Chronicles of Eden - Act IV (33 page)

“Look, I’m trying to say that… you’re special to me, monster and all,” she confessed before glancing back up to the witch. “I know when we first met, believe me I felt the complete opposite about you. All I wanted back then was for you to leave me and Daniel alone. But now, I can’t imagine being out here without you with us.”

Alyssa stared at her with wonder while Specca and Squeak watched Triska curiously, seeing the teen breathing out softly before she wiped a tear from Alyssa’s cheek.

“When Charlotte was about to kill you… I nearly cried,” she admitted. “I was scared to death for you. It’s so strange to think, I never thought I’d feel so close to a monster before I came out here with Daniel, but it’s true. I don’t want to ever lose you, Alyssa.”

Alyssa stared at her with wonder for a moment then slowly looked down with closed eyes. After a while she shook her head and looked back to her with a teary-eyed pout.

“I hate you,” she said, her voice breaking up a bit as she seemed to force out those words.

“I hate you too,” Triska replied with a small smile.

“Okay,” Falla commented with a raised eyebrow. “That turned around really quickly.”

Alyssa whimpered then quickly moved forward and held onto Triska, the teen holding the witch with a gentle smile as the others watched them curiously.

“I hate you so much, Triska,” Alyssa cried as she held onto the girl.

“I hate you too, so very much,” Triska replied kindly.

“You don’t hate her at all, do you?” Specca asked. Triska looked to seeing Specca slowly nodding as she watched the two. “You two haven’t been saying that out of spite or anger to each other these past few days, have you?”

Triska slowly shook her head and looked down to Alyssa, the witch crying in her chest while holding onto her.

“No, we haven’t.”

“Do you really love her, Triska?” Specca asked curiously.

Alyssa whimpered and glanced up to seeing Triska looking down and away.

“Is that really so hard to believe?” she asked distantly. “I’ve grown attached to her, to all of you even. How couldn’t I when we’re spending so much time out here together? Facing danger and traveling the land together, how could I not grow closer to you?”

Squeak squeaked something with a curious expression, with Triska glancing over to the girls as Specca timidly held her glasses.

“Are you saying… that you love
all
of us?” Specca asked softly.

Alyssa leaned back from the embrace and watched Triska curiously as the teen sighed and looked up at the sky.

“C’mon, do I really have to come out and say this?” she whined.

“You’re saying you do love us, don’t you?” Specca wondered.

Triska let out a frustrated grunt and looked to her with exasperation.

“I’m saying I don’t want to lose any of you, I just couldn’t bear it, okay?” she snapped. “Almost seeing you get sliced apart, Alyssa about to be beheaded, and Squeak being nearly crushed by the caravan, it really got to me. It made me realize just how important all of you are to me.” The girls watched her with wonder as she sighed and glanced around at all of them.

“You’re family to me. I don’t care that you’re monsters. I’ve gotten to know all of you so well, you’re like sisters to me. So… yes, I do love you all.”

Specca stared at her with awe while Squeak started to get teary-eyed, the ant girl then scrambling over and tackling Triska to the ground with a hug. The group watched as Squeak held Triska in a very, very,
very
tight embrace while squeaking something frantically with closed eyes, with Triska gasping for air while her legs kicked about underneath the strong and apparently emotionally choked up monster.

“Squeak,” Triska coughed out. “That’s enough. Please, let me up.”

“Triska,” Specca said softly as her eyes began to water.

Alyssa tried to pull apart Squeak’s arms with her magic, with Triska then prying herself free and sitting up in front of the ant girl. Getting only one deep breath of air in Triska was then tackled to the ground again by Squeak as the ant girl continued saying something to her in her own language while hugging the girl very tightly. Triska grunted and tried to get free then saw Squeak watching her with teary eyes, the teen then showing a curious expression as the ant girl squeaked quickly at her.

“Squeak? What is it?”

“I think she’s saying she loves you too,” Specca said as she slowly stood up, with the group looking at Squeak curiously as she nodded a few times. Triska smiled a bit as the ant girl slowly let her sit back up, with Squeak smiling gently at her friend before looking over to Specca as she walked over to them.

“I’m so glad you told us this, Triska,” Specca said as she knelt down next to the teen with a warm smile on her face.

“You are? Why?” Triska asked.

“Because I was a bit fearful I was the only one who felt this way,” Specca admitted. “I’m rather relieved that the feeling is… mutual.” Triska and Squeak looked at her curiously as the nixie gently held the two girls’ hands.

“I couldn’t bear to part with any of you either, it just wouldn’t feel right,” Specca said as she looked around at all of them. She gave a small weak laugh and shook her head before glancing to Triska then to Squeak with a faint blush. “I… love you all too. I mean… you’re like sisters to me as well. You accepted me for who I was, right from the start, even though I was a monster. And you’ve helped protect me out here, I feel safe whenever I’m around you. I… I don’t ever want to lose any of you.”

Squeak and Triska smiled at her before they all turned to Alyssa as the witch was watching them with a troubled frown. Alyssa then sighed and looked down with her hat hiding the view of her eyes.

“Alyssa?” Triska asked softly.

“I… I…” Alyssa stuttered as her hands trembled a bit in her lap.

“You’re not all going to start making out now, are you?” Falla asked flatly. All the girls looked to her with dull glares, the butterfly then smiling nervously and holding her sister close to her.

“Never mind, I’ll be quiet.”

Alyssa looked down while clenching her fists, seeming to struggle with forming her words as the others watched her curiously.

“I love Daniel,” she stated firmly. “I love Daniel with all my heart. I want to be with him forever, I want to be his mate. I want him more than anything in this whole world.” The other girls watched her worriedly before she slowly glanced to them with a tear in her eye.

“Having said that… you should know… that I love you all too. I do.”

Squeak smiled and held out her hand towards her along with Triska, the witch then whimpering before scrambling over towards them. The four girls held each other close while Falla watched them with a dull expression, the four friends feeling a strong kinship forming between them even though they were competing for the same boy.

“Dammit,” Alyssa whined as she held onto Triska and Squeak. “We’re not supposed to feel this way for each other, we’re rivals for Daniel’s heart.”

“Yeah,” Triska agreed half-amusingly. “And we have the worst way of warding each other off from him. We all help each other survive out here together.”

“Be that as it may, we are a family out here,” Specca reasoned softly while her tail slowly curled around behind her. “And I’ve grown attached to all of you just the same.”

Squeak merely squeaked something softly as she closed her eyes, holding Specca and Alyssa close as the four girls came together like this. Even though they were all rivals for Daniel’s heart, they felt a real sense of love and care for one another, which brought up a very important question that Alyssa felt she had to address despite how touching this moment was for them.

“Um, I hate to ruin the moment, but…” she mentioned as she leaned back from the group hug. “This presents us with a bit of a problem here.”

The other girls looked at her curiously as she slowly shook her head with a small shrug.

“What about Daniel? When he chooses one of us, what are we going to do about the three he
doesn’t
choose?” she reminded, the girls then looking to each other with concern as they all thought about that same scenario.

“Yeah… good question,” Triska replied unsurely.

“Well,” Specca sighed. “I hate to admit that Jovian and Jacqueline were right, but it seems that they spoke the truth before. We have once again made something very complicated when it normally shouldn’t be.”

Squeak looked down with a troubled expression and squeaked something while Alyssa held a hand to her head tiredly.

“This isn’t good, this isn’t good at all,” she groaned. “When he makes his choice what are we going to do then? One of us is going to be his mate… and the other three…”

“Won’t be,” Specca finished with remorse. “They’ll… have to leave.”

“This is going to be more difficult than we planned,” Triska reasoned while slowly shaking her head.

Squeak nodded in agreement as all the girls glanced to one another, all of them feeling confused and worried as to how to address this unusual problem.

“We all love Daniel,” Alyssa reasoned.

“And we all care for each other as well,” Specca added.

“So where does that leave us?” Triska asked.

Squeak merely shrugged while squeaking something.

“What is your problem?” Falla asked with disbelief. The girls all looked to her as she shook her head with a baffled expression. “For god’s sake, why are you worrying about this? If you all love him and each other, then just all be with him together. What’s so hard about that?”

“We can’t do that, it doesn’t work that way,” Triska argued shaking her head.

“What doesn’t work that way?” Falla retorted. “You all just admitted that you love each other and don’t want to lose one another, and you all love Daniel, so what’s the problem here?”

“This is different,” Specca reasoned. “We may love one another like sisters, but we love Daniel like… a lover, a mate.”

“So?” Falla questioned. “I love my sister, and she loves me, and you can be damned sure we’ll fuck a man together any day, no complaints here. We don’t mind sharing a man for his seed.”

“This isn’t about getting Daniel’s seed,” Alyssa argued. “It’s about having his heart, his real love, to be with him forever as his mate.”

Falla just stared at them with confusion still while the other girls saw that got nothing out of her.

“That means only
one
of us can be with him,” Triska explained dryly. “True love is shared between two people, just
two
.”

Falla glanced around at the other girls then back to Triska with a raised eyebrow.

“So, what you’re saying is you all love Daniel, and you love each other, but only one of you can be Daniel’s
real
love, right?” she asked skeptically. The other girls nodded before Falla slowly shook her head.

“I don’t get you people at all,” she said flatly.

“I’m not surprised,” Triska replied.

“The problem is, Falla, we cannot just share Daniel between us,” Specca clarified. “He deserves someone to devote all his love to, and not have to share that with any other. That’s how love works.”

Falla nodded slowly then looked down to her sister with a small shrug.

“Well then, if that’s how you want it, good luck on deciding who gets that love and who has to take a hike.”

The other girls flinched at that then slowly glanced to one another, not liking that idea at all. Before anything else could be said Luna slowly started to stir, with Falla gasping while the other girls quickly looked over to seeing the sleeping butterfly girl beginning to wake.

“Luna?” Falla asked. “Luna, can you hear me?”

“Falla?” Luna asked softly.

“Yes, I’m here, you’re okay now, you’re saf-” Falla said before Luna suddenly shot up and screamed while looking around quickly. She scrambled around in a panic while screaming for her life before Falla quickly grabbed her and held her close.

“Luna, it’s alright!” Falla pleaded as she held her struggling and freaked out sister. “You’re alright now, everything is okay!”

“Calm down, Luna, you’re safe now,” Triska reassured as the other girls watched the butterfly shaking her head and screaming with fright.

Luna then paused and looked around at them all as she seemed to be in a daze still then turned to Falla with fearful eyes.

“Falla?” she whimpered.

“You’re okay, your sister is here, just calm down,” Falla assured as she held her sister by the shoulders.

Luna whimpered then started crying as she held onto her sister.

“Oh, Falla, it was horrible!” she cried out. “That child wasn’t a child, she was a witch! She was a witch and she did stuff to me, it hurt so much! It hurt so much!”

Falla held the girl close with remorse while the others watched with sympathetic eyes.

“Oh, Luna, I’m so sorry,” Falla said dearly. “I didn’t know she was a witch, I never would have left you alone with her like that if I had known.”

Luna choked back her sobs then looked around quickly.

“Where is she, what happened to Emily?”

“She’s dead,” Falla reassured. “She was killed by those man-eaters that were after her. Those things tore her to pieces, I saw it with my own eyes.”

Luna gasped and looked back to her with surprise.

“What? Oh no, poor Emily,” she whined.

“What, poor Emily?” Falla asked in disbelief. “How could you feel sorry for her? She hurt you, she lied to you, who cares that the bitch died?”

Luna whimpered and leaned back from the embrace while looking down, fidgeting her hands together in her lap.

“She was so nice to me before,” she reasoned unsurely. “She even kept saying she loved me like no other. I don’t think she understood what she was doing to me.”

“She was going to kill all of us with her pet Darker One earlier,” Falla reminded. “She killed every human in that village nearby, and she kidnapped you in her insanity. There was nothing good about her.”

Luna sighed and closed her eyes.

“I liked her better when she was just a human child,” she said sadly. “Before she raped me like a horrible monster.”

“She really did rape you?” Specca asked worriedly.

Luna cringed and nodded before rubbing her rear.