purple butterfly • fairy tail

005 | grief makes or breaks a girl

Now, though. Things were different.

"I don't understand, Bisca-nee." Purple, like royal jewels, pierced through Bisca's vision and a dark haze flashed across Amethyst's eyes. Tendrils of something metaphysical ventured into Bisca's soul, tendrils circling her brain and plunging their venom inside.

"Where did they go?"

Maroon eyes trailed behind Amethyst's body. Dark beings hid in her shadows— razor-sharp teeth, luminous crimson eyes. They stared at her. Through her. Bisca felt her mouth dry; her heartbeat drummed in her ear. Fear rose like the tides of an angered ocean.

Answer.

Or die.

Those words were communicated to her— from the monsters hiding in the pure and innocent Amethyst Fairy's shadow.

Bisca's jaw fell slack, and words tumbled out her tongue before they even processed in her mind. "They're dead. They're all dead."

"Bisca!" Alzack yelled, his eyes wide.

Amethyst felt her life crash before her. The revelation swept into her ear like a whispered breeze carrying sharp, vicious claws and buried itself into her heart. It dug deep into the aching muscle, tearing layers of tissue and propagating an unhealable wound. "What?" 

Bisca slapped a hand across her mouth. She looked towards her soulmate, desperate and pleading. Alzack looked just as helpless as her. They didn't know what to do. Amethyst stared up at them with a heartbroken expression, and it tore into their souls.

How were they supposed to tell her that her soulmates, the people made for her, the ones destined to love her forever and ever, who promised her they would never leave, were gone? How were they supposed to explain all of that to a mere child?

A calloused hand landed on Bisca's shoulder.

"Let me," Wakaba said.

With a sniffle, Bisca nodded. She moved out of the way, standing up and straightening her back. Alzack was by her side immediately. He wrapped an arm around her, and Bisca turned to his chest, muffling her cries.

Amethyst stared at Wakaba.

She hoped that he would tell her this was all a prank. That her family would appear behind her with playful grins. That they would wrap her in their arms and soothe her tantrum; she'd give them the silent treatment, of course, as a ramification of their actions. And, of course, she'd exploit their feelings and force them to buy her as many milkshakes as she wanted— until Erza told her off, of course. Because the redhead would rather her soulmate be upset and petulant when she wasn't suffering from a stomach ache.

"Amethyst," Wakaba began, his hand moving to lay on her head and gently comb over the silk-like strands. "I know you don't want to hear this, but what Bisca said is true."

"No," Amethyst denied. "It can't be true."

"It is. See those guys over there?" He pointed to the soldiers dressed in a gaudy white and blue uniform. "They're part of the Council's military. They were there when it happened."

Wakaba felt his stomach churn uncomfortably. He was going to throw up.

Yet, being one of the oldest in the guild, he had a responsibility. Macao already had his hands full with Romeo, who was at their home and probably bawling in his father's lap while the old man pretended he wasn't upset.

"A dragon attacked the island they were on."

"Then they could still be there!" Amethyst tried. Her fingers bunched into a ball, cut nails digging into her palm. They left crescents in their wake, engraving her skin and ruining the smoothness of it all. "They could be hiding- taking shelter—" The chemicals in her brain went haywire. Mist erupted from her shadows. They sensed their master's emotional turmoil, and a desire to protect the young child arose, shifting in their containment, waiting for a command, a signal, anything. "They could still be there!"