She sits with her back to the wall, staring out at the storm. She feels the occasional drop on her legs. She hums to herself the songs she and her dad used to dance to. Those were her favorite memories, them dancing in the kitchen while he cooked on the days her mother didn’t feel like it, them dancing on dark nights while her mother was away or asleep.
These memories sadly always brought a sorrowful feeling with them. Like she was being drowned which she would have honestly preferred to this.
When her father had first been killed she had a burning hatred for her grandfather, sought to kill him and make him feel the pain her dad must have felt… and worse. It was only his kind face that she remembered that kept her from her vengeance and allowed the villagers to deal with someone who was no longer her family.
She remembered that night she had sat on the steps of their house as she heard her mother wailing from indoors. She sat out there and felt nothing, her body a husk of where her soul had once been. It wasn’t his fault, she kept telling herself. It was the wretched disease’s fault, not her grandfather's.
She couldn’t bring herself to believe those words and to this day her hate has faded with his death but still remains. Edith knows that this upsets her Nana but she could never bring herself to care.
She is snapped back to the present when the rain lets up and the sky is a clear, black blanket with all the pinholes. She liked to think that the pinholes were from when someone died and their soul shot up to heaven, leaving an opening in their wake. Some probably went through an opening already made or else there would be no darkness.
Edith stands up and gets tunnel vision immediately. She places a hand on the cave wall to steady herself and waits for it to pass. During that time, Maiken somehow manages to soundlessly appear in front of her. She bites back a scream and only a whimper escapes.
“You’ve always been easy to scare.” He remarks with a snicker. She sighs, snippets of their childhood coming back to her. Like now she remembered how he would hide behind every corner and tree just to jump out and yell ‘Boo!’ right in her face, causing little her to shriek and hide her face. After he would do that though, she would give him the silent treatment and he would follow her around like a puppy begging her to talk to him.
She smiles slightly at this which Maiken takes pleasure in. It was the first time he had seen her smile in years and if he was honest, he missed it. He missed her dimples and her blindingly white teeth.
“I would like to go with you to kill Nana.” He blurts out and cringes at her startled and surprised face.
The emotions on her face disappear as quickly as they had appeared and she asks one simple question. “Why?” She almost whispers.
“I don’t think it’s something you should do on your own.” He thought about this for a while, ever since he knew what she was going to do. “And I want to say goodbye to her, even though I know it won’t actually be her.”
She looks at him, he probably spent more time with her grandmother than she had, considering whenever she visited when she was younger he had always been around. She regrets that when she entered her teenage years she stopped coming around. She could still have a friend if she visited, maybe even a best friend.
“Okay.” She agrees, figuring it’s only fair and because he asked her. He could have just tagged along without any warning but he didn’t.
He smiles, this simple action lighting up his whole face. “Thank you.” He says before he returns back to his sleeping bag, leaving her to lean against the wall and stare out into the darkness which didn’t seem so dark anymore.
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