Amari was smiling. She might be fighting a gargoyle, yet the girl was beaming with excitment. A little strange, she knows, but she can't help but be excited. Amari doesn't know much about gargoyle's, so maybe, keyword being maybe, it'll breathe hellfire. Amari doesn't remember much about Hunchback of Notre Dame but she does remember gargoyles. And she does remember that they weren't that scary. Plus, Amari's about ninety percent sure that she's unkillable, so there's not much to worry about. She would test that theory, but there's still the possibility that she's banned from the underworld, so for now, she just won't let herself die. Easy enough, right?
Amari followed behind the two girls into the school. Her smile was gone now. She really wasn't in the mood for Hope to lecture her about how bad this situation is. Amari also vaguely remembers something about Lizzie being in danger or something like that, so she's a little bit on edge. To Amari, Josie is the most annoying person at this school (Landon's the second most annoying, but she's not worried about him right now).
Yet, Amari actually really likes Lizzie (she also likes Raf more than Landon, but again, she's not worried about Landon right now).
"Lizzie!"
"I'll check the library," Hope said as she turned. "I'll come too!" Amari started to follow behind Hope, mostly because she rather not be left alone with Josie. "I don't want to be alone!" Josie called as she followed behind the other two. Amari had to force herself not to let out a noise in annoyance.
The three girls jumped as they heard Alaric speak. "What are you doing here?"
"You scared us."
"Dorian was supposed to keep you away," Alaric pointed out. "He tried, he failed."
"I felt Lizzie's pain, I knew something was wrong" Alaric glanced at Amari waiting for her comment. "Don't look at me like that. These two dragged me along to be their ride. I'm innocent."
"Here. Killing Gargoyle's 101. He thought you could translate it. So are we on our own, or did the Gauls provide clear instructions?"
"In a nutshell, it says hit it hard, repeat as needed" The four jumped at the sound of a roar. "Wait, so we aren't dealing with a cute gargoyle from Hunchback of Notre Dame? Wack"
"Listen, it poisoned Lizzie. We gotta find it."
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
The gargoyle flew down the steps directly in front of Hope. She fell to the ground as it swung the knife at her. The gargoyle held the knife up again, ready to hit Hope with it, when Alaric stepped in front of it, making it come to a stop.
Everyone stood frozen for a second until Josie broke off one of its wings. It swung at Josie and accidentally scraped Amari's arm. Amari gripped her arm to feel blood. Of course, Amari had bled before, but it was over a hundred years ago. The feeling felt foreign, yet she still recognized it. Her eyes turned a dark red as she stared at it. She thrust one of her hands at it, hitting it with a purple ball of energy. Her eyes widened in surprise at the hole now in one of his wings.
The gargoyle roared in pain as Alaric cut off his other wing.
Once the gargoyle was defeated, Amari turned to Hope. "So it wasn't like the Hunchback of Notre Dame ones. Got it."
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Growing up in the underworld with all the worst people in the entire world (and her father, but Amari included him in the worst people category) meant she didn't have any friends. No sweet demons for her to befriend like she saw in some show, no other kids, no one. Amari was alone. Even when she lived in the overworld for those few years, her mother kept her hidden from everyone. Now that Amari was surrounded by other kids, she had moments when she missed being alone. After hanging out with people all day, she needed to recharge. Her phone told her it's called being an introvert, but Amari is pretty sure she just doesn't like people.
So after spending an entire day with Hope and Josie, she needed a recharge. It also gave her a chance to think, so Amari found herself in the woods, seated on a log.
Part of the grass was burned from her 'temper tantrum' a few days back. Every time she looked down at it, she was reminded of the feelings she had that night. She hated it.
To keep herself distracted, Amari was trying to figure out the new ability she used earlier. A purple ball of energy rested in her palms. Amari had some memories of her father talking about psychic energy blasts, but he never really taught her about the power. Arcadius was more a fan of mental abilities, which is why Amari is so good at invading and taking control of people's minds. Arcadius claimed that the blast took too much energy, so he preferred not to use them. Yet Amari didn't feel drained at all as she kept the psychic energy in her palm.
"Hey," Amari glanced up at Hope and closed her hand, making the energy disappear.
"Don't worry; I'm not about to start crying again. That was a one-time thing," Hope chuckled as she took a seat beside Amari. "Look at me," Amari did as told though she cocked one eyebrow up in confusion.
Noticing how long they were staring at each other, Amari dropped her eyes to her feet. "Your eyes are red" Amari jerked her eyes back to Hope's. "What?"
"They've been like that since the fight," Amari shrugged. "Might have something to do with this new power. Is that all you came here to say?" Amari meant for her words to come out cold and detached, yet instead, she sounded disappointed. "You know you can open up to me, right? I'm not just your babysitter, Amari."
"Last time I opened up to you, it was just because I was having a moment, I don't have many moments. Like I said, one-time thing."
"That's just another thing we have in common then. I don't really open up to people. The one person I did open up to stole a weapon and ran away." Hope chuckled at how ridiculous it sounded. "Landon?" Hope nodded in response, "You could do better. I mean- he's just- he's pretty lame, he's ugly, and he isn't funny. He needs to pick a struggle." Hope laughed, making Amari realize she likes the sound of Hope's laugh. "You just don't know him."
"And I don't want to. Wait, what's the second thing we have in common?" Amari said, trying to get off the subject of Landon. "We both have daddy issues." Now it was Amari's turn to laugh. Saying she had daddy issues felt like an understatement. "I mean, yeah, but your dad actually seems pretty cool."
"You've been researching me?" Amari glanced back at the ground.
"No, Lizzie told me about a book on him in the library, and if I'm gonna live in the overworld, I thought I should know about it's most famous hybrid." Amari looked back at Hope to see her reaction, though Amari couldn't really tell what was going through her mind.
"Anyway," Amari figured Hope didn't want to talk about her father, which Amari gets. She probably gets it more than anyone else at the school, "Bottling everything up never works. I can teach you some of my coping methods, but I think you should talk to someone."
"I rather just hear some of your methods."
"Well, uh, sometimes I'll just come in the woods to scream or maybe run around the woods in my wolf form. Or damage a few trees or spare with Alaric."
"Well, if you ever want to give Alaric a break from being your sparring partner, I'm here."
"Good to know. By the way, your eyes aren't red anymore." Hope smiled and stood up from her spot. Amari glanced down at her leg, which she didn't even realize had been touching Hope's until she stood up and the warmth left. "Well, I'm gonna get some rest. Don't stay out too late."
"Got it, babysitter Hope." As Amari watched Hope walk away, she couldn't help but yell, "Don't be a hypocrite and take your own advice, Hope. Talk to someone instead of bottling up your feelings." Hope stopped in her tracks, not bothering to turn around. "Goodnight, Amari."
"'Night, Hope!"
⊱ ────── {.⋅author's note ⋅.} ────── ⊰
am i projecting my hate for certain characters onto Amari? yes. do i care? nope. also hope and amari are a slow burn but expect some low key flirting and amari not even realizing it's flirting because my baby is oblivious.
anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, thank you for reading! Please vote and leave comments because they keep me motivated to update! Until next time!
( i made a sign-off and of course i used a zendaya gif for it because i absolutely love her! )