Blinded (A Sequel to "Sight")

Remorse

"R-Rae?" Rose's eyes widened. "What-what're you doing?"

Rae narrowed her eyes at Rose. "I'm getting my revenge."

"But why?" Rose asked. "What did I do to you?"

"It's what you didn't do, Rose," Rae explained. "It was a great story. We met, became best friends, we were inseparable. But that only lasted for a month." She glared at Varian. "Then you introduced me to your little boyfriend. I'll admit, I was a little hurt. I thought we had something special. But then you started hanging out with him all the time. You never had time for me anymore. It was always, 'I'm going to hang out with Varian!' or 'Sorry, I can't come over, I'm going over to Varian's!'" She rolled her eyes. "Ugh. But you never noticed my pain, or how left out I felt. I was just a third wheel. A stupid third wheel, who... who was in love with someone who already had a boyfriend!"

Rose stared at Rae in shock. "You mean..."

"Yes, Rose! I love you!" Rae choked back a sob. "But you'd never notice it. You and Varian were so happy together... I knew we'd never work out. But I'd never met someone like you. I wanted you for myself. I-I wanted someone to love me as much as you love Varian."

"Rae... I-I don't know what to say," Rose admitted. "But why did you have to go to this extent?"

"I didn't want to, trust me. But then Kenny got in on it, and then Griffin found out." Her arms shook a little. "When you said you were going to investigate Griffin with the truth serum, I knew I'd be caught. So I... I killed Griffin by poisoning his food."

Rose couldn't believe what she was hearing. Rae had actually killed someone.

Rae continued on, though. "After that, Kenny became upset with me. I tried explaining that I did it so that we wouldn't be caught and sent to jail, but Kenny wouldn't listen. That's why he took you-- to get payback on me.

"Kenny also knew how close you were to Benton. So when he found him and that other mouse scurrying around, he took Benton and infused the serum into him. Kenny knew that you guys would turn to me-- I was the only other alchemist in town."

"What were you planning to do in the first place?" Rose inquired.

Rae was silent for a moment. "I... I knew that if something happened to Varian, we'd become closer. Then maybe we could fall in love."

"Rae... you wouldn't actually hurt him... would you?"

Rae held the knife closer to Varian's throat. "You wanna bet?"

Varian struggled to get away from the knife. But Rae held the knife against his neck. Beads of blood formed near the blade.

"Rae! Stop!" Rose yelled. "Please. Killing him won't make me love you more."

Rae stared at Rose, a single tear dropping from her face. Suddenly, she dropped both the knife and Varian.

Rose rushed over to Rae as she started bawling. She wrapped her arms around her and let Rae cry into her shirt. Rose stroked her auburn hair.

"I-I'm sorry," Rae said. "I just wanted you to love me."

"I do love you," Rose told her.

"But as more than friends." Rae looked up at her, tears streaming down her face.

"Rae... I want to say that I love you like that too, but I don't. I'm sorry."

Rae looked down for a moment. "I should be the sorry one. I should've just been straight-forward with you."

"It's alright." Rose brushed a piece of hair behind Rae's ear, then wiped the tears off her face. "Just know that I'm always there for you."

Rae gave her a small smile, before erupting in a scream. Rose looked down to see blood dripping from her leg-- Varian holding the knife.

Rae pushed Rose away. "I thought I could trust you! You were just distracting me, weren't you, so that he could injure me!"

"Rae, that's not what-"

Rae kicked Varian aside, the knife slipping out of his hand. Rose crouched down next to him. He was out cold.

But when Rose looked back up, Rae was standing next to a lever. "You just happen to be standing in the perfect spot."

Rose looked behind her. A large device was standing there-- it looked oddly familiar. Then she realized it. It was the portal they had used to travel to the netherworld.

A wicked smile came across Rae's face. "I haven't used it yet, but thank you for volunteering to be a test subject!"

Rose felt numb. She raised a hand towards Rae, while keeping her other hand underneath Varian's head. "Rae, wait!"

"Have a fun trip!"

The lever was pulled, and the device switched on. A large, purple portal formed behind Rose and Varian. Huh, strange, Rose thought. The other portal was blue...

The portal's force became stronger, and soon enough, Rose was being lifted off the ground. She quickly grabbed onto a table leg, while also holding onto Varian's arm. For a second, it seemed like she wouldn't go through. But Rae pushed the lever farther, and the portal got stronger.

Varian was ripped out of her hand. Rose knew that he'd need someone there with him, and so hesitantly, she let go of the table.

She thought that Rae almost had a look of remorse as Rose was sucked into the portal. But it didn't last long, and the device was shut off again.