Change || The Promised Neverland

➴ Chapter Thirty-Nine: Wander ➴

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"Is that so..."

Norman heaved a sigh, picking at the grass underneath him as he stared up at the night sky. [Name] had shifted off his lap and next to him, hugging her knees to her chest as she exhaled mist into the midnight air.

"Mhm," she hummed, tightening her hold on her elbows. "Nothing happened to me, though. We escaped before my birthday."

The albino nodded but kept his gaze off of her. "I didn't expect that of all things. So you can access your ancestor's memories? Is that how you knew this cave was abandoned?"

"Yeah," [Name] confirmed. "I should be able to use it later, after my shift."

"Are the dreams the reason you've been screaming in your sleep?" Norman asked, meeting her eyes. [Name] rolled back her shoulders.

"I suppose they would be," she admitted, "although they don't hurt me. At most, they're nightmares."

"You don't have to use it if it pains you," Norman said gently. "As I said before, you come first. I can take care of myself."

[Name] shook her head. "It's fine. Although, you have no room to talk, Minerva." She side-glared him. "I'm still surprised that you want to go along with genocide."

Norman inhaled sharply. "How did you figure it out so quickly? There wasn't enough information for you to come to that conclusion."

"Well," [Name] buried her head in her arms, "it's the safest option with the highest certainty, so I figured that you would think of it. Still, someone like you shouldn't be brought to the point where you'd want or even consider it."

"Someone like me..?" Norman echoed, furrowing his brows.

"You're kind, innocent, and pure," [Name] muttered. "That's who you were. This world put you through things that made you suffer more than you had to. Those things put everyone I care about in danger."

Norman's eyes widened as she spoke, something that [Name] didn't miss.

The (h/c) brought her head from within her arms. For once, the albino saw what Lambda had done to his friend. Eyes colder than ice, with the same emotion within such a solid, her face a mere statue.

"I hate them for that," she whispered. "That's why I want to kill them."

"But," she leaned back, "I understand if you don't want to do it. I can do the dirty work."

"[Name]," Norman said sternly, "What did I say about-"

"Keeping things to myself?" [Name] finished. She raised a brow. "I'm not hiding anything from you."

"I was going to say doing things that hurt you," Norman sighed. The (h/c) pressed her lips together.

"This isn't hurting me," she objected. "With the blood of 15 humans on my hands, I couldn't care less about a few thousand monsters."

"Would you want to..." Norman trailed off, turning his head away. For a moment, he stayed silent, trying to force the words out of his mouth. [Name]'s eyes softened, her gaze dropping.

"...Die like that?" she suggested hollowly. She took a shaky breath. "I - no, we have only 10 months left, if we're lucky. I want you to be happy with the life you lived so that you can... end it peacefully."

As Norman opened his mouth to protest - she could already hear the lecture coming out of his mouth - [Name] effectively shut him up by striking out her hand and closing his lips with her finger. She smiled softly at him.