Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

26 ☼ semi permanent

AUGUST 2008

"Well, no matter how many prescriptions I get, the headache won't go away. It's like, constant, right behind my eyes, but focused kind of everywhere. I have a really hard time reading anything, the lady up front told me to read the letters on the big ass white thing and I could list a 'T",nothing more nothing less. I'm vomiting all the time, and I get... I get stuck on little things. Like I couldn't remember my husband and I's wedding date until he reminded me and it was like I never forgot."

"Well Mrs. Sullivan, why don't we perform an MRI if this is such a big issue. It sounds like it could be many things, and I'm not suggesting it's likely, but some of those are symptoms of a brain tumor." The doctor told Mandy and Noelle as they listened to him speak in the appointment room. "But hey, it could also be a symptom of pregnancy, or just a thyroid imbalance. I'll call for an MRI to be safe."

He left the room, and Mandy grabbed Noelle's hand. Mandy hated doctors. When she was a kid, her 4th foster home were Munchausen as hell. They sent her in for tests over and over and over again, made up illnesses she definitely must have had, and faked allergies so she would get school food benefits for free. They had her on a gluten, dairy, and meat free diet and convinced her she was allergic to each of those things.

David was a dream foster parent. Mandy didn't really get that fairytale--but she didn't begrudge her friend for getting it.

"Hey, you're gonna be okay." Noelle rubbed her thumb over the back of Mandy's hand. "It's okay to get help."

"You know those surrendered baby things that say your biological mother's previous defects and all that?" Mandy looked straight at the floor. "It said there's a 70 percent chance I'm predisposed to cancer. When Arnold and Jennifer were taking care of me they had around four MRI's done on me and I hated them."

"You don't have cancer." Noelle said, moreso to reassure herself than Mandy. "You just don't."

☼

"You know they would take me to get vegan ice cream after every medical procedure," Mandy shoveled fries into her mouth. "The only time I was allowed to have sweets. I'm so glad the system hauled my ass out of there."

"How did they catch Arnold and Jennifer again?" Noelle said. They were on a bench by the lake, eating mounds of McDonalds. "I forgot."

"Wellness check they come in. They did weigh ins, all that, and they saw I had lost 30 pounds. Which is evidently a lot for a ten year old." Mandy nearly scoffed at the memory. "They took the other kid too. Their bio kid had it worse than me though. The kid was so doped up he didn't know where he was half the time."

"When did they say you'll get your results back?" Noelle asked through her burger.

"Few days. They said they won't call if nothing comes up. So let's pray the damn phone never rings." To say cancer scared her would be a severe understatement. "Can you do me a favor and not tell Jim about all this? If it's serious?"

"It won't be."

Mandy gave her a look. "But if it is. Be realistic Noa." She asked. "Jim is young and youthful and all that."

"You're sounding like a grandma." Even thinking about Mandy dying made Noelle want to projectile vomit. "You're young and youthful too."

"If anything is wrong with me, you'll be the first to find out. But then I'll have to find a way to tell him myself."

They both fell silent. "What about Brian?" Noelle finally asked.

"I don't know about my brother," She sighed, putting the garbage in one of the paper bags. "He just got me back, after what, hundreds of years?"

They ate in quiet.

☼

"Get out," Brian sensed Thellessany before she even entered the room. "Your concubine is in the studio."

"Where's Mandy? Or Noelle?" She played with the vinyl copy of City Of Evil hanging off the wall. "That album sucked, by the way."

"Thanks, was it you who rewrote history to make it?"

She laughed her stupid shrill laugh. "Ew. No. That's the universes doing, not mine." She put her hands up.

"What do you want?" Brian rolled his eyes. "Besides ways to plot to ruin my life."

"The gears are working." He blinked and she was straddling him, her hands with an iron grasp on his shoulders preventing him from moving. "Mandy might receive some less than favorable news."

He gritted his teeth. "Don't fuck with my sister." He said.

"You're cute when you try to be intimidating." She said. "Too bad I'm older and—"

He didn't even care if he would fail before he grabbed her, threw her with all his force and tackled her, his hands around her throat. He started squeezing as tight as he could, this time knowing full well it wasn't Noelle.

"Not totally sure if this will kill you, but it never hurts to try, right? Or maybe I could give you a scar like mine? Or maybe I could just enjoy watching you suffer."

Her face went from a panicked expression to a smile as she laughed without any struggle. "You really thought it was as simple as that?" Her laugh turned into a full on cackle as she threw him across the room with her mind. "Well you answered my question at least! Mandy definitely told you. I have no clue why mind control didn't work on that girl. Butttt, I have something a little different in mind. And I might as well tell you how I really died because you'll never figure out how my dad actually killed me otherwise." 

"What?"

"I just wanted an excuse to scare her that day." Her voice got soft. "I could never actually show her what getting your tongue cut out of your body, what..." She trailed off. "Believe it or not I felt pain. And heartache, even at one point." 

"And I'm supposed to feel bad for you." Brian scoffed. "Why don't you just grant yourself mortality? Mind control yourself millions of dollars first and live a happy human life." 

"You know why I'm not killing you Brian?" 

"I've kind of been wondering for a while now."

"Everything has a clock." She said, materializing a hanging watch. "An amount of time that it's allowed to exist before nature rewires itself. You didn't think you'd have this life forever, did you?" 

"What the fuck are you talking about."

"I have an eternity to kill you. And it feels fan freaking tastic." She grinned a bitter grin. "Every couple years your life is going to spring back. To a random point in time, with barely any warning. Who knows how far they'll take you away from her? From your sister?" 

It hit him like a bag of bricks. He couldn't cope with having to find Noelle and make her remember him again. His mind raced. 

"I always preferred a slow burn." She said, before disappearing and leaving him alone with the knowledge nothing was forever.