(I appreciate that half of the chapter names are something really important to the chapter- like a key point- then the rest are the most unnecessary parts. Hence, this chapter name. T H W A CK
...ENJOY, LMAO.)
I opened my eyes groggily, a splitting headache greeting me cheerfully as the light that spilled in through my eyelashes.
"Where..." I murmured as I sat up, a folded wet towel falling off of my head. I observed my surroundings curiously as. I was sitting on the lone bed in the room, the light entering the room through a crack in the drawn curtains. 'It must be around late morning to early afternoon...' I thought as I reached towards the curtains to pull them aside.
I winced as my sudden movement made my numb headache pound, grabbing the side of my head. I went to lie back down with a sigh, when the memories of last night came flooding into my brain in an instant.
"Sh*t" I exclaimed, swinging my feet off the bed. I stood up and pulled the door open, running out of the room, leaving the door wide open. I followed the sound of clamouring of children to the kitchen and pushed open the door with a 'Bam!!'
I was met with the eyes of a large amount of children as they paused in their countless conversations. My eyes scanned the crowd quickly as I tried to discern the ravenhead and ginger from the crowd. "Oh, Y/N! You're awake-"
Alas, I caught no sight of either of the little sh*ts. I then turned on my heels and exited the room, jogging to my own.
"Wait, Y/N-!!" I heard one voice exclaim after me, followed by another.
"Where are you going?"
Ignoring the children's calls after me I ran, stopping by my room. 'Maybe I can still-!!' I grabbed my bag of things I found, still packed and resting on the floor beside my neatly made bed, dashing out the door to my room, ignoring the footfalls of several people behind me.
"Y/N, wait-!!" Oliver called after me and I scowled, gritting my teeth at the sound of his voice. I quickly reached for the door handle before he could catch up and yanked it open. To my shock, I met the equally shocked eyes of Emma and Ray themselves.
'They're...back? Then that means...' My bag fell from my hands and hit the floor with a 'thud!' I stayed staring emptily at the doorway as Ray quickly got over his initial shock and brushed past me as he walked inside.
"Y/N?" Emma asked anxiously as the children who'd followed me in pursuit arrived at the front hallway as well.
"Ray?" Anna asked as the ravenhead walked right passed all of them, several children tearing their eyes away from Emma and I to watch him leave.
"D-did you make the promise?!" It took me a moment to break free of my shock, grabbing hold of Emma's arms, my eyes wide as I stared into her bright green eyes.
Her eyes widened in shock, once more, for a moment before she covered it with a smile. "Yes!" She exclaimed happily, her eyes flicking to the side and back to mine. "We forged it! We can escape to the human world without anybody being chased or killed!"
The front hall erupted in cheers as the world fell around me. 'No way...'
"What about the reward?" Reina asked with a tilt of her head as I stood motionless, my hands falling from Emma's arms.
"Oh..." Emma smiled thinly. "It all worked out! It's fine!"
"Oh, that's great!" A sigh of relief rippled through the crowd.
I chewed on my lower lip and held back angry tears as I came back to reality. I stalked away from the crowd of happy children, not wanting to infect their celebration with my mood.
"Y/N!" I heard Oliver call after me over the excited clamours of the children, once again, as he chased after me. I paused for a moment to allow him to catch up despite wanting nothing more than getting out of there. "We need to talk."
I raised an eyebrow. "About what." I scowled, adjusting my bag strap on my shoulder.
Oliver hesitated for a moment at my hostility. I certainly wasn't making this easy for him. "Well... I'm sorry..." He sighed out guiltily while I listened, not even turning to face him while he spoke. "I know it's no excuse... but Ray wasn't going to listen to Norman, so he asked me to talk him out of it... and I tried-!! But he wasn't going to stop, so... I just made sure you were safe..." He trailed off, the guilt eating him on the inside.
I hummed, pursing my lips. "Is that all?" I asked, unable to stay angry at him, but unable to forgive him deep down inside... When Oliver hesitated I began to walk away, until a hand was laid on my shoulder.
"You know... Ray's heart was in the right place..."
I scowled at the mention of the ravenhead. "Get him to tell me that himself." I then walked outside to the target range where Norman had recently been testing all the escapees of their skills, grabbing spare ammo and throwing knives on the way.
Taking my position, across from the targets lined in rows, I raised my gun. I took a deep breath before pulling the trigger, firing one by one at each of the distance-varying targets. I didn't stop to see the results, simply reloading the gun and shooting, rinse, repeat.
Once I ran out of bullets to fire I switched to my throwing knives, flinging them precisely at the targets one-by-one.
I had thrown my last knife when I heard a voice behind me.
"I'd say your skill is impressive, but I've never seen you this angry before, and to be honest, it's kinda frightening." Yuugo hummed from a small distance away.
"I'm not angry." I scowled while I walked towards the targets, yanking out my knives from the very center, one by one.
"I see." The adult continued talking as he trailed after me. "Then what are you? Upset?"
"Shut up." I muttered, grabbing another knife.
"Devastated?" He raised his eyebrows in question.
I yanked another knife from a target, nearly flinging it from my hands with the force. "Shut. Up."
"In the middle of a lover's quarrel?" Yuugo teased.
I irked in anger, on my last straw, while I yanked the final knife from the wooden target. "Yuugo, you better shut your damn mouth before I-!!" I spin to the man angrily, knife in hand, expecting him to look amused at my situation. Perhaps challenging me with those obnoxious looking eyes of his. But to my surprise, I was met with a face unexpectedly filled with worry.
"Ah. You finally looked at me." He smiled thinly, the dark circles under his eyes causing a pang in my chest. 'They're darker than usual...' I snapped out of my thoughts and turned back around with a frown, stalking back to the training ground, still in a bad mood. Although this time, I stopped telling Yuugo to shut up.
"Y/N, you should talk to him." The angsty man told me as I stuffed my knives into their satchel.
"Tell that to him." I pulled out a knife and threw it at a target, hitting it in the center with a 'thwack!!'.
We continued like this for quite some time until I'd emptied out my knives a total of 4 times. I was rightfully exhausted as I finished gathering the knives, coming back to my position.
This whole time Yuugo continued standing beside me and talking to me- although it was certainly a one-sided conversation on his part.
"That's it, Y/N!" He exclaimed out of nowhere, once my knife hit the wood of the target. "Pretend it's that emo b*stard's face!" He cheered enthusiastically, catching me off-guard once again, as I threw my second knife.
Despite myself, I let out a snort at his words. I covered it with a frown quickly, hoping that Yuugo hadn't seen it, continuing with throwing my knives. 'God dammit, Y/N. You're supposed to be sulking right now.'
Yuugo continued throwing insults in Ray's direction as my knives hit home, struggling to focus. "Take that, you b*stard! One-eyed sleepy cyclops looking b*tch!" He yelled as I hurled another knife at a target "Angsty dark-circle-eyes crusty musty *ss! You look like my foot!"
At last I dissolved into laughter, unable to deal with his comments as I covered my mouth. 'Did he learn all those listening to me?!' I glanced at Yuugo, who was looking down at me with a proud smile. My own smile quickly vanished and I shuffled awkwardly. 'Wow, Y/N. Can't even do 'angry' right.'
"Can I hug you now?" The abnormally-sincere adult asked, breaking me out of my thoughts as he held open his arms.
I scrunched my eyebrows for a moment in thought before answering. "...fine." I muttered, unable to decline his, stupid, hopeful, tsundere face. Yuugo then knelt down and hugged me gently, a gesture that he'd only done once before. I looked away to the side in embarrassment as he did so, my anger melting away as he held me in his arms.
"You calm now?" He asked, ruffling my hair obnoxiously as he pulled away. I nodded my head, looking to my feet, all the anger that had been in my system now replaced with a number sadness and betrayal.
I then began quickly gathering all of the knives I'd brought and stuffing them into my holster. "You saw nothing." I muttered to Yuugo as I passed him by, walking towards the house.
Yuugo grinned playfully. "Saw what?" He shrugged sarcastically, and I smiled in response, before walking back to the house, Yuugo trailing a while behind me.
'The day today is November 4th. Three days from now is when Emma, Ray, Oliver, Zack, and the others head to stop Norman before the Tifari. It's a good thing they made it back 3 days earlier then Emma did, I suppose, thanks to my explanation on how to make it past the seven walls... That means we could leave on foot instead of horses and still make it... I suppose we could also leave a day early. But... that doesn't change the fact that... Emma, Ray, or both... have already made the promise... I failed...'
I felt my stomach sink in sadness for a moment until it boiled in anger. 'And only because of Ray's interference.'
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