8

This is absolute bullshit.

I finally feel like we’re making progress on the friend thing between us, and she has to fuck it up by getting brainwashed and drinking magic fucking tea that infects her lungs with fucking roses and she keeps coughing her blood on my face — god fucking damn it.

If Nessa hadn’t made me run on the way here, I’d probably be faster when escaping the elf/nymph-crazy-bitch.

I see the pot, I’m almost there.

I slow down in relief. When we go home, the roses should go away, right?

It will because magic doesn’t exist in our world, right?

Are the roses even magic?

I set her down by the pot on her side so she doesn’t choke on the blood, “hey hey hey, look at me,” I hold her face in my hands, “just stay focused on me, okay? Don’t fall asleep — focus on me.”

Despite the literal bleeding in her lungs, she finds the strength to stop wheezing. She looks at me with a determined smile.

“That’s my girl,” I say.

Her eyes fill with tears as she speaks through gargled coughing, “Now… I remember why I didn’t want to come back here…” She laughs as she vomits. Fuck, she keeps getting worse.

I startle and hug Nessa’s head close to my chest when I feel a light tap on my shoulder. I don’t want to look up at who it is, because who else could it be?

“She’s on the road to death,” Aisa says.

“No shit,” I turn my head slightly — I see her out of the corner of my eye — and I spit on her shoes.

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Aisa shows no sign of caring, and I have a creeping feeling that I know why she’s here.

She wants to strike a bargain no doubt, I know how these movies go.

“You have a deal for me right?” I fight the urge to grab her shoe and beat the fuck out of her — if she has a compromise that will save Nessa, I’ll do anything.

“So smart,” Aisa chuckles as she kneels down to my level. I catch her eying Nessa in disgust before giving me some fucking amazing goo-goo-eyes. I almost fell for it.

“I do have a deal,” Aisa takes my face in her hands. She’s so gentle, I feel like one touch could melt me away completely, “you wanna hear it?” she says, licking her lips.

“Will it save Nessa?”

“If that’s what you want, then fine,” She rolls her eyes and takes out a piece of paper from who the fuck knows where — I certainly don’t see any pockets.

“Sign this,” she says.

I read through it, but she explains it anyway, “I’ll take the roses out if you stay with me here forever as my partner,” she smiles.

“When I say take the roses out, I mean in a safe way in which she lives a healthy life,”

“So you’ll sign it?” Her eyes light up with excitement. Well, someone’s got attachment issues, that’s for sure — and it’s not me. (Maybe I do, but that’s not my point.)

I hear a voice. I don’t know if it’s in my head or if everyone else can hear it too. The smooth gentle voice of a woman speaks to me saying, “Read the fine print, then sign it. You’ll know what to do.” It repeats itself once, then disappears.

I’d really rather die than date the elf, but when my eye catches the fine print, I get a small boost in confidence, “Yes, I’ll sign it.”

Aisa smiles. She may be a bitch, but she’s inhumanely beautiful. Her smile is made up of perfect white teeth. Despite her ink-black terrifying eyes, she seems soft, like your favorite pillow — the one you choose to sleep on every night while ignoring the other one. I want to reach out and touch her face, but resist the urge.

Damn, she’s good.

She pulls a pen from the same place she pulled the contract, and I sign it all while perfecting the plan I have in my head.

Aisa jumps up in delight as she snatches the paper away the second my pen lifts off the page, “It’s done,” she smiles.

She snaps her fingers and hums a tune. Nessa’s nearly closed eyes fly open as she vomits up blood. The blood doesn’t stop. It taints the blue grass with a sickeningly dark purple. She hurls and wheezes but her insides just keep pouring out.

This is it, I think, this is where she dies. I’m sorry, Murray — you can fire me now.

She pukes up a thorn. Then a branch. Then 3 roses. The deadly, bloody plant lies in the now deep purple grass, next to an unconscious Nessa. She’s not moving — my instinct is to run to her, to check her pulse — but Aisa stops me.

“She’s not worth your time, darling,” she caresses my face in her hands and I’m forced to do nothing but stare into those two abyssal pools in her face, “she’s not worth mine either,” Aisa smiles at me. A warm feeling washes over me — a feeling telling me that I’m her whole world, that she can’t live without me. That her life was hell and as soon as I walked into that house, I immediately made it better. It’s such an amazing feeling.

The warmness all over is replaced by pain. A stabbing, sharp, ongoing pain in my neck as Aisa bites down on me. She bites harder and I scream as she begins sucking. It hurts so badly, I can’t believe I let my guard down.

The lavender sky begins to blur, and the sound of the rushing water beneath the cliffs starts to become muffled. I feel nothing as my head hits the bloody grass.

The last thing I see are those deep, black eyes, staring at me with a fake sense of loving.

I’m gonna kill this bitch.