"Valentine!" Running after her, Baz kept calling out to Valentine, but it was no use. It was as if she had become completely unaware of the surroundings, running like a madman. No matter how fast he ran, he couldn't seem to catch up to her.
Baz could feel his heart pounding in his chest, so strongly he was afraid it would burst straight out of his ribcage.
Valentine, come back. He calls to her in his mind, willing that by some miracle the message would get to her. Don't go. Please don't go.
Baz followed Valentine down streets that twisted and turned, the abandoned houses passing like a blur, the images not registering in his brain. It was as if he had acquired tunnel vision, the only thing he could see was Valentine's back getting smaller and smaller in the distance. He had to reach her, stop her. If she were to disappear into the forest, there was nothing he would be able to do. He knew he would never see her again.
With his back turned to it, Baz didn't notice the black cloud kept getting bigger and bigger, almost completely covering the town now.
With every inch of the sky the cloud covered, Valentine's terror grew. It had seized her brain completely, and she could do nothing but run, trying to get away from that horrible, menacing presence that made her skin crawl, her blood freezing over and her insides twist into knots. As if it had taken a life of its own, Valentine could clearly see the image of tendril-like arms stretching out of the shadows. All around her, she could see the shadows moving, their hands trying to pull her into their depths. A cold sweat ran down her face. She had to get away. The feeling that something terrible was coming seeped deep into her bones, the knowledge not letting her calm down. In fact, it was already here. The presence she had sensed before was now amplified by a thousand, and the fear that came with it too. It wasn't just evil energy, it was pure evil. And it was coming for them.
Like some instinct, she headed towards the forest, all other thoughts gone from her mind. Somewhere, some part of her knew that if only she could reach that place, this presence would go away. She would be safe. If only she could get to the other side…
But just before she could reach the forest, someone tackled her from behind.
Kicking and screaming, she tried to break free of the person's hold.
"Let me go!" she shouted. Valentine tried to get away, but clearly the other person was stronger, and they held her in place, pinned to the floor by the waist. Her arms were free, and she scrambled and scratched at the ground in front of her trying to find something to help her break free. But only loose dirt fell from between her fingers. She was truly trapped. She could taste bits of dirt entering her mouth as her screaming became more frantic the longer she was restrained. Eventually, the desperation kicked in, and she started crying, the tears leaking out of her eyes involuntarily. "Let me go. Please, let me go." She quit struggling. "Don't make me stay here. I don't want to stay here, so please let me go–" A sob tore itself from her throat. "Please…" she pleaded weakly.
"I'm sorry," the other person's voice also sounded pained, "I can't… I can't let you go away."
Valentine started struggling again, this time managing. She could feel her elbow make contact with the person's side, knew she had put all her strength behind the hit, but their grip never loosened in the slightest.
"I hate you," she sobbed. Her vision blurred with tears. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"
"I'm sorry," they repeated uselessly.
Valentine kept on struggling; her hands digging into the dirt, clawing at the ground until her fingers became raw and bloody.
During all this, Baz could only hold on to Valentine, helpless to do anything but to stop Valentine from disappearing into the Forest of Mist forever. Once a magical creature entered the forest, they would never be seen again, passing to the Lands Beyond.
He couldn't grapple with the possibility, just the mere thought of it made his heart clench. His life without Valentine… He couldn't imagine it. He had basically seen Valentine grow up, had been there almost every step of the way, with Valentine arriving in his care when she was only five, and he had practically raised her since then. If she were to leave, Baz didn't think he would be able to handle it.
Why? Why was this happening?
It shouldn't have happened. This was too unfair, too cruel. It was as if his own heart were being split in half.
Things shouldn't have gone this way. Valentine should never have gotten involved in any of this shit. This whole devil affair had nothing to do with her.
Baz felt his blood boiling with anger. He felt angry with himself for having let Valentine tag along on this job, for not having made her stay at the office, or even better, stayed at home. But more than anger at himself, he felt anger towards the higher-ups. They were the ones that were letting all of this happen; not caring about the casualties that could arise as long as their precious status quo wasn't disrupted. Perhaps the others hadn't realised just how much of a death sentence the higher-ups had declared for this entire town when they had refused to send any back up or help whatsoever. They didn't know that at this point, the higher ups were just waiting for all of them to die. In their minds, they probably already were. But Baz knew.
His mother had been the previous Director; as soon as he had been able to understand, he had been aware of the politics behind everything. On the surface, the Bureau of Magical Affairs was a noble, upstanding organisation. They sought to help and assist all non-magical citizens. But the truth was a far uglier one. They were simply in place to keep order. A request for a job wasn't important enough in their eyes? It would go unattended for months, even years sometimes. As long as it wasn't a threat to the carefully established system the government had, or it wasn't from anyone important, any and all requests would be buried under piles and piles of paperwork. A person would have more luck contacting a private magic-related company if they wanted any sort of quick answer. But hiring these companies was usually expensive, and the common citizen wasn't able to afford it. So they had to take their chance with the Bureau, filling form after form after form before their request was even read by a human being, and then, who knew how long it would take for that form to reach one of the superiors in charge of handing out jobs?
It was all a bunch of bullshit, Baz had always thought.
The only reason why it wasn't that way in this town, was because it was small enough to not get more than five job requests per week, and because his mother had hated paperwork. All the protocol and bureaucracy she had decided to discard, instead choosing a more direct approach to everything.
But other than in Juniper? It was the same bullshit.
Knowing this, how could anyone expect anything from the higher-ups? Who wouldn't become disillusioned with how the magical system worked? Who, in their right mind, would have wanted to be a magician?
More and more, his anger grew, and he wished he could have ditched this whole lifestyle. When he was younger, he had wanted nothing more than to not have any sort of magical energy. He wished he could have been born as just another normal, average person, not belonging to any "prestigious" magician family, no responsibility or lineage he had to uphold. To just be a normal person, with normal parents, even if he had been no one special and less than average at everything; that was what he truly wanted in life. And at this moment, that same wish came back with an intensity he had not felt since he was a teenager, stuck in his angsty, moody phase.
It was all so unfair. Everything about this situation was so fucked up.
They really had been discarded as mere trash, not worth anything to the higher-ups.
And perhaps the others at the office didn't know, but just like Baz, Fluorite knew too. And yet…
She hadn't done anything. Hadn't given a single fuck about the fact that there was a death sentence looming over everyone's heads and had just gone along with whatever orders headquarters had pulled out of their ass. Never once had she raised any objections, hadn't even gone out to deal with any of the phenomena herself.
Realising this, Fluorite was just as much at fault as the higher-ups themselves. If something were to happen to Valentine, she would be the cause behind it.
His mind clouded over with rage, and in that split second of losing focus, Valentine almost managed to slip away from him. Shaking his head, he cleared his thoughts for the moment. Now was not the time to be thinking about this; right now, he had to focus on Valentine.
After what felt like hours, Valentine finally seemed to start to calm down, her consciousness returning to her and she once again became aware of her surroundings.
When Baz felt her stop struggling, he let her go, and sat back on his haunches.
Shakily, Valentine got up, sitting and turning to look at him. The tear tracks on her face stood out starkly against the dirt, and there was still a look of fear in her eyes, though not quite as panicked as it had been before.
Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she whispered, "I'm sorry." The memories of what had happened were still with her, and she very clearly remembered hitting Baz multiple times. She had even told him she hated him.
Baz just reached out a hand to pat her head, trying to comfort her. "Don't be. You have no reason to."
That only made Valentine feel worse, and she started crying again.
"Hey, hey, don't cry," Baz continued patting her head, the repetitive motion soothing. "It's okay." He continued stroking her hair until she calmed down again.
"Baz…"
"Don't speak. You're okay now, so there's no need to say anything." He wanted to say more, wanted to reassure her that everything would be fine, but he couldn't bring himself to lie like that. It wouldn't be fair to Valentine.
Valentine opened her mouth to say something, but just as she was about to, the first drops of blood started falling from the sky.