Purple String {EDITING}

Purple Memories

Juniper stared up at the ceiling, trying to remember how many days she'd been lying under the harsh lighting. She'd only been lucid for a few hours at a time, and those were probably the worst moments of her day. She could feel everything when she was fully awake.

Every bead of sweat rolling over her flushed skin. Every pain wracked breath. Every sharp blinding pain that shot through her head.

"Juniper...?" Finar's voice pulled her attention away from the pain and onto the green eyes staring intently down into her own.

"Is she awake?" Red eyes peered down at her. "I thought you said she probably wouldn't be waking up anytime soon..."

"She's in the worst stage, Thorn..." Finar sighed. "So she's in complete agony, and I kinda hoped she'd pass out and stay that way."

"You don't say." She spluttered.

"Hush." He said, folding his arms. "Don't speak. Your throat's probably raw from all the screaming you've already done."

"Yeah." Alpha Thorn mumbled. "You've got a good set of lungs on you, that's for sure..."

"It'll be over soon, Juniper." Finar said, mopping some of the sweat off her brow.

"Sure..." She croaked, blinking as she drifted back into the strange haze that'd consumed her for the last however many days she'd been lying there.

She went back to floating in the black void she'd been wallowing in for the most part of the time she'd been ill. Juniper couldn't tell which way was up and which way was down as she floated through the darkness, enjoying the numbness it brought. There was no pain there.

It was just nothingness.

Or so Juniper thought, until she reached the flicker of a flame.

A purple flame.

***

"Again." Juniper clapped her hands, smiling widely as her father threw her up into the air again, catching her with ease. "Again!"

"Justin!" Her mother's voice echoed through the corridor.

"In here." Her father called, setting a nine-year-old Juniper back down on the bed.

"Why are you in here...?!" Dark blue eyes narrowed on her daughter.

"I'm spending time with my daughter, Gwendolyn." He sighed, folding his arms. "We've barely seen her since we shut her away down here."

"Well..."

"She's still your daughter..." He said. "She's saved Ishgard from the Rogues and the Pack! We should be thanking her, not locking her away."

"She's too dangerous..."

"But still-"

"Enough, darling." She said, closing her eyes. "We need to take her to the doctor's for her appointment."

"Does that mean I get to go outside again?!" Juniper's eyes lit up. "Can I? Can I?!"

"You'll be going upstairs and out to the car, Junebug." Justin smiled at his daughter. "But I don't know if mummy will allow you to run around outside again after what happened a few days ago..."

"You mean when I took care of those Rogues that went after Big Sis Julia?"

"Yes, little Junebug." He sighed. "Mummy wasn't best pleased with the methods you used."

"But if I hadn't killed them, then they'd have hurt Julia and taken her away... it'd have started a war... because they were planning to kill her and send you her head. Then you would've become very upset and hunted down every last Rogue in the area, turning the whole Rogue Community nearby against you. The stronger Rogues would've then made an appearance, having hidden while you slaughtered their kin-"