A/N: GUESS WHO'S BACK, BACK AGAIN. Hello friends, I'm once again writing a lapidot multi-chapter fic, and I hope you enjoy this one as well! Be warned however, this story deals with heavy themes such as depression, suicide attempts and angst. It's a fantasy story, with magical elements, so it'll be fun to explode this universe with you all! I'll post triggers at the beginning of each chapter, just to be safe. Enjoy this chapter!
[TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts.]
There is a wolf in the woods
The villagers used to say
"The ones who go there at night
Are forever bound to stay."
There is a wolf in the woods
Its fur is blue and thick
Its jaws so big and strong
It can easily munch a brick
"There is a wolf in the woods!"
The people used to cry
"Then I shall go to the woods."
Said the girl who wants to die.
Plates clinking, beer cups being filled, the loud voiced of men boasting through the wooden walls; the usual night at the tavern. The place was old, you see, but it was always full of people – maybe its age and the fact that it had been the first tavern in the village was what captivated everyone to this day. Now, it wasn't a fancy place, not at all. It had a terrible smell (a combination of generations of vomit and piss), the wood on the floor, the ceiling, the walls and the balcony was barely hanging anymore – bugs had munched all the way to its core and the place was sure to fall apart at any second – and even the type of crowd it attracted was the worst.
The manliest of men in all the land always made a pitstop at Fryman's Tavern.
"Ain't no beast gonna lay a hand on me!" One big, buffy lad put his dirty boot on the table and yelled proudly. "Give me an axe and I'll slay it right fuckin' now!"
"Couldn't even slay your girl last night, buddy!" Another tall guy responded, earning a round of laughs across the room.
"Whatcha say?! Come here and say it to my fists!" The first man tried to get down from the table without spilling his fourth beer, but as it was expected, he fell down as soon as his foot connected to the ground. The situation just made the tavern explode with more laughter, followed by a round of whistles and booing.
"He fell right down, just like he's gonna fall in the wolf's mouth I tell ya!"
"This one ain't even worth as an appetizer! The beast will just walk past him."
"Hell, he'll probably walk past the beast and not even notice!"
More thunderous snickers and jabs followed deep into the night. It was pretty late, so at that point barely anyone knew what was happening anymore.
Well, one person, maybe.
"You shouldn't be making fun of the beast," A teenager, chubby and blonde, said out loud, making everyone turn their attention to him.
"Who let a kid in here?" Someone asked.
"That's Ronaldo, you dumbass, the son of the owner of this place." Another one replied.
"I'm serious!" Ronaldo put his hands on the table, frowning. "The wolf could easily tear all of us apart. None of you would be able to beat it in a fight. You shouldn't be making fun of such a creature!"
"Ha! Let the monster try," A bearded man snickered, getting up. "The moment it sets foot on this village again, it is dead meat."
A chanting of 'yeah!' followed his statement, but Ronaldo wasn't convinced.
"Oh yeah? The wolf's been terrorizing this village for years and no one's done a thing to stop it. It has kidnapped women and children! Your families could be next, and yet here you are, drinking yourself to a stupor!"
This made some of the sober ones stop and reconsider, but it didn't last more than a fleeting moment. Soon, the tall man from before walked towards Ronaldo and towered menacingly over him. "I'd watch my mouth if I were you, Fryman."
"Yeah, what do you know?" Another joined in. "You think we haven't taken measures to stop the wolf from entering the village? You're just a stupid kid, don't act like you know what's best!"
"Ever since chief Kofi sat on the throne, the kidnappings have lessened considerably!"
"Then why haven't they stopped entirely?" Ronaldo was visibly shaking, but his pursue of the truth was bigger than the fear of being punched in the face by every man in the room. "Why haven't we been able to kill the beast yet?"
And that was a really, really good question. Because everyone at the tavern knew the answer, and yet, they were too drunk and ashamed to admit it. After all, with more than 100 warriors constantly scouting the village's boarders, it should not be possible for people to keep disappearing like that. They knew that whenever a woman or child vanished, it was the wolf that had taken them away, because its characteristic navy blue fur would show up on their beds at night. But the windows were locked, and the husbands were awake on guard duty. So how?
The truth was, no one had ever seen the wolf.
They didn't even know if it was really a wolf.
It was actually a fairytale, passed down by generations. Mothers would tell their children to behave, or else the wolf would come and take them away, and husbands would tell their women to behave, or else they'd be killed by the same beast. And even though women and kids behaved, they still vanished without a trace. The only proof that it was a creature that had taken them, was that damned fur on their beds.
It was a curse that had been placed on that village ages ago, one that no one knew how to break.
"Shut up, fatso." Was all the tall man replied, and everyone agreed that it was time to finish the conversation. Ronaldo just sighed as the men resumed their drinking and lively banter, as if nothing was wrong whatsoever.
He wanted to get to the bottom of things, but no one seemed to care enough to do anything. It had been that way for generations, even before his grandfather was born, and yet no one had the guts or brains to do some research. So, Ronaldo had taken this personal quest, and promised to find out the truth about what was truly happening in his village.
He just needed some support, but it was impossible to find anyone with more brains and less muscle in that place.
Powerless to keep arguing, Ronaldo got up and made his way upstairs, where his room was located.
Before reaching the steps, however, he bumped into someone.
"Sorry!" Looking down, he saw that it was his father's helper, a tiny orphan boy who'd been taken in by the Frymans. "Oh, didn't see you there, P."
"It's fine." P. answered, his eyes downcast. "Excuse me." He made his way through the crowd and grabbed empty bottles of beer where he could reach. He was too tiny, however, and men kept elbowing him in the face without even noticing. They didn't apologize, of course – not that P. was expecting them to – so he did his task as fast as he could.
Ronaldo watched the scene disheartened. That boy was around his age, and yet he'd been through a lot more than any teenager should have. Despite Ronaldo's efforts to try and talk to him about his discoveries, P. barely ate or spoke with anyone, his skinny body apparent through the thick coat he wore. He had deep bags under his eyes and red and purple marks all around his pale body. He worked around the place like a puppet.
P. was really a lifeless person.
With a sigh, Ronaldo finally turned around and walked upstairs to work on his theories about the wolf. He hoped P. got to rest soon.
Peridot grew up on the streets. No mother, no father, no siblings or family she knew of. Surviving was an instinct, and she did it effortlessly. Stealing food was easy and sneaking into warm places in the endless winter was like second-nature. She sometimes got into trouble, but she had never been caught so far; the girl was just stupidly fast for someone so skinny. Being young had its perks, she thought.
It also helped with finding out gossips that she could trade for food. Information had power if you knew where to look in that village. That was what she'd been doing for a long time; an information broker, who didn't ask for anything but meals, warm clothes, and a place to sleep once in a while. She was fairly good at the job, so her life had become a bit easier thanks to that.
And the conversations she came across were starting to get interesting.
"Have you heard about the Lazulis?"
"Aye, it was time someone killed that terrible sorceress. The Lazulis were truly the right choice for the job, being a family of Witch Hunters and all!"
"Our crops will grow considerably now, and no more curses will be placed upon harmless civilians. We should throw them a party!"
Peridot listened to everything hidden under the sewer as she chewed on a piece of stale bread, and smiled to herself. Apparently, this Lazuli family had killed a powerful sorceress; one that had been terrorizing the houses for a long time. It was brand new info, too, since the two individuals talking were part of the town's press; they usually received their news way ahead of everyone else. That could be exchanged for some meat, at least.
When her two informants walked away, she jumped down the drain and walked casually with her hands on her pockets. What a jackpot.
She had a wonderful dinner filled with proteins that night.
And that was just how she lived on a daily basis. It was a bit lonely, knowing that her friends wanted nothing but news from her, but she didn't mind. It kept her alive, so she kept doing it. Things were as good as they could get for a homeless street rat.
Until growing up, at least.
The sudden growth spur turned her life into a mess. Her height was hindering her movements, and hiding was now a chore instead of a casual activity; surviving like that was starting to weight on her. She still had her gossips, somehow, but they were a lot weaker than her usual loot, so the people who used to do business with her abandoned her for good.
That was the beginning of her downfall.
One day, she fell while running away from the owner of a fruit stand, and twisted her ankle. At the last minute, she managed to find a spot to hide and not get caught, but doing so only managed to worsen her condition. Two days later and her foot was nearly black.
That was when she decided to look for help; there was no way she could keep going like this. Maybe someone was willing to lend some medicine and a warm resting spot.
Yeah, right. Not in that village.
"Sorry, P. You know the drill: no good, no beds."
"I can't do business with a foot like this, man." She argued. "Come on, just one night and I'll scram."
"If I let you in, I'll have to let all the other beggars in. Can't be doing that."
And then there was a door shut to her face.
Everyone turned her away. No one wanted a stinky street-rat limping near them, she was only scaring the costumers away. At first, it was just mean comments and warnings, but with that she could deal with. Words had never stung, and they never would – that was what she thought at the time.
Until the day the fruit stand owner caught her on an empty street. He recognized her face and she knew she was doomed. Her heart jumped to her throat and she tried to run, only to be stopped by her bad ankle. The pain shot through her body unlike anything she'd ever felt before, and she screamed.
She thought she would never feel anything quite as painful.
The fruit stand owner proved her wrong.
Over and over again.
She had lost track of time. Was it day? Night? Had it been a week? A year? She didn't know, and she never would.
The man had locked her in a cell with water and crumbles of bread for longer than existence itself. At some point in the day he would come down and press down her hands in a really hard wooden contraption. She barely felt her fingers anymore, but somehow it still hurt like the plague. Then he would do the same thing with her feet, while asking her to apologize from stealing. She would say the words repeatedly, accomplishing nothing. When the man was satisfied, he would smile and spit on her.
This cycle repeated for days.
"May the wolf come and get ya." He'd say.
He'd close the door and Peridot would lay down, emotionless. She had no idea what he was talking about, but anything that would come and take her away from that place sounded like a blessing.
"I wish it would." She'd mutter until exhaustion caught up to her. She always prayed to never wake up.
And yet, she always did.
One of these days, Peridot died. Or she thought she had.
There was a really bright light suddenly, and she had to squint her damaged eyes to see. A tall figure made its way to her lifeless body and crouched. It was a woman covered in a blue veil, and she looked stunning. She touched Peridot's hands and feet, and like a miracle, they stopped hurting. The girl had never felt so relieved in her life. Her chest filled with an unknow emotion – was this what happiness was? She'd heard about the word, but never experienced it.
The figure's touch was magical. It was like being cradled by someone's arms and feeling… safe.
"Finally…" Peridot whispered, closing her eyes, ready to go.
"Not yet," The woman's voice was sultry and echoed through her mind like a spirit talking. "You still have an important mission, child."
"What…?" The feeling of dread came back immediately. "N-no, I don't. I'm ready to die."
"Yes, you do." A ghastly wind made its ways into Peridot's lungs as the deity spoke, and the environment started to change. The pure, white light emanating from her surroundings turned deep blue, and everything seemed to stretch to infinity. "I will save your life. And in return, you will get my revenge."
Peridot didn't know what was happening. Revenge? She didn't want anything to do with it. All she ever wanted was to close her eyes and stop existing, peacefully. Now even that was being denied to her. "I d-don't want this. Please, just take me away!"
But she knew the deed was done when the woman bestowed a kiss on her forehead. All of her brain functions seemed to awaken at once and she felt a strong pain on her chest. The world broke into pieces and reconstructed itself at the same time, and then, it stopped.
When Peridot opened her eyes again, her body was completely fine. No injuries, no pain, no hunger. She was a brand-new person. Blinking twice, she tried to grasp her surroundings. She wasn't in the cell anymore, but in some kind of room.
Looking down, she realized that her hands were tinted red, just like the bed in the middle of the place. Shifting her gaze to the person lying on top of it, she saw the fruit stand owner. His eyes were open, but he was not seeing. His mouth agape, like he was shocked, and yet there was no sound coming from him. No breathing, either.
Peridot moved her fingers and dropped the knife she was apparently holding unconsciously.
She had killed the man.
With a yell, she fell backwards and crawled all the way back until her back hit the opposite wall. She brought a hand to her heart and heaved, trying to calm down, but failing. Her eyes moved towards the knife she had dropped on the floor, and slowly Peridot moved towards it. With a careful hand, she grabbed the object and swallowed, shivering.
She had killed a person.
If the village's guards didn't catch her, someone would. There was no safe place for a murderer, and she knew that. She'd heard way too many gossips about what happened to killers, and all of them described things that were worse than what she'd been through in that cell.
Without seeing another choice, Peridot pointed the knife towards her own stomach, and hesitated. She counted to three and closed her eyes, thrusting the metal against herself.
A metallic noise hit her ears, but there wasn't any pain. She looked down and saw the knife apparently unable to pierce her body. Peridot tried once again, and nothing. So, she brought the blade to her neck and sliced; and yet, it was like a papercut. No pain, not even a feeling. She did it once, twice, three times in different places of her body, but every time the blade would hit her and stop as if it had hit a metal wall.
She dropped the knife again.
"No…" Getting up, Peridot ran outside, looking for something. She found a discarded rope in an alley and quickly grabbed it, making a noose. Then she put the noose around her neck and jumped from a roof, expecting to get strangled on the way down.
Yet, nothing happened. She was hanging by her neck, but could still breathe normally like any person.
"No, no, no." The rope broke and she fell on the ground, unharmed. Peridot ran around town for hours, looking for other ways to die, and failing every time. Jumping from the bridge only resulted in water all over her body. She tried to lay down on the snow then; maybe hypothermia could get her. The snow eventually dissolved, like her body was a heat-pack. She jumped in front of a carriage, and left the street without a scratch. Nothing was working.
Absolutely nothing was able to harm her anymore.
When the night came, she sat down on the sidewalk and buried her head on her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
Whatever that woman in her dream did to her, she made it impossible for Peridot to die.
And that was the worst curse of all.
Peridot lived for a long, long time.
The years went by, and she eventually learned more and more about her condition – no, curse was a better name for what had happened.
She didn't need to eat.
She didn't need to drink much, either.
Her body had markings all over it from her suicide attempts, but she couldn't feel any pain.
She had stopped growing, too; it was like she was stilled in time, unmoving and unchanging.
She remembered a few things about the gossips she'd heard and the woman from her dreams, and put a few things together. First, that blue-veiled woman was clearly a sorceress; maybe the one who had been killed by the Lazulis, who knew. She had mentioned something about revenge, but Peridot had no idea what she meant by it. How would making her immortal help her with that? It was pointless to think about it.
The worst of all was that the woman never appeared again, never gave her any explanation. That was the most frustrating thing, in a way. That bitch was responsible for her life, and she had abandoned her. Peridot never asked for this. All she wanted to do was to finally rest after a miserable life with absolutely no accomplishments whatsoever, and even that was denied her. Now she wandered all alone in a place that didn't need or want her.
Beggars were good for nothing.
She eventually learned about a wolf that had appeared in the woods and was kidnapping women and children from the village. It was a recent event, so people didn't know much about what was going on. They knew it was a beast with blue fur, because the fur kept showing up in people's houses after they disappeared; the villagers decided to call it a wolf because it was easier to recognize.
With not much to do, Peridot tried to go back to her life as an informant. Sometimes things worked out, sometimes they didn't. She didn't care much for what happened anymore.
She was immortal, and nothing hurt.
Her sense of self disappeared at some point, and she felt like a ghost. She still got tired and had to sleep, but other than that, her body was in top condition. Her mind – it was pretty much in pieces.
She heard more and more stories about the wolf; how it all had started a few days after the sorceress death, and how the first victim had been the daughter of Mr. Lazuli – she had disappeared without a trace, and soon enough other people started to follow. Peridot had to admit she was a bit curious, but there was not much she could do to attract this beast – if it was even real.
People – she learned as time went by – were good at creating monsters.
The seasons were still there, as always. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Nothing changed much, and the village didn't change. She witnessed new technologies coming to town, kings rising and falling, new people being born, new people being kidnapped, old people dying. Marriages, parties at the town's square, new sports, new celebrities, old celebrities. Birth, death, everything she couldn't fathom anymore.
And the sorceress who had casted the spell on her was still as quiet as ever.
The wolf was immortal too, apparently, since the kidnappings were still happening after a hundred years. But by now, it was already part of the village's identity.
"Hey, what did you do today?"
"Oh, the usual. Went to work, bought some supplies, didn't get caught by the wolf. How's your mother?"
Peridot snickered. She learned many things throughout her life, but the most important one was that the only reason people were so stupid was because they hadn't lived enough to witness their mistakes being repeated over, and over again.
That sorceress was truly cruel to her; the crowd's stupidity was the worst part of her immortality.
At some point, a fat man found her when she was sitting on a gutter. His name was Fryman, and he was the son of another Fryman she knew.
"Are you okay, boy?" He asked, truly concerned. She didn't have the energy to correct him on her gender – not that it even mattered.
"Peachy." Peridot replied, not even looking at him. The man scratched his beard and sighed.
"Say, how about a meal? I have a tavern, you see, and it's freezing out here."
Impressively, she was surprised. That was the first act of kindness from anyone in that village in a century. Of course she was suspicious, but decided to indulge this man; it's not like she had anything better to do. If he tried to hurt her, she wouldn't feel a thing anyway.
"…Okay." Peridot replied after a while, and he smiled warmly at her. When they arrived at the tavern, she simply said 'oh', but didn't elaborate. There was no way to explain to this man that she'd seen that place being built 70 years ago.
The soup was warm and delicious, despite her lack of hunger. Something set in the pit of her stomach, and for a second she was hopeful – maybe poison could kill her? But it was just a burp.
"Bless you!" Fryman laughed. Peridot honestly didn't know how to formulate a smile, so she didn't. The man talked to her about various things, and she vaguely replied. At some point, he asked her if she wouldn't like to work at the tavern in exchange for a bed and regular meals. Peridot frowned, not understanding. Was he… offering her his home? That was the weirdest thing she'd ever seen.
"I had another son, you see…" Fryman explained. "He passed away from a disease a few months ago. The doctor wasn't willing to help him, and when we finally got to another medic, it was too late. I promised I would try to make this village a better place for his sake."
If Peridot could feel anything, she would say that his story was touching. She was about to deny his kindness, but then she looked into the man's eyes.
They were so…
Genuine.
"…Maybe I can stay. For a bit."
And there is where she remained.
The tavern was finally empty after the night of heavy drinking and Peridot finished cleaning the last of the cups. Fryman walked out of the kitchen and sat down on one of the chairs, sighing tiredly. "What a day! Or night, eh?"
He winked playfully towards Peridot, but she just shrugged. They stood in a comfortable silence after that and then she finally yawned. "I'll go to sleep."
"Alright, have a good night, kiddo."
Walking upstairs, Peridot was about to open the door to her room when Ronaldo caught her arm suddenly. "P., you have to see this!"
She rolled her eyes, but went with him anyway; that kid wasn't so bad, just a bit crazy, maybe. He had some interesting theories, and she could sympathize with wanting to know what was happening around them – her whole life was a mystery to her, and she'd been there for a goddamn century. Sometimes she wondered what kind of funny expressions Ronaldo would make if she told him the truth about being immortal. The boy would certainly freak.
"Okay, so remember that I was looking for manuscripts and old books about the legend of the wolf?" He cleared out his desk and put some other materials on top of it. "I tried to look for traces of stories from all the way back when the beast first appeared, but nothing was helpful. Until today!"
Ronaldo opened one of the books, a really old one with yellow pages and a worn out cover. "Look at this! It says that a hundred years ago, a sorceress was living in this village, plaguing the crops and causing mayhem wherever she went. That lasted for years, until a man from the Lazuli family finally stroke her down. I never heard about this family, so I asked around."
Peridot blinked, actually interested in what he was saying. She remembered hearing a lot about the Lazulis, the sorceress, and the wolf back then, but never really tried to piece the three of them together. Maybe something about this whole scenario could explain her own curse.
"The Lazulis were a really powerful family, full of riches. They were famous for forging weapons that used rare materials to kill witches, sorceress and demons! That's how they managed to murder the sorceress," Ronaldo turned the page. "But that still doesn't have any connection to the wolf." Then he paused, dramatically. "…Or does it?"
Peridot frowned, her heart leaping a beat. "So? Does it?"
"Well, if these records are accurate, a few days after they killed the witch, the firstborn of the Lazulis disappeared. She was a teenage girl, close to our age at the time. And look at this," He pointed to a crudely drawn picture on the page. "They found blue fur on her bed. Just like the ones we are still finding to this day! Coincidence? I don't think so."
Peridot sighed in frustration; she already knew all of that, she'd lived it. She wanted answers, she wanted to know why she was like this, who was that woman from her dream, what revenge she was talking about, why hadn't she contacted Peridot ever again, why can't she die—
But it was unfair to expect Ronaldo to have all of these answers.
"I'm going to bed," Peridot finally spoke up, too tired to think anymore.
"N-no, wait! I haven't even told you the part where I think I figured out how to kill the wolf!"
"Goodnight, Ronaldo."
"But don't you want to know how this book says that only a cursed creature can kill another cursed being?"
Peridot stopped on her tracks, frozen solid. She turned around, and slowly walked back, her eyes open wide. "…What did you say?"
"It's right here!" He pointed to another page. "It says that 'only a creature cursed by the same sorceress can kill another cursed being'. The wolf is clearly a cursed creature, since it's been around for a hundred years. Also, blue fur? No average wolf has blue—"
Peridot grabbed the book from Ronaldo's hands and scanned the contents as quickly as her untrained eyes allowed her. After reading the whole paragraph, she dropped it on the floor and stared at the wall for a moment, ignoring Ronaldo's protests of 'hey, careful, this book is rare!'.
The gears in her head started to turn, and ever so slowly a macabre smile made its way to her lips.
Could it be…?
Without another word, she ran out of the room, downstairs, and away from the tavern. As she ran, her lungs burned, a nice sensation for her numbed body. There were so many things going through her mind at that point, but the one thing she kept repeating in a loop was the last verse of the famous poem dedicated to the wolf.
"There is a wolf in the woods!"
The people used to cry
"Then I shall go to the woods."
Said the girl who wants to die.
It was quite interesting to notice that Peridot never even tried to go past the village's borders even after a century. The main reason was because there was absolutely nothing on the other side but miles and miles of a dense, freezing forest. The border security was also a lot more intense than a hundred years ago – the wolf was the guilty one for that – but it was not like Peridot didn't know her way in and out of the place.
She had been hiding her whole life.
Squeezing her way past the sewers, Peridot managed to walk in darkness until she found the familiar loose rock. She just needed to push that out of the way and a tiny cavern that lead to the outside came into view. After that, she just had to walk in a straight line for a few minutes and then go out. It was a really good place to smuggle things in and out of town, and Peridot wondered for a moment if the wolf wasn't using that cave to sneak past the guards and kidnap the people.
Nah, it couldn't be that smart.
The outside view wasn't amazing; first there was a huge field of nothingness, covered by snow. The full moon allowed her to see where she was going, so she was glad for that, at least. Her steps were rushed, but calculated – she knew where the guards were, so she needed to hide her footprints.
As soon as the snowy field ended, the forest began. The trees were incredibly tall, covering up the moonlight and making it very hard to see. Peridot hated the prospect of walking in there in vain, but she needed to try.
If what Ronaldo said was true, maybe that night she could finally find peace.
She took a deep breath and gave the first step. Then she second. Slowly and carefully she walked deeper into the woods, shivering from head to toe – Peridot thought that nothing else would be able to frighten her, but she was wrong. That forest had a terrible aura to it and it felt like a thousand things were watching her every move, waiting for a moment of weakness to attack. She didn't know why she was so afraid of that, since that was the exact reason she was even there.
Minutes went by and nothing was happening. Peridot was starting to think that her plan was a failure, just like everything else she did, and sighed. She bawled her fists and grit her teeth in anger, and threw her head back.
"Hey, wolf!" Her yell echoed through the trees and her heart picked up the pace. "I'm here! Come and get me!"
Something flew away in the distance, but nothing else happened. Her ears were focused on the tiniest of sounds and she bit her lip again.
"Are you deaf?! I said," Peridot crouched and made a snowball from the snow around her feet. "Come. And. Get me!" She threw the snowball in a crooked direction, aiming at nothing.
The silence was crushing.
She had never felt so alone in her life.
Not even a blood-thirsty beast wanted her.
No one needed her.
No one had ever needed her.
So why—
Why wasn't she allowed to die?
"Come and get me!" She screamed again, the desperation in her voice clear. "You stupid fucking animal! Get me! I'm right here! I'm here! I'm right—" The tears rolled down her cheeks and she sobbed. "Here…" She had no strength anymore.
Her knees gave out and she sat down, crying in her own arms.
"Someone, please… find me…" She whispered.
That was when something pushed her with an inhuman strength.
Peridot fell with her back on the snow and felt something extremely heavy pressing down on her chest. Once her dizziness dwindled, Peridot opened her eyes and saw the yellow, glowing eyes of a beast staring right into her soul.
The fact that everything had started to hurt was a sign that maybe Ronaldo was right after all.
Its claws were digging into her skin and its mouth was opened slightly, salivating, and showing huge, bright teeth. Pointy years, navy blue fur, bigger than any animal she had ever seen – and perhaps it was twisted of her to think that right under its jaw –, but at that moment, all she could gather was that…
The wolf was breathtakingly beautiful.
Its breath was so close to her throat that Peridot could feel each and every beat of her heart pulsating under the warmth of the animal. Without any other reaction, Peridot closed her eyes.
And smiled.
"Finally…" The word left her mouth in a single breath.
But the wolf didn't bite down.
Instead, the weight was lifted from her chest slowly and she felt the wolf's paw moving and shifting to something else. Her eyes were still closed when the beast seemed to remove its body from on top of her and Peridot frowned, confused.
She finally opened her eyes to see what in the world was wrong.
And when she did, the wolf was gone.
And a girl had replaced it.
"Why?" The girl spoke, with a raspy voice.
Peridot had no idea what had happened. She took a while, but eventually sat back up and looked at her, completely lost. She tried to formulate a sentence, but what came out of her mouth was a weak, "Um… excuse me?"
"Why do you want to die?"
Well. That was a question no one had ever asked her.
"I'm… I'm sorry, where is—"
"The wolf?" The girl interrupted, her neutral expression unchanged. Peridot looked at her and just nodded pathetically. The girl didn't say anything and looked closer, as if studying Peridot's features. Then she got up, cleaned her pants from the snow and mud, and looked back down at her.
The first rays of sunlight illuminated her face at that moment, and Peridot could finally make out her features.
Blue hair, sharp cheekbones, glowing yellow eyes.
And in a second, everything became painfully clear.
"You're looking at it."
Said the wolf.
A/N: So those of you who have read my other fic "Never Knows Best" probably noticed that this one is very different. But don't worry, I don't plan on making this depressing forever, it'll have its badass, awesome, mysterious, happy and fluffy (and steamy) moments as well. I hope you liked it, please leave a review with your thoughts!
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See you,
- niigoki
