Fight With Me

Chapter 39

⸻

Hope

The compound felt too big when they stopped leaving the room.

Hope noticed it in small ways at first. Josie stopped opening the curtains. Meals went untouched. Conversations turned shorter, then disappeared altogether. It felt like the world had lowered its volume without asking permission.

Hope stayed with her anyway. Of course she did.

They spent hours lying side by side on the bed, not talking, not sleeping either. Josie's fingers stayed curled in the fabric of Hope's shirt like she might disappear if she let go. Hope let her. She did not even pretend to mind.

The bond had changed. It was not sharp anymore. It was heavy. Like a pressure behind the ribs. When Josie's chest tightened, Hope felt it too. When Hope's thoughts went dark and slow, Josie mirrored them without realizing.

Hope told herself this was fine. This was what love looked like when it was real. Staying. Enduring. Carrying the weight together.

But sometimes, when Josie drifted into restless sleep, Hope lay awake and stared at the ceiling, wondering why breathing felt like work.

⸻

Josie

Josie knew she was sinking. She just did not know how to stop.

She woke up tired no matter how long she slept. Her magic felt wrong in her body, like it was pressing outward instead of flowing. Even simple spells made her nauseous. The bond hummed constantly, low and insistent, and it hurt more when she tried to ignore it.

Worst of all was the guilt.

Hope looked at her like she was the only thing keeping her anchored. Josie loved her so much it scared her. That love had teeth now. It wrapped around her chest and squeezed.

Sometimes Josie would think she heard Hope calling her name from the hall, only to realize Hope was right beside her. Sometimes she would reach for Hope and feel pain flare through her arm for no reason at all, like the bond was punishing distance even when there was none.

She stopped wanting to see anyone else. Not because she hated them. Because the thought of explaining how bad it felt sounded impossible.

"I'm fine," she whispered once, more to herself than anyone else.

Hope did not answer. She just pulled her closer.

That should have felt comforting. Instead it made Josie's throat close.

⸻

Hope

Freya noticed before Hope admitted it.

"You have not left this room in two days," Freya said gently from the doorway.

Hope did not look up. "We're okay."

The lie tasted thin.

Freya glanced at Josie, who was curled inward, eyes unfocused, hand gripping Hope's wrist too tight. Keelin stood behind Freya, arms crossed, worry written plainly on her face.

"This isn't just rest," Keelin said quietly.

Hope bristled instinctively. "She just needs time."

"And what do you need?" Freya asked.

Hope opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

That scared her more than anything else had.

Later, when they were alone again, Josie pressed her face into Hope's shoulder and whispered, "If they make us separate, I don't think I'll survive it."

Hope's chest tightened. She felt the echo of Josie's fear slam into her ribs like it belonged there.

"They won't," Hope said immediately. Too fast. Too certain. "I won't let them."

Josie nodded, but her breathing stayed shallow. Hope realized then that protecting Josie by isolating them had not made the pain stop. It had just turned it inward.

⸻

Josie

The hallucinations came softly.

At first it was just sensations. The feeling of falling while lying still. Pain with no source. Emotions that did not feel like hers but felt real anyway. She would cry without knowing why and then feel Hope's tears soak into her shirt seconds later.

That was when Josie finally got scared.

"I think I'm breaking you," she whispered one night.

Hope stiffened. "Don't say that."

"I feel everything you feel," Josie said, voice shaking. "And it's getting darker. I don't know how to stop it."

Hope did not answer right away. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, there was fear there, unhidden.

"I don't either," Hope admitted.

The bond pulsed hard enough to make them both gasp.

Josie clutched at Hope like she was drowning, and Hope held her back just as tightly, and for the first time it felt less like love and more like desperation.

⸻

Hope

That was the moment Hope knew this was bigger than them.

Not stronger. Bigger.

She rested her forehead against Josie's and forced herself to breathe through the ache in her chest. "Hey," she said softly. "We can't fix this by ourselves."

Josie shook her head immediately. "I don't want anyone else in it."

"I know," Hope said. Her voice cracked anyway. "Neither do I. But this is hurting us."

Josie's grip loosened just a little. Her eyes filled, not with panic this time, but exhaustion.

"What if asking for help makes it worse?" Josie whispered.

Hope swallowed. The bond thrummed painfully, like it was resisting the idea.

"What if not asking destroys us?" Hope replied.

For a long moment, they just stayed like that, pressed together, both of them shaking in the quiet.

Then Josie nodded once. Small. Defeated. Relieved.

"Okay," she said. "Please don't leave me."

"I won't," Hope promised. "Not even for a second."

⸻

End

They went to Freya together the next morning. Still holding hands. Still pale. Still very much in love.

Still afraid.

But for the first time since the bond began to spiral, they said the words out loud.

"We need help."

And the room did not fall apart when they did.