Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

38 ☼ spike

It's been a while now hasn't it???? the whole dead mom ptsd thing has given me a dreadful case of writer's block. anyway, enjoy the chapters!!

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"Hey Arden, it's Brian, the Brian who insulted you multiple times on New Years'. You probably said we'd hang to be nice but call me back if you actually meant it. Bye." She listened to the voicemail play lowly over her phone. She laid flat on her bed, her Brianless, Mandyless twin, her blanket discarded to the floor. She had done a lot of thinking her first day by herself. She thought of visiting Jim's grave again, maybe talking to him as if he could tell her what the hell to do, but then she figured she could run into Mandy and that'd be bad. She never thought she would dread the thought of talking to her best friend, but the entire situation left a dull, painful and empty feeling at the bottom of her stomach. 

Matt said they should find a way to tell everyone individually together; and with how easily she let Matt in she figured distancing herself could be a good idea. She worked today anyway. 5-10 at the studio. This Arden, Noelle, Ellowyn, whoever the fuck she was, was still a producer. A slightly more notable producer, working up her ranks. The year she hadn't worked with Avenged Sevenfold in this timeline, that year she worked on Infinity On High with Fall Out Boy, which definitely landed her on the map. And she was honestly more well off than last dice-roll. Her house was bigger, her contacts list was longer, and she had more expensive clothing. It was weird. 

But not weirder than receiving a call from a contact called "Ilejay <3" and feeling absolutely mortified as she struggled to answer the call. 

"Hey hon!" She heard a voice that definitely wasn't Brian's echo. That was before she realized it was Arin. 

Fuccckkk.

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"So you knew the guy?" She walked through the local park with Arin, him with a tight hold on a bag of birdseed. "He was a legend. Wouldn't you have remembered him when he died in the news?" 

"I didn't put the pieces together." She lied through her teeth. She didn't feel all that bad lying to Arin. He couldn't have been a much better person in this timeline. What she couldn't figure out was whether this was the timeline she just forgave him for the shit he did, or the timeline where he didn't hurt her at all. She scrambled after they hung up and she agreed to hang out to find an anniversary, photos, anything in her phone. Besides a couple of photos, there wasn't much to write home about. "He didn't... Go by The Rev back then. We were just kids." 

"I'm sorry hon," He gently rubbed her shoulder, draping his arm around her. Ew,  she thought. Being with another guy disgusted her. She only really got a little physically nauseous though when she thought of who Brian must have been screwing in this time.

"I was just kind of in shock to find out someone so close to me as a kid had died. I'm forgetting small, menial shit. I feel kind of shell-like." 

"That explains why I didn't see you for a few weeks. You kind of went off the map." 

"Yeah." She nodded. They sat down at a swinging chair by the water and she closed her eyes as the warm breeze hit her face. For the first time since, you know, reanimating, she had the conscious thought that at least it was better than being dead.