Convulsion

☆ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪᴠᴇ ☆

Steven

A few years ago, The Damsel joined us as a Guardian. There was no denying she was... beautiful. Really beautiful. Pretty and long curls of blonde hair, striking almond-shaped blue eyes. I didn't know her one bit, but I made the decision on her first day to talk to her. It's a decision that I fully regret now. I tried to get close to her, and soon it seemed like she didn't want to get as close to anyone else. But I got too close.

She branched out to the other Guardians eventually, but it seemed like she only wanted to wrap herself around me. She stayed with me, talked with me, flirted with me. And I didn't stop her. We both knew that what she was doing was against the rules- the R.O.C forbids love among the Guardians- and then came the fateful day none of us saw coming. The day we had to face the Gloaming. The day The Damsel tried to kiss me, and I stopped her. I told her that I couldn't love her, that I didn't love her. And when her face fell I knew that I had broken something inside of her.

She hadn't talked to me, hadn't even looked at me for the rest of the day. And at the end of the day, the battle with the Gloaming came. We went face to face with them. We had all been wounded, but the ones who came face to face with the cloaked leader of the Gloaming, Ghostclaw, had been The Damsel and I. We never saw his face, and yet he somehow knew The Damsel's breaking point. He lured her over to the Gloaming's side.

He injured me enough so that I couldn't move, and gave The Damsel a weapon. He told her that the R.O.C didn't care if she lived or died. That her ignorant family didn't care. That I didn't care. He wrapped his finger around her mind, manipulated her. She wounded me, and I still have the scars, physically and mentally. All because I could never love her back. She left with him that day and now she works for the Gloaming. She's a traitor to me, and sometimes I feel like I betrayed her. I don't want the same thing that happened to me to happen to Lily. I can't let her go, and I can't let her die. I can't make the same mistake.

"Steve?" I tilt my chin downward so that I can look her in the eyes. I need to snap myself out of the trance-like flashback I was in, out of the memories that still haunt me. I need to focus. My arms are still wrapped around Lily, and she's still sitting on my lap. The water around us has receded enough so that it's only about an inch high, and I haven't heard any sounds coming from either Richard and Gwen or the Thaya they were fighting.

"Yeah?"

"What happened to Gwen and Richard?"

"I'm not sure. Let's go see if you're up to it. You're sure you're okay?"

"I think so, but I don't know what happened to me." I ease myself out from under her. We're still surrounded by darkness, and our clothes and the floor are still covered in water. I push myself up from the ground, grabbing her and pulling her up from under her arms. I take a step away from her once she's upright, but she winces and falls against me. I grab her by the shoulders awkwardly, trying to help her stand. As I move her, even in the darkness I can see her blushing, but I pretend to not see it, trying to get rid of the heat in my own cheeks.

I offer her my arm, and when she takes it we plod slowly through the remaining water until we reach Gwen and Richard. They're standing and whispering to each other next to a motionless body on the ground, lying next to the metal door. The Thaya, no doubt. It's hard to distinguish what it once was because of how burnt it is. It almost makes me feel bad for it.

"So, nobody here wants to admit this, but everything is going wrong. This wasn't supposed to happen. We were supposed to make it to the Chaos Vault unharmed. The Gloaming has to be behind this." Richard scrunches up his face, turning to look at the dead body on the ground. "Do you think it worked for the Gloaming?" he adds.