Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 72-

Day: 76

Days Left: 5404

Lives Saved: 0

Harmony returned back to the front of the trade-post, walking in on Corinna, Sumit, Rin, and Ivette all laughing and chattering about something. They all stopped upon seeing Harmony, staring in silence.

Ah yes, don't let me interrupt all of your fun, Harmony thought, tasting something bitter rising in her throat and mind.

"Harm!" Corinna put on a smile. "What do you want to trade for-"

"Just take the food," Harmony blurted out. She didn't mean for it to come out so violently. She just wanted the conversation to end faster so that they would stop staring at her.

"Oh, okay..." Corinna scratched her elbow. "You sure you don't want to see what Ivette saved for you-"

Harmony snatched the food packets on the coffee table and stuffed them into her satchel. Two of them fell out, and she shoved them back in. "This'll be fine." She waited for Ivette to make some sort of remark about manners and politeness, but she remained silent.

They were all looking at her like some sort of child that has lost a pet. All of them with their big eyes, tender smiles, and soft, high-pitched voices as if it would console her. She just wanted everything to be normal as if her failure wasn't such a big deal.

They were making everything worse. Clutching the fur on her chest to tame the pain, Harmony stormed out of the building, hearing a frantic Corinna say her goodbyes and follow quickly behind.

She was glad that Corinna kept quiet during their journey back to the house. If she had attempted conversation, Harmony knew she would have broken down right there. However, this relief was short-lived.

As soon as they stepped inside the house and closed the door, Corinna began with her high-pitched voice of concern, "I'm sorry about what happened, Harmony."

"You already said that," Harmony snapped back, then immediately bit down on her tongue. That's not what she wanted to say. Not at all. But all of that frustration and anger that she had been bottled up wanted to be free, and it directed itself at the nearest person it had found. It shouldn't have been Corinna. Corinna was the last person Harmony wanted to hurt. Knowing if she spoke again that more vileness would spew out, Harmony faced away from the young woman, not wanting to see what damage she had inflicted.

Instead, she heard it as Corinna said, "yes," with a wobbling croak. "I'm not sure how many times I would need to say it to make it okay. Or even if it is even possible. I just... I know it's my fault, but I think it is also partly because of the tower. It's a lost cause, Harmony. It's too dangerous."

Harmony heard her step closer.

"It's too dangerous," Corinna repeated. "Those rocks are weak. They'll topple down any day now, and you'll fall with it just like before. I know you can't die here but..." She spoke in a trembling hush, "you could lose your memories-"

"What memories!" Harmony growled, whipping around. She towered over the young woman. "What memories do I have? Who do I have to remember? I have nothing!" After a moment of pause, Harmony took a stumbling step back, seeing Corinna's body cower and tremble. She looked down and saw that her claws in her outburst, instinctively spiked out. Retracting them, the chimaera lowered her head, avoiding the young woman's gaze.

After neither of them muttered a single word, Harmony retreated to the basement. She hesitated upon entering the hatch, seeing the darkness below, then closed it. If she went down there, she knew that she would remain there forever. However, she had to escape somewhere, so she slammed the bathroom door open and locked it behind her.

Corinna's voice called out to her. Unsure whether she imagined it or not, Harmony ignored it.

She rested her hands on the rim of the sink, her talons scratched and clattered and clinked against the china.

She breathed in.

Then breathed out.

Breathed in.

Breathed out.

Raising her head, she was confronted by her reflection in the mirror. She had been avoiding it all this time, avoiding the monster that stared back. It was not her, but she wanted it to be. A stranger's eyes glared back. Harmony refrained herself from punching the mirror.

Her hands rose to her face and her fingers traced the shape of her snout, fangs, and ears. She turned her head, attempting to see it more clearly in the mirror then froze when something else caught her eye. Her hands, her fingers...

A line ran along the middle of her fingers, causing a small indent, her talons were also less pronounced, shorter, blunt.

"No... no..."

She tore at her fur in frustration, her claws getting caught and trapped in her mangled and tangled black mane. Once she freed them, she looked down at the fur that she pulled out with them.

"No... not now."

Her mask had been damaged in the fall.

She was turning back into a human.

It was because of Corinna.

It was all because of Corinna.

If it weren't for Corinna, she wouldn't be distracted.

If it weren't for Corinna, she wouldn't be starving.

If it weren't for Corinna, she would be free.

Harmony looked down at her three-fingered hands, wondering how long it will be until she would no longer have claws.

Leaving the bathroom, Harmony found Corinna sat in front of the fireplace, writing in her notebook and murmuring names to herself.

This girl prevented her from escaping, from freedom, from seeing the sun again. 

If it weren't for her...

The monster stared down at Corinna. It then looked back at the window, gazing longingly at the sky, where the light had once shone, where freedom had closed on it, where the girl had caused it to suffer even longer in this rotting world of darkness.

After a moment of deliberation, the monster decided what to do.

Corinna had to go. 

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