I Don't Care if the Necklace Fits! I'd Rather Not be Kidnapped by Immortals!

Everything was black. I couldn’t breathe. Pointy things kept hitting my body. The only thing I felt was pain, and the coolness on my hand. I kept swallowing the thick muddy water and it tasted so disgusting that I could have vomited. Even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t, because any time I opened my mouth the water habilitated filled my mouth. I wanted to scream, but found myself too suffocated to do so. I felt another hand grab mine and pull me up. I only got a glance at the Elliot before I heard an explosion. I turned around just in time to see the heat wave shooting towards me before I was knocked onto the rock from pain.

I fell to the ground, screaming from the excruciating burning sensation that embraced me. I curled up into a ball, covering my head, screaming my lungs out. The heat stopped, but it didn’t end the pain that was leftover from the heat. I looked up to see someone standing there, towering over me. The vision was so blurry from my crying. I couldn’t understand how they hadn’t felt that. I watched helplessly as they kicked Elliot’s lifeless body into the muddy river. The blast must have knocked him out entirely. I felt utterly hopeless when the person turned to me, and with one kick in the stomach, I was back into the muddy water.

I was screaming harder now, because the debris in the muddy water was prodding into my skin and making it hurt even worse. I was probably bleeding in six different places at least by now. I don’t know how long I was floating down this river, but when I got to the shore of it, I looked over and saw Elliot laying there. I crawled over to him, trying to ignore the pain shooting from multiple places in my body.

“Elliot,” I whispered as I shook him with one of my hands. He didn’t stir once. I felt myself begin to cry, because I remembered this in a dream I had about a year ago.

“Elliot,” I said, louder. I was shaking him with both hands. I knew how the dream ended, but I didn’t want it to end that way. I wanted Elliot to wake up this time. I couldn’t let him die. He meant too much to me for him to die.

“Elliot!” I yelled. He wasn’t waking up, and I was repeatedly screaming his name until my words didn’t even make sense to me. I was now crying as hard as I possibly could, and I couldn’t take this anymore. I was sobbing into his unbreathing chest. I hadn’t cried this hard in a year. The kiss he had given me before the explosion was still there on my lips as I shook with grief. I looked down at the mud-caked ring he’d given me for our year anniversary and heaved out another long sob.

I felt someone sit down beside me. This was something I didn’t remember from the dream, so I turned and looked to see Nuri sitting beside me. He was burned just as bad as I was, but he wasn’t caked with mud. I grabbed onto him and cried. I was hugging him harder than I ever had before, and he didn’t say a word. He just rubbed my back and head. There were no more explosions, and it took me a second to realize that somehow my subconscious mind had tapped into its powers to make everything but Nuri and I frozen in time. I looked up at him to see his eyes red and puffy, too. He’d been crying silently with me, and I hadn’t even realized it.

“I didn’t really like Elliot much once he had you, but… I never wanted this to happen to him.” He explained. I attempted to speak, but I couldn’t get it to come out sounding like words because I was crying way too hard. I tried to calm myself down.

“Why not me?” I asked once I was able to speak, only to burst out into a sob again.

“How long can you keep time frozen like this?” he inquired, ignoring my question. I shrugged, indicating that I didn’t know. I stopped for a second to think. I quit crying for a moment and stood up, grabbing the necklace.

“Maybe I can bring him back.” I pondered aloud. I ignored the pains that were shooting through my body from standing and leaned over Elliot’s body.

“I don’t think so, Triv. He’s gone.” Nuri replied, sadly. I felt a sob come again.

“You don’t know that!” I snapped, my cold tone cracking. I reached out to him and gripped the necklace tightly. I wanted with every fiber of my being for Elliot to come back to life. I sat there for I don’t even know how long, and when I opened my eyes, his lifeless body still lay there. My legs gave in beneath me and I fell to the ground. Every part of my body was aching to have his arms holding me right now, and I could still hear him murmur his last words into my ear.

“If there is one thing that I will never understand, it would be how I ended up being so goddamn lucky to have you all to myself. You couldn’t even comprehend how strongly I love you, babe.” I quoted, staring at his mud caked face. I turned around and looked at Nuri. He was just sitting there, staring at his hands.

“Who is Vanessa?” I asked. I wasn’t going to let him skip out on this. If there was one thing that he could do for me, it would be to stop hiding shit from me. At least for today. I was saving his ass, and in the process I’d gotten my boyfriend killed. And I couldn’t even bring him back. Tears flowed down my face at a quick pace, but I tried to keep control of myself. Nuri looked up at me.

“She was Sarah’s mother… at least, I thought she had been. Obviously I was wrong.” He said. I looked down at my feet.

“Why does everyone hate us? Whether you like it or not, Nuri, we’re in the same boat. If I don’t stop this war, they’ll kill both of us. Our lives are much alike. The people we loved the most both ended up dying because of what we did, or what we had to do.” I ranted.

“That’s not true.” He said. I looked at him questioningly. He looked up at me with tears going down his face.

“Sarah wasn’t the person I’ve loved the most.” His voice cracked. I stared at him and glared.

“You’re the most inconsiderate asshole that I’ve ever met.” I hissed, before walking away. I only got to five feet before his arms found themselves around me. He turned me to face him, and his face was angry. I’d never seen him this angry at me. Well, that’s not really true. I did see him this angry before, but not for over a year.

“Victrivia, you don’t fucking understand. I loved you more than I had loved Sarah. I loved you more than any item that had ever been given to me. You just don’t get it. I fucking loved you. Other than you, there were only two people that left a permanent mark on my life. The man who made me an angel, and Sarah. That’s it. I can’t fucking stand here and let the last person I love walk out of my life. You don’t even fucking know the troubled people I’ve seen in my past. People have it a lot fucking worse than you do, and you’re calling me inconsiderate. You really think that I’m not aware that you’re lover just died and you’re vulnerable right now? I am so fucking aware of that, because I’ve fucking been there, Triv. You know about Sarah, and I fucking know you do. I had to fucking kill her. I love you, Victrivia Amorette Ambrosine. I’m fucking in love with you. And all you can do in return is wallow in your own fucking misery because your fuck-buddy died. I… I—” His words were no longer intelligible after that. He just busted out crying.

I stared at him. I was frightened. I’d never seen Nuri cry like this, until now. He was balling his eyes out. I hugged him tightly and he let go of my shoulders and pulled me into him. I just sat there, and he squeezed me tightly.

“I… Nuri, I’m sorry.” I whispered, pushing him away. He just stared at me with red puffy eyes. He was the first guy I’d ever seen cry. I couldn’t handle this. I ran into the woods, crying. I was running at the impossible speed again, and the aches and pains in my body only made me want to move faster. If I didn’t have this necklace, I probably would have collapsed to the ground three miles ago. I stopped where I was and fell onto the ground. I stared at the grey sky. Of course the sky would be grey right now. How cliché.

That’s when I sat there and thought about it all. Despite all of my own personal problems, there was a war going on. And I was putting off taking care of it by taking advantage of my necklace. This wasn’t what it should be used for. This necklace’s use was meant for my survival throughout the war. It wasn’t the key to figuring everything out, but merely a tool for me to do so. It just provided male listeners, who could probably overpower the female rebels. Once I figured this out, was when I decided to go back.

Vanessa’s POV

I was fighting off my third demon. I was outraged. I couldn’t believe that Bimbo decided to bail on us. It was her job to stop this war, and she wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Once she’d cheesed it with her lover boy, Nuri decided to go out and find them. Good. He wasn’t going to be much of a help if everyone was going to specifically kill him. I grabbed the demons weapon and shoved it into his stomach. He doubled over, and I pulled it out, only to decapitate him with it and move on to the next guy.

I glanced over my shoulder to see an empty clearing. I stabbed this one in the chest and pushed him over. I looked back into the clearing and Bimbo was standing there. I shoved the weapon into the closest demon’s stomach and walked over to her, only to hear her begin to talk. Oh yay.

Triv’s POV

“Will you fucking stop this?” I screamed. The majority of the army turned to look at me questioningly, but the rest were still trying to kill people. I was sitting there trying to figure out what to say.

“This needs to end. Doesn’t this kind of remind you of a racial disagreement? It’s ridiculous! Why should you care if one person gets a punishment, and goes to find people who help him out? He was punished, and that’s the end of it. It’s not something to start a war over. This makes no sense. It’s all over a simple disagreement on what someone should have done. We all have our own lives.” I said. I noticed that a few more eyes were laid upon me.

“I’m kind of new to this whole immortal shit, but do you,” I pointed to a random demon. “even know why you hate him?” I then pointed to some random angel that I didn’t realize had come into the fight. I heard people murmur to one another.

“This is so stupid. You’re all fighting for a reason that you don’t even remember. It’s really sad. Why should it be unacceptable for you,” I pointed to a female demon. “to be in love with you?” I pointed to the same angel I’d pointed to before. I heard more murmurs.

“Think about it. We’ll say that you’re a different race. Why should it be unacceptable for two people to be in love. Because they are different? All of us are different. It’s just doesn’t make sense. I’ve come to learn that half of you can be very short-tempered. CHILL THE FUCK OUT! We’re all from different worlds, but there’s one thing that you all have in common. You know what it is?” I called. I saw some eyes roll at how corny I sounded. Once I thought about it, this was really fucking corny, but it wasn’t really my fault. I wasn’t prepared for this at all. The good thing was that there were more people whispering amongst themselves, and now I had all eyes on me. It seemed like this was working.

“You all fucking hate each other. That’s not the best thing to have in common. So get the fuck over it. That’s all I have to say.” I finished. The people stopped whispering. Then, I heard one person start a slow clap. A few more joined in, and before I knew it, everyone was clapping. I grabbed the necklace and closed my eyes, wanting to be beside Elliot once again. Just one last look at him. When I opened my eyes, I was still there. I felt my heart jump and I scanned the crowd to see him. I couldn’t find him anywhere. A hand touched my shoulder, and I turned around and there was no one there.

“If there is one thing that I will never understand, it would be how I ended up being so goddamn lucky to have you all to myself. You couldn’t even comprehend how strongly I love you, babe.” A familiar whisper said into my ear.

“I love you too.” I replied, barely above a whisper.

“Try to move on eventually,” he whispered, and I knew he was gone.