The Last Animega

After the Dance

"What?" Amber awed. "No way! Richard sent those Troops after us?"

Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose. "His actual name is Aiden. And yes, it seems that way." The whole dance fiasco happened only last night, but it seemed like a year ago. My teeth ground together. If I ever found that bastard Aiden, I'm going to rip off of his limbs one by one and make sure he is conscious through all of it. I was tired of these stupid Guardians ruining my life and taking everything from me. A lump formed in my throat.

Don't think about them, those memories will only bring pain. Whatever you do just don't think about the friends that you lost.

"Hey, Sam, why are you crying?" Dillon asked, worry embedded itself in his words. I felt my cheek to find that it was wet with tears. The cold winter breeze stung the trail that the tears had left behind. My gaze turned toward the ground. Awesome, I'm crying. Nothing says 'I'm mentally stable' like crying randomly. Wiping away the salty droplets, I directed my attention to making a fire.

I gathered a handful of dry moss from a tree and laid it next to a small pile of wood. Scrapping my knife against a block of flint, I focused on getting a spark. Through the scraping of my knife against the flint, I could hear the whispers of Amber and Dillon.

"Why do you think she's being so quiet?" Amber questioned. "Like, she's always been like that as far as I'm concerned, but she's being even more silent than usual." Dillon didn't answer, and I'm glad he didn't. 

It took longer than usual to light the fire, but I got it done before the sun had set. I then muttered something along the lines of "I'm going for a walk." Grabbing my bow and quiver, I sulked into the forest. Hunting cleared my head a bit, it usually did. But all that time I couldn't stop thinking about the people I had let die. There was so many things I could have done to prevent the Guardians from slaughtering them, so many things I could have done to save them. But I didn't do any of them, didn't even try. All I did was rely solely on them and trust them to take the blows for me. Who cares if I had died? What difference would it have made; spare the fact that they would be alive, and I would not. 

These thoughts clouded all others and the world seemed to fade away. Images of that night flooded my mind and gave me a head-splitting headache. Max's blood on my hands as I tried to stop the bleeding; Abby's head rolling to the ground; Katie's expression as she was killed by her own father; Calypso taking the blow from all of those weapons and still managing to fight for a little while after. All of it. And I should stood by and let it all happen. I was so lost in my thoughts, that I didn't notice someone else was there until they laughed.

"Was my betrayal really that much of a blow to you?" Aiden wheezed through a horrible laughing fit. "You are way too trusting, you know that?" 

I scowled and notched an arrow on the string of my bow. While he was practically falling out of the tree, I lined up the shot so it would hit him right in the center of his chest. The familiar whistling of the arrow sang in my ears. Aiden stopped laughing and fell backwards to avoid it. It flew past him and embedded itself deep in the trunk of a tree. He was hanging off of the branch by his legs like an acrobat, swinging back and forth lazily.

I notched another arrow and let it fly. This time he let go of the branch completely and back-flipped onto the ground, landing perfectly on his feet. He wiggled his finger back and forth and clicked his tongue. "Samantha Fay, what's with the cold welcome? I only stopped by to say hello." 

Pulling a third arrow, I aimed at his head. "Go die in a hole." I growled. Before I could let go of the string, Aiden was gone. All of a sudden, he was standing next to me. His hand held my bow in an iron grip, his foot positioned on my stomach. With one small movement of his leg, I was sent flying backward. My body rammed into a tree,  a small crack reached my ears and pain blossomed on my back. Snow and pine needles rained down on me in a small avalanche. Black spots flashed in my eyes, everything seemed to be spinning. 

Aiden threw aside my bow and knelt in front of me. His icy blue eyes seemed to glow, a ghastly smile danced on his lips. "And what do you think you were trying to do? Hurt me with an arrow? Kill me? None of that is going to bring your friends back to life." My muscles tightened so much I was shaking, a small area on my ribcage felt like it was on fire, it was obviously broken. My teeth clenched together, lips pulled back into a snarl. Sharp fangs started to replace the small flat bones. My skin started heating up as fur sprouted from the flesh. I could feel a soft tugging at my tailbone where a tail began to grow. 

Aiden smirked and placed a firm hand on my collarbone and squeezed. My body went rigid and the fox-like features began to recede back into the flesh until only my fangs were left. He pressed a finger in the soft area where my skull and spine met and any sign of the transformation disappeared all together. He backed away a bit and crossed his arms, a satisfied smile on his lips. I struggled to change into a fox, to do anything. Not even a small piece of rusty red fur. I tried making the tree move to hit him, nothing. 

"Having issues?" He questioned. I snarled and lunged at him. The Guardian was gone before I could even blink and reappeared about 15 feet away. 

"Why won't you just leave me alone?" I spat. Aiden shrugged and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket. His dirty blond hair covered one eye. 

"Where shall I send you next?" he thought allowed. His eyes lit up like blue fire. "How about that old concentration camp? You know, the place Max was kept? Where you were killed?" Aiden's smile sent shivers up my spine, and made the hair on my arms stand straight up. That was the last thing I saw before everything went black. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Aridis: sorry it took so long. My brain is turning into derp mush. 

Sam: derp mush? 

Aridis: Don't question the random things I say

Amber: What about out revenge? Do we get to do that this week?

Aridis: No, sorryyyyyy

Amber: Aw