Protectors of Crystal Haven

Chapter Six: Recovery

Piper and Willow sat up at the same time realizing that they had done it again. They were grasping each other tightly and had clearly both been crying and shaking meaning that once again a dual panic attack had happened. Rosaline and Amber had equally terrified expressions on their faces and Rosaline didn't notice that she had frozen time out of fear. Spark went over to Amber and poked her with his tail. She hugged his neck and to all the girls surprise, he started talking!

"It's okay Amber, I know that you're scared but that was in the past. It's over now and those people aren't going to hurt you" Spark said clearly relaxing Amber as she got up and sat on his back nodding as he wiped her tears away with his tail.

Suddenly, Amber took out a bloody switchblade and held it to her wrist pressing down hard until Spark saw and took it away. "Amber. No. This isn't going to help anything. No matter how many times you argue with me over this, my answer will always be the same. You do NOT deserve the pain. You know that as well as I do but the voices in your head have convinced you otherwise. I can't change your mind and that's what worries me" Amber reached for the blade but Spark handed it to Rosaline and told her to put it somewhere far in the past. Rosaline, being highly concerned about Amber, did as Spark told her and within seconds the sharp, golden switchblade was gone. Amber got up and ran to her room while digging her sharpened nails into her arm. To the girls surprise, Spark transformed into a boy their age and ran after her. He had hair the color of the sun at dawn and eyes the color of the ocean at dusk.

When Spark arrived in Amber's room he found her on the floor bleeding and crying desperately trying to reach her bandages to wrap around her bloody arms. Spark picked her up and carried her to her bed. Once he'd laid her down her cleaned up her cuts and banaged them carefully to make sure he didn't hurt her further. He scolded himself for not being able to stop her and looked at her with tears of pain burning at his tear ducts as she fell asleep. He looked under her eyes and saw how dark and large the bags underneath them were. "How did you not realize how sleep deprived she was you ash-brained idiot!?" he whispered to himself.

Amber started to shift in her sleep and sat up flinching from the pain in her arms. Spark jumped when she sat up and saw her start to shake.. that was when she started screaming and he realized she was having another night terror. He grabbed her shoulders and embraced her telling her it's alright and she's okay. Amber woke up and felt Spark hugging her so she attempted to hug him back... that was when a sharp pain in her arms stopped her and she shrieked feeling like fire was consuming her skin along her forearms. Spark grabbed her hands and told her to lay down or feel his fatherly wrath. Amber did as Spark told her and laid down but started choking on her tears and shot up from her pillow to breathe. Spark held her as she cried and steadied her hands when they started to shake as her panic attack worsened. Patton entered the room with Evie and Virgil trailing him.

"What is going on?" Patton asked as gently as he could manage. Evie took one look at Amber and knew what was happening.

"Patton she's having a panic attack give her a minute..." Evie whispered to her older brother.

Virgil hugged Evie knowing that seeing something like this might cause her to do the exact same thing. "Turn around E," Virgil told Evie "turn around right now before I force you to" Evie didn't move. It was too late. "Goddamnit Evie why didn't you do what I told you.. now you're panicking again. Come on, we're going to sit down and talk you through this" With this, Virgil led Evie to the couch in Amber's room and used what Logan had taught him about logic to deny any negative thing Evie said about herself.

"That girl doesn't deserve this, she doesn't deserve the fresh cuts on her arms or the panic attack that guys is helping her through, I do." Evie stated with worry as she stared at Amber and Spark hugging while both of them cried.

"E, that is the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard from you. Neither of you deserve this. Nor anyone else for that matter, you think that you and only you deserve this. Amber thinks the same thing about herself and neither of you are correct. No one does"

"That's where you're wrong Virgil. Some people deserve to go through hell. People like me. My father left my family when I was five, V. Five fucking years old. Why do you think he did that? Because I have no goddamn clue. I've been through things that some people can't even begin to fathom. Things that mean I deserve this pain, this suffering and everything in between. Clearly if it is a recurring thing, I deserve it," Evie stated coldly "I've tried for eight years to stop everything that I've gone through from happening again... can you guess how many times I've succeeded?.."

"E-" Virgil started

"Zero. I've succeeded exactly zero times" Evie confessed looking down at her shaking hands as they twitched repeatedly.

"E. Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Virgil asked, his voice full of concern, "I would've helped you, I'm your best friend. You don't have to keep secrets from me."

Evie couldn't handle it anymore, she broke down sobbing into Virgil's arms as he held her close, clutching her hand in his. Amber had calmed down by now and Spark was holding her hand as she realized that there was three more people in the room than there had been when her panic attack started. All of which she recognized from Rosaline's display of the past. Patton was there, the vice principal of Crystal Haven Prep. Evie, Patton's little sister and also the daughter of the principal or dean of the school, Alairia, and Virgil, Evie's best friend. Evie was having a panic attack and Virgil was comforting her while Patton went over to help now that Amber's panic attack was over. As Evie calmed down and her panic attack also came to an end, she looked directly at Amber and asks,

"You know everything, don't you?"