in which a girl burdened with bad luck finally has some good luck and meets a man with a facade everyone has fallen for, including her
peter ballard x oc
athena casteel
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EVERY DAY FELT THE SAME.
Wake up, go to the rainbow room for a bit, be forced to do tests, overexert yourself into exhaustion, be punished for disobeying, and sleep on the old, rock-like bed.
The brunette witch hadn't been there for that long, yet she felt like she was going to lose it sooner rather than later. Every day she woke up to the same thing. The white-tiled walls, the fluorescent lights shining brightly against the matching white floor. The cameras following everyone's single move, no matter what. Yet, they somehow happened to be off when somebody got hurt.
Everything in the lab was so plain, so boring. There wasn't a single day when Athena had fun in that lab. The days seemed to fly by slowly, almost as if God was mocking her purposely. Mocking her for her stupidity. Mocking her for her misfortune. Athena knew she wasn't usually lucky, but she had thought her luck had improved over the years. But it didn't.
She felt as if she was never going to get out of the hellhole that was her new "home", like she was going to be stuck in an endless loop. Most days, Athena selfishly wished that somebody else got taken instead of her. Maybe she'd be at the beach with her family, drinking margaritas and laughing as Reagan ran into the shallow water, splashing.
And it wasn't like Athena could fit in there, or become friends with any of the kids. All of the kids were blinded by Brenner's false care and comfort for them. They worshiped him. Like he was the savior that had saved them from eternal hell, but instead, he was the one who created their hell.
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There were many days in the lab where Athena wished she would die. Where she wished that one day, maybe she wouldn't wake up. She had thoughts of ending it all. Ending her suffering, her depression, her sadness. It would all go away. But she knew she couldn't. She was too much of a coward to do it, especially when she knew that if she got out, she would see her family again. And that was enough for Athena to keep kicking. ════ ════ ════⋆★⋆ ════ ════ ════
ATHENA ALWAYS BELIEVED THERE WAS A LIGHT AT THE END OF A VERY DARK TUNNEL.
Athena had almost lost all hope, but then she met Eleven. The sweet, young girl who was quiet, yet caring. She had met the young girl when she had been there for a month. She had met her when she was sitting down in one of the chairs. Her eyes spaced out and her mind elsewhere, in a reality where she was free and she had her family. All of her family. The short girl with the buzzcut had approached her, holding a piece of paper in her hands.
A tap on her shoulder brought Athena's attention back and she turned her head to look at who it was. Eleven smiled shyly at her in welcome. The brunette witch returned it sheepishly and turned back around to her piece of paper on the white table. There was nothing on it but some scribbles of colors that the other kids had drawn. Athena looked away from her paper to the piece of white in Eleven's hands. She looked at it questionably.
Eleven noticed her gaze and quickly scrambled to hand the paper to her, fiddling with her fingers nervously as Athena scanned it.
A picture of a dog and a rainbow were drawn on the paper in crayons, and some grass was littered on the bottom of the paper. Athena smiled and looked back at Eleven. She sent her a soft smile, thanking her.
"Thank you, Eleven. This is beautiful." She complimented the drawing honestly, making El quickly stand straight and beam. Athena sent her another quick smile and turned back around in her chair, facing forward. Suddenly, the door slammed open, and in came Peter. Her eyes immediately downcasted to the now interesting, table. She could practically feel his eyes drilling into her head. Athena quickly sat up straight and turned around to El, starting a conversation with her.
"Can I call you El?" She asked Eleven suddenly, causing the latter's eyebrows to furrow in confusion.
"What's... that?"
Athena bit her cheek to hide a smile from forming, instead going into a full-depth explanation of what a nickname was.
"It's a nickname. A shorter version of your name, which is Eleven. And then, I can call you El instead of Eleven. It's like... a friend thing."
El looked at her uncertainly. "Does that mean.. we're friends?" She asked her slowly, staring down at her feet in fear of being rejected. Athena nodded happily and nudged Eleven, compelling her to look up at her.
"Of course we're friends! We can even be best friends."
Eleven beamed so brightly that Athena started speculating whether it was the lights or her smile. The brunette witch suddenly motioned to the chair on the opposite side of the table, telling El to bring it over and sit next to her.
Once she did, she brought out a new piece of paper and set it down in front of Eleven. She instructed her on how to draw certain things like horses, or flowers. Since El hadn't seen horses, it was difficult to teach her at first. It took almost the whole time in the Rainbow Room to teach her, and Athena hadn't even noticed Peter was still in the room. She was focused on making sure this little girl had fun and made some memories. Athena knew how important memories were to her.
And while Athena was determined to make sure Eleven had some sort of fun in this prison, Peter was determined to get them out of it.
She was like an angel to Peter. She was when he was a kid, and she still was now. She was kind, and obviously stunning lookswise. She was soft-spoken, and practically radiating sunshine. It was so dark - so gloomy in the lab, but she had brought light to it. A light no amount of fluorescents could compare to.
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When Peter had been in his room one night, wondering why he was treated differently and why he was so unusual compared to everyone else, she had spoken to him. Her voice was frantic, yet it was still soft. He remembered the confusion he felt that night when he talked to a girl, he had even wondered if he was truly insane, but then she started speaking about her brother, and Peter somehow knew that she was telling the truth.
Peter was 13 and Athena was 12 when Athena had shown him some memories of herself. Like the one time, she was at the beach and fell face-first into sand, or when she was messing with a pencil in class and it suddenly flung across the room.
And he had shared some of his own too. He had shown her when he saw the spiders for the first time, and when he drew in his free time while his sister was outside probably being smuggled with love by his parents.
He had even noticed some pictures of her as a child, as they were able to share memories, but her beauty then was incomparable to it now.
Peter was almost positive nobody was as special as her. She was his angel in the hell he was trapped in.
a/n im really scared i didnt write something right here bc ive never wrote romance before like EVER and this is so scary to me so be nice pls im fragile💀💀 ALSO im so proud of the last sentence of this chapter for absolutely no reason
