Believe in Me

Cloti

Extremely long chapter from what Word is telling me, be prepared @.@ Either way, have a nice night and thank you for reading ^^

There was a ringing in her sensitive ears not too unlike the screams of the squealing winds that would occasionally come in the winter times. Sometimes she would hear it, the gales swishing through a tight break in the trees of the forest she once called home, the whistling that reminded her how fully alive everything was, from the animals she protected to the winds themselves. Everything lived, everything felt, everything was truly there… and where there was life, there was an end to that life. Even she knew that… in fact, she knew that the best. Everything possessed emotion, from a flower corroding in a drought to a human being, no matter if they could shed tears or even consume food, everything had emotion and everything, with little exception, lived. But that also meant everything died… She had learned only the night before that death was such a confusing, complicated and fear-striking concept. The soldier of death himself had been in her life for most of her life and yet it had taken so long for the realization to strike… Death was the end of understanding. What happened after that end was unknown, unexplainable, and information that no one would ever be able to discover. Only the dead could explain what came after, even Grey Loss himself had to stop at the gates of the afterlife. There was a strong wall between the living and the dead… and behind that wall was a mass of the unexplained. No matter how thriving her curiosity was, the spirit of curiosity herself… the concept of finally dying scared her. There was no turning back, once you passed on there was no return… and that passing wasn’t in anyone’s choice. Death might come so suddenly… but no one would know when until right at that moment. Right at this moment… The blade appeared to slow, no, the world appeared to slow, as that end was suddenly directly before her. She had a family here… she had a home here. The gates of death would pull her away from that home into the vast unknown, into the unexpected; she was afraid. A sense of hopelessness was inevitable, but also a sense of refusal. I’m not going to die, she thought, I don’t want to die, so I won’t. But that refusal wouldn’t make up for anything. The blade was declining slowly, its target obvious, it’s point sharp, and the swing direct. Another cage… another cage that she was trapped in. An animal in a cage was finished, with no way out and no control of the situation it would either die or have to rely on the help from another… but rarely would that help ever come. The man holding her still despite how badly she wanted to move, he was her cage. That blade… that was the inevitable. Not even the spirit of death could stop the constant spin of the wheel of life. The wheel wouldn’t turn differently for her… an animal in a cage… She would either be saved or she would die, and with the situation in its place, the latter was the only reasonable option. She refused to close her eyes, refused to turn away, but how badly the child wanted to reject that fate. I won’t die, she thought, but the chant of those three words were merely lies her naïve mind created… a last effort to sooth her. I won’t die. I won’t die. I won’t…. die….

Finally she couldn’t do it, didn’t have the strength anymore to contain that stubborn believe, refused to hold up a bravery that would prove to be worthless. She closed her eyes and turned her head away, her heart freezing, everything freezing except that blade…. Where was that blade..? Time had slowed but not this far, a noise echoed into her ears that couldn’t be anything but metal slicing through flesh. No pain arose though… Was it that she had died so quickly that she didn’t even feel it? That her soul was already released from the fences of her body, unable to be hurt anymore? No…. she still felt her arms and her legs weighted with adrenaline, could still easily sense her heart slamming against the inside of her chest in a heavy rhythm. I won’t die.  The words felt more truthful now… The spirit of nature opened her eyes wearily. What was going on…? Someone was… in front of her. A shadow it seemed, a form with arms locked, facing away from her. He was grasping something…. The sword. He was grasping the blade of the sword. Who…? “What are you doing?” she heard a familiarly twisted voice hiss with impatience and minor anger. Chaos was there, his gleaming yellow eyes twinkling like weak flames in the candle’s flickering light. There was still a hand firmly covering her mouth, her body still bound by a vice-like grip, Grey was rising slowly but still, with obvious frustration, couldn’t get to his feet. That left… The figure before her had somewhat oily teal hair pulled back into a ponytail… One of Chaos’ men? Ilia couldn’t make out his facial features, as she only saw the back of his head, but a voice lined with strain answered her confusion. “I signed up to do everything sir… but I can’t kill a kid. I was told we were only killing the guardians, master, and this one aint a guardian. If you have to direct that sword at someone, I don’t mind taking a hit.” What? Why would he defend her? He said it was because she was a kid… but that wasn’t completely true. By human years, she was much older than any elder would be, she was only a kid in the appearance and the heart, didn’t he know that being a spirit himself? Chaos lifted an eyebrow before gritting his teeth and throwing his sword back, holding it over his shoulder. “Whatever. I don’t care what happens with her anyways, just wanted to play around a bit. When I give you an order next time, you follow it,” the taller, red-haired man sighed before turning to the pile of rubble that was blocking the way to the main hall; the place where Ilia assumed Jack and the others would be. “Honestly I don’t think the nightmare king has the guts to kill anyone anyways, I swear he’s all talk until things go wrong.” Was Chaos badmouthing Pitch? Weren’t they on the same side? Grey seemed somewhat surprised as well, his red eyes looking up from their focus on the ground, his hand grasping the wall as he finally took hold of his balance once again. It was him no doubt, he was obviously struggling, eyes having a faded tone like he was hovering in between consciousness. The man behind her, the one with the purplish hair that had attacked her with that poison before, wasn’t letting go.... She gave a pull to try and get her arm free, rewarded with him tightening his grip to a nearly painful level.