the one brave enough to wake me from the dreams that haunted me every so often in my sleep.
I sighed, "go back to sleep." I signed to her, giving her a small smile to convince her other wise. The children wouldn't be awake so early, giving her time to catch up on some rest before she would go meet with Maurice.
Alyssa shook her head, "you had another nightmare again, didn't you?" she signed back with a frown on her face.
I didn't say anything as I shrugged, looking out of the made up window of sticks on the side of the hut, seeing the grey daylight peek out from the tall trees surrounding our hut. Three years ago, this was a place for us to rest overnight before Caesar would send us on our way, but now there were some personalized details to it that made it our home. With the help of some of the apes whose job were to build around the village, it had gotten big enough for us to consider it a real home. It was further away from the majority of the village, but the entrance catered view to the large waterfall. It was the closest thing to home I felt like I had since the outbreak, and after some time, I had found myself not wanting to let it go.
I threw the bear fur off me as I crawled out of the moss and made my way to the dusty trunk where I had put most of the scavenged belongings that were now mine. I shrugged the ragged slip off my body, the dry cold biting on me as I rummaged for the daily hand-made uniform I work during the days. It was a dress of distressed, soft, thick, red, green and, brown rags sewn together with skinny brown leather belt holding it securely around my thinning curvy body. I snuffed the dress in the crook of my arm as I reached with my other to pull out my daily pair of handmade, distressed, scavenged gladiator sandals. Gathering all that I needed, I shut the trunk closed. (Angelica's dress is on the top while Alyssa's is on the bottom)
The silence that had passed between Alyssa and I as we helped each other get dressed for the day is nothing, but comfortable silence. In a short amount of time, we had grown to be a part of each other, each depending on each other to fill the missing hole within us that our memories could only make up. Also, having gotten used to the fact that we were the only humans in a village where over 2,000 apes resided sped up our bonding.
Alyssa snapped her finger to get my attention from the apple I was slicing, she took a pause to sort out the nuts, "same dream as before?"
I refrained from look her as I sliced another apple with an old pocket knife that two of Caesar's apes had given back to me when Caesar had deemed the rest of as non-threatening long ago. The red skin of the apple brings back the bloody red-shirt the girl in my dreams had on and before I get too lost in it, I feel a strong tap on my shoulder.
I nod my head slowly, still cutting the apple, "the same dream from last week." I confirm for her.
Alyssa nods understandingly before she hands me woven bowl filed with a handful of almonds. I take it from her with a soft thanks before I gave her slices of red and green apples which she puts into her woven bowl happily.
Alyssa hadn't lost her hearing or anywhere being near deaf, in actuality, Alyssa could hear and talk as fine as Sai, Mara, and I could. Alyssa had chosen to become mute long before we had to learn how to sign and understand the Ape language. Alyssa still refused to tell any of us on why she had chosen to become mute, the one time Mara did try to get it out her, Alyssa started to sake like a wounded frightened animal. We never asked her again, none of us knew what she had been through. We could to barely remember what any of us faced back in the human world. Sometimes it felt like we held back from trying to remember we all ached the way we did.
I decided to change the conversation as we began eat our first meal of the day, "where are Sai and Mara?" I signed thinking of the other two I had come to think of as sisters.
"Mara went with the scavenger party into the city, they should be back before nightfall. Sai is with hunting party." Alyssa signed the last part quickly, but I had caught on to it.
I almost spat out the nuts in my mouth, but I forced to remind myself that I still had human mannerism instincts and forced them down my throat.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'HUNTING PARTY'!" I signed harshly.
Alyssa looked down, but she signed nervously anyway, "she already talked to… Caesar. They both agreed that she was ready to come onto a big hunt with them. Caesar thinks more apes would see her as one of them if she joins them on the hunt."
I sighed, but didn't say another word. If Caesar had given her permission to join the big hunt for bigger game, then there was nothing I could do to undermine him. Besides, Sai had been learning hunting lessons from Rocket and some of the other apes who more than willing to teach her how to hunt like them in the woods for bigger game. When we had first adapted to pulling our weight around our new home and the life we now lived, Caesar had given us easy jobs; Mara was to help the scavenging apes scavenger for anything remotely useful for the apes and us to use, Sai was to help fish and gather things like fruits and nuts and herbs around the village, Alyssa was to help the young since she had been the only one out of us to learn sign at a quicker pace, and I was to assist the Obas (the medical Chimps) in anyway I could
Yet, as days turned into months, and months turn into these past three and a half years; we had accepted larger roles into the social circle of the apes we now considered as close friend- some, even family. Mara would lead the city scavenger parties on her own, helping to guide new apes on how to scavenger in the safe outskirts of the city and how to look for good supplies; all while putting together stuff for us to wear through weather conditions in our environment and painting fierce symbols on the warriors.
Maurice had given Alyssa a small class of her own Apes to teach alongside the large gentle orangutan, most of the young ones loved and adored her more than the strict orangutan much to the orangutan's amusement. Sai would sometimes lead small fishing parties on her own even teaching young apes on how to have the best catch, but recently she had expressed how she wanted to hunt more than fish, nuts, and fruit. And I had become Sparrow's, a talented female Chimpanzee Oba, second-in-command; helping wounded, sick, and birthing apes as the more I worked with the Obas, the more I would somehow get this feeling of familiarity of the job I have now. The job of medicine.
The Obas around me hooted, approval mixed with excitement, as I let out a surprised chuckle as I held a newborn baby Chimpanzee in my arms, a healthy baby girl. I cooed at the closed eyed chimp through my mask as the baby chimp opened her small mouth to express a little subtle whine in response as it snuggled into the thick cloth in my arms. The sun was beginning to come out of the clouds making this moment even more heartfelt as the other Obas around me helped the mother relax back into her nest of a bed. I smiled as I traced the baby chimp's face with my finger before standing-up and crouching down to make my way to the mother. The huts where the rest of the apes resided were suited more to their stature, but only by a few inches, compared to the me and the girls own hut.
The mother ape puffed out labored breaths, exhaustion of birth. The birth was less than complicated than some of others I had experienced, but any form of childbirth was difficult especially on a female, ape or human. I gently shifted over the baby into the awaiting tired arms of her mother before going to help some of the other Obas clean up the messy scene, giving some private time for the mother to bond over their new child.
I looked up to see Sparrow nodding approvingly at me through her mask made up out of short bones belonging to small rodents who resided in the woods, there was almost a sparkle in her green eyes as she observed me.
"What is it?" I shoot her a questioning glance.
She made somewhat of a smile, "more apes are trusting you with delivery of their child." She stated.
I shrug at her as I adjusted my mask over my face, eager to take it off once we all left the hut, "I am good at what I do, why shouldn't I help. I like what we do for them."
"Yes, but this also brings back your past life."
I open my mouth but close it, unnoticeable to Sparrow because of the mask covering half of my face. How did she know?
Sparrow answers as though she could read my mind, "Alyssa told me, she says you have dreams every night. Mentions that you used to do this, help the sick. Before or after the outbreak?"
I close my eyes, breathing deeply before forcing myself to meet her gaze, "before the flu I studied to become a doctor. Like my mother. Do not remember anything that happened later on. I only remember what my life was like before the flu."
That is the end of our conversation as Sparrow merely squeezes my shoulder before going over to the entrance of the hut to scream out an alert causing two Chimpanzees to cautiously enter the hut. One who had an ashy coat color and was shorter than the other Chimpanzee who had an almost darker coat, I didn't have to wonder who these two young adolescent male apes were. I knew both of them all too well. One of them more than the other though, the one with the bright blue eyes who was the first to greet me while the other stayed by the door.
"Is Rocket coming up? His daughter is here to greet him." I signed happily to the Prince as I gathered a basket of herbs, extra masks, worn dirty cloths, and scavenged medical equipment that were barely of use around here.
Blue Eyes stares at me for a moment longer and I look away for a few moment back at Sparrow at the other Obas, before he signs back, "Father and him are coming now. Went to help put away the game."
I nodded smiling widely through my mask, "tell me about the hunt later. I want to know if you actually caught something this time." I tease and Blue Eyes lets out a puff of annoyance with a small grin on his face that resembled his father and mother.
I call for Ash to come to in, which he does hesitantly and cautiously steps more into the home he shared with his family. Sparrow glanced over his shoulder to find him and motions for one of the other Obas to move out of the way for Ash to come and greet his new sibling for the first time since his mother had found out she was pregnant with her second child.
Blue Eyes nudged gently, at least for them considering their strength, at Ash in a joking manner, "come on Ash, don't be scared of a baby!" Blue Eye's pants were laughs as Ash merely glared at his best friend.
"I'm not scared of anything!" Ash signed back frowning as he made his way to where his mother and new baby sister lay, being followed be a curious Blue Eyes.
It was at that moment, as the rest of us watched Ash's mother introduce her son and her new daughter to each other in the gentlest and heartwarming way possible, that Caesar and Rocket entered the hut. Caesar's presence was enough for the atmosphere to change, the respect and admiration radiated off every ape in the room just like any other time Caesar made his presence known to his apes. It was almost as if power, authority, and commanded respect radiated off of them. It still stunned me to how much Caesar was seen as almost a real life deity to them, but then again, Caesar had led them to where they are now; Caesar had been the reason why they had increasingly evolved into what they were now. He had led them in a historic revolt against humans, their oppressors in the modern world. He had created this village and led it as a true leader, for almost ten peaceful years.
After all, Caesar had been the real reason why the girls and I were apart of all this now. Why we had a new home in the first place. His accepting of our being here had be the ideal reason why the more than half of the apes had grown accustomed and more accepting of us joining them. So, if one were to ask me if I saw Caesar in the same light as they did, I would have never thought twice about answering.
As soon as I saw Rocket's nervous expression as he hovered in the entry way, eyes starring at the scene of his mate, Tinker, being surrounded by the Obas and Ash holding his new sister. I beckoned for him to join in on the moment.
"Tinker is fine. Delivery went well, you have a daughter!" I exclaim, laughing as Caesar and he hooted in excitement before Caesar patted his best friend in congratulations, sending the grey-coat Chimp to join his growing family.
Caesar glanced at me greeting me with a nod in which I returned before he spoke, "Sai did well today. She had a hand in helping Burke track down an elk. She is very proud of herself."
I grinned through my mask, "of course she is."
I take Maracelle's warm embrace to the heart as we both stand in the middle of the crowded courtyard of the village. The scavenging party had just arrived moments ago, the sun was setting and the the fires surrounding the village were burning bright. It was near dinner so most of the apes who resided near the courtyard and the Royal Family Tree were huddled by separate fires waiting until the elk meat cooked to the fire.
"What did you find out there?" I asked her as I pulled away from her, signing it as well.
Just because Caesar and most of the apes accepted us and had grown to think of us as honorary apes didn't mean that there were still those who didn't see us a threat. It was better to be safe than to let them get the feeling of being suspicious when we said something some of them wouldn't be able to understand.
Maracelle nodded signing as she opened her mouth, "we found a few lady things that could be more than useful to us."
We both chuckled at the thought of how hygiene was still so important to her, especially to Maracelle. I figured it would be considering she had been the one to find more material that helped put together dresses. Maracelle was the same age as Sai and I (the three of us were abut to enter our 20s), she was a thin girl with long black wavy hair, pale ivory skin, and big near-black colored eyes which were guarded by her long straight lashes. My eyes flickered to the worn out brown bag which was hooked to the sand colored belt which tightened around her waist, the belt held up the blue and burgundy distressed dress and the multi-colored drape around her body. (Mara's dress on top, Sai's dress on bottom)
But a small frown erased the smile on her face, "there's something that Victory found while we were out there…" she trailed off.
I furrowed my eyebrows, "what do you mean?" I signed slowly feeling myself begin to worry by her expression.
All that went though my mind was humans. For the past three-and-half years since living here, we haven't seen a single person. Haven't interacted with any of our kind since Caesar and the Apes have taken us in as their own. Yet, for some reason, the word 'human' left a bitter taste in my mouth because I knew that the reason we were in this state was because of our own kind. Yet, I didn't know who or why they had done us the way they did.
"Humans? People?" I whisper not choosing to sign as to not make a panic if one of them caught a glimpse of me signing the word.
Maracelle shook her head, a look of bitterness on her face at the thought of stumbling upon our own kind. She too held some type of bitterness towards them, after all, they were the ones who did this to us. Made us forget the later crucial events that led to where we are now. I couldn't blame her in all honesty.
"No, thank god." She shook her head furiously before she inhaled, "I found something that I think you might want to see-"
"Show it to me!" I exclaimed glancing down to the worn out leather bag over her shoulder.
Maracelle shook her head slowly, "not now, I'll show it to you later."
I was about to object when out of the corner of I see Sailer making her way toward us with two carved-out wooden plates filled with greens and the cooked elk meat in her dark colored hands. There was a boastful smile on her brown skin as she swayed her over to where Maracelle and I stood. Maracelle shot me a question look at what had stopped me from my thought, I merely nodded over her shoulder.
I placed my hands on my hips as I raised an amused eyebrow at Sai, "I'm guessing the meat on that plate was slain by your own hand?"
Sailer raised the plates as if they were trophies, "hunted, made, and done by yours truly." She smirked.
Me and Maracelle shook our heads chuckling at her antics before we were being greeted by Alyssa's graceful presence with one of the younglings on her backThe youngling hooted at the three of us in greeting before jumping off of Alyssa and running off in the direction his mother who called for him in the background.
"The young ones never seem to leave you alone, even after their lessons end." Maracelle signs as we approach Alyssa with our plates in her hands.
Alyssa merely shrugs but she takes the compliment well, "what can I say? I'm great with kids."
We all gathered around one of the fire pits, taking our seats on boulders as we began our meal. My eyes glued to the bright red glowing fire as the girls and some of the apes traded stories of the hunt and Maracelle's scavenging party. Thoughts wrapped around my head as I felt myself grow more in some kind of trance the longer I stared straight into the fire. I shook my head as I moved my gaze above the fire, hoping it would clear my head only to meet Blue Eyes concern eyes. I gave him a pseudo smile before I went back to digging into my plate, laughing at the exchanged stories between all of us.
I stared down at the picture in my hands, it was crumped and had specks of debris on it. This was what Maracelle had mentioned earlier and now I was holding it like it was apiece of delicate glass in my hands; it is delicate a voice whispered in my head and I believed it. This piece I held in my hand was another piece to the missing puzzle I felt was inside of me; in the picture was a young girl with the same skin tone as me, and she was wearing a grey sweater with a red trench coat and the hood over her head, her thick curly hair was in pony tail poked through the hood.
The young girl who looked to be about nine. Next to the young girl with a woman who looked to be in her early thirties with almost beige-peach coloring to her skin making a stark comparison between the two; yet, there were also some striking similarities between the two of them, both the young girl and the woman and the same hazel-brown eyes, same long dark lashes, and identical cupid-bow lips that were plush pink which were turned up in equally identical wide smiles. The older woman had on a blue North Face plush jacket and had the strap of black satchel over her shoulder.
I looked over the Golden State Bridge, back when it was in its prime, that was in the distant background and the grey skies surrounding it along with tall trees (which were similar to the Redwoods here) framing the picture. I flipped over the picture, my fingers grazed over the blue pen cursive that read:
Golden State Bridge/ Muir Woods National Monument
3/06/2016
Mom & Angel
I didn't need to rummage through my messed up memory bank, have to second guess anything, or force myself to remember. I didn't need to try to remember memories like these, they were already imprinted inside of me; besides, how could I forget the woman when she was my mother. And the girl next to her was… me. This picture was taken the year the virus started to go global. That day happened so long ago, but the memory still ran freshly in my mind as I thought about it. We were hiking that day, well technically it was my first hike where it my mom's like that; I absolutely hated it, but just like I remembered, she always told tenth or something me the journey was worth the view. And it was true.
I felt a soft thump! Land beside me and I wiped at my eyes before the tears could come out. I didn't have to look up to see who it was. Neither did I flinch when I felt his rough padded hand on my shoulder, I simply leaned into his touch and waited till he took his place next to mine. But I didn't meet his clear blue eyes, I couldn't. He made a noise for my attention, but the only attention I gave him was my eyes watching his hands.
"Are you okay? Why did you leave?"
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out, instead I let him take the picture from my hands. Watching from the corner of my eye as he studied the picture, I looked up, my eyes settled on the bleak outline of the city. There were no lights, but one could faintly make out the shape of the infamous bridge and the tall skyscrapers. My heart fluttered as the familiar feeling of longing emerged as I continued to stare out onto the the apocalyptic city of San Francisco. I was born and raised there, that I knew, I could remember all the days I spent in that city with my mother. But this felt different, it was almost as if there was something within that city that played a key role of what happened to me.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when Blue Eyes cooed at me begging for me to look at him. And I did, still barely being able to let him meet my eyes which still felt wet.
He signed, "this girl looks like you. Who is the other human?"
I slowly signed, "that girl is me, Blue."
Blue Eyes stared at me, his eyes flickering back down to the picture to justify to my claim, "and the other one?"
I swallowed the thick lump in my throat as I took the picture back from him, I fold it in half, resting it on my thigh before I replied, "my mother."
For a few moments nothing passed between us, by the wind passing through the trees like a soft lullaby to all those who lived within its woods. Blue knew that I haven't seen my mother for almost three years, I didn't even know what happened to her, if she was even still alive when Caesar found me. For the longest I carried the guilt of forcing myself to push the thought of the only family member I had to the back of my mind, as if it would blur the ache- and now with this picture that Maracelle found, I couldn't do that.
Did I want to find out if she was still out there? If she was still alive?
Was she still looking for me?
Maybe we lost each other and that was how I ended up here?
Or did she get the flu and I was on my own the whole time before Caesar found me lying in a ditch covered in blood?
All those thoughts raced through my mind, but the chain broke when I closed my eyes and felt Blue take his hand in mine. My soft hands felt the heat radiating from his padded palms and it gave me the courage fully look at him. Blue Eyes had been one of very many who despised us being here, even when Caesar still hadn't decided if he would let us stay longer than necessary. He even bonded with Koba over their share hates on humans dozens of time, practically within my eyesight. It had taken more than few tries for the girls and I to show the Apes that we were not a threat to them and never would plan on being a threat to what they had built, even more with Blue Eyes. But over time, I had proven him wrong and now I shared a bond with him that held trust and security, I had told him about the dreams whenever they were too much to handle and as much of my past I could remember before the 113.
"Do you want to look for her?" Blue asked stiffly.
I looked at him before looking over at the lost city, "it's been so long, I don't remember the last time I saw her- I don't even know if she's still alive. It's better to just let it rest before I get my hopes up." I gulped.
Blue Eyes nodded his head, "this is your home now. We are your family now. Apes Together Strong."
I turned my upper body to face him more, letting my lips curve up together as I closed my eyes blocking out he tears before they could well up in my eyes so he could see them and then I opened them again looking into the bluest of blue, "Angelica is home." I confirmed.
Blue Eyes smiled before he slowly, almost hesitantly, brought his other arm up and reached upward toward the back of my neck, my body tingled as his hand cradled the back of my neck. Sending even more warmth into my body, as I let him bring our forehead together. I feel my body lean more into his touch, almost as if it was a safe net for me emotionally, as bizarre as that sounds. But the moment just feels more like it was right. It surprises me just how right it feels when he takes my hand that he had been holding and places it over his chest. I could practically feel his wild heartbeat beating against his muscled chest.
"Angelica. Is. Home." Blue Eyes declares.
My eyes widened before I break out into a smile and my chest warms, I figure this is how Alyssa feels when one of her young ones finally are able to sign a whole sentence. At the end of the night, Blue Eyes drops me at my place and bids me goodnight with a grin; I shake my head at him with a sheepish smile on my face before I bid him off. The picture still folded in half in my hand as I enter our home.
I place the picture on a small stand made up out of cut off tree stump as I change into the same slip I slept in every night. I brush through my curly tangles, eyes starring at the reflection looking right back at me almost as if mocking me in some kind of twisted way. The girl in the picture was an early version of my reflection, the girl I used to be and could have been before all hell broke lose; but this reflection was also the same as the girl in all of my dreams, the girl that haunted my closed eyes; and finally, this reflection reminded me of the broken, incomplete, and torn girl I was inside. For what had to be hundredth time, I came to the conclusion that the girl in my dreams was me.
Before I joined the other girls in bed, I examined the picture once more, my index finger tracing the happy face of my mother before I went to examine the back side of the photo once more. I squint my eyes when I could faintly make out something hurriedly scribbled at the bottom right corner of the photo, it was smeared:
Taken by Uncle W.R.
I shake my head when nothing familiar shot through me at the initials or the word 'uncle' and decide to call it a night as I lay the picture back on the stump and crawl back into the bed. Throwing the bear fur over my body as I settled my head onto the fur pillowcase stuffed with moss. Another design made by Maracelle to make this place feel more like home when we were settling in more and more.
For the first time in a while, I shut my eyes and the girl in my dreams didn't haunt me neither did the unwanted flashbacks I didn't know I remembered, or the voices that echoed through my head. For the first time, I fell asleep only dreaming of nothing. And I couldn't decide if it was the resurfaced picture or Blue Eyes comforting me that made the change. I was only thankful that one of them (or both) did.
Ah, so this my lovelies is the end of this chapter/prologue! Please tell me how you feel with your thoughts in the comments as I will try to regularly answer! This was just a prologue with some deep info about the characters' backgrounds and their relationships with certain characters *cough*cough*Blue Eyes x Angelica*cough*cough along with their connections to the village. And yes this story will heavily include Blue Eyes x OC along with future pairings between our other three characters and some of the characters in the movie as well! Also, yes, two of the OC's are characters of color such as the main character Angelica and my other OC Sailer!
Anywhoooo, the first official Chapter 1 of this story will be posted something this upcoming week! Just comment, fav, or follow to keep on reminding me ;)
