EDITED SEPTEMBER 9, 2021
WARNING: angst, five is a bit of an asshole
EIGHT ALWAYS LOVED THE NIGHT. To her, It is the most beautiful art, alive within raw energy, a song for the eyes. At times she felt as if she could feel it vibrating somehow, whispering in a way the ears cannot hear. She guesses it felt friendly when the world of people felt so devoid of love when she felt like she was devoid of love.
Thank god that Elliot's place had a nice view of it. Despite the mess she was in, Eight had suddenly felt awfully calm. The calmest she's ever felt for a while. Away from Five, Diego, everyone... it felt amazing.
Then, it was interrupted.
"Hi."
"Hi." Eight turned around, forcing a smile that she didn't mean at all. Of course, Five saw right through her. He always did.
"Can we talk?"
Three words. Three words that she had been trying to avoid the whole day. This was your typical fight or flight situation, and of course, she would choose flight.
"I'm really tired, Five." she dismissed, standing up from the chair next to the window. Everything still hasn't come back to her, and she doesn't want to deal with this whole thing right now.
Not when she could feel her heartache in her chest whenever she would see him. Not when she always had this urge to burst into a puddle of tears when he comes near her. Not when there's a shard in her guts that never leaves.
"Oh my god," Five suddenly yelled harshly, gently pulling her elbow back as he brought her close to her. "Love, please stop bullshitting me. Why won't you just talk to me?"
Eight stood in shock as she watch Five explode. The girl suddenly felt her body boil with rage as she harshly pulled her elbow away. "I told you to not call me that."
"What am I supposed to call you?" he laughed without humor, "Number Eight? What are we, strangers?"
"Watch your tone with me."
"You don't tell me shit!" he screamed, and Eight could have sworn that this was the angriest he's been to her. "I'm trying to help you! I want to talk to you and you keep pushing me away!"
Eight was focusing on keeping her breathing steady and slow, ignoring the clawing pain on her chest as she glared at Five. "I don't want to talk about it."
"That's the problem! You never do! We used to tell each other everything!" Five looked pissed, "I'm giving you my all when you won't even open up to me!"
That was the final straw for her. Eight ticked her head to the side, and in an instant, Five was pushed into a wall. "What about me, Five? You're so pissed that I'm shutting you off when you have no fucking idea what I'm going through right now. I— that night at the alleyway when Hazel found me, I thought I was going die, Five."
Tears were pricking the corners of her eyes, but that didn't stop her. "I thought I was going to fucking die. I couldn't breathe and no one was there. Then in the span of a few hours, I get possessed, I get tormented by the FBI, I get thrown a bunch of information, and you're mad at me because I won't talk to you?"
Five, who had fallen off his high of rage, softened. "Eight—"
"No! Stop it." Eight shouted, stepping so they were inches apart. "I've been through hell, Five. There's so much shit going on in my brain right now and I thought that you, out of all people, would understand that."
Eight stepped away, keeping her head held up high until she was out of his sight.
Only someone as close as Five could hurt her like that. It takes an inside job to attack one so resilient to emotional injury. Eight was strong. She could be hurt in any way by another and still bounce right back. She could be tortured and still be okay in the end.
But Five... he can do far worse with just a few small words. He doesn't mean them, she knows it - but in a way, that makes it worse.
.....
She was ignoring him.
Five spent the whole night apologizing to her, which she accepted, but she was still ignoring him. Not when he screamed at her like that and accused her of all of that shit; it would take a lot more than his apology to make herself warm up to him again.
Eight bit her nails in nervousness as she watched Lila take care of Diego. She was reluctant to trust her with him at first, but it looked like Lila knew what she was doing so she let her take care of him. Five noticed that Eight was prancing around slowly in the room, which made him slightly worried for her.
"Hey, love. You okay?" Five asked in concern, walking towards her. Lila raised her eyebrows at the nickname. "Love?"
Five ignored the voice in his head. I told you to stop calling me that.
"We're married, okay? Shut it." Five snapped at Lila, annoyed. Eight let out a sigh as she made her way to the kitchen to get herself a cup of water, with Five quickly trailing behind her. Eight wasn't telling him anything again, which slightly aggravated him.
They had just fought, but he still felt annoyed. Five knew that it wasn't fair to her, but he couldn't really control his emotions.
"What's wrong?" he pestered her once again. Eight, who was in a stressed state slammed the glass of water on the table facing Five. She was on the edge since she had no idea what the fuck she was gonna do with the information that she had just received.
"I'm ok, Five! Shut up!" she snapped. Five's eyes widened, since he had never heard Eight talk to him like that, and the experience was new to him. He rolled his eyes, sort of hurt and annoyed at the same time. "Fine. I was just trying to help." he mumbled, walking out of the kitchen and leaving Eight in there to fend for herself.
"Wow." Eight laughed sarcastically. "Wow."
Eight felt a bit guilty for snapping at Five, but decided to ignore him. Instead she made her way to one of the rooms, grabbing the phonebook. Her curiosity was killing her, and she needed to see Akhanitamud. She could kill her, or maybe do some voodoo shit and bring the spirit back into it's original body.
She had no concrete plan, but an idea popped up in her head. She quickly grabbed the phonebook, running back to the dining area where she grabbed the car keys and went out of the building. Five looked in confusion, spacial jumping beside her to ask where she was going, but Eight ignored him as if he wasn't there and drove away with the phonebook.
Five sighed, walking back inside to meet the gaze of an entertained Lila, who he rolled his eyes at.
-
Eight stopped on the side of the road, looking at the mirror infront of her.
"Come on, I know you can read my mind. Come out already. I need to talk to you." she told the Witch that was inside her body. Eight watched as her left eye lost it's color, an indication that Akhanitamud was slightly in control of her body.
"Do you have questions?" Akhanitamud asked.
"Of course I have questions. First of all, what do you wanna do? I can go to Sissy Cooper or whoever her name is and you can get out of my body and live your life in your own body. I'm tired of sharing this one with you." she told the spirit.
"No. I don't wanna continue the boring farm life." the spirit replied.
"If you want to stay in my body, stop trying to ruin everything for me." Eight mumbled in annoyance, throwing the phonebook in the backseat. She looked in the mirror once again. "Another question."
"Yeah?"
"Why are you so mean to me? Why are you trying to ruin everything? I'm just trying to save the world and my siblings. What the fuck is your problem?" she asked in anger. Eight had never had a proper conversation with Akhanitamud, so she decided to throw all her struggles at her. The car was filled with silence for a while.
"Because I love you, Karina."
Eight choked on her own saliva. She expected a 'because you're a fucking bitch' or 'because I hate you' but definitely not this. "What the fuck? Care to explain? And who the fuck is Karina and why do I keep on hearing that name?"
"Let me start from the beginning. When you were born, I named you Karina-"
"So you're really my mother?" Eight questioned in confusion. For some twisted reason, she really liked the name Karina. Being called Eight all her life was pretty boring, not to mention confusing.
"Can you shut up and save the questions for later? Yes. I was actually pregnant with you unlike the other mothers. You were just born 3 months early. Your dad was a-"
"I HAVE A DAD?" Eight questioned in surprise. From all she knew, the mothers who gave birth to them didn't have a dad, so this confused her. Her lips were shut by Akhanitamud so she wouldn't talk.
"Yes, shut up. Your dad wasn't there when you were born, because it was unexpected. Anyways, I put myself in your body as I died. I hate your dad for selling you to Reginald. I've been trying to kill you since you already lived your life, Ka- Eight. You're almost 70. Isn't it time you reunited with your mother? I've been dying to spend time with you, not controlling you."
Eight listened in shock. Akhanitamud was sick in the head. Absolutely sick.
Eight let out a sigh. "Please, just let me fix everything here. I need to save the others. They mean too much to me." she gulped. "When everything is okay... when I stop the apocalypse... you can take me. I served my purpose here."
Akhanitamud was surprised, but she felt happy nonetheless. "Sure. That's a promise, Eight?"
Eight sighed. "Yes. And you can call me Karina, I think I wanna use that name from now on."
-
if you have any questions comment here and i'll try to answer them if i can,, so what did you think of this chapter?