Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

2 ☼ sound

September 1992

"I'm heading out, David!" Ellowyn screamed at her foster dad in the other room.

"Like hell you are! Today's a work day." David and his stupid face exited the bathroom in nothing but jeans and a belt that made some of his belly fat poke out. David made her want to throw up. She hated him. She wish she had never told that doctor and her mom she hated them, because she despised this man. "I need you to carry in the firewood."

A likely story. David probably just liked to see her struggle. Ellowyn was practically a stick; everyone else in her grade was seemingly thwacked with puberty, and she was still thin and straight and bony. He and her both knew firewood would take her an hour.

"School, remember, that thing I'm legally required to do?"

"Ahh, that. Well be back early, Low. We have shit to get did." He handed her three dollars for her lunch. His breath smelled like chewing tobacco and dentures. She shivered. "Have a day." He never told her to have a good day, or a bad day, just a day.

As soon as she grabbed her skateboard and stepped out the door, Synyster appeared to the side of her. "Every time I smell his breath I wanna projectile vomit." Syn told her, fake gagging. "What a skeeze."

She got on her board, pushing herself down the sidewalk as Syn walked beside her at the same speed. She never questioned how he could go so fast and still appear to be taking a leisurely stroll. "I hope he chokes on his chew today, then drowns in his bowl of cereal." Ellowyn said, skating more aggressively.

"Whoa spitfire, who shat in your breakfast?" He laughed. "You're never this angry over his existence."

"You haven't checked on me in a month. Where have you been? Where have any of you been?" her voice cracked slightly. "Last month was three years, Brian. Since my dad." She used his real name.

Brian looked down. "Fuck. I'm sorry Ells. Things have been uh..." He scratched the back of his neck. "Happening on the other side."

The other side was the realm in which Syn, Shadow, Zacky and Jimmy resided. They all met Ellowyn when she was five, and decided to kind of adopt her in a way. They told her about the realm on her ninth birthday. "What's happening over there that you guys left me alone with David for a month?"

"They're trying to open the seal," Syn rubbed the bridge of his nose with his middle finger and thumb. "Let us all out into the real world and shit. I've been 26 for 300 years, Ells. People go crazy over here."

"Don't they have people too?" She asked in concern.

"We met you when you were a small child. Kids are just, easier to let us in than others. We were so scared you would let us go after they told you to stop playing with your imaginary friends the first time." He laughed slightly. "But you didn't. What usually lasts a year, you carried with us for 6 now. But there's still kind of an uprising happening over here."

"What happens if the seal is broken?"

Syn stayed silent.

"Synyster, what happens if the seal is broken?"

"We become real again." He says. "History is rewritten so we have roles and didn't just appear out of nowhere. We start aging. Nobody is sent to purgatory again."

"And you stop hanging out with eleven year olds," Ellowyn put the pieces together.

"Hey. I love you, Ells. You know that. But if anyone didn't say they'd kill for a chance out of here... They're lying. It's cold over here, you know that's why my skin is like ice. It's black and white here, I've never even seen the color of your eyes."

"You can't see color?" She stopped the skateboard at the crosswalk.

"Nope. Not one."

They walked across the road at a regular pace together. "My eyes are green." She said. "Like trees. Scratch that, like murky lake water."

"How about this," He says, reading that she's obviously upset that her friends could disappear one day. "If the seal is ever broken, I will find you. No matter how long it takes."

"Just don't go disappearing for months on end again," She complained, punching him in the arm. "I go crazy without you guys."

☼

"Oh Ellowynawyn..." Travis and his little brothers showed up at Ellowyn's locker. Ever since middle school started, they tormented her. With long strings of Ellowynawynawynawyn's signifying their presence, she cringed and recognized the hell to follow.

"What do you want, Travis?" She turned to face him. "I'm not in the mood today."

"When are you ever?" He said sarcastically. Travis was an eighth grader, and his two little brothers were seventh graders who looked like uglier versions of him. Travis Tremento had blonde hair and blue eyes and stood 6'1, hitting his growthspurt far before his peers. "The three dollars I know is in your pocket is what I want little bitch. Pay up, compensation for seeing your ugly face."

Synyster and Shadow stood next to her, seething. "We need to buff you up." Syn patted her arm. "So you can rock this dumbasses world."

"In my dreams," I whisper back, but apparently Travis catches it.

"In your dreams what? Having little fantasies about me?"

She took the wadded three dollars out of her back pocket and handed it over. "You misheard me. In your dreams I would ever touch your dirty ass."

And she's in trouble.

Travis shoved her against the locker. Her back hit it hard with a thud, and he pinned one of her wrists against the metal.

"Don't forget I'm the one who can make you do whatever I fucking want. Do you see any teachers right now?"

She shook her head no, suddenly going into mental shutdown.

"I said, do you see any teachers right now!?" He nearly spat in her face.

"No!" She said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm sorry."

He let go, letting her drop to the ground. "Good."

When Travis and the Clones walked away, she was shaking on the ground like a leaf. Syn and Shadow helped her up, and she dusted herself off. "Fuck," She cried out. The halls were empty and she was late to eighth period. "I hate him."

"I do too," Shadow said, his jaw clenched. "Why are you bleeding?" He put a finger to her lip.

She licked her bottom lip and tasted the blood. "He must've hit me somewhere in all that."

"Please, I know you hate telling people, but please just go to the nurse." Syn begged her. "Just this once. Get some ice, you have a split lip!"

She nodded. And she was glad the hallways were empty, because imaginary or not, she grabbed both her friends and gave them a giant, death gripping hug. And she cried.