Stand By Me by Fullmetal Pyromaniac
Chapter twelve
Meliodas was still resting. Elizabeth had awoken that morning after only a few hours of dreamless sleep, nightmares had filled the spaces in between. She gently rubbed her eyes and lay on her side, gazing out the window. The world seemed so monotone today.
Eventually Vivian came round with the breakfast tray, Elizabeth didn't eat anything though, she only had tea. Vivian scoffed and rolled her eyes but moved on to the next room.
To occupy herself until her tests with Arthur and Merlin, Elizabeth spoke with her father and Margaret and had arranged for her to come in with their father in a few days. Whenever he was feeling a little bit better. She missed them so much.
Merlin came along later to take Elizabeth to her tests, she helped her into her wheelchair and pushed her to the room. Neither of them spoke, questions would be saved for when they got back.
...
"So how is he?" Elizabeth had asked after she was wheeled back to her room, deciding to confront the elephant in the room. Merlin let out a deep breath as she helped Elizabeth into her bed.
"He's better, that's for sure" she sighed, "it's just the medicine. He wasn't taking it, such a shame too, he was finally showing better results. Arthur and I were going to put him on a lighter dose for a while just to see how he went. I guess that's on hold for now, eh?"
Noticing Elizabeth's downfallen expression, she placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly,
"I promise, as long as he takes his medicine, it's only upwards from here" she turned towards the door and scowled, "I'll make sure he takes his medicine. No question about it"
"Thank you Merlin" Elizabeth said gratefully, smiling softly, Merlin returned the smile and shook her head.
"I should be thanking you, you've done more for Meliodas than you realise" she stood back and went to the door, "I'd better be off, I'll visit Meliodas later and tell him you're asking for him. Take a nap or something, you look exhausted"
"I will, don't worry" Elizabeth yawned, laying down, "See you later, Merlin"
Merlin closed her curtains and whispered a goodbye, closing the door behind her.
Meliodas could only get better, if he took his medicine, which Merlin and Arthur would make sure of. That thought alone was enough comfort to send Elizabeth to sleep.
...
After waking up for the second time that day, Elizabeth felt a little bit better. She sloppily looked at the time on her phone and groaned, she'd slept for little over an hour. It was now one in the afternoon.
The sins would probably be wondering where she and Meliodas were. So Elizabeth decided to go the club room. She hauled herself into her wheelchair and began to roll herself towards the door. She could have probably walked, but with the stress of Meliodas she decided it was better to rest her legs.
"Maybe I should check on Meliodas?" She pondered. Slowly wheeling herself along the corridor, when Elizabeth reached Meliodas' door she was about to knock when she heard voices coming from inside.
Elizabeth quietly wheeled herself to the side of the door and breathed slowly, trying to listen to the conversation. It sounded to be Merlin and Meliodas. Inwardly, she battled with herself, and her need to listen in on the conversation won. She wheeled herself to the side of the door and breathed quietly.
"You can't keep doing this?" Merlin scolded from inside his room. There was a sigh, and the creak of shitty bed springs.
"Yeah, yeah, I know" Meliodas sounded tired, fatigued, his voice slightly raspy and deeper than usual. Elizabeth gasped softly and held her hand to her mouth.
There was another sigh, it sounded like Merlin this time.
"You worried everyone, especially Elizabeth. Jesus, you should have seen everyone, Ban was pacing, even Gowther wasn't as friendly as he usually was. You didn't even see Elizabeth. I'm really pissed Meliodas"
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. It's just...nearly the anniversary of Liz. Y'know? I'm sure everyone knows, except Elizabeth that is"
There was a silence. Elizabeth felt weird, like a weight had been dropped in her stomach. There is was again, Liz, the mysterious girl that it seemed everyone knew. That no one would tell her about.
"Are you going to tell her?" Merlin inquired. The silence returned again.
"Maybe, in time. Not yet anyway, I'm not ready to talk about it yet"
"Fine, remember though, it's been years. You have to talk about it one day or you'll never get better. Remember what you told Ban and King?"
Meliodas didn't respond,
"Okay, I'll check your vitals and be on my way"
Elizabeth took this opportunity to wheel herself away quickly, her eyebrows were furrowed in frustration and worry. She wanted answers. As she turned the corner to the club room, her thoughts were diverted to something. Something unusual.
The hospital curtains covering part of the clubs wall.
Elizabeth hurried down the corridor, ignoring the weird stares of the nurses and doctors that walked past her. She reached the door and threw it open. The room was dark, almost pitch black. Elizabeth turned on the light and closed the door behind her.
She hauled herself out of her chair and stumbled clumsily to the curtains, her legs weak from lack of use. Elizabeth strode on, determined to find out who Liz was, and why she was so important to Meliodas.
Elizabeth reached the curtains and took a deep breath, then she pulled them over, exposing the wall.
Two pictures were painted on the wall, the drawings crisp and precise. Under the pictures were two blocks painted to be like ancient scrolls with ageing paper and flowing golden writing above each one.
The picture on the left was of a tree, part the way through the green leaves, they morphed into strands of golden hair that was splayed out. The hair was part of a young girl who was dressed in white and appeared to be sleeping, her hands clasped over her chest. Beneath her, the scroll read:
In Loving Memory of Elaine
x. - x.
We'll reunite under the fairy tree...
The Story of the Fairy Tree...
Tearing her eyes from the beautiful painting, Elizabeth looked at the painting on the right. It was a white background, a young woman lay there, her red hair fanned out similarly to the blonde girls. Except she wore what appeared to be a soldiers uniform and held a sword in her hands that rested in her stomach, the sword pointed downwards and was embellished with jewels and flowers.
The painting seemed so real, as if Elizabeth could feel the soft fibres of the girls' hair just by reaching out. Underneath the scroll lay, ready to be read.
In Loving Memory of Liz
x. - x.
Fought until her very last breath...
The Fall of Danafor...
Elizabeth gasped, covering her mouth while tears spilled down her cheeks, and began to read...
End of Chapter twelve.
A.N. Well, I sped through the chapter I was writing in an instant, it's very close to my heart, but I'll leave my little story for chapter fifteen.
I think I gained some followers for this story last chapter, so thank you! I might actually cry ;/\;
We're finally getting really into this fiction, and I'm really excited to see what you guys think about the up-coming chapters. Including the small, but necessary, filler chapters this should be about 30-ish chapters in total, my longest fanfiction ever! I might fuse some together, but roughly 26-30 including an epilogue!
I'll try not to keep you all waiting long, but with my prelim on the 20th or thereabouts, I'll need to focus, but I'll do my best!
Drop me a review to motivate me! Follow and favourite to keep up to date!
Thank you for reading, see you soon,
- Ruby xxx