Stay with me

Chapter 6 Inner Pain and Sorrow

He didn't know where he was. Grey fog twisted around him, so thick that he couldn't even see his feet. It was a bit like the fog he used to make before, just thicker and stranger. He couldn't tell exactly what it was made of, which was weird because he always knew the chemical makeup of, well, everything! How was this possible...

"VARIAN!"

His train of thought was cut of by a familiar voice shouting his name. He whirled around to see Eugene running towards him with a beaming smile. He didn't know whether he should be annoyed by this or slightly terrified. It seemed that he couldn't move his feet when the older man reached him and hugged him!

"Hey kid!" he said when he pulled away, "Hey, remember that time we first met, when you thought I was actually Flynn Rider? Yeah, it felt awesome to feel like that again!"

Varian looked up at him in confusion. What the hell was he talking about?

He didn't realize that he voiced his opinion until Eugene answered him, "Well, I haven't had fans in ages- I mean, true, I did lie to you and use your childishness to make me feel better, but man was it great!"

A familiar fuming anger filled the young boy. Oh yes, he remembered that! That selfish, self-centred, egoistic jerk used an innocent child's dream against him for his own gain! What the hell! And how the hell did he forgive him for that- he was such a naïve idiot! ...and once again he was voicing his thoughts.

"Well, ain't that the truth."

His head spun in the opposite direction to see Cassandra coming towards them (or just him since Eugene had disappeared when he looked back).

He looked back up to see Cassandra smirking at him, "I'm still very thankful for you doing all my chores so I could get that guard assignment from my dad- thanks to that I've been able to get more! And you were kind enough to let me not keep the end of our bargain!"

She laughed at the expression of rage he was carrying and disappeared as soon as something from behind knocked him over. He looked up at whoever or whatever pushed him over but was silenced by loud jeering from above him. He was shocked to see his old bullies from old Corona, and even from before Old Corona! The same ones that stopped bothering him once he decided that not showing his face outside was safer.

They shouted the same taunts he had come to memorize of by heart.

"Dangerous!"

"Curse!"

"Crazy!"

"Wizard!"

"Sorcerer!"

"BLACK MAGIC!"

He growled at them in fury and was about to retaliate when suddenly he was sucked into a giant black hole that appeared out of nowhere. The last thing he heard were the insults fading away as he was consumed in darkness.

The first night with Varian consciously joining their camp was awkward to say the least, Rapunzel noticed. The boy in question hadn't said a thing since their first talk and instead took to sitting against the tree in silence, occasionally glaring at anyone who came to close for comfort (namely Adira) or adding a snarky or rude comment into the conversation.

He was also one of the last people to fall asleep according to Eugene, who was on guard duty at the time. But, from what she also heard, he didn't even sleep a full five hours before getting a nightmare and full out refusing to go back to sleep, much to the elders disapproval. This made her worry because he needed that sleep if he was going to recover and the more time, he spent refusing to do what he's told the longer he would be incapacitated. And she knew for a fact that that's one thing he absolutely hated: being useless.