Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis. Thanks and enjoy Half Dead, Half Despair.
Half Dead, Half Despair
Eddie was lost. Plain and simple, Eddie was lost. The Osirian was gone, never to return. Half of Eddie's soul was dead because he had killed it. He had been the one to take the medallion from Mara on that fateful graduation day. It hadn't been forced on him. Oh no, in fact Eddie had taken it before he knew what he was even doing.
It had been his choice to put his hands on the pyramid. No one forced him. Sure, the world would have ended if he hadn't, but he could've easily forced Sophie or whatever her name had really been to do it. No one had forced Eddie to kill half his soul.
Eddie was lost without his Osirian half. He may not have known he was the Osirian for long, but in that time he had accepted that he wasn't normal, that he had a destiny beyond what he knew. But now without that special part of him, he wasn't the Osirian, the protector of the Chosen One. He was just plain old Eddie Miller.
And he didn't know how to handle that.
Sure, Patricia helped when she could, but since they were both at different colleges it was hard to keep in contact. She couldn't always be there when Eddie fell into his dejected state. And even when she was there she couldn't help him half the time. That's just how lost Eddie really was.
Days like today Eddie would think back over what had happened and how he could've changed the outcome. If only he could go back in time and change everything. The he wouldn't be like this, this living zombie. If Alfie was here and could see him, then Eddie would've definitely been in trouble.
But Alfie wasn't here. He was off at college with Willow, somewhere in the UK. Eddie was in New York, his birthplace. Patricia was in Jersey. KT was at Penn State. Jerome and Joy were off somewhere in France. Mara was in Australia. Fabian was in California, searching for Nina.
Nina. That was a different matter all together. If he wasn't the Osirian anymore, then was she still the Chosen One? Probably, Eddie thought grimly. He had been the protector, after all. She was the one who needed protection. And Eddie had made the ultimate sacrifice to protect not only Nina, but the whole world.
Eddie started thinking about that fateful hour again, about what he could have done different. There was a lot he could've done to fix everything, but he didn't. He just acted on instinct. And instinct had taken from him the one thing he had taken for granted.
Instinct was useless if it couldn't protect you. And Eddie's instinct had taken half of his soul away from him.
Eddie let loose a deep, sorrow-filled sigh. Why couldn't he just shake this off? It wasn't like he had grown up knowing he was the Osirian. He had known he was the Osirian for just his last year of high school. And he still didn't know what it had meant to be the Osirian.
His cellphone rang, startling him. He hadn't been expecting anyone to call him so late at night. It was almost two a.m. With another sigh, he hit the green button on his phone, not checking the caller ID.
"What?" he snapped, thinking it was probably Patricia calling to check on him.
"Is that any way to talk to your friend?" a female voice asked.
Eddie was startled. That wasn't Patricia. It wasn't KT, it wasn't Mara, it wasn't even Willow. It was someone he never thought he'd hear from again.
It was the voice of Nina Martin.
"Nina?" Eddie asked, stunned.
He heard her laugh. "Who else would it be? I heard you were having problems and thought I could help."
Eddie sighed. Great, even Nina was joining the sympathy-troupe. He growled his answer, probably harsher than necessary. "I'm fine. I don't need sympathy."
"I wasn't giving you any," Nina retorted. "But I had to talk to you. I should've talked to you on graduation day, but I stupidly waited. Then Fabian found me and told me how you were dealing with losing the Osirian. Why didn't you call me?"
"I didn't have your number," Eddie clarified. "And I didn't think we needed to talk. But um, how did you know about the graduation disaster?"
Nina sighed. "I felt it when the Osirian died. It was like a small piece of me left. I guess since the Chosen One and the Osirian are connected, then when the Osirian died, that part of the Chosen One died, too."
Eddie was confused. So Nina was feeling bad, too? How had he not known this? Stupid, he thought. How would Eddie know how Nina was anymore? He wasn't her protector anymore.
"Anyway, I thought you'd like to know that I'm grateful that you did what you did," Nina continued, oblivious to Eddie's internal struggle.
"What?"
"Yeah. If you hadn't given up the Osirian, then everyone would be dead. Not just everyone in Anubis House, Eddie, everyone in the world. That's a big deal. You're a hero."
Eddie rolled his eyes. "Yeah, they're actually setting up a parade right here in New York City. Wanna come?"
"Sarcasm isn't nice," Nina scolded. "And yeah, if there is a parade, I want to come."
Eddie laughed, his first real laugh since graduation day. Maybe this talk with Nina was helping him get out of his depressed state. They kept talking until dawn, Eddie's sorrowful mood lightening as he talked to the Chosen One, the person he used to protect.
When their conversation finally ended, Eddie smiled at the rising sun. Maybe he would feel better after all. Maybe this wasn't the worst thing ever to happen. He could deal with whatever was thrown his way.
After all, he was Eddie Miller. Nothing could stop him forever.
Tada! This one was interesting to write because I had to figure out how Eddie would sulk. So there was a lot of dramatic sighing and some depressing chitchat. I actually liked writing this oneshot, despite the sadness of it. Oh, and I didn't watch the last few minutes of Touchstone of Ra (curse you recorder-thingy!) so I honestly have no idea how Eddie reacted to losing the Osirian. On a random note, does anyone know what WIP means? I'm not very educated in the fanfic lingo yet, though I've learned a lot in the last few months. So if anyone can drop me a line as to what it means? Thanks for reading!
~C