"Do you remember now?" asked the blue-haired girl with peach-colored eyes, staring straight into mine.
"I do."
I do not.
But at this point I've hit my limit, I genuinely cannot take this anymore.
We were both seated on the floor of the elevator, and I had no idea how long we'd been here, an hour, two, maybe four, I honestly couldn't tell. All I knew was that she had beaten me badly enough that I couldn't see straight. I was sprawled on the ground with my head resting on her lap, which was, annoyingly, incredibly soft and comfortable, while she combed through my hair with her fingers.
"Really?" she asked.
I forced a nod.
"No!" I nearly screamed out loud as she pulled me into a tight hug, pressing me against her and cutting off my air supply entirely.
I couldn't breathe.
I had come to one conclusion about this girl: she was a complete psycho, and the fact that I was completely powerless against her was making everything so much worse.
[Wait, who exactly is she?]
'You know the type of person who just loves chaos for no real reason, the kind who'd get stabbed through the heart and laugh until their last breath? That's her.'
[So how did you end up involved with someone like that?]
I didn't know, though something was starting to come back to me, and I was really hoping it wasn't who I thought it was.
"So," she said, pulling back just enough that I could breathe again, though for some reason I felt a small sense of loss when she did, which was strange and something I chose to ignore entirely.
"Why? You promised you'd come back for me and you never did. Why?" she said, and I could see tears she hadn't let fall yet sitting in her eyes.
Yep.
It was her.
Why? Of all people, why did it have to be her?
"I tried, I really did, but I was so weak back then that I nearly died multiple times on the way, and by the time I finally managed to come back, you were already gone," I said.
That was the best I could put together on the spot. This girl was a psycho but she was also absurdly sharp, and if I added too much to the story she'd catch the holes in it immediately.
"Really?" she asked, her smile widening.
"Yeah," I said.
Bam.
"Christ!" I yelled, seeing flashes of my life pass by.
"Why are you lying to me?"
"I'm not lying," I said.
I really shouldn't have.
Bam.
"Ahh!" I cried, feeling the last of my strength slipping away.
"Stop lying!" she cried, and she was actually crying, real tears, while I was the one getting beaten half to death, which had to be the most unfair thing I had ever experienced.
"Do you know how long I waited for you?! Do you?!"
"I said I'm not,"
Bam.
"Stop, I'm not,"
Bam.
"I'm not,"
Bam.
"Okay, yes, it was a lie, I never came back for you," I admitted, teetering right on the edge of unconsciousness.
[This is getting painful to watch.]
'Then help me, you useless entity.'
[You're that desperate? You know what my help requires.]
'Forget it, I'm still not merging with it.'
[Your choice. But how did you even meet her in the first place?]
'About two years ago, while I was traveling across the empire, I got into a bad situation and ended up getting kidnapped. In that place I met this girl who was just there, and she was the only one who didn't seem to care even when things were at their worst,' I thought, watching as she wiped her tears with the back of her hand and stared straight at me.
[What happened?]
'She was a child, and I was there for two months watching them sell people off as experimental material to scientists or trade them as slaves. I had a feeling there was something to her, so I worked on getting her to open up, and after about a week she started talking to me. We became friends over those two months, and eventually I convinced her she needed to leave. I realized how strong she was, so I,' I trailed off as she took my hands and touched my face gently.
[You used her to escape, on the promise that you'd come back.]
'Yeah, that's about it.'
"Did you actually see me as a friend like you said, or was I just something you used to get out?" she asked, and I caught a cold glint in her eyes.
This was it, the question that was going to either save me or finish me off, and I had a very strong feeling I wasn't walking out of this elevator.