Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

33 ☼ sender

REALLY graphic death description around ~600 words in so if this wasn't what u were looking for in an a7x fic look the other way for a min ;))

FEBRUARY 2009

Noelle watched, from the other side, clutching the space on her neck where her necklace used to be as she watched Brian and Jim talk privately in the studio. Matt was laying down vocals, and Zack and Johnny were giving loads of criticism, but to the outside eye it was like Jim and Brian were being secretive as shit.

Which they were. 

Because they were preparing to actually literally murder a demon. 

Mandy appeared next to her to watch alongside. "They're gonna forget us." Noelle said, quickly taking her friend's hand. "They won't even know we exist. I've spent my entire life with them, Mands." 

Mandy rubbed her back slightly. "Yeah, getting my husband to remember I'm his wife doesn't exactly sound like a walk in the park." 

"What should our names be?" Noelle sniffed back the emotion, crossing her arms as she faced her. "We've been a lot of things. Enid, Mandy, Ellowyn, Noelle." 

"What's the name you use when creeps ask for your number?" 

"Wait wait wait, let's say ours at the same time. 3, 2, 1-"

"Stephanie." They both said at the same time, making them laugh. It was cold, and devastating and lonely on the other side, but she couldn't imagine not being stuck without her best friend. 

They watched longer, as Noelle tried pushing off with all she could. Thellessany had been right--the necklace was their mortal link to each other. Either that or she used too much energy the first time she couldn't replicate. It was like every day she was here her body got weaker. 

"Stop," Mandy grabbed her arm. "You're gonna hurt yourself." 

She abided, understanding it just wasn't gonna work. "I know." 

"How did Brian get through to you the first time?" She asked. "Back in 2007."

"You remember when we all took that road trip back home? Travis gave me my notebook back. It had everything written in it. About them, purgatory, how I would lose them but they promised me they would find me. Brian, he did. He promised no matter what we would meet again." 

"The necklace was how me and him found each other." Mandy smiled. "It's like all we have now is memories." 

Noelle stayed silent. "I just hope they have a game plan before Thellessany pays her respects." 

☼

Brian woke up that night alone in his bed like usual, his heart racing out of his chest. He nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw Thellessany in her true form, straddling him and keeping him down. "Are you fucking stupid?" He snapped, shoving her off. 

She kneeled on his bed with a smile, dangling the necklace. "Are you?" 

His blood ran hot and his face felt cold. "I wouldn't be here right now if I cared about my life, if I were you." 

"I know you're gonna kill me tonight," She said, quickly molding back into her human form. It was almost deceiving how kind her eyes looked when she didn't look like a gutter rat. "And I know I've brought it upon myself. I've lived a long fulfilling life. So do it. Look me in the eyes and kill me." She ticked the necklace back and forth from her hand. He tried to grab it and she yanked it back. "Take it from my dead body. Please." 

"Jim is in the other room, do you have no sense of self preservation?" 

"I've been torturing people for thousands of years. And I'm done. I wanna see what's after for me. It'll be a poetic sendoff." 

"I..." He trailed off as the same knife she used to kill Noelle materialized in front of him. 

"I want to die." She said, staring seriously into his eyes. "I can't play pretend in the real world like you can. It's the same knife, you know. Her blood's still on i-"

He grabbed her head and smashed it on the wall behind him, dark red blood pooling as her head slid down. She smiled and laughed as he flung himself over and tried to remember the order. 

He forced her mouth open with one hand and took the knife to cut out her tongue with the other. She didn't even scream, or feel pain. She just laughed hysterically which made an awful sound without her tongue and with a throat full of blood. "That's for my fucking sister," He said, looking at her in a way that scared him. 

Eyes, right? Eyes next? He frantically tried to remember before not thinking twice and digging the knife into her eye sockets. "This is for Noelle," Blood poured from her face as her soft human skin was sliced and bruised from where his knife missed. 

"And this," He lifted up her shirt and stuck the knife as far into her side as it would go, bringing it down and scraping across her ribs as he did it. "Is for me." 

She spat blood into his face through laughter, still completely alive. He definitely got the order right. He just had to finish it off. "See you in hell." He stabbed her throat. He didn't know what 'throat tore out' entailed, but he brought down the knife over and over and over until her body went limp. 

"NO!" He heard a voice come from the corner of his room, as he looked up to Noelle, tears streaking down her face. 

She took his face in her hands, looking at his wide eyes and face covered in blood. "N-" 

And just like that, Brian was all alone in his room, no body and no blood, sitting on the floor with a kitchen knife which he had no idea how it ended up in his hands. 

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