Quantum Entanglement ~ Tamber

Chapter 16

She had clawed her way through the first level, only to be captured and imprisoned once more. There, she was kept in constraints, confined to a small cage made of fire. In that confinement, Amber had been forced to watch Tara fall in love with the person she was, and it hurt her more than she imagined possible. Yes, that was her, but she wasn't the one getting to experience it. She had never gotten to experience the kind of love the smaller girl was showing her. If she could have wept, she would have. If only she knew Tara's feelings back then – if only the girl had shown her even an ounce of interest. Maybe she wouldn't have fallen victim to the whims of a psychotic manchild and been so easily convinced to destroy her own life.

She hoped that if this was her fate, Richie's was somehow more painful.

He told her Tara would never love her – convinced her that the smaller girl was a manipulative user and backstabber. He had infected her mind with his bullshit to the point that she believed him and attacked the girl. But watching now, she realized that's all it was – bullshit. Tara loved her, even knowing she was a killer. She loved her despite knowing what she'd done and not knowing if she'd do it again. It was an unconditional love in the purest form, which only made her hate her situation more. If she would have just let herself be loved, she wouldn't be burning in literal fucking hell.

She watched their first time and saw the love in Tara's eyes. It hadn't been all in her head; Tara loved her back. That only made her more desperate to break free. She needed to tell the girl how she felt – needed to be on the receiving end of her love.

The day of the attack came, and Amber was a mess. She had learned to ignore her fiery constraints, no longer impacted by the flames while she watched the love of her life trying to save her. She paced, barefoot on embers and broken glass while fire consumed her flesh, watching to see what would happen. She was anxious, terrified of watching herself making the biggest mistake of her life for the second time. Because she never really wanted to hurt Tara – not really. She wanted to love her and protect her and have her all to herself. Who she really wanted to hurt was herself and every other person who had ever hurt the small girl in any way. That hadn't changed.

"Don't make me fucking watch this," she begged as she watched Tara answer the phone, but she knew no one was listening. Even if they were, they were there to torture her, and that's exactly what this was: torture. 

When the door swung open and revealed the figure in the Ghostface costume she felt sick. That only intensified the moment she realized that Tara wasn't fighting back. Why wasn't she fighting back? Was it because she knew it was her under that costume? Was she letting herself get beaten within an inch of her life on purpose to keep from hurting Amber back?

"Fucking fight back!" she screamed at the image of her being tossed around like a ragdoll. "Fight back like you did the first time! Fuck!"

She couldn't watch as the knife pierced the small girl's skin the first time. Instead she threw a punch at the wall of flames and screamed until the breath from her lungs emptied out.

"Fucking stop it!" she cried out, but the flames forced her head in place and peeled her eyelids open. "I don't want to fucking see this!"

She couldn't believe that after all Tara had done to change her mind, Amber was still breaking her.

It wasn't until she watched herself rush in and throw Richie off of the girl that she realized that it hadn't been her at all. The first time around, the boy had threatened to kill Tara without mercy. Amber had begged to be the one to take a stab at it, being sure to study for hours to figure out where to stab the girl without causing permanent damage. She'd watched YouTube videos and scoured books and articles. She had to get it right, and she knew it. There was no such care taken with Richie, who had argued that the Tara would be just as useful if she was dead.