Storge ➵ rise of the guardians

prologue

WARNINGS: vomiting

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She could hardly breathe. It was so difficult to inhale and exhale through her quivering. Beads of sweat made their away on her face. The girl's palms tried to save her from the influx of cruel comments emitting from the man before her, the one who strangely seemed harmless minutes before.

"You were such a burden to him. He didn't love you. He didn't care at all. He must have been relieved when you left. His girl was only a disappointment in the end. A relentless and reckless girl."

Tears streamed down her cheeks as more of his words came. She wanted to run, but where could she go? She couldn't go back. Not to them. Not to him. There was no way. Like the man said, she was a burden.

The girl pulled at her own hair, black strands intertwined in her fingers and knotted up. Her sobs echoed throughout the shady area, nearly shaking the empty cages above.

"Stop... please stop..."

Cackling seemed like the best response for him. He resumed with his insults, and was it just her or did he seem darker now?

Her head felt as if it was full of stones and crawled away. The vomit spewed from her mouth before she even realized it was coming and splattered on the ground. She squinted through her tears and was disgusted by what seemed to be small chunks of chicken. Slowly, she backed off and fell over on her side.

In front of her, the man laughed once more. Black sand formed in his palms and he raised them. Dark, fearsome horses emerged from the ground and raced to his side.

"Oh. It has certainly been a while since I've last felt this way. Quite nostalgic, isn't it? How long has it been, four years? My, we have catching up to do."

A smirk grew on his face as he stroked a horse's mane. Coughing fits from the girl interrupted his moment of triumph. He took several strides to reach her.

"I guess now is the time to be thanking you. Your fear nearly gave me a full recovery. Though I wonder, how should I repay you? I know for a fact that I can't kill you, there'd be no point in trying..."

The man crossed his arms.

"Hm... Maybe... I'll let you be my accomplice. Now how does that sound, miss?"

She struggled to lift herself up to look into his eyes, which now seemed more vivid than before.

"I don't... I-I just...want to be gone. I'm not..."

Her arms gave out and she collapsed. He wasn't amused at all.

"All right, then."

With the wave of a hand, he shot sand at the girl and it began to envelop her body. It started at her ankles and quickly made its way up.

Why didn't she fight it? Why didn't she escape earlier? She could've ran, tried to find a way out and make a break for it. She could've even attempted to make her way out the minute she fell in this place. This girl could have prevented it all from happening. But what was she thinking?

I'm not worth it.

So she allowed the darkness to take over, because she no longer had a purpose in the world.