Becoming the Luna

"Hayden!!!!" 

Someone screams my name, actually a lot of people are screaming my name… wait why?

It hits me then… Nicole!

The pain hits immediately as well, my head is swimming and my vision is dark, someone is clutching me close with shaky hands, that had to be Virgil.

"Don't try to pull it out, Shana!" Yanis growls. "Are you crazy?"

Shana's voice is a mess. "But it's killing me that it's in him."

"We need an ambulance." Dale says authoritatively. "Let's get him out of here now!"

Virgil just remains quiet but there's a low constant sound of pain pouring into the crook of my neck.

Something is wrong…

I'm still frozen in my body from the terror of getting stabbed but the darkness inking my vision is starting to clear up some.

"W-Wait!" I struggle to say when the rest are about to cause chaos, I don't even remember what was done to Nicole. 

My vision finally clears I look up to see everyone frozen, Yanis has Nicole up a wall, her face pressed into the hard surface while her hands are drawn to the back and held in a punishing grip, Shana is hovering over me, tears falling down her face to mine while Dale is at the mouth of the curtain about to step out, no doubt to go get help.

Virgil has me in his arms and the burning pain I see in his eyes is enough to make me try and sit up.

"No, don't move, you'll only make it worse." He holds me down and I roll my eyes at how strong he is.

"Y-You d-don't understand." I try to explain, trying to sit up again, adrenaline and panic is still warring in my body so my voice and body is shaking but this doesn't stop me.

"It didn't cut me." I finally gasp out, stopping Dale who's already a step out of the crevice.

As a matter of fact, my words make everyone stop in their tracks even Nicole who's trying to escape.

"W-What?" Virgil splutters, his glassy eyes wide.

I sit up with a wince and this time he doesn't try to stop me, even though the knife hadn't made contact, the force was enough to give me a couple bruises. 

They hadn't noticed the lack of blood because of their panic and Virgil's blood that was already all over me before, I take the tip of my breast pocket that's already in shreds and rip it all the way off so that I can bring out my phone that I had put there without thinking.

"Oh my God!" Shana gasps, relief heavy in her breaking voice, Dale leans against the wall like his legs can't hold him up anymore.

"I should have aimed for your fucking neck!" Nicole rages with crazy eyes.

Yanis just coolly appraises her. "Just because you're a girl doesn't mean I won't hit you, stop struggling or I'll break a couple ribs for fun." He threatens coldly and Julia whimpers, she's curled up around herself to one side.

The knife had sunk into the very edge of the phone, it was sheer luck that had protected me or I would have had steel in my heart at the moment.

With shaky hands that had drying blood crusted all over, I try to put on the phone, not even bothering to pull the knife out.

"What are you doing?" Virgil asks curiously.

I barely spare him a glance. "I was recording Nicole…"

"That's not important, we all saw her." Dale says coldly, staring at her with dead eyes.

"No!" She screams on a sob, struggling wildly. "Don't hate me…"

"Not for me." I mumble, pressing down on the power button.

The phone flickers to life and it shows that it was still recording, thank goodness!

I quickly stop and save it, sending a copy to Virgil and Shana quickly, In the case my phone crashes.

I look up at Dale who has realization soaking into his terrorized face.

I hug Virgil tight and get up and out of his arms, pressing play on the recording and handing my mutilated phone to him.

|•| "You're just so annoying, I take Dale away, I even get Julia to be all over the other cold idiot but he. just. won't. stop. talking. about. you." |•|

Nicole's cruel voice pours into the room and Dale's eyes widen.

"W-What?"

I'm walking slowly towards him, he's about to break.

He glances at me and there's tears in his leaf green eyes, his lower lip wobbly and my vision starts to go blurry.

"No, don't listen to them Dale, you don't want me to end up like Jade, do you?" Nicole says in a sickly sweet voice, tears in her eyes. "They're framing me because they don't want us to be together."

|•| "Have you ever fallen in love?" |•|

|•|No, you haven't, you can't have felt this all consuming feeling, this burning desire…" |•|

"See, Dale, I love you and that boy is just trying to take you away from me." She insists, looking at Dale with pleading eyes. 

I'm standing in front of Dale, not making a move, he has to be the one to forgive himself for his sister's death so that Nicole can't stop using that to control him.

He takes a step towards me, the tears in his eyes nearly overflowing.

"Dale! Jade was like a little sister to me and even though I got clawed down my back while searching for her, I never stopped searching… you left." She breaks off, sobbing.

I frown at the confusion and guilt warring on Dale's face, he feels responsible and Nicole - the bitch - is taking advantage of that.

Julia frowns. "You've had that scar ever since we were kids."

Nicole whips her head to her. "Shut the fuck up! Stupid slut! You had one fucking job and you fucked up!"

|•| "I want to chain him up in my room, you know what, I'll do just that." |•|

Dale looks shocked at this and Nicole laughs nervously. "You're just precious to me that's all."

The fact that she's still lying through her teeth makes me clench my fists in anger but I'm more focused on Dale so I don't say what's on my mind.

He looks down at me and pulls me into a hug. "I can't seem to protect you either, maybe you should just pick Virgil." He says in a breaking voice hugging me tight.

W-What!

Before I can reply, Nicole's voice is filling the enclosed space again.

|•| "Everything just went south, that bitch of a little sister that he had ratted out on me just because I told her what I really felt." |•|

Dale's arms tightened around me. "Jade wasn't lying?" He asks in vulnerable surprise and my heart breaks. "We argued because of that, my last memory of my little sister was yelling at her to stop telling lies just because she didn't like my girlfriend?"

|•| "What did you feel?" |•| 

I hear myself ask shakily.

|•| "That Dale should be all mine, she was taking too much of his attention that should have been mine." |•|

Everywhere goes quiet at this, Dale hugs me tighter and Shana reties a scarf around Virgil's wounded hand.

|•| "So you found a way to make her go into the woods?" |•|

Dale drags his eyes to me at this and I just let my weight rest on him, now that I'm safe it hits really hard that I was interrogating a killer who had a knife pointed at my face.

|•| "It was bad enough that the little bitch kept taking his attention but then some Zeke made him go away altogether and no matter how many times I asked, he wouldn't tell me when he was coming back." |•|

|•| "But somehow, that little bitch could convince him to not only tell her when he would be coming back but also to come back earlier than he had planned." |•|

|•| "There was only one thing to be done" |•|

|•| "What did you do?"|•| 

I hear myself ask in horror

|•| "I needed him back, it had been nearly a week and I hadn't seen or touched him, I was going mad.

I had to get him back somehow and the little bitch was the perfect weapon, all I had to do was tell her I saw a puppy in the dangerous parts of the park, I even put a puppy there to keep her in long enough."

"I just rigged a trap so she would be trapped in a pit for a couple days, too bad that the rumors of wild animals were true."  |•|

A sound of pain let's rip from Dale and he clutches me tighter like I'm the only thing holding him together.

|•| "But everything went to shit!!! When he first came back, he was around me all the time, all I had to do was act like I was beyond broken about the little bitch's death."  |•|

Dale's knees buckle and I end up being the one holding his weight up, he buries his face in my chest and I can feel the searing heat of his tears.

I want to protect him from this but he had to know the truth.

"Make it stop!" He begs raggedly.

Virgil doesn't hesitate, hitting the pause button and a heavy silence falls over everyone.

"I'm so sorry." I say softly to Dale, petting his hair.

He keeps his face buried against me and I let him for however long he needs to.

"No!" Nicole starts to scream, her voice morphing to something inhumane and I flinch. "Noooo!!!! I'm not going to lose you again!!!"

"What the fuck?" I hear Yanis say a confused tone and I want to see what's going on.

Dale lifts his head again and his face is clear of tears, his eyes hard if a little glassy. "I need you to go to Virgil, okay?"

He sounds different and a shiver crawls down my spine but I nod anyway, staring up at him with teary eyes.

"Thanks, Doll." He murmurs, giving me one last hug.

I turn around to come face to face with Virgil who immediately pulls me into his arms, Nicole is growling sporadically now and I really want to see what's going on but I can't.

Yanis is pressed against the wall, a look of horror on his face but there's no way to escape Virgil's arms and I'm mentally and physically exhausted anyway so I don't push.