Love Can Save {An Aphmau Fanfiction}

Richard

The light was so intensely bright that even with my eyes closed, I was still blinded. I scrunched up my face, turning to the side and attempting to hide from the violent light that threatened to overwhelm my senses. As the light grew stronger and stronger, my pain began to vanish. My heart leapt into my throat as the implications of this relief became evident. Here was the light at the end of the tunnel; here was that final moment when all pain melted away and nothing else mattered except for that breathtaking lack of agony.

As the light faded, I half expected to wake from this hellish dream. The other half of me expected to open my eyes and be among the stars, looking down on my friends from above. So it was more than a surprise when my eyes fluttered open and found Evelyn's leg still under my head. I groaned, shifting slightly as my head pounded a tattoo against my temples.

"Richard!" A voice called my name, the soft voice unknown yet soothing. I groaned, searching for the words that kept evading my tongue. My eyes had drifted shut, trying to make sense of what was going on. My pain was gone; shouldn't that mean I was dead?

Someone was shaking my shoulders, and my head slipped to slam against the cobblestones beneath. "Ow," I groaned, language coming back to me. Pushing myself up on my elbows, I scrunched up my face as my headache intensified. "Okay, what's going on?"

Arms wrapped around me, knocking the breath out of me as my head hit the stones again. I squinted one eye to see Evelyn, dirty blonde hair like a curtain around her face. Her arms were squeezed around my torso, face buried against my chestplate in relief. Blinking slowly as my mind continued to reel, I slowly raised a hand that pressed against the back of her head, attempting to comfort her even as I didn't understand what was going on.

Her frame shook for several moments longer, leaving me to struggle to my elbows, holding her close all the while. "Evelyn," I murmured, running my fingers through her loose hair as I tried to work out knots and tangles. "Evelyn, I don't know how, but I'm okay. Really."

She pulled away, blue eyes shining in a way that reminded me of the sky at noon. Her eyes met mine for a second before her gaze drifted downwards toward the mess of my leg. I looked down too, trying to figure out what had happened. All I knew was that one second I had been bleeding out and now... well, I wasn't sure.

Blood still coated the stones and my thigh in liberal amounts, dried in a few areas but mainly just large puddles of scarlet. I reached out a hand to Evelyn and she helped pull me to a sitting position, granting me a better view. The metal of my ruined armor dug painfully into my leg, but that was the only pain I felt. No more agonizing fire just... discomfort. I blinked again and the picture revealed itself clearly all at once.

Beside my leg was a broken arrow. Not sticking out of it. No, the arrow that had threatened to end my life just minutes prior was now laying discarded on the ground, coated in a rusty brown and laying in the midst of the slowly drying pool of blood. My hand trembled as it hovered above the hole in my armor before it dipped down and pressed against smooth flesh. Gasping, I pulled my leg up and stared at what couldn't be true. Yet it was. Somehow by something, I had been healed from the devastating wound that should have left me dead.

Evelyn smiled, hands flying in her excitement. You're okay! You're healed! So am I, look! She held out her arm, and through the rents in her armor I saw her skin, perfectly smooth as if she hadn't just had long scratches welling blood a few minutes ago. I laughed, amazed at how good I felt. Of course, the area I had been wounded was still bruised and not completely healed, but I wasn't going to die today. Do you think it was Lady Aphmau? She had the power to heal, right?

"She had it," I agreed, running a free hand through my hair as I thought back to what had happened since right before the light had hit us until the present. "But she hasn't had that power since Alina was born. But... who knows, maybe it was her. I don't see any other reasonable explanation." She shrugged, pulling out her canteen and downing the final contents. I watched her as my mind worked. All of a sudden, it finally dawned on me. Something had seemed strange since the moment the light was gone, and I finally understood what it was. "Evelyn, it's only been you and me this whole time, right?"