Gacha Story (Mature Readers Only)

The Break-Up

Furiously, Arya glared at Shadow, a few metres apart in the kitchen of Crystal's house. The distance between them seemed to grow further whilst they maintained their firm footing of where they were stood, unwilling to invade each other's territories. Watching him was painful, especially since he was her boyfriend - she was meant to love him, but at that moment, the only love she felt towards him was the loving urge to stab him, unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately to her).

It was not so long ago when she was desperate for his affection, and would have put everything behind her to be with him. Now that they were together... the love was not so special as it was when they had first started dating. It was as if boredom flooded in and drowned them out from interest in each other.

They stood opposite each other but their faces were watching each other; Shadow's head tilted down to avoid her frosty remarks. Shadow could barely look at Arya, wanting to turn away, to avoid looking into her eyes, because it only made him feel worse than he already did. She knew this, but she could hardly careless how he felt - this was all his fault.

He could blame his father or blame her, but no matter what, he still played a part in it, and that would not change. This was his fault too, not only his father's - he should have told her immediately, as soon as he knew.

She had asked him about the forest previously, but he had only joked about it, never seriously telling her the truth that Avocado had left her there. He had said that he was a babysitter, not the person who abandoned her when she was two.

Secrets were never going to be safe if he couldn't keep it to himself. It didn't matter anymore because now she knew - she knew all about his father - a time when Shadow was two years old as well. Him and Roxy, entirely ignorant to the whole other side that their father had shown to Arya - the side that gave her nightmares and made her believe in monsters and ghosts.

In the end, it was the same father who had kept Nia away from the others just because she was... different. From Arya, his friend's daughter, to even his own daughter... it was crazy how ruthless and cold he could be without batting an eye.

"Shadow!" Arya yelled his name aggressively, cold tears marking her pale cheeks in thin blue lines down her face. If it hadn't been for those tears, he would never have doubted her anger for misery.

"Arya," he said, nervously reaching out for her hand, "what's wrong?"

She slapped it away from him, almost jumping back as if he held out poison. The way he looked at her, was as if he didn't understand anything about human nature. How on earth could he ask 'what is wrong' when he clearly knew what he had done to hurt me? "You knew and you never told me!" She was not going to spell it out for him like some sort of fool.

Shadow looked down dismally away from Arya, unable to face her because deep down, he knew it was a mistake he shouldn't have made. "I'm sorry... I really didn't know it was you... I thought... it was a coincidence..."

"A coincidence?!" She snapped back, incredulous. "He was Dreamer's friend that was meant to take me to an adoption centre but just left me in a forest! What kind of man does that?!"

He stared at his shoes, black dirty trainers over fawn flooring. His own shadow stretched over the ground, edging closer to her. "I wouldn't want to hurt you, you know. I'd never do that."

"He's as bad as my parents who left me - or even worse!" She looked at him, a sudden surge of intense rage fuelling her. His eyes far away from hers, seemingly triggering her fury even more. "LOOK AT ME!" She practically screamed.

Instantly, his head jerked up and his eyes met hers, mechanically like a robot under her voice's command.

"You know that I want to kill my parents for what they did... and they didn't want me to be in a forest... so what am I going to do to your dad?"