Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 13: Bargain

She blinked at his goofy, handsome smile and backed off a step, not knowing how to react to it. Wide, dilated, and full of something that disturbed her, those inhuman pupils gazed at her in a way that made her feel a shred of hesitation. 

"Yeah, I am pretty weak, huh?" he laughed, hiccuping a bit; the tears welling up slid off his lashes when he lowered his head again, shoulders shaking. "That's what happens when something is broken, though. It turns frail, and it just keeps getting easier and easier to continue breaking it."

Ella opened her mouth to respond, but stopped when he clasped the blade. 

She stared at the dagger-like black claws extending from his fingers as they closed around the leather-wrapped handle, and as much as she wanted to deny it, dread fell across her heart as a terrible thought suddenly crossed her mind, a thought that had her hair standing on end.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, secretly wondering if she'd gone too far. "You can't... seriously be thinking about... killing yourself, right?"

When he lifted his head, the tears were already blending in with the rain running across his skin.

The smile was gone.

His eyes had once again lost their reflective sheen, and the tears coming out lacked emotion.

"I don't think of it that way," he whispered, clutching the knife with shaking fists; then he gave her that same lopsided grin... only now his gaze seemed faraway, as though he were looking at something past her. "I've lost my other half. My heart. All I need to do is set myself free and then I can start looking for her. Thank you for the dagger... this is the nicest thing you've done."

When he stood up and turned to walk away from her again, the fear within her skyrocketed and she suddenly had a very bizarre urge to run to him... to pin him down and prevent him from disappearing from her sight, but some cold, icy sensation was stopping her from moving. 

Lips parting slightly, she watched him stumble away, hands twitching violently, unable to do anything. Her eyebrow twitched and her face grew taut until someone suddenly shoved her forward so hard that she stumbled. Whirling around, she opened her mouth to snap at the person who'd pushed her... only to come face to face with herself.

Literally.

She gasped and her eyes widened in sheer terror since a glowing girl who looked exactly like her was standing not even a foot away from her.

"Asgrog's Forge!" Ella yelped, stepping backwards and rapidly drawing her other dagger. The moment she spoke, the bizarre apparition lifted her hand and pointed at the retreating boy with a menacing expression, silver braids billowing around like glossy white ropes.

A voiceless whisper immediately reverberated inside her head.

"If you let him die... you'll regret it forever."

The words were so powerful and threatening that Ella shivered violently.

Heart pounding a mile a minute, she backed off a step, but the apparition flashed closer and stopped with its nose resting only an inch from her own, glaring deep into her eyes through a pair of half-moon spectacles. 

She felt the spirit's animosity towards her as clear as any day, but when those ghostly eyes flitted past her and locked onto Xaphile, the spirit's enraged face momentarily contorted with an anguished expression and it lifted a hand, pointing at him again, this time more urgently.

"Go."

It was the simplest command anyone had ever given her, but for some reason, the weight of it nearly paralyzed her with fright. Even though she was normally never scared of anything, that single word instilled in her a dread that she couldn't ignore.