Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

3 ☼ security

⚠️ tw for sexual assault ⚠️
January 1993

"Uncle Danny is coming over this afternoon," David said to Ellowyn as she ate breakfast. "Staying a few nights, gonna help us get shoveled out of all this snow."

And by snow, he meant snow. there was four feet of snow blanketing Maine, more snow than she had seen in her life. Her and David had barely shoveled out a path from the doorway. "And I'm assuming I can't just hide out in my room?" She said hopingly. Uncle Danny might be the one person she hated more than David.

"Not for the whole day, no." David rolled his eyes. "But you can take a lazy morning if you want."

David could be nice sometimes. But the mean times always outweighed the nice. She was surprised at the gesture. "Thank you David. I'm gonna put on some water for hot chocolate, you want some?"

"Nah hon, I've got my coffee."

So distracted with his coffee that he didn't notice Ellowyn literally sneak four cups of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows up to her bedroom. Zack, Shadow, Syn and Jimmy had a field day getting to have a hot drink. "Holy fucking shit. I forgot how great hot cocoa is." Zack practically chugged his.

"Oh my god, Zack, be careful! It's piping!" Ellowyn yelled in shock, but the other three boys did the same without problem. "You just drank boiling water like shots! Are you... What the hell!?"

"Goose. Our body temperature is about the same as the snow outside, inside and out. This is lukewarm." Jimmy explained.

"So you can interact with the outside world when it relates to me?" She clarified. Purgatory rules are weird. "So you can drink hot chocolate."

They all nodded. "If you give it to us." Zack commented.

As soon as she heard the door shut downstairs and male voices talking, she figured Danny was over and went over to her record player, putting on some Nirvana so she could drown out their talking. "You guys have to stay up here while Danny is here. I can't risk slipping up around him. The things David shrugs off, Danny will be weird about. Such as talking to my little hallucinations."

"Was Danny the one who grabbed your ass last thanksgiving?"

"Nah, that was Greg. Danny is the 42 year old mechanic."

They all sat and talked as she finished her hot cocoa far slower than they did. Jim's favorite place in her room was her beanbag chair; Syn never really seemed to sit down anywhere, Zack was sitting against the door and Matt was next to her as usual.

"Why do you never sit, Syn?" Ellowyn asked, taking her final sip of cocoa.

He paused, looking back at her. "Makes me antsy. Being in one place for too long."

Synyster was the one story she hadn't heard. She knew Jimmy was in purgatory because his catholic school teacher beat him for being left handed; he told the story like it was funny. She was beating the shit out of him with a chalk palate and with broken teeth, a bloody nose and a busted jaw, he spat blood and teeth back out into her face and said "Hail Satan." This resulted in an even harsher beating that resulted in his death. 1823.

Matt's sister was accused of being a witch, and he watched her get stoned to death and set on fire in front of him. When he tried to fight his way to save her, they put his arm on a stump and chopped it off with an axe and he bled to death accidentally. 1600's.

Zack had the lesser of the stories but still tragic; he had an alcoholic father, who nightly beat the hell out of his mother. Zack killed his father by stabbing him repeatedly in the head while he was asleep, then in fear, killed himself by using the knife to slit his wrists. 1945.