Behind the mask

Chapter 10

 April was back. But the whole time she was down there, the guilt was eating her. She would barely get any sleep or eat anything at all.

"Is everything alright...?" Asher asked one day April sigh. She took the bottle with the potion out of her pocket and looked at it. Then, she put it back.

"Oh, it's nothing," she replied to Asher. He remained silent.

"You know, it's really great to have you back. But I can't help but feel that something's off. If... this doesn't make you happy, then.. You can go back," he said putting his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him.

"No, it's not that I'm not happy, I really like being back. I wish I could stay here forever. But... I just can't help but feel like I've done something wrong." April said.

"You tried your best, you really should be proud." Asher said. "Maybe it'll help to forget about it for a while, relax a bit." he ended. The next few days Asher tried to cheer April up with every possible way. And it did make April happier.

"You know," she said. "Before, I never realised how good things were down here. I always thought about how terrible my life was." She breathed in the fresh air.

"It's good to have you back," Asher replied.

"You said that before as well," April commented.

"No, I mean, your usual happy self. It wasn't nice to see you sad."

"But I'm not usually happy. Most of the time I give people death stares," she laughed.

"Strange. When I met you, I thought you were really emotional. You kept crying. Was it because of me? Do I make you cry?" Asher teased.

"Did I seem very emotional to you when I was about to kill you?" April teased back.

"To be honest, yeah." Asher said seriously this time. "YOu were angry. Probably because I beat up Liam. And then you started crying. I was confused. Because you got so emotional over killing some random person you didn't even know."

"Yeah obviously," April said. "Anyone would get emotional over someone's death."

"No I mean considering you were a murderer and did that on a regular basis," Asher clarified. "I found it strange. Because you were willing to sacrifice your freedom over Liam, and you were willing to sacrifice your life over me." he said.

"That's not true," April said blushing.

"Don't you remember? When you jumped in front of me so the knife didn't hit me." Asher reminded her.

"Oh yeah," April said blushing even more. But if she was willing to sacrifice herself for Asher, then Liam shouldn't be any less, right? She should be willing to sacrifice her life to save her brother and the whole of Heaven, right? April thought of those things, suddenly feeling guilty again for not drinking the potion. But that didn't last very long, as they continued joking around and having fun. But just when April thought her life was back to normal, disaster struck again.

April was in her room, about to go to sleep. When suddenly, the crystal on her chest started glowing.

"Oh no!" she said panicking. She knew that wasn't a good thing. Asher came at the door worried.

"What's happening?" he asked looking at the crystal.

"You have to leave. Now." April told him. But it was too late. April fell on the floor in pain. Asher went forward to get to her, but he took a step back when a girl with pink hair and red eyes appeared in front of him.

"Who- who are you? What do you want?" he asked shocked.

"I'm Brianna. And... I want April." she said smiling wickedly. She turned around and looked at her. April sat up rubbing her head. Asher tried pushing Brianna but she shooted a fireball at him. He got flinged across the room and hit his head.