the princess and the popper// girls united day 4

The darkness consumed me, swallowing me into an embrace only ever teasing with sunlight for a few seconds to reveal whatever skeletons they would allow me to see. I should have known better than to wander off on my own, but the whirlwind of emotions misguided me down a path less traveled.

Or maybe never travelled at all.

I could hear the leaves crunch beneath my feet with every step, the ground uneven leaving the question of what lied ahead. Even better, who hid in the darkness. With Revel dead there were not too many of us left, each bearing their own complications. The memory of August wrapping his cloak around my shivering body became all too foreign. Yesterday’s sentiment void after the tragedy of my own actions. Looking back felt hopeless with nothing left for me.

Eulalie’s silent promise bringing new hope. A sense of my old self finding peace within the dark instead of resentment. With every breath I let go of something I had been holding onto long past what I should have.

Hadn’t I already learned my lesson?

Fool me once, shame on me.

If you hold onto someone for too long you are bound to get hurt. I could not let Marcus go after his death, I carried his soul with me, let an idea chew me up until I became unrecognizable to those around me. Loyalty cursed me twice, choosing to kill Revel for an unconditional promise to a boy I hardly knew. An echo of laughter that filled my heart, something I lost and found for a mere second. The sense of joy was gone and all that was left was a familiar sense of emptiness. It’s scent lingering thick in the air for it smelled like the rotten past.

Fool me twice…

Well…

…it was time to start helping myself.

The one who had the most to offer waiting in the forest, companionship in the most peculiar of places. Her face crafted by the heavens, never to be forgotten but the sound of her footsteps engrained in my mind. Almost innocent ignorance as I followed what I thought I wanted…was its Eulalie herself? Or did I secretly hope she would be the key to the castle. A life she seemed to have, something destined for the heavens. Only those born on pedestals had everything to lose, I had everything to gain.

“When I make a promise, I keep it.” I approached her, my spear tied once more to my back with hands free. “Guess when you don’t have much in life, your word becomes worth more than money. I can’t say I ever believed a thing that came out of your district partners mouth…or the one from four.” There was a question in my statement, a twinkle of a smile in the left corner of my lip as I inched my way closer. A part of me wanting to get closer, centimeters away from her face and pretend like we were not in the arena. A glimpse of who I used to be.

“Maybe I can teach you a thing or two myself.” A bold move, one that could wind me up dead if not too careful.