2,181 Words
Trigger Warning- Death, dark thoughts, suicide, murder
Point of View Change (Leah)
I woke up, wanting something about my life to be good again. I needed to save Azariah from her dad... somehow. I woke up, grabbing Camilla from her room. I got her dressed and I stuffed her backpack and mine with clothes. Then I grabbed a suitcase and grabbed all of the food I could. I carried Camilla with one arm, dragging the suitcase along with us. We got out of the apartment and we left the building, walking as fast as I could. When Camilla realized that we weren't going to school, she asked me, "What's happening?"
"It's fine, Camilla. We're gonna find a new place to live. It's gonna be so fun and beautiful. I promise, Camilla," I responded, smiling.
She started to smile too, "I can walk, now."
"No, you don't have to, Camilla. I'm fine."
She shook her head, "Nope," and then started squiggling out of my arms. She stood on the ground and started skipping along, "Oh, we have a suitcase, too? Can I carry it?"
I groned, "Fine, Camilla. But, you have to tell me when you get tired. Let's just agree to be honest."
"Ok," she responded, grabbing to suitcase. I reluctantly let her take the suitcase handle. "You know, this is pretty fun. Do I still get to go to school?"
"No... I don't think so," I replied, frowning. I realized that Camilla wouldn't be able to be with her friends. Why did I take her with me? But if I didn't take her, our dad would just take it out on her. But if I stayed, too, Azariah would pay for it. What could I ever do to fix any of this?
Then I heard a voice in my head say, "Azariah lived a hopeless life and she'll die no matter what you do, Leah. You can't save her. She'll always be dead."
"What?" I asked, turning my head around every which way, trying to see who said that.
Then I felt a stab in my back and someone whisper, "You never were my favorite daughter, Azariah. It's a shame you had to die so soon." He led me into an alleyway, Camilla faintly screaming in the distance. My mom was probably trying to get her to shut up. "Azariah... the thing is... I was actually fond of having you around. Someone to screw up. So just... don't squirm. You kind of deserve this." Then my blood spilled out once again. I cried on the inside. What kind of monster would make me go through this? The next day, I did exactly what I thought to be the right thing. I did everything that Azariah would've done. I made fun of Mckenna for wearing such a short dress, calling her a whore. I kind of thought she was cute, though. I came home and I played with Camilla, taking the blows when our dad wanted someone to hit, fixing arguments with my parents, and getting locked into the dark room, going through so many things behind closed doors. I couldn't save my best friend.
Point of View Change (Jenna)
I woke up again, feeling useless. What did I need to do? Tell them sooner? Come clean? Good idea, Jenna, that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I walked out of my room, "Mom, dad, I have something to tell you."
"What is it?" Zadkiel asked, sitting down on the couch.
"I'm not Leah, ok? I don't know what's happening, but I'm not Leah. I'm Jenna from the future. We were sent into this black hole and now we're reliving each others' pasts, I think."
"No way. Don't joke with us, Leah. It's not funny," Domiel said, still standing up.
"I'm not, though. I'm Jenna Johnson and I was the guardian of the darkness. Well, former guardian. Your daughter is my friend and I tried to save her, but I couldn't. Your daughter is uber depressed. She needs help and I need you to be there for her. Oh, I should probably get dressed first."
"Wait, how do you know? Prove it."
"There's going to be a war in heaven today. That's how I know. I'm gonna go get dressed." I went into my bedroom, my thoughts swaying to the darker side of life. A shimmering blade dropped on the ground under the moonlight. It dropped out of my hand, having had spilled the blood. It was my own blood. I wanted it to be my own blood. I wanted to make it my blood.
Then the alarms started blaring and my parents rushed into my bedroom, "Leah, stay here. We'll be back soon." I nodded, not actually planning on staying here. I climbed out of my window, slowly walking to the rack of swords. I grabbed one, piercing it into my stomach. I didn't know why I did that. Why I'm doing this, I don't know. But, I couldn't control my actions. I was dead. Someone took me to the stairs and pushed me off. I died on impact. I woke up again, wanting so much to save Leah.
Then I heard a voice say, "You can't."
"What?"
"You'll never save her... they'll always be a blade in the way." Then a knife appeared the bed. It was purple, giving off a weird aura. I wanted to get away from it as soon as possible. But, at the same time, I wanted it to be closer than ever. I wanted it inside of my skin along with me. It was hopeless all along, wasn't it? Leah will always be depressed, won't she? I dug the knife into my skin, watching the blood drip onto the bed. I kind of wanted to curl up in my blanket. I didn't expect heaven to get so cold.
Point of View Change (Azariah)
I didn't really like doing this. I honestly just thought Jenna was a hopeless bisexual who got beat up by some non-binaries and a bisexual leader. Well, in my version, she choked on her own puke, but that's fine. She still got kidnapped by a girl. Anyway, I went back to sleep since I had woken up super early. While I was dreaming, I dreamed that I was by this weird bridge from the dark heart realm, "Jenna? Why did you get to sleep so late?"
I turned around, "Oh, thank goodness! Mordcai, it's been so weird without you!"
"Ummm... wait, what?" he asked, really confused.
"Oh ya, sorry. I'm not Jenna. I'm Azariah."
"That's... really weird. But, I don't find it impossible... Who's Azariah?" he asked, pacing the floor.
"I'm Azariah Carter from Syracuse, New York. I was taken from my city on the day September 10th of the year 2010. I'm an angel and Jenna recently got into heaven. She-"
He covered my mouth, "Don't say anything about me. I can't know. Now, I think I know what this is-i-ts-p-prob-ably-th-the-n-" Mordecai said, glitching out. Soon, everything started to glitch and suddenly everything was black.
"Hello? Mordecai?! Leah?! Azariah?! Jenna?!" I yelled, looking around.
"Azariah, you sly ba*****. You glitched the system. You still learned a lesson, though, didn't you?"
"I think I did, actually. I learned that there's always someone who can defeat the system. And it wasn't me. I'll always find someone. I'll defeat you myself if I have to!"
"You think I'm weak? That Mordecai could stop me?! Your little power of yours will be your downfall, child." Then there was a snap and I was back in heaven. There was a group of people in front of me, including my parents, my friends, and everyone I've ever seen. Then I blacked out like I was about to fight, but I could still see everything. I picked up this dagger and walked over to my dad. I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't as I pushed the dagger against his throat and dragged it across. He didn't blink at all as the blood seeped through the slit in his neck. A part of me had wanted this to happen for the longest time. I wanted him to suffer so much. For all those nights I went to bed crying. For all those nights I had to hold in tears just so I could tell him Camilla wasn't home. For all the terrible friends I had. For the times I saw his gun and thought he was gonna shoot me. For when he ruined my life. I shoved him to the ground, moving onto my mother. She was ok, but she didn't ever disobey our father. She was never touched. Not a single bruise or cut. He never would've shot her. He never would've raped her. Maybe it was that I was jealous of her or something, but I hated her... SO MUCH. I planted my dagger in her head, twisting it around. I kicked her out of the way, taking the dagger out of her forehead. I moved onto my friends, who would never know the pain I went through.
Then I heard voices behind me, "Azariah! No! Stop it!"
"What?" I asked, looking behind me.
I saw Leah and Jenna running towards me, "Azariah!" I gripped the dagger tighter and when they noticed, they stopped running, "Wait, what?" Jenna asked.
"Stop right there. I can't trust you, you don't understand me," I said, holding the dagger out closer to them, making me imagine the dagger slitting their throats.
"Wait, no, it's us, Azariah. It's us, your best friends," Leah explained.
"You don't understand what I went through just to get here! You don't understand what happened to me! You. Don't. Understand!" I exclaimed, growling.
"I went through that! You went through the day of one of our lives before us three met, right? Well, we did, too," Jenna explained.
I loosened my grip, dropping the dagger, "What?"
"Who were you?" Leah asked.
"I was Jenna... and you... what did you... which one of you... was me?"
Leah slightly smiled, "I did. Which one of you was me?"
"I was... and I think we should talk. I think we should all talk about this. After we get home, though," Jenna said, frowning, "Right now, we have to figure out what wicked person would do this and why. I heard someone talk to me right before I ended up here. They said that I can't do it and that there would always be a blade in the way."
"Wait, which one of us were you again?" Leah asked, sounding scared.
"You... anyway, did anyone else hear anything?"
"I heard someone say that Azariah will never be saved and she'll always be dead."
"I heard someone say that I glitched the system. Does that mean anything?" I asked.
"Ok, fine. Well, I'm pretty sure it's The Nothingness. None of that worked, but now we know we were all communicated with like that. I'm not gonna lie, this was ok in my eyes. I feel like I know you better now, Leah," Jenna said, nodding.
"That's not thrilling. I don't think I like that very much," Leah said, frowning.
"So how do we get her to come back?" I asked, "Should I just try to threaten her or something?"
"No, we should try to just yell out her name. Maybe she'll just come if she hears us," Jenna pointed out, shrugging her shoulders, "Hey Nothingness! Get out here!!"
Then we all started screaming, "COME AND GET US!!!!"
Then we heard a snap and we couldn't say anything or move anymore, "I swear, angels are so annoying sometimes. Just summon me like a normal person or something. You guys wanna talk, let's talk." The woman snapped her fingers again and we looked behind us. She had long, black, straight hair and she wore a dress with off the shoulder sleeves. Her dress was pink a fluffy with flowers. "Oh my goodness, what?"
"Your dress is so fluffy and cute," I said, "I love it so much and you're so cute."
"What? I thought you were straight, Azariah," Jenna said, looking at me weird.
"And you thought you were straight your whole life, too. By the way, I am straight. But, I know what a cute girl looks like."
The girl clenched her fists, "Stop talking about how cute I am! Look, I'm here because you guys screwed up the balance of the universe. Are we gonna make a deal, or what?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... if you don't want me to do anything bad, what do you propose I do instead?" she asked, smiling.
"I'm not actually sure. Wait, why did you make us go through that?"
"Well, if you must know, that was for the universe. The great ones being tainted with bad images is great. You know, Hopelessness is my favorite out of all of the dark hearts. They just... make life SO much better. Or, should I say, funnier? That doesn't matter, what do you want me to do instead of that?"