Blackroot

Chapter 1

22.22.22

Raven wasn't entirely sure where she was sometimes. Staying at x point to go to y point, to save the day or go and kill a bunch of people. That was decently functional as far as her life went. There were small clicks that echoed along the hall. She kept bouncing her foot, over and over. Bouncing with a dead eyed stare at nothing in particular. She kept the windows open to hear noises. When the repetitive  chime of birds grew fainter and fainter as she receded into her own head, the tapping would begin again.

Raven was not fortunate enough to be alone in this state. She would have preferred to have been. It was a bit humiliating to be so unwell. The wind would whip against the windows, the birds would chirp at all hours. The wallows would howl at night, scuttling about in an empty, lasting valley. Impatiently, she began to tap faster. Her state which was barely restrained anymore. Every bit about her life had been building up to an inevitable crack. In a deliberately peaceful, run-down shack. One which was located firmly in a middle-of-nowhere, frigid tundra. That was the current circumstance.

It was not the  total isolation that Raven had dreamed of. He was there too. You couldn't be alone when you were alongside someone who you once spent your life with. That you continued to, despite every odd that should have dictated otherwise. Their fates held that ever unwelcome tie to one another. Their shadows always fell just a bit on one another. Now, their fates were to be decided by council. A council that once adamantly protected her. Which was always funny, considering how little she actually listened to them. They once called her a taciturn child. Raven tapped her foot. They actually had a point about that one.

Her head lulled back against a chair as she willed her eyes to stay open. She'd wrapped a grungy gray blanket around herself, eyes flickering as she kept her sight on a mark in the old wooden floor. She pulled the blanket closer to her, an unseen weight bearing down on her. What was ever amusing to her was how she'd managed to fall into such a position. Somehow, the current circumstance felt much more fitting for her. She was supposed to be the rebellious one. She wasn't noble enough to be some religious fanatics savior. There was a hollowness to her, one that had the tendency to destroy people. She had noticed that. She always had. It was hard not to.

Cocooned in her dusty old jacket and dirty, Raven stared at her only remaining tether's door. Her eyelids began to flutter. They twitched closed, then snapped open. There was no noise from beyond the door. She sighed, waiting. Somehow, she always found herself waiting. Raven scowled.

She should have killed him.

Author's note:

Hi there, thanks for reading! New chapters will be released every Thursday. I haven't written anything that wasn't an essay in so long? It feels so strange haha.