Way Back When: A Backstory Tale

6

Mephisto
I can't believe Praxina did that yesterday. She used her magic to hurt me! Hurt me!
All I was trying to do was get her to see that she's not the only one who gets special things. And what does she do? She hurts me!
As if that wasn't bad enough, when I used my magic to try and defend myself we both get in trouble! Like what the hell?? I was only trying to defend myself!!
Well now it's Praxina's fault that we're both grounded until the end of time. Well, for a month really.
Right now I'm stuck in my room where I lie on my bed on my back, staring at the ceiling and silently raging over yesterday.
"Praxina should not have done that. My chest still hurts from when I landed," I think to myself.
It was true, my chest hurt a lot and I'm still finding it a little hard to breathe. Along with that, my whole body is aching from when she shot me down from the air and the fight in general.
"It's just not fair!!" I think in rage. And to make things worse, I had that damned dream in the forest again! Everything is going wrong!
I keep on thinking about yesterday and the recurring dream when I hear a knock at my door.
"What??" I say in a harsh way. I would have said something else if I thought it was mother or father knocking, but I think it's someone else.
I turn my head towards the door and when it opens, I see that I'm right.
It's Praxina.
"Mephisto, can we talk?" she asks me.
"Oh joy. Just who I really wanted to talk to today," I say sarcasticly.
Praxina sighs but stays where she is.
"Please? It's important," she says.
I frown at her and turn onto my side so I can't see her anymore.
"No, leave me alone."
"Mephisto-"
"I said no Praxina."
"Just listen! For two minutes, please!"
I growl but force myself to turn back towards her. If I ever want her to go away, I guess I have to listen to her.
"Fine. Come in and sit I guess," I mumble.
Praxina walks slowly into my room and for the first time I notice the cuts and bruises on her arms. I felt a small pang of sympathy, but I quickly shoot it down.
Praxina sits down at my desk, turning the chair towards me.
"So what do you want?" I say.
She stiffles a sigh and looks at me.
"Well, I just, wanted to say that I'm sorry for what I did yesterday. It was wrong. I shouldn't have struck at you and I shouldn't have hurt you. I'm sorry," she says to me.
I feel, surprised at first. Praxina almost never apologizes to anyone. But then I realize something important and anger replaces my surprise.
"Mother told you to say that, didn't she?" I growl.
Praxina looks genuinely surprised.
"What? No, I really wanted to apologize to you! I really am sorry, I swear!" she exclaims.
It was then that I realized she was telling the truth.
"You're, you're really sorry?" I ask in disbelief.
She nods in response. I let out a slow breath, then apologize to her.
"Well, I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have said those things to you. I know how sensitive you are to them, yet I said them anyway. I just-nevermind. I'm sorry."
Praxina gives me a small smile.
"That's good. You should be," she says playfully.
I smile too. "Of course."
She continues to smile at me until she glances at my bare arms. They were also covered with bruises and cuts. Her smile fades.
"God Mephisto, I hurt you really bad didn't I?" she asks with concern.
I glance down at myself then look at her.
"I'm okay, just sore."
Praxina sighs. "How's your breathing?"
"It hurts," I tell her honestly.
She looks at me. "I'm so sorry Mephisto. I don't know what came over me, I, I'm sorry."
"Hey," I say, getting up and walking towards her. I kneel down beside her and she looks at me with sad eyes.
"It's okay. I'm fine, okay?"
Praxina nods slowly.
"And, I'm sorry for hurting you, I really didn't mean to," I say.
She looks at me. "It's okay. It'll be fine, right?"
I smile at her. "Yeah."
Then she does something I thought she'd never do. She hugs me.
I gasp a little in surprise, then hug her back. She sighs when I hug her, which makes me happy that we're not fighting anymore.
After a few seconds we pull away.
"Well, I'm glad we're not fighting anymore," I tell her.
"Me too," she replies.
"Hey, did you have the forest dream again?" I ask her.
She nods. "Yeah. Only this time the man we keep seeing said somthing different! Usually he says the same thing! Did he say something else in your dream?"
"Yeah actually! He said 'I'm coming'. What does that mean?"
"I dont know, he said that in mine too. I don't get it," she says.
Then she lights up a bit after a few seconds.
"You know what we should do?" she asks.
"What?"
"We should go walking in the Runic forsest! It would be fun, just you and me!" She exclaims.
I smile at her. That would be fun, and awesome! But there's somthing she forgot.
"I'd love to, but we're grounded, remember?"
Her face falls, but soon she's smiling again.
"Oh yeah. Well, it's just the forest! They might say yes if we tell them we've made up. We should at least try!"
"Yeah, you're right, let's do it!" I exclaim.
"Yes!" she cries and rushes out of the room to ask our parents.
After a few minutes, Praxina comes rushing back with a huge smile on her face.
"So?" I ask, I also have a huge smile ony face.
"They said yes!" she exclaims.
"Awesome! Let's get ready!" I say.
And with that, the two of us get ready for our day in the forest.
I couldn't wait! Prax and I used to go walking in the forest all the time when we were younger, it was our bonding time. Now that we're older we barley get to do it anymore.
But today, we get to go again! And I can't wait! It's awesome out there, and we love walks through the forest. Even though we're both sore, I have no doubt that this will be fun.
This was going to be awesome!

Gramorr
"Look Banes!" I exclaim to my partner as I watch Mephisto and Praxina on my orb.
He struts over towards me to see.
"It looks like they're off on a little adventure. Their mommy and daddy will be all alone!" I say.
Banes growls impatiently.
"This is perfect Banes! Now I have a clear shot to their parents!"
I let the orb fade away and stand up.
"Come Banes, those parents have a date," I say.
Then Banes and I teleport to their house. As I stand in front of it my excitment grows.
Finally my plan is going well.
I smile menacingly under my mask.
"They have a date with death."