She Is Gone, But She Used To Be Mine

1: Squidney - She Is Messy, But She's Kind

Shout out to the weird blue star in the Mario movie

he's so me

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Squidney woke up.

The brunette grumbled and slowly sat up, taking in the sight around her. Above her head were leafy trees, sunbeams filtering through their branches and laying across the grass. Flowers were splattered around, pops of pink and yellow amongst the green. Squidney was propped against the base of a tree, the smell of pine needles finding its way through the woods.

The familiarity of it all was unsettling.

Squidney got to her feet, her wobbly legs barely keeping upright. She turned around and taking a few steps forward, she pushed the leaves aside and there it was.

The clearing.

It was quiet, the whistle of the wind the only sound through the normally loud clearing. No shrieks from delighted clearing members, no swish of arrows or throwing knives, no call for dinner, nothing. The gates were closed, despite the bright sun. It must have been mid-day, the same time...

The same time she died.

The memories of that moment came rushing back, and Squidney staggered backwards, absently checking for wounds.

She was... fine?

There was no blood, no gore, no giant gaping wounds across her chest or burns along her arms and fingers. Her clothes were ripped and tattered, but that was it. The only thing even suggesting what had happened was the slight sting in her fingertips.

She was okay.

She was alive.

Except...

Squidney paused before pressing two fingers to her neck, feeling for a pulse. Years of caring for injured clearing members fresh from the maze taught her a few things, and she was familiar with her own heartbeat.

But there was nothing.

If Squidney didn't know better, she would say she was alive.

But then where was her heartbeat?

If she did have one, it would have stopped at that moment.

Squidney's breath caught in her throat, and she sunk to the ground right by the gates to her treehouse. Thoughts flew through her head, disappearing before she could catch them like fireflies. Her hands trembled, and if her heart was still beating she was pretty sure it would be pounding out of her chest. Through her panic, a small memory echoed in her mind.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Spidey said, crouching in front of her as the brunette's body trembled. "Squidney, stay with me alright? I need you to breathe with me." Spidey held up five fingers, exaggerating her breathing as she inhaled and exhaled. Squidney copied her until her breathing calmed down, although it was still a bit shaky. "You good?" Squidney nodded. "Can I hug you?" She nodded again, and Spidey jumped at her, wrapping her arms around her torso. "You're okay." She whispered as Squidney slumped in her arms. "I got you."

Squidney started quickly counting, trying to breathe the way Spidey had taught her. "1, 2," She inhaled sharply. "3, 4, 5..."

Soon enough her breathing slowed down, still trembling but not as harsh. Squidney tested her legs, slowly getting to her feet. She swayed on her feet, but eventually managed to climb the ladder up to her treehouse.

She glanced at the floor, noticing something. Wood and glass shards were littered across the floor, a picture frame laying face down on the ground where she left, where she knocked it over that morning rushing to the maze entrance.

Squidney crouched, reaching for the frame. Then she hissed in pain, pulling her hand back and inspecting the cut along her palm from a glass shard. In front of her eyes, it healed over until it was nothing more than a pinky scab. Squidney stared for a moment, before shaking her head. "This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder..." She mumbled as she picked up the picture turning it over.

Her own wide grin smiled up at her, the glass fractured and webbed over her face. Next to her Mohwee grinned, an arm around her shoulders and the other ruffling Oeca's hair, who was struggling to move away, smiling nonetheless. Spidey stood behind her, practically standing on her tiptoes as she adjusted her crown. In the background, the blurry figures of Magic and Graecie were setting the table, talking and laughing as more figures melted together in a haze of colours. Squidney wiped the sudden tears from her eyes.

It was no use crying over things that had been gone for a long time.

Squidney set the picture back on the counter, brushing glittery glass from the faces of her friends. She rummaged in the cabinet underneath for a minute before pulling out a dustpan and a broom made of grasses and sticks. She started to sweep up the debris, dumping the garbage in the bin by her chair.

If she's going to be stuck here, she might as well do something.