Well, I can see that the last triple upload was very much appreciate by everyone cx I'm really glad you guys like it an I got a bunch of feedback from it.
So here are my thanks:
-LightandDarkHeart: Loved that you and Tris reviewed about all the chapters I upload. I love hearing from you two and it makes me happy. I've come to look out for you when I post. About the horror thing, that's exactly what I was going for. To let you feel that terror :D
-Tris PhantomEvans: Glad to see your name on this list again! :3 Thanks for the review and thanks a bunch for the gummy bears (virtual x3). I love dark cherry ones -w- But I digress, as for the meeting with Elliot well. You're about to find out c;
-LiveTheAnime01: Thanks so so much for following and favoriting the story :D Love seeing those just as much as the reviews!
Now without further ado, let us begin! :D
Chapter Thirteen
Heir and Servant Girl
"Claire?"
Intuitively, I jerked my hands off from his arms and tried to manage the train wreck that my thoughts were right then. This was never how I expected us three to reencounter, if ever. I had gone through various scenarios in my head trying to prepare myself for this but no amount of thinking had prepared me for the actual thing.
It took me a couple of seconds to return to myself and turn towards Oz who was with a blank stare, facing the ground. Glaring and scowling, I reached towards his arm and gripped it forcefully.
"What the hell are you doing down here, you idiot!" I shouted at him trying to make eye contact with him. He, on the other hand, denied me any and simply continued to stare at the floor as he apologized. I really wasn't trying to be mean or anything but my emotions were so rampant that in my attempt at trying to control them I was simply lashing out at him. "It doesn't matter anymore. We need to get out of here. Now."
Not wanting to spend another second in that suffocating atmosphere, I started to drag Oz's heavy weight after myself. As I had thought, however, he wasn't going to let me go just that easy.
"Hey." I ignored his calling and simply kept walking. "Hey!" Ignore him, Claire. Just try! It's for the best.
"Dammit, I'm talking to you!" With that third bellow, he yanked me by my shoulder and pushed me against a wall. Way too forcefully. My abdomen began throbbing from the manhandling that he was giving me. I tried to tear his hands off me but he wouldn't have it and held on tighter. Without me noticing, my eyes had began to seriously sting from the tears that wanted to come out. But I wouldn't let them. Not now.
"Elliot!"
"What the hell's your problem that you're just ignoring us like that?!" he yelled at me still holding my shoulders. Standing as strong as I could, it was really hard for me to remain aloof and keep my gaze down at the floor. But seeing how I wasn't responding to that, he shook me and shouted. "Answer me!"
I couldn't stand his yelling. It brought me back to that night. I just couldn't take it. It just—
"See what you did." Leo's voice barely reached me as he pulled Elliot off of me. I could still feel his hands on me and the empty space they left only pained me more.
"You...You know each other?" I heard Oz inquire from us three with a very perplexed tone.
"Of course we do!" Elliot confirmed, turning to Oz and giving me his back. She's the servant I rejected. Come on, just say it and get this ache over with! "She's my servant!"
Those three simple words made my eyes widened in surprise. I was baffled beyond words that he had said them. And somehow, that chauvinistic sounding remark couldn't have made me more relieved.
"How...?" It had only been when I spoke that word that I realized that those tears I had tried so hard to keep in were freely pouring now and they were breaking my voice into small sobs. My cracked voice and remark made them all turn to face me. "How can you still think of me as yours? You disowned me. Not just that but I—" I couldn't even understand myself from all the sobs that were coming from me. "I left."
"It's simple. N-No matter how angry I might have been or what I said, I never break my promises." Promise? He raised his face from glancing down at the floor. It was weird that he was holding his neck as he came to meet my gaze. "My promise to you...that I would never let you be alone again."
That one sentence erased all grief and pain, and even anger, that I had held bottled for over a year and replaced it with joy. I was so happy that my body reacted on its own and jumped at Elliot. My arms wrapped around him while I buried my face on his chest. I couldn't stop my tears from that point on. But they weren't of sadness, they were of pure glee.
"H-Hey!" he stammered and held me gently by my arms as he pulled me to look at him. Ignoring his foolishness, I wiped my tears away and gave him a small smile.
"Can we leave now?" I asked with what I knew was the biggest grin on my face. "I really hate this place."
He seemed perplexed at first from my sudden change of mood but within seconds, he sighed in relief as well. "Yeah. We've got the shorty's problem out of the way. We should really get out of this damn place." He let go of me but a second later offered me his hand. I simply gawked at his hand a little confused at what he was doing. "Don't get lost now. You don't like dark places, right?"
From his hand, my eyes came to his face and a smile crept to my lips. Nodding, I took his offer and we all headed towards the way they were heading to begin with.
We had jogged quite a distance when I heard the growl behind us. Even though I looked over my shoulder, the only thing I saw were a pair of gleaming red eyes.
"Let's say—" My face turned towards Oz who was a bit of a distance behind me. "If in order for you guys to survive I have to give myself to them or else you die, what will you do?"
"Ha, who knows!" Elliot beamed with a smirk and I felt his hand let go of mine. Just then, we entered into an actual room apart from the narrow halls. Naturally, we separated to give ourselves space then I heard it again: that loud growling from an animal. I watched as Elliot brandished that black saber that he always had carried around with him and never parted with. "We'll just think of that when we reach the point of no return! But, no matter what I choose, I will never let you die!"
Just then, from the shadows, a huge beast leaped into the air and separated us into two: Elliot with Leo and Oz with me. Gazing at the beast as it landed away from us and towards the door we had come from, I noticed a shadow that had appeared from that direction while we had been distracted. And I noticed two things alongside it, the beast was really a big ass lion, and the silhouette was a pink-haired woman...clad in a red cloak.
"Baskerville."
"Leon."
"Come on, little boy. Can you let us talk to Jack?" she asked with a whimsical tone but in her eyes I could see a pretty maniacal thing going on in her mind.
"Jack...?" I whispered under my breath and turned to face Oz as he began to back up against the rack of weapons.
"Oh~ If it isn't Chronos!" At hearing her say his name, I turned to the woman and noticed that beside her, another three had appeared from the same door. And I recognized one too damn well.
"You are—" but the sudden sound of metal behind me took me by surprise. Gazing over my shoulder, my eyes widened at seeing that Oz had actually gotten a sword from the many. That little brat—he was going to defend himself! Grinning, I had to admit that guy had changed. He didn't seem to be that same brat that would throw away his life so easy. At least not without a fight now. And if he was going to fight back... "Hades!" At my beck, the twin kukris blades appeared at each of my hands.
"All right, Leon," the woman called getting off from leaning on the Chain. "I know you're very happy since it's been quite some time since you've come out. Just remember, play nicely with the kittens~"
Leon leaped from her and charged at Elliot and Oz. Dealing with the cat's owner seemed like a better idea. But, I had someone else to deal with before that.
Aiming for the shortest of the bunch, I set out for the boy that I had encounter back in the desert. Yet, before I could even come close, the woman blocked my attack with a mere dagger and drew me back. She chuckled and twisted the dagger in her hand. "You're too predictable. You really haven't changed one bit!"
"W-What?" She took my hesitance as an advantage and attacked me. Barely catching my arm, I backed out to get enough space to avoid any serious injury. Instead, I happened upon the larger man that was using the biggest sword I had ever seen. He tried attacking me but he got distracted by Elliot suddenly aiming at him from the side.
Taking that opportunity, I charged at the woman when she was unguarded. Sadly, she saw through my attack just in time for us to clash blades.
"Lottie one-sama!"
Huh?
"Pay attention!" she growled with a grin and in my doubt, she found an opening to roundhouse kick me and send me a good few feet away.
"Claire!" With my ears ringing, I barely heard Leo calling out my name. What had that been?! It sounded...like me when I was little. But...who the hell was Lottie!?
"Fucking, shut up!" I growled through gritted teeth holding the side of my head as the same voice kept repeating in my head.
"Poor thing."
That voice— I barely had enough time to avoid Leon's large bite that was headed my way and went back to Oz. Panting, I couldn't think of how in the hell I was getting tired again. But then my injuries were still plenty and still healing. They were using some of my energy to cure which left close to little for me to fight. The woman came at me again, this time with two knifes and actually one got my arm. If I didn't think of something real quick it wouldn't be only me who dies here.
"Then how about we change places?"
That voice again. I know it; it's the one from that night. This time, I was expecting some weird crap to happen like before, so when I was being attacked I was ready to avoid it and deal with the voice.
What the fuck's happening to me?!
"Nothing. You're conscious is just kicking in. You know you can't kill her. You don't have the guts." Barely evading more of the woman's and man's attacks, I continued listening to the voice that creepily talked in my head. "But I do." As I stood back to prepare for another attack, I wasn't ready for the ice cold hand that suddenly gripped my shoulder. "So, I'll let myself in~" Out of nowhere, I felt someone pull me back and before I could do anything, I fell into nothingness.
Noticing the sudden lack of movement in her, the youngest Baskerville boy finally put some attention to the fight going on before him. He saw that Fang was still fighting with that school boy, and Leon was still playing around with the Vessalius kid. And although she had tried, Claire's crossfire had only been stopped by Charlotte. But now, after practically dancing her way to avoid her attacks, she was completely still, her head hanging low along with her blades. It was too odd.
"Watch out!"
Her warnings had hit just in time for him to call out to Charlotte and make her aware. "Miss Charlotte!"
Lottie barely received the intent of his call to avoid the sudden attack that Claire had given. It was such a close call that she only managed to scratch the surface of her cloak close to her neck.
"Lottie-san!" Fang called out in concern from the sudden change of events.
"What's that—Red!" She didn't even have time to voice her thoughts when she saw that the boy had charged towards the girl with a shinning basket hilt sword in his right hand. But instead of ceding to the speed of his attack, Claire simply took it head on with both kukris blades being crossed before her.
"Show your damn face, you coward!" he growled through gritted teeth and summoned his tiger claws on his left hand in order to catch Claire off guard. But just as he had done that, she let go of her right kukri blade and had Legion summoned to counter his sneak attack. She lodged it on the cobblestone floor and made him leap back as more appeared beneath him.
"Claire?!" they all called in concern at seeing the battle that she had engaged in.
"Red, what's the matter?!" Lottie yelled towards him as he summoned both his tiger claws.
"That's not her..." he growl between gritted teeth.
"What's the matter, Miss Charlotte?" Lottie froze at hearing that voice and turned slowly towards Claire. Finally showing her face, Claire glanced their way with a wicked grin on her face. What shocked her most was that her dark blue eyes had changed into a bright crimson shade. "Missed me?"
"Well, I thought you had been dealt with a long time ago." At saying this, Lottie briefly gazed at the boy that now stood a few meters beside her. "But it may seem we still have the displeasure to meet, Siva." Claire's smile became sweet out of the blue at hearing that name.
"What's happening to you, Claire?!" Elliot bellowed out while trying to see why the hell the others had stopped attacking.
But something wasn't right about her, Oz could see that much. That girl that stood before them and drawing all the Baskervilles back wasn't her. "That's not Claire." His sudden whispered comment made both Elliot and Leo turn perplexed.
Claire —or whomever that was— gazed over her shoulder towards the heir and grinned. "You're right, kid. I'm not." She placed a finger on her pouting lips, almost childishly, as she thought and grinned once more. "But, I suppose I am now that I'm using her body." She placed a hand upon her cheek and smirked, "I am Siva."
"Siva?" he repeated more confused than ever.
"Stand back, Siva—" they all turned towards the youngest member of the Baskervilles as he brandished his tiger claws for them all, specially her, to see. "Or else..."
"Oh please, geria. You wouldn't dare." The same mischievous grin from before came to her lips, "I, on the other hand..."
"Claire!" the three behind her yell at seeing that she had drawn the dagger that she carried on her thigh and had placed it up against her throat, right against her jugular.
"What the hell—"
"Take another step and I'll kill her where she stands. Both of you..." Oz had noticed that Elliot had intended to get to her before hand but he had failed to see the other boy from before also trying to reach her. "Miss Charlotte, we both know that neither you nor the rest will do any harm to the beloved little girl."
"Claire, stop this nonsense!" Elliot bellowed again shifting his feet forward. This took Siva's attention away from the boy long enough for him to summoned his Chain.
"Lacrimosa!" he called out and from behind him the silhouette of a doe could be seen. The force given by the Chain of Space was enough to drive Claire's body immobile.
"What-!"
"Leon!" Lottie called out and ordered the Chain forth. The huge lion charged at the girl and managed to catch her right leg in his giant jaw. With enough force to pierce the skin and some muscle, he took her and threw her as far away as he could from his master. Not wasting a second, he went ahead and charged towards Oz and tossed him aside as well.
Claire's body landed feet away from were Oz had been thrown. But this time, it wasn't Lacrimosa' powers that were keeping her down. This time, it was something more. And this something was giving the real Claire enough power to try and pull herself back.
"Give it back to me!"
Her strength of will plus Lacrimosa's binding helped Claire regain her body back. She wheezed and coughed as she lay on the floor, her side aching and her leg burning like the fires of hell. Not only that, her whole body was aching with a pulsating pain. What surprised her the most was that it wasn't her agonizing raw leg that hurt the most. It was her eyes and how much they were burning right then and there.
"What a forceful summon, Oz." Even through the pain throbbing all over her body and the one burning behind her skull, she faintly heard Jack's voice as it echoed. "All right, I will be their opponent. You just focus on saving your friends. Don't worry, Oz. After all, you have that right!"
Right after I heard Jack's voice like crystal clear water, a pulsating wave of energy emanated from Oz a second before the same chains from B-Rabbit surrounded him and sent the second wave that disintegrated Leon.
The energy was powerful and would have knocked me back had it not been for a strong arm that veiled a clothe upon me, blocking the view. I didn't have time to complain because that was the instant that the wave hit me head on. I felt it coming but its power had been diminished somehow. It took a couple of seconds before the clothe was removed from me. But the instant it did, my eyes widened at seeing the form of B-Rabbit right behind Oz as he kneeled semiconscious underneath crumbling floors.
"The Blood-Stained Black Rabbit..."
Turning up to see from whence the amazed voice had come from, I glared at the boy that now kneeled behind me keeping me sitting up. Shouting and punching, I tried getting as far away from him as I could but I didn't get far. The instant I tried moving my right leg a piercing pain hit me from bottom to top, completely immobilizing me.
"If you try to move now, you'll only cause yourself more pain. Besides—" he motioned his hand forward just above my shoulders and seemed to touch something in the air for it rippled as if it were water. Then I saw something, like a dome of nothingness, surrounding us as the ripples extended throughout the circle. "If you step out of my field you'll be hit by the echoing waves of power he's still emanating."
With all the spite I could muster I turned up towards him once more with the most vicious glare I could give. "Why...Why are you—"
"So you finally came out." The woman's voice—Lottie, I supposed—took my attention away from the boy. She had been protected by the other Baskervilles and was staring right at Oz as he stood back up. A few feet away from me, both Elliot and Leo laid unconscious it seemed, after being hit directly by that shock wave. "Jack Vessalius!"
"Jack...?!" My voice wasn't much above a hushed hiss. I was in too much pain to even speak. The only reason I wasn't screaming in agony was because I was using Chronos to halt the bleeding for the meanwhile. But even with him, I couldn't stop the paint hat coursed through my body like poison through my veins.
If Jack had come out then what Break had told me about Oz was true. Jack's soul had really incarnated back to this world in Oz. But if Jack was using Oz's body right now to speak to the Baskervilles then...he's probably alone, just like I was when that girl took over me. That dark place where nothingness reigns.
"Charlotte..."
I didn't dare move but heard the faint lilt of the boy's voice as he said the woman's name. I hadn't noticed before but she had begun yelling at Oz—or Jack more like it.
Just then, I felt a surge of power mounting and suddenly it exploding along with Jack's patience. "I...!" But just as quickly as it had exploded it calmed down but that menacing aura never left. "I...killed Glen to gain fame and glory. Isn't that what you wanted to say?" B-Rabbit's power began surging again as he gave them one last warning. "You can never defeat the powers of B-Rabbit. Therefore—back off!" Another surge of strong power shot through the room cracking all floors, walls and ceiling. My eyes widened at the terrifying energy as it came our way but to my surprise the boy hung his arm across my shoulders and threw his cloak over my body loosely as another field surrounded us, guarding us from B-Rabbit's power. My breathing began getting ragged as my panic rose tenfold. I didn't have any idea why but terror was mounting on me by the second and it wouldn't stop.
I suddenly felt a large hand on my right shoulder as a soft, reassuring whisper came to my ears. "Breath..." The hand started soothingly rubbing my back in circles and, strangely enough, my breathing became a little bit more calm. My shoulders relaxed from how tense they were and my head wasn't as much of a wreck with the panic that had suddenly entered me.
"If you intend to repeat your mistake, then this boy shall become the blade that will destroy the death gods!" Jack proclaimed.
"Whatever. We're just following Master's orders," Charlotte reiterated as she turned to go. "If you want to kill Master Glen, go ahead. No matter how many times you do. No matter the times, I don't care. We will find the Master!"
With that they began leaving. Jack came to turn my way and I tensed right back up. That piercing glare was killing me. Just then a warmness came over my back as he whispered again, "Please, release me."
What? Something tugged at my hand, making me look down. I didn't know when or why but at some point while all else was happening I had grabbed the sleeve of the hand that he had wrapped around my shoulders. Not having enough brain cells properly functioning to give any coherent answer, I simply let go and just when I did, the warmth vanished. Forcing myself, I gazed behind my shoulder only to find that he had disappeared in thin air as well.
Hearing something hit the floor hard, I turned to see Oz on his knees and shortly after falling face first on the cobblestone floor. I cringed at hearing him collide with the floor. That...was going to hurt when he woke up.
"Augh." Hearing more noises I turned to see Elliot and Leo finally becoming conscious.
"W-What happened?" Elliot mumbled as he came to a sit along with Leo.
"You guys," I called out while not being able to move much. All I can do to call attention to myself is wave my arm. "A little help?"
"Claire?" Leo said as he got up and headed my way. Elliot, on the other hand, went over to Oz and picked him up to carry him over to where I was. Leo came up to me and kneeled to check on my injured leg. Even I knew it was bad since I could see the blood and some of my skin that was actually punctured through. Ugh, I think I see muscle even. "You need serious medical treatment on this. Does it hurt much? You don't think—"
"Yes, it hurts like a bitch. And no, I can't walk. Are you nuts?" I say rapid fire an he touches it lightly with the sleeve of his jacket. No matter how light that was of a touch, it sent pain up my spine making me growl through my teeth. "Dammit, Leo! Son of mother's—ugh!"
"Guess it does," he nonchalantly confirmed.
"Of course it does!" I yelled loosing a little of my patience. At yelling, though, I felt a little dizzy and had to catch myself before I fell back. "W-What's wrong with me?"
"You've lost too much blood," he explained and got behind me to get me out of my jacket. With my dagger that he'd picked up from the floor, he began shredding the thing.
"What's going on?" Elliot asked as he brought Oz over. But when his gaze fell on my leg, he pretty much had his answer. "A-Are you all right?"
"She's going to lose consciousness soon." Leo wasn't really paying much attention to him as he continue to shred the jacket into makeshift bandages. I couldn't do much but believe him since I was already having trouble breathing and my vision was starting to go blurry by the second. Even keeping up with this conversation was becoming a great ordeal right now. "Claire, you still with me?"
"I-I can't hear you very well..." I whispered through my broken speech.
He nodded and placed the dagger beside him and grabbed one of the bandages, placing it just above my wound. He turned briefly to Elliot, "You should go look for an exit. I don't think you'll like this." Elliot gulped at the warning and scratched the back of his head before agreeing with him. In minutes he was out and the only ones left were Oz's unconscious body, Leo and I. He passed me a small piece of clothe in a ball and placed it in my hand. "Place that in your mouth. If it hurts too much bite down on it." I nodded and abided by his instructions. Seeing that I had, he promptly went to work.
The instant he put mild pressure on it, my brain cells fired. I cried out but with the clothe in my mouth it was muffled. But crying wasn't enough, so I began biting down on it and making fists out of my hands. Not wasting time, he continued to bandage me but the more he did the worst it felt.
I couldn't feel my hands or jaw after some minutes but the pain still surged through me. I wanted to scream but it wouldn't help. Nothing did. It would just hurt regardless.
Two thirds of the way in I couldn't take it anymore. My body had already given what it could to keep awake but...it just hurt too much.
Leo only heard when Claire's body and head collided with the floor once she fainted. He panicked a bit but noticed that although pained, her face wasn't pale like it had been minutes ago. Seeing that it was something good, he continued and finished bandaging her leg. Putting it down gently to rest straight, he went over and struggled but managed to take her black vest off and bundle it up into a pillow. He sat beside her watching as her heavy breathing became regular and remained calmed. The color was slowly returning to her cheeks and although they were soaked, the blood loss had seemed to only make her weak. But as far as he could see, it wasn't life threatening.
"Ugh."
Leo turned towards Oz who lay a few meters away from Claire as he awoke and sat up. "Ah, you're awake." Oz made a puzzled sound as he held his head. "You all right? You seemed to be having really bad nightmares." Leo looked up to the ceiling and everywhere where the damaged seemed apparent. "The red-hooded guys appear to have left but they left quite a mess behind them."
At hearing footsteps from the only exit, the two turned to see Elliot appear from the door. "Oh," he said with a bit of surprise as he entered the room. "You finally woke up?"
"Elliot."
Elliot's eyes landed upon Claire as she rested and then at the mess that was left by Leo after tending to her leg. "Was she alright?"
Leo nodded assuring him. "She just fainted because of the pain. But it doesn't seem like she's in any imminent danger right now. We should get going though, to get out and find her treatment should be our priority right now."
"Yeah," Elliot agreed putting his sword over his shoulder. "I found an exit that goes into the forest. It's quite some way from the school but if we keep a good pace, we'll get there before nighttime." At noticing that Oz wasn't listening, Elliot's tempered flared. "Are you even listening to me?!"
The bickering continued but soon they decided that it was best to leave.
"What are you doing?" Oz asked as Leo helped Elliot put Claire on his back.
"It's not like she can walk, right?" Elliot said sarcastically while Leo adjusted Claire so that Elliot wouldn't hurt her inadvertently while carrying her.
"You—" Oz's outburst caught the two by surprised and stopped them briefly from continuing forth. "You knew each other from before, right?"
"Yeah." Elliot confirmed and kept walking forth after saying, "Like I said, she's my servant."
"Elliot, he—" Leo's words caught Oz off guard since he hadn't noticed the black-haired boy walking next to him. "He said some horrible things to Claire the day she disappeared. He knew she had gone to work for Pandora but because she never contacted any of us, he felt immensely guilty about what he had done." Leo turned to look at Oz, "I was always worried about whom she had wound up with after she left a year ago. Now I see that I never had a need to worry in the first place."
Pain quickly brought me back to my senses as my eyes opened up. I didn't know where I was but by the breeze and the smell, I could tell I was outside. My vision was still bleary, so I couldn't make out where exactly I was but I clearly smelled of sandalwood and lavender.
"You're awake..."
My vision slowly cleared at hearing that voice and the first thing that came to focus were a pair of bright, blue eyes.
Eyes that were way too close to mine.
My natural reaction to the close proximity was to push him away and thrash but the second I did it gave me a charge of pain all over my body that made me cry out.
"Why the hell is it that you've hit me every time we've seen each other?"
Glaring at Elliot, I rudely point my finger at him. "You were too damn close!"
"I was checking on you!" he exclaimed as his remark. "It's been a good distance of me carrying you and my arms got tired. I had to put you down to rest a bit!"
Carrying me? Him? Then...the sandalwood and lavender...
"Huh? Are you okay? Your face just got red out of nowhere."
"Shut the hell up!" I screeched averting my eyes from him.
"Why do you keep doing that? Looking away from me..." His questioning and innocent tone made me gaze up and meet his eyes for the first time.
"I'm not."
"You were."
Finally his constant poking made me cave in, "So what if I was?! Geez! Seriously!" My anger and pain had boiled deep and were bursting out now. "How the hell did you expect me to face the master that told me that he never wanted to see my face ever again!?"
Shit! I can't believe I actually said it aloud! Out of embarrassment and fright, I hid my face between my hands.
"I'm sorry."
Huh? Taking my hands away from my face, I gave him a glance and couldn't believe my eyes. Elliot actually seemed...sincere.
But the back talking mouth that I had developed because of Break over the years beat my logic before it could form any coherent reply to that apology.
"You seriously expect me to accept your apology? After crushing me like that, saying all those awful things, you think by saying sorry you'll erase the hurt I've carried with me for this past year!?"
"No, I don't." His straight forward answer caught that foul mouth of mine by surprise. "For the past year, after that day, I've ran all kinds of scenarios of this meeting in my head, wondering and trying to find what I could possibly say to you to make you understand and forgive me. But the more I thought about it the more I came to understand myself. There was nothing in this world that I could say for you to forgive me. What you did was something I knew, deep down, I would never forgive either no matter how hard I tried. But when I went over what I said that night in my head, I knew that I had no right even when I was so angry to tell you those things." He chuckled a bit and ran his hand over his face, finishing with covering his eyes. "Even Leo pointed it out."
I understood too. Truthfully, I don't think I would ever forgive myself for letting his brothers go. But that was in the past and I didn't want for it to get in between us all finally being able to reconnect after so long.
"Words said in anger become the malediction of the soul," I say knowing Leo well enough that I could figure what he had told him about speaking in anger. "Is that what he said?" He didn't respond but only buried his face on his shoulders. He must be dying of shame and embarrassment right now. How cute.
Without realizing what I was doing, I raised my hand and patted his head, ruffling his hair. At feeling it, his head snapped up and his eyes stared at me in shock, his cheeks molted red.
"I'm not really angry at you, Elliot," I confessed and withdrew my hand. "Yes, I was hurt by what you said and yes, I've been ignoring you, Leo, and Vanessa simply because of it. Because I was scared. When you become like that, so engulfed by rage, you're not you anymore. And that truthfully is what scared me when you said those things." Giving him a reassuring smile, I continued, "But both you and I have learned a valuable lesson with this. Sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right." Mm, maybe that's not the right way to phrase it. Placing my finger on my cheek to think about it, I couldn't think of any better way to say it. "At least that's how I see it. Since we've both practically said sorry, how about we kiss that past goodbye and start clean again."
He seemed surprised at first but then his expression changed to a small smile. "Yeah, I'd like that very much."
Smiling, I reached my hand out and patted his head again. "That's a good boy, Elly."
"W-Why call me that all of a sudden?"
"Just because~"
Quite frankly, I love this chapter -w- It is so much better than the first one I wrote in the original. In contrast, for those that haven't read the old version, this one evened the blame on both parties instead of Claire being the one 'blamed' somewhat. All I have to say about this is that Claire doesn't seem as Mary Sue-ish as she did on the other cx Then again that's me.
Ref.:
-geria: rude way to refer to a young adult or boy; like brat
Well, hope you liked it just as much as I did. More than likely, I'll upload some tomorrow since I have a couple ahead of time. So look forward to that and stay tuned! :D
