♠️Worst of Friends♠️ (♠️♥️UNDER REWRITE♣️♦️)

Edelwood

On days like these, the lantern was Wirt's only warmth. However, it was more to him than light and warmth. He had believed since long ago that his step brother's soul was trapped inside it. He swore to himself that if he ever lost it, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

'I still remember,' he thought,'I couldn't forget the day it all happened.' Images flashed inside Wirt's mind, forming a significant memory.

After a short argument between the siblings, Wirt had woken up and called for his brother. 'Greg?' he remembered calling. That song... it was silly yet remembering it was heartbreaking for Wirt. It only reminded him of how merry his brother used to be.

'Oh potatoes... and molasses...'

Wirt didn't want to remember how weak his brother looked. His face was as white as a sheet and dark bags lay under his eyes. His body was surrounded by edelwood, which was tucked beneath his arms and between his legs. He looked desperate, but he wanted his brother to be alive. Although Greg did this on purpose, Wirt felt it was his fault for not keeping an eye on him.

'Set my brother free. Please.' he remembered begging while his eyes were soaked in tears that never went down.

Beatrice, in her small state, pushed Wirt away from the Beast. 'There can be-' she said, interrupted by her own huffing and puffing. '-another way!'

'If you bear the lantern, your brother's soul will be safe inside of it.'

'Wirt!' Beatrice exclaimed, her voice echoing around the forest. He gave her the shimmering golden scissors before hearing her yell about how long she looked for them. Bearing a pitiful frown, Beatrice flew away with her scissors.

He remembered accepting the deal, but instead of the Beast creeping into the shadows, he told Wirt,

'But I shall help you get fuel... for your fire. Half of my soul will be in your body.'

At that moment, he couldn't handle the physical and emotional pain. Maybe it was because he let Beatrice down. Or it was because Greg was gone. Either way, he fell to the ground at that moment. Darkness was all he saw.

That memory was the one that made his heart freeze and harden, his soul shrink and lose meaning. The Lantern Bearer could never forget his brother, no, not in a million years.

Wirt was, unlike people who had powers such as his, appeared to be a calm young man on the surface. He was stoic and usually had a monotone voice, not known to be one to go insane because of a simple action.

Although he was calm, he sometimes did cry. Sometimes he couldn't take it. He was still human somewhere in his heart. Thoughts would keep corrupting his mind until they reached the deepest ends of his soul, the small parts that were not black. They ripped them out and painted them coal black, only to put them back into Wirt's soul.

Deep inside his heart, he was the old Wirt. The one that didn't see his brother disappear before his eyes. The one that was only interested in fitting in. The one that was a brother.

Everyone thought Wirt was gone. If anyone he knew saw him, they would recognize him, and inform everyone they knew that they did. Rarely, though, he wished Beatrice would.

Aside from edelwood antlers that grew wine red leaves and pastel eyes that look like they were drawn by a child, Wirt looked rather normal, and easily recognisable.

Wirt was very much physically stable; however, when he fused with the Beast, the Beast's voice would ring in his mind giving him orders. 'Keep your lantern lit, Lantern Bearer.' it would occasionally say. Not only did it command him, it sometimes controlled him. The Beast's plan was to make Wirt his puppet, his servant.

He only wanted his family back.