Heads Up:Mentions of sexual assault here. If you aren't cool with that, I understand. Just skip ahead
"Uh, hey." Lainey squeaked, causing Sapphire to close the diary and glare at her. Any sense of her usual carefree disposition was gone, replaced with somebody who, well, glared at people for an unusual amount of time. After the fifteen second staring contest, Lainey blinked and glanced towards the diary. Or at least, she thought it was. It was just a blank yellow cover, and it being out of place means that Dominic probably messed with it.
"Just…checking up on you after what happened. You doing okay?" Lainey whispered. Sapphire closed the diary, finally speaking.
"Did you open this?" She asked calmly, in the same tone a parent would use before exploding if their conclusion was right.
"No." Lainey responded with nervous confidence, due to not being responsible for it.
"So, it would have been axe, then?" She inquired; her tone unchanged.
"Possibly?." Lainey replied. But as soon as her questions were answered, Sapphire began to stride towards the door, fury stretched across her face. Lainey could tell that she was probably gonna murder Dominic, and he could possibly leak the plan to get with Sapphire to her face. So, she quickly stood in front of the door, trying to place an awkward smile on her face.
Sapphire's face finally changed. She went from stern anger to a quiet sigh, and her facial muscles seemed to be given a break.
"Lainey, tell me. Do you trust him?"
"What, Dominic? Dude's kinda weird, but he's fine."
Lainey was kind of taken aback by that. Like, she saw Dominic end up on top of her accidentally, but he wasn't that bad of a guy, surely.
Sapphire glanced towards her bookshelf, and then back towards Lainey.
"Do you trust either of them?"
"I mean, they both seem like pretty decent guys." Lainey answered. She honestly had no idea where she was going with this, but as she said, she thought they were okay. When all of this demon stuff blew over, she was down to hang out with the two of them. In fact, Dominic was definitely happening.
"Well, I think the little stunt that axe pulled makes it pretty obvious they can't be trusted."
"The guys?" Lainey asked, hesitantly.
"Men in general." Sapphire snapped back at her, with such a sense of authority that Lainey internally felt her entire body shut down for a second, before suddenly jumping back into existence.
"Excuse me?" Lainey asked.
"I've seen it all before. They just can't keep their hands off anything. This is why you have to lock them in."
"Hold on, that was real?" Lainey asked, disgusted.
"Yes? Are you not afraid of what they might do?" Sapphire yelled back at her.
"No?!" Lainey yelled back, just as loud, but also confused. "I spent the night with them, and neither tried anything!"
Sapphire folded her arms and looked away, seeming almost disgusted at her.
"Consider yourself lucky."
"Did…wait, is this...did something happen to you?" Lainey asked, reluctantly putting together the pieces in her mind.
Sapphire turned her head towards her. "Remember when I said I brought girls from all over the world on this ship?"
"Yeah?" Lainey replied, hesitating.
"And how I had to beat up the odd evil boyfriend?"
"I remember that too, yes?" Lainey, at this point, was shivering. She knew what kind of messed up things she was gonna say, just waiting for the answer.
"I have had to do this dozens of times." She muttered through gritted teeth. "I'll admit, maybe the man who made fun of his girlfriend was a bit too far. But some of the men I've dealt with, you don't even want to know what they did."
Lainey just stood in silence for a few seconds. This was a lot to process.
"Do you…regret any of it?" Was all she manged to squeak out.
"Well, considering I'll probably be dead by the end of this, I don't think it matters."
"Wait, what?" Lainey yelled. "Dead?"
Sapphire looked at her with a look of subdued surprise. "Were you…not told the entire prophecy?"
"N-no?" Lainey gasped. This, to her, was probably terrifying. She was a part of this, and it just hit her that…she could die. But now it was foretold that Sapphire was going to?
"I was told about four people being tasked with defeating the leader of the demons, and saving the world. And there's a guy with dark hair and a girl with an incredible history, right?" Lainey replied, nervously.
"It seems you missed one of the major parts." Sapphire sighed. "One woman must die."
"Wait, one woman?" Lainey yelled.
"Yes." Sapphire replied, agitated. "Whether it's to the demons, the gems, or each other, Is anyone's guess."
"Yeah, the gem. Where did you find that, anyway?" Lainey asked.
Sapphire stopped for a second, before she started muttering to herself.
"Would it have been…there?" It was silent for a few seconds. Sapphire sat down on her bed and began clutching her forehead.
"Yeah, definitely there."
"You talking about that beach?" Lainey asked, hesitating.
"Beach?" Sapphire asked, confused, before the memory popped into her head. "Oh yeah, the beach. That…didn't happen."
"Then…what happened, exactly?" Lainey asked, trying to make her way through the minefield this conversation has turned into.
"I…remember when I said I was Canadian?"
"Yeah?" Lainey affirmed.
"I wasn't born there. That was where I first helped someone with relationship troubles. The crossed-out part of the map, that's where I'm from. Forgot where, exactly."
"And…you found the gem there?"
"Well, yeah. My husband had it."
Lainey's eyes bulged at the information. She was…married?"
"Uh, who did you marry, exactly?"
"Some rich friend of my dad. Would have been about…3 years ago? When I was eighteen? Yeah, that sounds about right."
"Wait, you're twenty-one?" Lainey yelled, surprised. She expected this giant of a woman to be like, thirty. But she was two years younger than her. That something like that just didn't sit right with her.
"…yes. Anyway, I was married to the guy, along with a different woman. For a while, I didn't think about it, I just focused on the gem, for the most part. But this guy was pretty high ranking. And…he tried to do…a lot of messed up stuff."
"You don't mean…he tried to…"
"Tried being the main word here." Sapphire chuckled to herself. "The man had a glass water bottle, and I was able to jab it straight into his legs. I managed to run out with the gem, but then I had people chasing me through the city."
"And…then what happened?" Lainey asked.
"I met god." Sapphire replied nonchalantly, lying down on her bed, making Lainey feel like some kind of therapist.
"I hid behind some crates, just waiting to die. But then he came." Sapphire continued.
Lainey sat on Sapphire's bed, next to her.
"You remember what he looks like?" Lainey asked.
"I remember him being blonde, and I remember him glowing, but I could just be adding that part. He asked what I was doing, and I answered. After hearing what happened, he touched my forehead, and something just kinda…clicked inside me. He told me to "Wait three years." Before opening some kind of gate and warping away."
Lainey silently remembered Vivian. She said she was around twenty, if she remembered correctly. And she was also blonde with the power to make warp gates. Was she related to this guy?
"And so, I found myself being able to control wind. I was able to fight off my pursuers and found myself on a small merchant ship. I set out to sea soon after, ended up in India after a few days of aimless sailing. I sold the jewellery the ship had and used the money to buy some new clothes. Used the leftover money to buy two things. Some extra clothes from India, and the map on that wall. And so, that's what I decided to do. Went to Thailand, sold some Indian stuff, bought some Thai stuff, moved to Indonesia. All that for three years, and I've sailed around the world six times now, decent reputation, and some more then decent crewmates."
"Damn, six years?" Lainey asked, adjusting her guitar. "And twenty-one years. Well, you seem to be doing better than me at that age, that's for sure."
Silence filled the air, and before Sapphire could ask Lainey what she was doing for two years, Lainey asked her another question.
"You ever go to New York?"
"Yeah, once. Pretty nice place, helped two girls with their boyfriend problems."
"Nice, nice." Lainey replied, nodding with approval. "When's the next time you can come over?"
"Don't count on that." Sapphire replied, losing any of the enthusiasm in her voice. "Prophecy, remember? Chances are I'm gonna die."
"Oh, right. That." Lainey mumbled, trying to save the conversation. "I mean, it doesn't have to be true. The original prophecy said that there'd be four people serving god, right? Now we have seven, and we're only halfway."
"You think?" Sapphire asked. "Look, I'm gonna end up taking a hit for the girls on the team, and that's probably what's gonna kill me."
"Wait, you have a plan for if you die?" Lainey asked, shocked. She was probably the most powerful person she knew. So, to have her just…give up?
"Look, if one woman has to die, it's gonna be me? You got parents, right?"
"Y-yeah." Lainey stuttered. "They're…pretty cool."
"See? I don't have anybody. I live on this boat. Far as the world's concerned, Sapphire or whatever my old name was died three years ago."
"So, it's motivation you need?" Lainey asked, a smile creeping across her face.
"Motivation?" Sapphire asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, motivation." Lainey yelled, trying to put Dominic-level enthusiasm into her request.
"You're going on a date with me!"
"A date?" Sapphire chuckled. "Any ideas?"
"Uh, Mephisto's! Really good café in downtown NYC!" Lainey blurted out.
The coffee at Mephisto's was mediocre on a good day, but she was on a roll. "We go to the city! Downtown, and then down on-"She stopped there. The Dominic level enthusiasm had hopefully done its job.
Sapphire stood up, and met Lainey at eye level. Lainey was paralyzed in anticipation for whatever her answer was.
"Sounds good." She responded. "I'm gonna go tend to the ship now, but if you…touch my shoulder, we can do something else."
Lainey, dumbstruck, placed a hand on her left shoulder, and when she did, Sapphire embraced her. It was over as soon as it began, and and Sapphire casually walked out of the room.
"Also, I'll pay for my own plane ticket." Sapphire said with a wink before she left, leaving Lainey alone in shock, and she lay down on her bed. She probably wouldn't mind.
Because operation: Sleepy Sapphire was in motion.