Promise [Number 5 X Reader]

- The Apocalypse -

Note: Major angst along the way, you guys know angst is my favorite thing ever, right? Okay then.

XxXxX

Five

Apocalypse

An ear-splitting scream full of agony and pain and grief sounded off, echoing all around me.

It took me a second to realize it wasn't my own.

Quickly, I rose to my feet, whirling around, desperately searching for the origin of the sound. "Hello?" I ran out of the destroyed alley and caught sight of a shimmering figure, kneeling in the street. The person was covered from head to toe in shining crystals that I'd seen just a few minutes ago. The crystals on the person looked almost a bit like armor, with the rocks seeming to sprout from their wrists and ankles, aiming upward in points to protect the joints. The helm was a bit unnerving as well, panes of the material starting from the chin and blocking any view of the wearer's facial features I cautiously approached the reflective figure. No way . . . "(Y/n)?"

She whirled around, and their angled helmet slowly disintegrated to reveal tousled (h/c) hair, and reddened (e/c) eyes. "F-Five?" Her lower lip wobbled as she gazed up at me. She tried to say something, but it just turned into incoherent mumbling. On her knees lay a small, skinny, furry form. It looked like some sort of dead animal, one she seemed to care about very much. "Where are they?" she managed to spit out. "Where are the others?"

I shook my head. "They're . . . "

She wailed, a long, low sound, and she crumpling up into a ball, continuously muttering the word "No," as she hunched over the animal's body, like that alone would save the creature. The (Y/n) I'd known had never cried. She preferred to bottle up her emotions and let them pour out through the senseless beating of some inanimate object or a particularly nasty criminal. She would always put the emotions of everyone else before her own - when she cared to care, that is. The (Y/n) that was sitting in front of me was so . . . broken, almost pitiful. The sounds that came from her mouth were eerie and haunting, like listening to a wounded animal beg for it's life. It was honestly terrifying.

I knelt down in front of her. "(Y/n)? (Y/n) look at me." I took her face in my hands and tilted it to tear her gaze away from the dead animal in front of her and to make her look at me. "I need you to tell me what happened, okay?" I tried to be as gentle as possible with her, as I was reaching an emotional meltdown of my own.

"There was . . . It's . . . The . . ." She wildly looked around before looking back at me with wide eyes. "I can't . . . I don't know, I can't remember!" She started panting heavily, "This can't be happening," she breathed shakily, a shriek escaping her. Her eyes were bugging out of her head, and her face had gone significantly paler than her normal (s/t) color.

I carefully held her shoulders. "Can you stand?"

She nodded and I helped her to her feet. Looking down, I could see that the animal was a small, dirty ferret. I couldn't imagine where it had come from, as the old man generally forbid us from keeping pets.

I noticed her trying not to look at the bodies that were strewn about the street in front of the academy, her eyes agitatedly darting around like pinballs. "Who were they? Can you remember?" It was a dumb question, and I was pretty sure I knew the answer . . . I just needed to be sure.