Serpent Queen

12

Unfortunately for Alyssa, that seemed to be exactly what Ashlena intended to do.

"Alyssa, no. We need to talk about this now," She pressed, "You've been asleep for days and all I could think about the entire time was how badly I fucked up."

Alyssa yanked a coffee cup from the cabinet and stuck it under the coffee machine. She irritably jabbed the start button before spinning back to Ashlena.

"You did fuck up, massively," Alyssa snapped, "Which is exactly why now is not the time to talk about it. I need time to myself so that I don't say something stupid."

"But what about-"

Ashlena began to speak but Alyssa abruptly cut her off. 

"Ash, stop it," She hissed, "I need time."

Alyssa held a stern expression as Ashlena looked at her in desperation. She clearly wanted to beg and plead for Alyssa's forgiveness, which was a normal thing for Ashlena to do. She couldn't stand any negative attention from Alyssa and Alyssa knew that.

She didn't want to stress her sister out, she didn't want Ashlena to feel as if she hated her. But Alyssa wasn't ready to confront it, let alone move past it. All she wanted was to sip on her coffee and enjoy the sunshine.

She didn't care for the love-bombing that was sure to come her way.

She left Ashlena in the kitchen as she stepped out onto their balcony, happy to be met by a cool breeze against her skin. The fall air had set in, a welcomed change that wasn't there before. Alyssa shut her eyes, allowing the air to ease her tensions.

She didn't want to think about the events that had occurred only so recently, but her mind couldn't stop bringing it up. There were several main things that needed to be addressed, all of which Alyssa couldn't find the energy to address.

Her sister surprisingly was not at the top of the list, though she was very near.

The biggest thing on her mind was Zircon, or Nikolai, she hadn't fully decided on what to call him. He'd caught her completely off guard and had it not been for Laken, she would've drowned. But even after catching her off guard and body-slamming her to the ocean, he still let her live.

He let her live, despite what happened all those years ago.

He let her live even though she had been weakened to the point of making her an easy target. Killing her would've been the easiest way to tilt an already uneven playing field even more.

He let Ashlena live, despite the fact that she attacked him trying to defend Alyssa. And Alyssa wasn't foolish, she knew he wasn't known for leaving survivors. She had said it many times before, but he was merciless.

And yet he showed mercy.

He showed mercy.

The idea was repellent towards Alyssa's mind. She had so much trouble accepting it.

Another thing that she couldn't accept was Laken. She couldn't accept that she hated him and he hated her, yet he pulled her from the waves and took her to safety. He had no reason to help her and she had no reason to expect him to. But he did anyway.

She was conflicted towards him. Out of the entire group, he was the one she trusted the least. But now, she was sure that he was the most normal out of all of them. He was the only one with half a brain.

Penelope and Simon were very young and very naive, and they had flown blindly into a trap. Because of that, Alyssa found trusting them even more difficult than trusting Laken.