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❛ it is a self-deception of ██████ and ██████ to imagine that they escape decadence by 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕. that is beyond their will; and, however little they acknowledge it, one later discovers that they were among the most 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆. ❜ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ▬▬ 𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒛𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒆 the will to power
⠀ ⠀ 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺 𝑾𝑨𝑺 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻 scared athena the most. it plagued her mind and brought back foggy memories she'd desperately been trying to hold back━ they lingered on the edges of her mind, pulling on thin strings and begging to be remembered. loose images of dark forests and dimly lit rooms filled her mind, the sound of running water and chord-shredding screams, a static tv in the corner of a dusty kitchen and curtains being pulled back from a cracked window by shaky hands.
⠀ ⠀ athena used to wish she could remember details better, like the exact colour of her mother's eyes or the image carved onto the pendant that always hung around her neck, but they'd become blurry around the corners and seemed to twist into odd shapes whenever she tried thinking about them.
⠀ ⠀ but she could remember darkness. could recall its exact shape and movement, the way it constantly lingered in the corner of her room and shifted whenever she looked hard enough. the way it danced around the empty kitchen on gloomy summer mornings as rain pelted against plastic windows. and even though the guard trailing along continued to shine her light from behind them, it seemed the beam was lost in an inky coat of unyielding black mist.
⠀ ⠀ the small group walked huddled together, quietly and step by step, across crunchy gravel, down a narrow path lined on both sides with iron railings and strong metal bars━darkness swallowed everything beyond them and even when athena tried to force her eyes to adjust to the blackness, she couldn't seem to make anything out.
⠀ ⠀ "this is spooky," minho spoke quietly from beside her. "alby, hold my hand."
⠀ ⠀ "dude, chill" came alby's response. he was only a couple steps behind athena, but his hand was on her shoulder, pushing her forward as he guided himself through the still darkness.
⠀ ⠀ she was close enough to minho to feel the slight tremble that shot down his arms, making his knuckles knock against her own. athena reached out and held his hand, slowly intertwining their fingers and nudging his elbow lightly in an attempt to tell him it was okay━they would be fine. because why wouldn't they, surely wicked wouldn't let cranks loose on a group of five unarmed and defenceless teenagers.
