Which Monster Is Worse?

Calm the Storm

Wanda watched in horror and flinched when Adam snapped in the memory. Small pieces of her own memory began fighting their way in with flashes of pain and fear. Her hands tightened around his as his name fell brokenly from her lips.

"A-Adam..." She felt as if his mind was closing in on itself and began trying to remove herself from him. Memories moved too fast for her to understand each one but the amount of blood, pain, and the scream of a child made her finally crumble, snatching her attention away from him.

Her eyes dashed around the diner for a moment as tears flowed from her eyes. Her hands shook terribly and the red in her eyes refused to fade. Something in her drove her to realize that she needed to clear the diner. She focused on the other people inside.

"Leave." She commanded them but they didn't budge. Her hand curled around the cup in front of her without realizing and it only tightened as she grew almost irritated. "Leave." She commanded again. The cup began to crack. "Leave now!" Coffee seeped through the cracks. "Leave!" She snapped, screaming for the first time, making the patrons stand and file out. She didn't realize as blood began falling from her clenched fist to the table until the stinging in her palm revealed blood, glass, and black coffee. Her eyes worriedly locked onto Adam once again. "Are you okay?' She asked softly, her voice calm and laced with worry and confusion, her accent thick with emotion.

Adam, in all truth, was very much not okay. But you'd never guess that by his body language. His head remained hung in place, his eyes closed as he desperately pulled at the threads Wanda had untangled in his memory.

Clearly there was history here that Adam himself didn't know the extent of. His hand remained stationary on the table, unmoving against her own. That is, until his free hand rose from its resting place and ran itself through his hair.

As he slowly lifted his head, eyes still closed, it was plain to see the tear tracks glistening off of his cheeks. As slowly as they opened, Adam couldn't help the few extra tears that fell as his eyes regained their focus on Wanda.

His voice was raw and rather strained as he spoke, not truly putting his full focus into the words he was saying.

"I'll be fine. You, on the other hand. I think you need to dig a little deeper. I told you not to look at me. I suppose it's difficult given how connected we seem to have been." Genuine sadness bled through his tone as he concluded, a soft pink hue settling around his tired eyes.

Wanda watched him as she quickly plucked a piece of porcelain out of her hand, then wrapped it with the cloth-like towel her silverware had come in. She tied it tightly as she shook her head. Screams echoed through her mind. Her red eyes bore into him, seeing the tears on his face.

"I felt something inside your mind..." She told him as her own tears still freely fell. In her state of confusion, grief, and overwhelming suffocation, she voiced her growing anxiety. "I don't want to push it too far." She dragged her eyes from him as she pushed her hair out of her face yet again as a quick, out of left field thought of cutting it came to mind. She closed her eyes as she let out an exhausted sigh.

"I hope I could help you in some way. I really do. But....I don't think I can do this anymore." Adam spoke softly, the tone of his voice not at all matching his aggressive stature.

He stood slowly from the booth, his hand sliding off of the table, uncaring as to whether hers was still present in his palm.

He wasn't ready to face all of this again. He wasn't ready to relive everything he had almost certainly forgotten for a reason. As he stood he placed his palms over his eyes, trying to scrub the images from his mind. As lovely as it was to find a piece of his past, he couldn't follow the path safely.

Who knows what could show its face if Wanda decided to dig deeper like Adam had previously suggested?

"I'm sorry, Wanda. I hope you have enough to hold onto for now." His breath was unsteady as his posture never moved, still covering his eyes.

After seeing the memory he had seen, looking at Wanda felt like a death sentence in and of itself.

Wanda swallowed thickly as she looked at him. "I wish it cleared the confusion but I just made it worse." She analyzed softly as she stood, looking at him. After a moment, more tears rushed down her face making her close her eyes tightly. She stepped back from him as more painful memories began to try and resurface like a thick fog wrapping itself around her mind. She found herself moving away from him, scanning the booths around them at the objects left behind. Phones, bags, and jackets seemed to be the main group of things left behind. She didn't focus on one thing for too long until her eyes drifted to a small toy. A teddy bear abandoned on the floor. A quick intake of breath didn't do justice to the slap in the face it truly was. She knelt and picked up the bear with such a gentle grasp, as if it would turn to ash in front of her like the memories of her past once had.

"The civilians are safe from me." She said aloud but the shake in her voice did little to hide her realization of what she was willing to let herself become. She didn't speak further as she looked up through the window in front of her, the red fading from her eyes leaving hazel that almost glowed gold from the sun cutting through the trees just right. She clutched the bear to her stomach almost protectively.

After a moment or two passed in silence, her eyes returned to him. Her tears didn't flow as heavily but her eyes were left red, and slightly bloodshot. The heels of her boots seemed loud in the quiet and she didn't stop until she stood at his side, shoulder to shoulder, facing the way out he had entered in the beginning. She had no words to say and for the moment, she felt it was best as she wondered where the hell to even go after what she had learned. Her left hand reached and grabbed his own as her makeshift-bandaged one still held the bear to her stomach. She moved onto the balls of her feet and placed a soft, brief kiss against his temple. Her eyes closed and remained so as she pulled away from him all together. She took a final deep breath, the scent of the smoke that had dissipated still present, and moved for the door leaving only the chime of the doorbell behind as she set out into another direction. If only for this short amount of time

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Any questions or comments?

- 12/30/2021