Blame

Slipping

It was a lot to process. It was far too much, actually. But despite that, Elizabeth was slowly accepting reality.

"It was cute, you know... Jessica really didn't want to hurt you, but sure did want to hurt her..."

"N-no, y-y-you wanted to hurt her," Elizabeth said somewhat abruptly.

"Last time I checked, Lizzy, I wasn't the one with a knife in my hand and blood on my clothes."

"Hey, don't try and place the blame on her, asshole."

Elizabeth's eyes darted over to Jesse, who was attempting to force herself to sit up. It was clear that she wasn't going to be successful anytime soon.

Ennard let out one of its grating laughs, not bothering to reply to Jesse.

"I'd say my goodbyes to that one if I were you." It smiled sinisterly. "I fear that she may not last much longer..."

Elizabeth looked back at Ennard.

"Go on..."

Not actually caring if it was being serious or not, she dropped back down onto her knees, right beside her friend.

Thanks to the demon, Elizabeth had encountered multiple people bleeding and horribly injured on the ground. But she suddenly felt like she really didn't know what to do.

"H-how do I help y-you?" she asked.

"Listen," Jesse's hand closed over Elizabeth's. "There's... there ain't nothing you can do for me right now."

She sounded like she was having a lot of difficulty breathing.

"You've gotta focus on getting rid of that thing." She coughed and there was quite a bit of blood. "Charlie said that... she said that you've gotta stab it with something sharp that's... that's stained with your blood to make it tangible... And then you've got to set it on fire to... to send it back to where it came from."

"I --, I don't... I c-can't..."

"There's one thing that that creature isn't wrong about, and it's that you're tough. Tougher than you think you are. You can do it, Liz... Kick its ass."

Jesse's grip went slack.

"Jesse?"

She didn't respond.

"J-jesse!"

She wasn't breathing anymore.

She was dead.

If Elizabeth wasn't crying before, she certainly was now.

"Oh, how sad." Ennard, who had remained completely silent during the exchange, decided to speak again. Its tone was somewhat mocking. "But you shouldn't waste your time crying. You should have known that this was going to happen eventually. She meddled too much."

A couple of tears hit Jesse's face, leaving streaks in the dry blood that was staining her skin.

Elizabeth could feel anger beginning to burn in her chest. A kind of anger that she hadn't felt in eight years, since she punched that mirror.

"Plus, there's still more to do. You still have to get rid of Garfield."

She could hear Gar jolt from somewhere beside her, rustling the fallen leaves.

"N-no..."

"No?"

"No," she repeated.

"Oh... don't be like this, Lizzy. I'll admit, it's a bit hard to get into your head when you know that I'm there. You automatically put up more walls. It's possible, but I really have to push. I have to break things. And because I don't want to hurt you, I usually give up."

Elizabeth didn't want to let go of Jesse's hand. She didn't want to ever let go. But she had to.

"But, if I have to, I will force my way back in and never leave again... I'll break through any walls you attempt to put up. I'll shatter your mind so that you can't fight back and claim whatever remains once I'm done."

Elizabeth gently placed Jesse's cold hand onto her chest.

She wasn't looking at the demon, but she knew that all of its eyes were staring at her. She knew because she suddenly had a strong headache.

"And don't even think about attempting to do what Jessica instructed you to do."

She found the throwing knife that she had dropped, tightly gripping the short handle.

"If you do," Ennard's unpleasant voice became audible in the very back of her skull. "Then I will be forced to do even worse."

As Elizabeth rose to her feet, she felt as if her body was fighting against her, not wanting her to do what she was attempting to do.

"Lizzy..."

She turned back around to face it. She dragged the blade across her open palm, a sharp stinging pain shooting through her hand as blood began to ooze out. The cut was a bit more forceful than she intended it to be because her movements were becoming somewhat jerky.

"Don't try it."

She rubbed the flat side of the knife against the cut, making sure to smear her blood all over it.

"You won't succeed. You'll just make things more painful for yourself."

With a great amount of effort, she forced herself into the position that she took whenever she was winding up to throw a knife.

"You'll regret it."

Elizabeth threw the knife as hard as she possibly could.