Mirage - Shall We Date Wizardess Heart' Fic

Chapter 55: An eye for an eye only makes the world go blind

She carried herself away from the dorms as much as possible and without daring to look back once. In a blink of an eye, the young heroine found herself lost in the middle of the woods; the night has gone so dim that she couldn't make out in which part of the forest she was. With her heart beating one hundred miles per hour and her breathing coming and going in rags, she nibbled at her shirt and scrambled her fingers through her hair while taking brief peeks behind her shoulder and between the trees' gaps; she ran aimlessly for what it seemed like an eternity. Her hearing was ringing and it hasn't caught on to the sound of that serpent's tail moving on the grass, stirring up the fallen leaves and freezing to death every living being that he would cross paths with using his intent stare, for a while now so, she just decided to make a quick pause to steady her breathing.

She hid behind a near rock and laid down on the grass, head facing the sky clouded by the tall trees. Shadow's words stayed in her mind despite her efforts of focusing on something else. Her hand fell lazily onto her forehead and she closed her eyes for brief moment. Nonetheless, her gaze fell on her wrist, where the banner type tattoo rested in peace, meaning it was dead-serious real. As the adrenaline that made her blood quicken and the electricity make her skin tingle not so long ago, finally cooled down and the realization of what she had done kicked in, tears built up in her eyes, clouding her vision and making her bottom lip tremble by its on volition. Those warm, watery drops stung her eyes and leaving her mouth with a salty flavor. They continued to flow freely down her cheeks and chin, the sobbing wracked her body, robbing her of the ability to speak or to even think straight on what the next step should be, and barely allowing a breath to be drawn.

Cold fear spiraled through her body, sending a chill up her spine. She was scared because she was being chased by the Basilisk nor of the deal she made with Shadow, her heart and mind were terrified with the idea of what an 'eternal life' meant. She would have to leave him at some point, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to face that notion just yet. Of course, that was what everybody in the living world would be up against, a race against time and make the most of it, but, for Aurora, it meant an entire different thing. If what Shadow told her was the truth then, Randolph was immortal and he was bound to wander earth alone by some irrational and selfish decision his past, young self took. She knew it wasn't really her place to judge his choice of living but, why did she felt the urge to hit him in the face?

Eventually, drowse caught up with her. She whiped the remaining tears with the back of her hand and she took a deep breath before allowing it to finally settle down. Her body was so worn-out that it didn't even phase her for a second that if she were to allow the referred atmosphere to have such keen influence on her, she was going to end up sleeping on hard ground. Her eyelashes blinked a couple of times before closing at last, in a vain attempt to send away the sleepiness. At some point, she dozed off.

(...)

The next day morning she woke to the first ray of light shining and peeking at her through the tree branches and leaves. After smothering a long tired yawn, she got up and sat crossed-legged. Looking around, she engraved every detail into her mind, from the scintillating dewdrops sliding down the leaves' structure to the small ladybug walking carelessly on the rock standing on her right side. It was rather obvious where she was, what she didn't know was which section of it she was in. Then, as uninvited as it could get, a particular thought struck her, weighing heavily down on her shoulders. Did she seriously slept out in the open with so much danger lurking around? She could have been killed in her sleep... Only God knew what sort of creatures lurked around in that forest. Feeling stupid enough, she laid down on the grass again and sighed in exasperation. What could she have done anyway? Her gut was certain that if she had gotten out of her hideout, she would definitely been caught by that crawling creature.