"HE IS SO CLOSE, WHY NOT KILL HIM? YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO~"
The voice slithered into Eloisa's thoughts, and for a moment she felt herself giving in to it, but she caught herself just in time and pulled back.
"Hah, ha, hah," she panted, trying to steady herself as the world around her seemed to blur at the edges.
She couldn't explain it.
There was this urge, something she couldn't put a name to, like what an addict feels after being cut off from what they need for too long. She wanted it, more than anything else in that moment. She wanted to hear him scream, to watch him cry and plead, to see him squirm and bleed right in front of her, completely helpless, while she broke every single bone in his body one by one.
Pain. If she could just inflict the most unimaginable pain possible on him, she would be glad. If she could skin him alive and make him watch while she did it, push the agony so far beyond what a person could bear that his mind shattered and reformed itself over and over until there was nothing left of him, she would feel nothing but satisfaction.
Her body was trembling now, barely holding her in place.
She wanted to move toward him, to close the distance, to reach out and grab him.
He was just so close.
She took a step forward and the space between them began to shrink.
"YES~ NOW IS THE TIME, SATISFY THOSE DESIRES~"
The voice hit her again and she nearly buckled under it.
Just a little more. Just a few more steps and she'd have her hands on him, and the blank expression she'd been holding onto so carefully was starting to crack, a grin threatening to break through underneath it.
"ISA!"
The voice cut through everything and colour rushed back into the world all at once. She turned and saw Ariana at the front row, looking at her with obvious concern.
She let out a slow breath and finally got herself back under control.
He really is here, she thought, walking down toward Ariana who was still waving her over. I thought it was just a dream, but why? Why did he come here, why did he come back, and why now? She clenched her fist at her side, though none of what she was feeling made it anywhere near her face, which she'd long since learned to keep completely unreadable no matter what was going on behind it.
"YOU MISSED SUCH A PERFECT CHANCE TO END HIM."
Your existence is what's making these urges harder to control.
"BUT IT IS FROM THAT VERY DESIRE, THAT HATE, THAT I WAS BORN. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO TRULY BE FREE."
It won't be long before he's dead, she thought, and then smoothed her expression into something small and calm as she approached Ariana.
"This is going to be a problem," Lorelle muttered, still pretending to be asleep.
He had actually been asleep, until he felt that wave of bloodlust hit him, and at that point he decided the smartest thing he could do was stay completely still and not look up to find out who it was coming from.
[That level of hatred far exceeds anything I've ever felt from anyone. Though I suppose it might be close to that obsession of yours.]
"Don't compare them. I know I'm a little obsessed, okay maybe more than a little, but it's nothing like how badly she wants me dead."
[What exactly did you do to her?]
"You don't know?" Lorelle asked, genuinely surprised.
[I've told you before, I wasn't paying much attention to your childhood. You weren't exactly on my radar back then because I didn't expect you to make it this far.]
"This far?"
[Most people who carry my blessing tend to…]
"Lose themselves and eventually become cannon fodder?" Lorelle finished, catching the hesitation in the voice's tone.
[You could put it that way.]
"Anyway, let's just leave it at this. I broke her," he said, and didn't add anything more.
[How?]
"I'd rather not think about it, so let's move on." He shifted slightly, and the voice eventually gave up pressing for more.
[But how did it even start?]
"Alright, all I'll say is that at first, I mistook her for the one I was looking for," he said, then went quiet again.
[That other girl, the one sitting with Ariana, you seem to know her too.]
"Why wouldn't I?" he scoffed, pulling up everything he knew about her.
[Is she a friend or an enemy?]
"Neither. She's far worse than an enemy, in fact she's one of the greatest evils that this world is going to face."