Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

6 ☼ secretive

September 1997

I'm writing down everything I know as of now, so that my future self has some idea. 

Zacky Vengeance died when he was 17. His father was very abusive, and used to beat his mother almost every night. One night when it got too awful to take, he took a kitchen knife from the kitchen and stabbed him repeatedly in his sleep. Not being able to take the guilt, he killed himself. Zack is quiet, sensitive. He acts like he doesn't care about anything and is detached from the world around him, but he's a big softy when you get close to him.

Jim is the best. He's the funniest, by far. He's cautious and protective and caring. I think when I first heard his story I cried and hugged him even though he was trying to be funny about it. He was lefthanded, and was punished for it in his catholic school. He was beaten harshly, and in classical Jimmy fashion, he spat his blood and teeth back out at the teacher and said 'hail satan'. The teacher beat him within an inch of his life with a chalk palate, and then left him there to die. 

Shadow is like the big brother I never had. He tells me Shadow wasn't his real name, it was a name I made up for him when I was a kid that just kind of... stuck. I met him first, when he started quietly following me places. I eventually started talking to him, asking him if he wanted to play blocks with me. He's a big teddy bear, a giant sense of comfort when things go awry. Shadow died when his sister was burned in witch trials. he desperately tried to save her, but after he failed, they called him a sympathizer and cut off his arm. He bled out.  

And Synyster. He's my best friend. 

Synyster took a while to warm up to me. Whereas Matt started playing with me, Zack immediately started talking with me and asking me about my life, and Jim was my big goofy giraffe I fell in love with at five, Syn was a closed book. He kind of stayed behind the others for a while, but he was the only one who stayed with me at night. 

Syn could help turn my nightmares into dreams. When mommy was working her night shift and daddy was nowhere to be found, he would take my hand and show me a dream that was better than reality. The nights mommy and daddy would get into screaming matches, and one of them would hit the other, he saw my fear. And he would come into bed with me and send me back to a peaceful sleep. 

Syn eventually became someone who took care of me better than my own family. When I didn't want to sleep, we would talk. He would tell me all about what he saw in the world the decades he walked the earth from the other side, cold and alone. He would tell me about how he would do anything to be able to make music again, how he would play the guitar for his little sister. 

When it would get bad, he would hold me in his arms and hug me. He would make silly faces and tell me make believe stories. He got me through my dad dying. 

He took a long time to tell me how he died. He and his sister were walking an iced over lake, and he fell through and drowned. He tells me his biggest regret is never having gotten a chance to tell his sister goodbye. 

"What'cha writin, Ells?" Shadow interrupted my vigorous writing as he materialized beside me. I immediately slammed the notebook shut. He furrowed his eyebrows. "You're seriously crisis planning again?" 

She turned to face him. "It's rude to look over people's shoulders. And yes, if you must know, I am crisis planning." Ever since she learned the barrier was nearly shattered, she had been frantically trying to recollect her memories onto paper. She already had ten pages describing what purgatory was like; and she hoped time didn't erase the notebook from history too. "You're gonna be out there, somewhere in the world. And I need a handbook for when you're wiped from my fucking memory."