Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 88-

Corinna, gasping for air, stopped a few metres away from the spectacled woman, back bent and heaving as she attempted to regain her energy. She gazed down at the ground, making only glimpses up at the woman before her.

What now?

She had run all this way, but now she couldn't even mutter a single word. Even after she had caught her breath, she was speechless. All Corinna could do was stare back at the woman, the one that she had taken away the memories of.

"It's Corinna, right?" asked Jessica, lowering her bat, no longer cautious. "Did I leave something behind at Ivette's? Did I forget something?"

A twinge of pain spiked inside of Corinna's stomach. "Yes..." she mumbled with a quivering lip, inaudible to Jessica. Corinna looked up, only able to achieve eye-contact with the woman for a mere second before gazing back down at the ground. "Do you not remember anything?"

Jessica paused for a moment, seemingly to study Corinna, before answering with a solemn, "no." Her hand trembled as it reached for the back of her neck, to her brand, then quickly fell back to her side, fist clenched. "I don't remember anything. I just..." The woman pushed back her new ill-fitting glasses as they slid down her nose. "I woke up buried in a scrapyard. I was too weak to get myself out for a while, I was trapped for a few days. I don't know how I got there-"

"It was me." Corinna covered her mouth, the words had spewed out without her even thinking. She trembled, her hand clutching her spear even tighter. "I hit you around the head... the impact would have... if this wasn't in The Eternal Abyss..." Corinna gulped down any saliva in her mouth to soothe her throat. "That's how you lost your memories."

There was a long moment of silence.

When she had finally summoned the courage, Corinna looked up to see Jessica, her head low, hands clenched, and the baseball bat slightly raised.

"You..." Jessica spoke through gritted teeth, her voice breaking. "You did this to me?"

Corinna's heart stopped beating for a brief second. "I'm sorry. I-"

"You took away all of my memories?"

"Yes. And I'm-"

"Do you know... how it felt?" Jessica took a step closer to Corinna. "To wake up with nothing. Knowing nothing about yourself and how you got there? To eventually learn that you're in The Eternal Abyss and not knowing why? Why did you deserve to be imprisoned here?" She took another step. "Why were you such a bad person to belong down here?"

"M-maybe it's best not knowing why-"

"I'd rather live knowing why I'm a murderer than be an empty shell of a person!" Jessica was now mere inches away from Corinna, towering over her.

"I'm sorry-"

"You're not sorry! If you were sorry, you wouldn't have abandoned me in a scrapyard!" Jessica stepped forward, forcing Corinna to stumble back close to high inclined slope. "I was paralysed for three days, trapped under there. If you were sorry for what you did, you wouldn't have left me there! You would have stayed with me and helped me when I woke up! Why!" Her voice wavered, breaking into a quivering whisper as a single tear streamed down her cheek. "Why didn't you help me..."

"I..." Corinna's eyes began to water too, causing the woman in front of her to look like a wobbly blur. "I..."

"You don't know what it's like to have lost everything and be alone. For there to be no one there to help you..." Jessica raised the spiked baseball bat. "But you soon will!"

Corinna evaded just in time, the nails embedded in the bat scratched across her shoulder, scraping off a chunk of skin. She staggered back, dodging another of Jessica's wild swings. "I don't want to fight you!"

"I thought you were sorry, weren't you?" Jessica prepared to initiate another attack. "And you know what would make up for it!"

Waiting for the right moment, Corinna tripped Jessica, and, using her own power against her, managed to steal the baseball bat off of her. Losing her balance, Jessica grabbed onto Corinna's dress and pulled her along as they both fell and tumbled down the high slope.

Corinna blacked out for a few seconds, her body aching and trembling from the fall. As she regained her vision, she heard gasps of pain and heavy breathing. It was from Jessica. She had landed on top of Corinna's spear, the blade impaling her stomach. The woman grabbed hold of the spear.

"Don't pull it out," Corinna whimpered, her voice sore. "You'll bleed out-"

Jessica pulled the spear out, doing the exact of Corinna's advice out of spite. Her head bowed down, hand pressing against her wound, she threw the spear in Corinna's direction. "Just leave me alone."

"But you need-"

"Leave me alone! I don't want your help!"

Corinna picked up her spear, hesitating as she looked down at the injured woman, her glasses once again damaged, the frames snapped.

"Leave. Now."

Corinna nodded solemnly and walked away.