Third times the charm is just a way to convince yourself that there's still a chance. If the third time isn't it then you move higher up on numbers. Fourth, fifth, sixth, a hundredth. Who cares, numbers are numbers.
I've counted how many times I failed, how many times I succeeded, how many times I cried, how many times I laughed, how many friends I lost and how many I made. But all that matters is the bad always outweighs the good. So I thought it's best to just stop counting but it was too hard. One part of me that's always been there; that is the only part left of me from my happy self, is the one part of myself that I hated, but now I'm stuck with it, embracing it, making it part of everything I do.
I counted for so long I don't even know when I started. Everything is a timer and whatever it's counting to is really up to me. It's all up to me for this timer to reach something good.
~~~
Year 3, day 204 of being a wild witch. Cash, none. Allies, none. Been awake for 86 hours now and I have 4 guards chasing me along the edge of town. There's nothing I can do now. I'm too tired to run much longer, they took my palisman so I can't escape, and they are about to corner me any second. My only option is to hide but the hiding spots are limited on the outskirts and I'd have to be really sneaky. But my stealth skills are limited for how close they are to me. There's nothing I can do but hide so I took my chances and turned the corner of a big tree and climbing up it as quickly as possible when out of sight.
The guards turned the corner to find I had disappeared. "She disappeared! Spread out! It could be invisibility." One of the guards demand. While they split up I breath a very quiet sigh of relief.
They've been chasing me for 4 days non stop, to the point where they had to bring in their coven leader to help. Annoying as it is, it makes me feel special at least.
"Find her! We are not returning until she is behind bars!"
I don't think they'll be finding me for how dumb they are, so I might as well sleep up here. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes under the oak leaf tent.
I almost fell asleep, that was until a flash of something appeared and fell back to my left for a split second. I've been awake for 4 days, I had to blame it on hallucinations. "It's nothing..." I tell myself and close my eyes again, until the entity I saw appears above me in human form.
"Found you~." With a menacingly peppy tone they grabbed my arms, tie them behind my back, and throw me out of the tree onto the ground where I hit my nose, then they tie me to their staff. "Finally getting caught after 3 years! How's it feel?" I ignored them while wincing in pain from my now broken nose. Why would I want to talk to him anyway? "Gotta admit, I'm pretty proud of myself for actually catching the most notorious criminal in the Boiling Aisles. I wonder if I'll get some kind of prize." At this point I can't tell if he's mocking, complimenting me, or is just very proud and excited for himself. The dude sounds my age so I'd imagine the childish behavior would still be present, but what do I care.
"Well your crew is pretty stupid if they actually needed to bring out you to catch a sleep deprived criminal." I retort with no emotion in my voice. "And how am I the most notorious criminal?"
"Want me to go down the list?" I sigh and turn away. "Going against the emperor, stealing, property damage, trespassing, disrespecting your leaders, disturbing/endangering citizens-" I rolled my eyes as he effortlessly goes down the list if all my crimes. "You're sure to get your very own petrification! Wanna celebrate!?"
My body was at it's limit with lack of sleep and injuries, I was close to falling asleep here but I had to say one last thing. "You're a jerk... Really, it's your fault I turned out this way."
He put his hand on his hips and raised an eyebrow under his golden owl mask. "Really... How so?"
"... I'm accepting my fate, but I wanna make sure you feel some guilt over this." With a crazed look in my eyes and blood dripping from my nose and off my chin, I look back up to him. "You're the real criminal in this land."
"... Yeah, guilt trip? Nice try." He says unfazed and grabs my arm. "Let's go."
~~~
I've been into the castle before but never like this. They wanted me dead and as much as I didn't want that to happen there was no strength left in me to resist. Besides, no energy to use magic left me defenseless against them so if I resisted they'd probably knock me out and the last thing I wanted at the moment is to be asleep and unable to escape.
2 hours later and built up the strength to melt the bars holding me in. It really strained me but I was able to do it and now I'm gonna need to let my magic rest too. But for right now, back to freedom.
"Ah! Close, but it's not gonna be that easy for you to escape." Damn Golden Guard caught me twice now! "Ready to be turned to stone?"
I go limp in exhaustion. Hey, if I wasn't gonna be able to escape might as well piss him off in the process. "What the hell, stand up! Are you asleep?" He grabbed the back of my shirt and yanks me to my feet. "Don't test me."
I became too tired to walk anyway so whether I wanted to piss him off now didn't matter to my legs. I face planted right into the floor, causing my poor nose more agonizing pain. "Cut it out! I--" He paused at the sight of my red and bloodied hands that were severely damaged from so much strain of fire magic a minute ago. It made him realize that I'm probably even more tired than I was earlier so cut me some slack and held me up by the arm to lead me through the halls. All the while I made a trail of blood through the entire hall.
I mumbled, desperate to get words out. "Your fault... You."
"Yeah yeah-"
"You rejected... Every year..." I opened my eyes slowly. "..rejection ... I hate you..."
He raised an eyebrow in realization for a second before thinking back 5 years from now. He's only made the decisions for 2 years before I finally stopped showing up but every year I would come to try my luck and was rejected. Every year my smile fleeted away and the last 2 years I was there I had lost all my hope and ambition.
"Your fault." He knows when I'm saying your, I mean the entire Coven's to blame. I'm right but what does it matter? 19 and my life is coming to an end. All because I wasn't good enough.
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Published: January 24, 2022
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(Discontinued) The Firefly I see in Front Of Me | The Golden Guard x Reader
FanfictionY/n was always looking up to the emperor's coven, admired the work they did the the effort put in to everything by their leader. She wanted so bad to be a part of it all but after so many attempts over so many years, she could never get in. If she c...
