What if the seven dwarfs never really existed and were just branches of Snow White's personality? Happy for the good days, Grumpy for the bad, Sneezy when under the weather and Bashful around that special someone. What if every time you looked into...
It wasn't her fault, it wasn't our fault. There was no point in passing the blame. We all had to deal with the consequences one way or another; with, or without each other's support.
"Do enlighten me," Draven said haughtily, avoiding my gaze because there were tears pooling in his stormy grey eyes.
Holly's ears piqued up with interest. The truth; it was all she ever wanted, and now it was being handed over to her on a silver platter. I started by telling them about the night of the party, how we snuck in to Holly's room and found her diary, what Julia managed to infer from it, and finally, our disastrous plan.
"Brynn's trigger was insecurity. It was what fuelled her being," I explained, and Holly's eyes lit up with understanding, as she put two and two together.
"So you wanted Draven to break her heart because it would break her, thereby fuelling her insecurity for a long, long time," Holly concluded.
"How could you do that to someone?" Will said, at the time same time that Ted said, "That's brilliant." Will glared at Ted, while he shrugged in response.
"You didn't believe that I'd end up falling for her," Draven said quietly. "So when I confessed my feelings for her, it made her feel more loved and appreciated than she'd ever felt."
"Draven-" Veronica started, but he shook his head as tears poured down his pale face.
"I killed her," he said, turning away.
"How could you?" Cassandra said icily, staring down Veronica. She looked distraught, scared, but beyond that, disgusted. Veronica bit her lip, trying her hardest not to crack under the pressure. Cassandra turned on her heel and ran to catch up with Draven, who fled the scene with a gaping hole in his heart. We all knew that deep down, Cassandra still loved Draven. That was what made her do what she did. Even if it wasn't romantic like it used to be, she cared for him more than anyone else. Anyone after she and Veronica stopped being friends, that is.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Will asked, a look of betrayal plain as day on his face.
"Because if things went wrong, like they did now, you wouldn't be blaming yourself," Veronica said.
"How much have you all been keeping from me?" Holly asked incredulously.
"You don't want to know," Ted said grimly.
"This doesn't have to be the end," Veronica said gently, easing Will out of his pain.
"She's right. You still have one thing left to do," I pointed out, trying to raise his spirits. I'd become so immune to all the pain ever since Project Mirror, Mirror began. Maybe it was because I hadn't fully accepted that the alters were gone and that they wouldn't just pop back up in a couple of days. At the back of my mind, I still believed that Holly would be in there, no matter what. Her alters would adopt new personalities and wear different clothes, but our Holly would always be inside, popping up once in a while to remind us that we'd never lost her in the first place.
Alas, we all knew what it was coming to. The more alters we lost, the closer we'd come to the end. And whether the end would be a tragedy or a romance, was yet to be decided.
"Let's give this one last shot," Will said, smiling meekly.
"Give what one last shot?" Holly asked tentatively.
"You don't want to know," Ted repeated.
I noticed Draven slowly slink back to the group with a determined expression on his face. "My secret," he said loudly, cutting all conversations short. "It was my damned secret that brought us all here."
"It's my fault that-" Veronica started, but Draven cut her off.
"Oh, I know it was your fault for using it as blackmail, but it was my goddamn fault for keeping it a secret in the first place," he said.
We all watched him, not daring to interrupt him. "So do you want to know what my big secret is?" He asked rhetorically, turning to look each one of us in the eye. I drew in a breath.
"I know how much everyone ships Mr. Todd and Mrs. Violet. Well, guess what! They're married. And they're my parents." He said each and every word with unnecessary emphasis, pausing at all the right places to give the right effect.
As surprised as I was, I didn't bat an eyelash. "Why'd you keep it a secret?" I challenged him.
"Because we all know what happens when the son of the drama teacher gets the lead roles in all the productions," Holly said, her tone coated in sympathy.
"No one believes it was merit that got him there," Will finished for her, and we all took a moment to process the sudden realisation.
"You're leaving, aren't you?" Cassandra asked sadly, knowing full well what his answer would be.
"Julliard. Leaving a week early," he said softly, but with a glint of pride in his eye at the mention of his dream school. But it wasn't just his dream school. Ted's eyes had suddenly grown misty at the thought of the girl who'd left without saying goodbye.
"Goodbye, Draven," I said, giving him the farewell that we'd wished we'd given to the girl who'd brought us all together in the first place.
. . .
A/N Farewell, Draven.
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