Crown Of Thorns (Black Veil Brides Fanfiction)

Chapter 7 - [Revised - 3-23-22]

"There ya go, love!" Inna pats my cheek, the green glow on her hands dimming as her magical essence fades back into her body.

I smile at her in thanks, purple Bellflowers blooming in my hair and on my arms. I pluck one off, handing it to her. She grins, tucking it behind her ear. "What's this for?" She asks.

"Bell- bellflowers for gratitude." I reply, standing up.

Reaching a hand up to my face, I feel no sting where I touch, the long slit completely healed up. Andy and CC come back into the room, as they'd left to deal with some business regarding a recent supply raid.

"All better?" CC questions, coming up next to me to ruffle my hair.

I hum in affirmation, reaching a hand up to rub lightly at my itchy eye. Shaking my head lightly as though that will get rid of the feeling, I frown. This happens every once in a while. I don't open my eyelid too often, as there's just a gaping hole where my eye used to be.

"Do you want me to look at that for you?" Inna asks, staring at me expectantly.

I blush, magnolias flourishing all over my hair at being acknowledged as an existing human. Stuttering out my agreement, she moves in front of me again. Andy and CC take a step back, choosing to merely watch.

"Can you open your eyelid for me please?"

I hesitate. "It... really mustn't look pr-pretty. No one has seen my- well, since... since my father..." A bitter edge laces it's way into my voice, petunias slowly growing under the magnolias and practically consuming them.

"Its alright. We're in a war love, not much fazes us." She coaxes, her gentle tone and soothing gaze compelling me to comply.

With a sigh, my eyes previously scrunched closed in hesitancy, I open them both. I remain silent as Inna's eyes widen, one of her hands immediately coming up to prod lightly at my lack of an eye.

My eye hole itches again and the urge to make the itching stop very nearly overwhelms me. My fingers twitch, the need to make the itching stop growing stronger by the second.

"Are you.... doing this?" She questions, unable to stop gaping.

"Do-doing what?" I tilt my head in confusion, sainfoins blooming rapidly in my hair.

"Everest, you've got... well..." CC starts, seeming unable to speak.

"There are flowers blooming where your eye should be." Andy states, cutting CC off entirely as he walks closer, a half broken mirror in hand.

Taking a long, disbelieving look into the mirror, I see tiny, white flowers have overtaken the hole where my eye should be. The white flowers are small, even moreso than what I usually see, the leaves and stems brushing lightly against the edges of my eye socket. So this was what that overseer pulled out of my eye when she dug her fingers in, trying to hurt me.

Well, that explains the itch. But, what do these flowers mean? My mama never told me, and they were never in that children's book she used to read my brother and I as well as our younger siblings...

I frown, staring into the mirror at the flowers, willing them to go away. I watch in slight confusion as they don't do what they normally do. Instead, they sort of crumble into nothingness as if they were never there in the first place. They didn't wither as the other flowers do either when I force them to, or when the emotion they represent fades. I don't understand what's going on.

Within moments, the flowers are back, blooming out of my eye hole, the tiny white petals splotched with red specks of blood.

Unable to close my eyelid due to the flowers and the tiny vines slowly crawling their way out, I leave it open. Its strange, as I've gone so long without doing much of anything with that "eye".