Thoughts?
*
Two days.
It had been two days since Alyssa was last awake.
After the battle, she had to carry Ashlena all the way back to their apartment. She had to fight against her own crippling exhaustion and her own injuries just so she could get herself and Ashlena safely home.
The flight was almost harder than the fight itself.
Breaking back into the apartment, nearly impossible.
But she did it. And the second she pulled Ashlena through the door, she left her on the ground and found her own bed, passing into a deep slumber.
It was almost like a comatose state. A very short one.
That happened exactly two days ago.
Alyssa could have slept for much, much longer had the pressure from her own bladder not have woken her up. But despite what her body had recently been through, nature still called.
After relieving herself, she collapsed back down on her bed. She laid there, simply breathing in and out. She did notice that she felt remarkably better and it seemed that her slumber had given her body enough time to recover.
The right side of her body, which she had shattered, no longer caused her any grief. There was still a slight level of soreness, but all of the actual pain was gone. Her fast healing had come in handy.
She was relieved, so relieved that she almost found herself in another peaceful rest.
But when she heard the door to her room creak open, she cracked her eyes open. Ashlena stood in the doorway, picking at the skin on her nails as if she was nervous. Alyssa eyed her sister from the comfort of her bed for several more seconds, before she eventually pulled herself into a seated position.
She stared back at Ashlena, who after several silent seconds began to talk.
"I am so, so, sorry, Lyss."
The sound of her voice filled the quiet room, sucking every ounce of peace right out of it.
Alyssa released a heavy sigh, yanking a hand through her greasy and tangled hair. She could feel the tension rising inside of her, and though she had no intention of talking to Ashlena about what had happened, she knew it had to be done.
And Ashlena wasn't going to let her out of it as far as Alyssa could tell.
All I wanted was ten minutes of absolute quiet. Alyssa thought to herself, bitter over the fact that she would not get her wish.
"Lyss, say something." Ashlena pleaded, her voice yet again filling the room.
Alyssa rubbed her temple and pinched the bridge of her nose, sucking in yet another deep breath. She did this a couple more times before she found the strength and patience to speak to her sister.
"For now, let's leave it all in Havana."
Alyssa tried to end the conversation at that. She walked around Ashlena without another word, praying that Ashlena would just take the hint that now wasn't the time. The reminder of what Ashlena had done, the sting of betrayal...It greatly offended Alyssa and it was all too fresh.
That was the truth.
She wasn't angry at Ashlena, she wasn't worried for her well being.
She was betrayed.
She needed time to figure everything out inside of her head. She needed time to get past the danger that Ashlena had willingly put herself and Alyssa in. Ashlena's constant nagging would do nothing but poke a sleeping bear.
Unfortunately for Alyssa, that seemed to be exactly what Ashlena intended to do.
"Alyssa, no. We need to talk about this now," She pressed, "You've been asleep for days and all I could think about the entire time was how badly I fucked up."
Alyssa yanked a coffee cup from the cabinet and stuck it under the coffee machine. She irritably jabbed the start button before spinning back to Ashlena.
"You did fuck up, massively," Alyssa snapped, "Which is exactly why now is not the time to talk about it. I need time to myself so that I don't say something stupid."
"But what about-"
Ashlena began to speak but Alyssa abruptly cut her off.
"Ash, stop it," She hissed, "I need time."
Alyssa held a stern expression as Ashlena looked at her in desperation. She clearly wanted to beg and plead for Alyssa's forgiveness, which was a normal thing for Ashlena to do. She couldn't stand any negative attention from Alyssa and Alyssa knew that.
She didn't want to stress her sister out, she didn't want Ashlena to feel as if she hated her. But Alyssa wasn't ready to confront it, let alone move past it. All she wanted was to sip on her coffee and enjoy the sunshine.
She didn't care for the love-bombing that was sure to come her way.
She left Ashlena in the kitchen as she stepped out onto their balcony, happy to be met by a cool breeze against her skin. The fall air had set in, a welcomed change that wasn't there before. Alyssa shut her eyes, allowing the air to ease her tensions.
She didn't want to think about the events that had occurred only so recently, but her mind couldn't stop bringing it up. There were several main things that needed to be addressed, all of which Alyssa couldn't find the energy to address.
Her sister surprisingly was not at the top of the list, though she was very near.
The biggest thing on her mind was Zircon, or Nikolai, she hadn't fully decided on what to call him. He'd caught her completely off guard and had it not been for Laken, she would've drowned. But even after catching her off guard and body-slamming her to the ocean, he still let her live.
He let her live, despite what happened all those years ago.
He let her live even though she had been weakened to the point of making her an easy target. Killing her would've been the easiest way to tilt an already uneven playing field even more.
He let Ashlena live, despite the fact that she attacked him trying to defend Alyssa. And Alyssa wasn't foolish, she knew he wasn't known for leaving survivors. She had said it many times before, but he was merciless.
And yet he showed mercy.
He showed mercy.
The idea was repellent towards Alyssa's mind. She had so much trouble accepting it.
Another thing that she couldn't accept was Laken. She couldn't accept that she hated him and he hated her, yet he pulled her from the waves and took her to safety. He had no reason to help her and she had no reason to expect him to. But he did anyway.
She was conflicted towards him. Out of the entire group, he was the one she trusted the least. But now, she was sure that he was the most normal out of all of them. He was the only one with half a brain.
Penelope and Simon were very young and very naive, and they had flown blindly into a trap. Because of that, Alyssa found trusting them even more difficult than trusting Laken.
Alyssa was about to fall even deeper into her own thoughts when she heard the balcony door open. She released an annoyed sigh and began to turn around.
"Ash, I said now's not the-"
She stopped herself when she laid eyes on Laken.
His eyes were abnormally blue, like the underneath of an Alaskan glacier. The ash tones in his hair had begun fading, revealing a silvery-white.
He was revealing himself to her.
And she was revealing herself to him.
Though her platinum hair was tangled and greasy from the recent lack of washing, it had grown out significantly in the days that she didn't trim it. Her bright green eyes stared back at him, marking the first time she'd let anybody see her true self in years.
Though she was sure he'd gotten a glimpse during the battle, it was too dark to really see any details.
She stared at him, wide-eyed and skeptical.
She couldn't understand why he was here. She also couldn't understand why Ashlena had let him in without asking her first.
"What are you doing here?" She questioned, her voice sounding a lot more harsh than she meant for it to sound. Laken didn't seem taken back by it though, which Alyssa was somewhat grateful for.
"Ashlena texted us, she told us you were awake," He explained, "I wanted to come check on you."
Irritation flooded Alyssa at the mere mention of Ashlena. She didn't want to be overly critical of her little sister, but lately she'd been finding it hard not to. To Alyssa, she felt as if Ashlena was being careless and stupid by blindly trusting other Draca's.
"Why do you care?"
Alyssa didn't mean to be rude and she didn't mean to allow her irritation to seep into their conversation. But she couldn't help it. Laken responded with an annoyed scowl, throwing his hands up defensively.
"Well if it isn't the Alyssa we're all used to," He said, "Here I was thinking that saving you from a certain death would make you more likable. Guess I thought wrong."
Laken grabbed the handle to the door as if he was about to leave, but a question probed at Alyssa's mind, causing her mouth to fly open before she could contain it.
"Why did you save me? You hate me and I don't exactly like you, so why didn't you just let me drown?"
Laken's hand froze over the door handle, leaving him standing in silence. He didn't move and he didn't speak for several seconds, his mind seemingly turning over Alyssa's question over and over.
I didn't realize it was such a complicated answer...Alyssa thought to herself, ready to assume that maybe Laken did regret saving her. But he finally spoke before the thought could fully set in.
"What kind of man would I be if I just ignored a damsel in distress?" He grinned, "Or shall I say Draca in distress?"
It was a cheesy joke,
A stupid joke.
It was everything but amusing—It was nothing more than a corny attempt at humor.
Yet it made her smile. It even made her laugh.
It was a small laugh, a light one, but nonetheless it was a laugh.
It came from the heart.
It was enough to bring a genuine smile to Laken's face. He glanced down when Alyssa started to fully stare at him, his cheeks turning rosy.
Was he blushing? Alyssa could've sworn that he was actually blushing.
Suddenly he was looking back at her, his face completely softened. He was the type of person who didn't normally seem soft or relaxed. So seeing him that way was weird to Alyssa. Not a bad type of weird though.
"But seriously, why did you do it?"
This time, a more serious answer seemed to form in Laken's head. He thought briefly, before he once again opened his mouth.
"I just see you differently than the rest of my friends," He whispered, "They all see you as a means for protection, a way to give them an edge against The Hunters. I see the Emerald Queen, not just some pawn but an actual legend. And once Zircon knocked you into the water, you became unusable to them. Letting you drown just seemed so unfair."
A series of emotions collided against each other inside of Alyssa. Confusion, anger, realization, anger again, confusion again...What Laken had just said had Alyssa's brain running around in circles.
The way he spoke of his "friends" sounded distasteful. He spoke of them as if they weren't really friends, and that unnerved Alyssa. How could she trust him if he didn't actually care about his so-called friends? How could she?
He was the one who informed his friends of the pile of bones in Havana. He was the one who introduced the concept of flying to Havana to check it out. Maybe not directly, but he did. He was responsible for leading them into an ambush.
So how could he be trusted?
The answer wasn't as simple as Alyssa thought. Because she didn't trust him any more, but she also didn't trust him any less. Her own questions hadn't changed her view on Laken, which in turn caused an internal conflict inside of Alyssa.
Who was Laken Windsor?
And who was Alyssa Craven?