Bleed, Patch, And Keep Moving - An Apex Legends Story

Chapter - 112 Piercing the Veil

Ajay suddenly felt like she was able to breathe again as the pounding in her head began to ease. Her gaze drifted from her hand to the grass and dirt beneath her for a moment. Her fingertips grazed the damp blades of grass before she lifted her head up and looked around. The pine trees were tall and arched to provide an unnatural patchy moonlit path leading further into the forest that was obviously no longer her childhood bedroom.

She stood up and stared down at her bare feet and wiggled her toes against the grass and earth. It felt good. She couldn't remember a time that she went anywhere without shoes, especially her favorite boots on except... She shook away the thought and moved her gaze up her legs. A long black dress flowed over her legs and clung delicately to the ground behind her, barely kissing the grass and dirt.

The dress was strapless and dipped downward in a v shape towards her backside waistline, exposing most of her upper body to the cool night air. She could feel her hair pulled up into some ridiculous bun and she could also feel jewelry hanging loosely around her wrists and neck. The weight of the jewelry made her feel constrained. She couldn't quite remember why she was dressed up but it really didn't matter at this point.

She began to walk forward, the dirt between her toes almost felt like it was pulling her further into ground with the jewelry growing heavier with each step. She looked at the palm of her hand again, trying to find a map but there was nothing there just her hand. Ajay dropped her hand to her side and moved through the arched pathway of trees. She took a second to look behind her and realized that there was no longer a pathway behind her, only a forest.

The pathway had been swallowed up by hundreds of pine trees shrubs, so she trudged forward and stopped when she came upon a familiar looking tree. She wasn't even sure how out of all of the trees that it was this particular tree that she needed to stop at but she stopped. Her body guided her towards the tree as if she had no control over movements.

Her lips managed a smile when she found her and Octavio's names carved into the bark of the tree; Silva & Che. Her fingertips traced their names agonizingly slow like she was forcing her body to do something that she didn't want to do. Her heart skipped a beat as memories flooded her brain and poured down her body, or being forced rather.

An Immense feeling of happiness overtook her but it was quickly follow by agony. She bent over and used the tree to brace herself as she clutched her chest with other hand. She let out a small whimper as a sharp painful jolt radiated from her chest cavity. It like her heart had thumped forcefully against her sternum; almost through it. She dug her nails into the bark of the tree until the pain subsided to a more tolerable level.

When she felt like she could finally move again, she released the tree and stood up, brushing tears from her cheeks in the process. The bittersweet agony still radiated from her heart but not as bad as it did when it first started. She swallowed the rest of her tears and tried to figure out what the fuck was going.

The entire place felt like a memory but how could it be a memory because she was here. Then again the tree already had her and Octavio's names carved into it. They did that together, but when? She couldn't remember when. She had been to this place as a child but never as an adult. Memories or reality were flashing through her brain but she couldn't figure out which was real and which was fake. Were her memories somehow mixed with her present, or maybe she was in some alternate universe, or maybe she was dead; finally.

Ajay began to walk towards clearing that was on the only pathway she could take. Their names were engulfed by the trees behind her, the pathway behind, disappearing into the woods as well. The forest kept taking more and more; growing darker as it did. With every step that she took towards the clearing it became more apparent to her where she was; she was becoming more lucid.