What Lies Between ✔

Attack

37.

His face flushed with relief and broke into the big smile I had swooned over so much. "I knew it! I knew that was your energy!" he laughed, coming towards me.

I stood as still as a post, a mesh of emotions whirling in my gut. I was happy to see him, but I was also scared to see him because now he was involved.

"This- I –" I tried to begin to explain myself when taking me completely off gaurd, Thorne threw his arms around me and gave me a hard squeeze.

He smelled like pine, like all the forests and woods he'd ever ran through, the ends of the earth he searched. This had been a moment I wished would happen for a very long time. In Purgatory, I often imagined what Thorne holding me would be like. I should have been brimming with joy at such a display of affection from him. But I wasn't. Something was different about how I viewed him now, like a fissure had formed in my feelings towards him. He felt safe and familiar, two things that used to appeal to me.

"I can't believe you escaped!" he said, holding me out at arm's length. His smile dropped completely as he finally took in the slashes over my skin. Something began to brew in his eyes, an emotion I never seen stirred in Thorne before. It reminded me of the look in Stone's eyes whenever he stared at me. "What did it do to you?" His voice was murderous. It took me a second to get over the sensation that I was looking at a stranger, not the boy I had known for centuries at least, and realize he was referring to Ben. Thorne still believed Ben had forced me out of Purgatory.

"Thorne, you have it wrong, He's not a monster." I looked into his eyes, trying to fight my way past the hatred growing in them, hatred that didn't belong in them.

"Thorne, you have to listen to her," Lidia told him.

"He's got both of you brainwashed now!" Thorne yelled at her. "I knew there was something off with you, Lidia." He turned his eyes back to me, "You're coming back with me, Nameless. We can fix you."

"No Thorne, just listen," I said, starting to struggle out of his hold. "It's not what you think!"

"I can take you back, Nameless, I can take you home and this will all be over." He was looking into my eyes now with hope. Hope that I would listen or hope that things would return to normal, I didn't know, but I didn't want to go back to Purgatory, back to being Nameless. Purgatory was no longer my home. Now that I experienced life on earth, my realm, I couldn't go back to safe and familiar. What I wanted was –

"Benjamin?" I heard Adrian's surprised gasp.

Thorne and I turned our attention to where Adrian was staring.

Ben stood cloaked in black wisps, eyes glowing red, beside one of the trees. I saw his eyes flick from Adrian to Thorne and I. I could see the anger consume him when he took in the scene before him.

Me, covered in injuries, struggling out of Thorne's hold.

That was when Ben attacked.

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