Arcane Guardian ↣ Avenged Sevenfold

40 ☼ searching

the concept that this was only supposed to be like 15 chapters and now it has 70,000~ words absolutely baffles me. also as we step into this era of a7x please keep in mind hail to the king is my least fav album of theirs and I've listened to it back to back maybe three times in my life so go easy on me here

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Arden jumped as she woke up on her stupid bed a week later to banging at her door. It took her a second for her heart to settle in her throat when she realized she had definitely experienced this banging before and she absolutely should not open the door. "GO AWAY MANDY!" She shouted instinctively, putting her pillow over her head.

"I'll pick your lock you bitch!" Anya shouted, banging at the door with what Arden now recognized as her forearm, based on the sound it was making. "Long lost sister? Seriously?! You gave him my fucking number! You can't undo that you motherfucker!"

"WHO KNOWS!" Arden shouted as she struggled to pull a sweater and shorts on. "MAYBE LIFE WILL DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN AND YOU WONT END UP A MISERABLE ASSHOLE!"

"Oh, like you're any better?!" Anya shouted from the other side of the front door as Arden inched closer to it. "Give up you pathetic asswipe! These people aren't ours!"

She stayed quiet for a second as she lowered her gaze, staring at the dark wooden panels of her door. "They are. It's still Brian, Mand. It's still Matt."

"Not our Brian, Noelle. Not our Matt. Uncanny motherfuckers pretending to be who they were."

"I spent all day with him Mandy, it was him. It was Brian. His sarcasm and failing at pretending not to care. It was him. I saw it. I knew it."

This time the other woman remained a few seconds silent from behind the door. "It's fucked up."

"If Jim had came back," Arden began. "Would you be on the other side of the door with me right now?"

A longer silence. Then silent sobbing.

Not Arden. Not Anya. No interchangeable names for the two. They were Noelle and Mandy as soon as Noelle swung open the door and fell into her best friends arms. Some things are better left unsaid. They didn't need to verbally forgive each other to immediately understand how the other felt as they held onto each other, alive.

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"He's everywhere," Mandy said, shoveling freezer-to-oven waffle fries in her mouth. "I see light leak in through windows, it's him. I pick up a book, he's in every word. I can't imagine how seeing Brian would even make me feel at this point."

"Have you eaten these last few days?" Noelle asked. Mandy had never historically been a shy eater, but the joke between them was was that she had the appetite of an MMA fighter and a stomach like a child's fist. She had never seen Mandy rake in food like this.

"What do you think?" She glared. "Every time I eat I hurl. If I don't fucking cry."

Noelle nodded.

"And you know what?" Mandy continued. "He's not gonna be my brother like he was, Noelle! It's never gonna be like it was. We relied on each other like real siblings who weren't separated for what, 26 fucking years?"

"More like 300 or something but yeah."

"Yeah! It took us a while to get to that place! Especially because the dirty fuck didn't tell me until months in!!!"

"Neither did I Mandy."

"Yeah but you were just figuring shit out, I don't blame you." She took a moment of thought before circling back. "Which is why I can't blame him for things not being the way they were. Fuck dude. Has shit been this messy for you?"