Original Stories Fan Fiction / Realism Fan Fiction ❯ Aqua ❯ Confrontation ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter Eight

Confrontation

 

 

Three months later, classes were canceled that day, due to a power outage, and Aqua had chosen to spend her time in the forest with Darain, instead of having the other students trying to force their unwanted company upon her. It was a warm, sunny day and Aqua sat beneath a pine tree with Darain. The birds chirped a beautiful melody as the end of fall approached, but neither noticed as Darain tried to teach Aqua the most basics of spells that he had learned as a child.

 

“Ji-har-da,” Aqua said, trying to sound out the word that Darain had just pronounced for her. Darain laughed at the major mispronunciation and shook his head, saying, “No, no. Ji-dar-a. You have to stress the a as well, otherwise the entire spell might backfire on you and you hit something you weren't meaning to.”

 

“Jidara,” Aqua said, finally pronouncing the word right, and instantly the lake beside them exploded as though some invisible force had hit it. It splashed over them, causing them to become soaked. Darain eyed the liquid haphazardly, never having quite gotten over his phobia of the liquid that had once tried to kill him. Aqua rolled her eyes and laughed at his expression as she asked, “What caused the water to do that?”

 

Darain shook as much of the water off his arms as he could before answering, “That word you just used is used for manipulating the nearest liquid, outside the body, into whatever form you want it to be. For example, you just made that water into an exploding substance, remotely harmless, but if used right, it could be a potential ki-“ He broke off as a twig snapped to their right.

 

Every hope that it was just one of the wildlife was washed away almost instantly as they heard a low curse. The two of them held their breath hoping that the person hadn't seen them, but that hop was crushed as fast as the first one as the person said, “Hey, Marin, we found her. She's sitting beneath an old pine tree with some weird looking boy.”

 

It was worse than both had envisioned, there were two of them, if not an entire group. As Aqua quickly got to her feet, she hissed to Darain, “If they ask about your ears, just say it was a really rare birth defect.”

 

“So, you guys finally gathered the courage to follow me into Hangman's Forest,” she said, coldly. Then, without waiting for a response, she turned her back to them and walked around the lake, back towards the deeper part of the woods.

 

“Aqua, wait till we tell everyone you've been harboring an animal in Hangman's Forest. No ones going to want to be within a hundred feet of you ever again,” Marin trilled in her high-pitched voice. Darain flicked his ears back in annoyance at her voice, making the other girl squeal with horror.

 

“Fay, did you see that? His ears are real,” the girl squealed. Darain gave her a horrified look before he started backing away from the two girls as Marin came closer.

 

Aqua glanced to see if Darain was following her, but instead saw Marin pulling on his ears. “Hey,” Aqua shouted, “Let go of him.” Then she ran back towards the three and shoved Marin away from Darain.

 

Marin caught her balance before she fell and laughed in an annoying trill of a laugh. “So, the cold hearted girl is in love with a freak. A fitting pair, if I do say so myself,” she sneered.

 

Aqua stared coldly at her, as she coldly responded, “I have no inkling as to what the meaning of love is, nor shall I ever feel something as repulsive as that.”

 

Marin and the second girl stared at Aqua in disbelief, for neither had thought the girl was that incapable of emotion. There had always been rumors going around about why she was so distant, but hearing those words come directly from her mouth made it all fit together. A sudden, cruel smile appeared on Marin's lips as she said, “Oh, but you are far from emotionless, and you wouldn't have pushed me away from your freak if you didn't care about it just a little.”

 

Darain glanced at Aqua for her reaction, but to his surprise saw a mask of cold indifference settled over her emotions. It was an expression that she had used with him once or twice in the short time that they had known each other when they had come too close to discussing something personal.

 

Aqua didn't allow her expression to change at Marin's words, but, secretly, she wondered if they were true. She wasn't as devoid of feeling as she had first thought before meeting Darain, but then she wasn't everything her father had said she was, so it was possible that she was capable of a small amount of emotion.

 

“You'll be dragged to a lab and experimented on,” Marin said excitedly to Darain. “You're nothing more than a freakish animal that looks remotely like a human to our kind, whatever you are. Anything that can consider you a living being isn't human.”

 

Aqua gave a short, forced laugh as she said, “Then, I guess I'm not human.” All three turned their attention to her and looked at her with open confusion. “He's not some freakish, human looking animal to me. He's Darain,” she continued coldly.

 

Marin began laughing so hard that Aqua thought she would burst a lung from laughing. Getting tired of standing around and just talking, Aqua advanced on Marin and shoved her to the ground. “Either say what you've got to say, or leave,” she snapped, only to have Marin take her legs out from under her.

 

She landed heavily on her back. Before she could regain her footing, Marin was towering over her with a triumphant look on her face as she kicked Aqua in the ribs. A sudden memory flashed before Aqua's eyes as pain exploded through her body and it made her eyes cloud with anger and hate.

 

Darain had been about to spring to Aqua's aid, but before he could, she recovered. There was something different about her now, she moved in an almost…animal like way and her eyes burned with an emotion that Darain couldn't name.

 

“Woo…Go Aqua,” the second girl called as Aqua circled Marin.

 

Darain looked at the girl with confusion and said, “I thought you were with the other girl.”

 

The girl shrugged and replied, “I never liked Marin. She forced me to come with her on her crazy scheme to pin something on Aqua. Fact is, I like Aqua better than her and I don't want her to lose to Marin.” Her answer left him confused even further, but he decided not to pursue the subject any farther.

 

Aqua circled Marin with a vicious snarl fixed on her face. It was as though she had lost herself to long buried instincts. She attacked randomly and without warning, giving Marin no chance to defend herself.

 

In reality, though, Aqua was trapped in her own memories and was fighting against them. No matter how hard she tried to shut them away again, they came back stronger than ever and more painful then the last. The pain was so much to bear, that she struck out against the only thing that was closest to her.

 

~Flashback~

 

Five-year-old Aqua sat in a darkened room, with her knees tucked beneath her chin. She watched her father as he rummaged through the cupboards, looking for something. There was no way of telling what he was going to do, but she had an odd sinking feeling that told her he was looking to get drunk again.

 

That was all he did these days, besides hit her. Mommy, she thought tearfully, Come back soon. Her mother had promised her profusely that she would return within the week, but that had been almost two years ago now. The week had turned into weeks, months, then a year.

 

That had been when the beatings had started, when her father had realized that his wife would not be coming back. Every time he touched his daughter, he would leave a new bruise or scar.

 

Her father finally withdrew from the cupboards with a half empty glass bottle in hand. He didn't pay the slightest bit of attention to the child in the corner, surrounded by darkness and filth. He practically fell back onto his chair and opened the bottle with little difficulty. Within a matter of moments, he had downed the entire bottle of whiskey and let his arm sag over the arm of his chair.

 

CRASH!!!

 

Aqua jumped slightly and inhaled a quick, frightened breath as the bottle slipped from his fingers and broke as it hit the ground with a crash. She sat in her corner, motionless again and waited…and waited...and waited…and waited…

 

After an hour-and-a-half of waiting, her father finally got up from his chair and moved around it to face the corner she sat in. Slowly…with agonizing slowness, he made his way over to her. When his foot struck something solid, and sent it skidding across the room, near where Aqua sat, he retrieved it and examined it.

 

It turned out to be the top half of the shattered bottle. He swaggered a little as he closed the distance between him and his daughter. Upon reaching her, he bent down and picked the shivering girl up by her hair and lifted to his eye level. There was a cruel, drunken gleam in his eye as he slashed Aqua across the chest with the broken bottle.

 

Aqua uttered a high, pathetic scream as pain seared from her barely healed wounds from the previous beating not even a week ago. Blood dripped fresh from the open, gaping wounds on her chest. Her clothes hung in tatters around her body.

 

Her father gave her a disgusted look and then dropped her. He left her there to bleed while he became sober again. Once he was, he acted as though nothing had happened and acted as though Aqua had merely cut herself, and as though he were a `good' father. He treated the wounds he had left and changed her clothes.

 

~End flashback~

 

Aqua couldn't take any more of the pain that the memories brought and struck out with everything she had. Her fist connected with Marin's left cheekbone, and a sharp crack could be heard as the bone broke.

 

Darain and the other girl watched with dismay when Marin punched at Aqua and caught her in the gut. They would have helped, but they could both sense that this was between the two girls. The loathing had been growing for sometime, until it bordered the line between spite and hatred.

 

Aqua doubled over and spat up blood. The pain that came with the blow knocked the pain of the memories away and helped Aqua to regain her senses. Her green eyes regained their normal sharpness and no longer looked glazed, but she didn't back down from the fight that she was in.

 

A muscle twitched involuntarily in Aqua's cheek as she and Marin circled each other. Marin's breath was a little harsher than usual, as was Aqua's, but neither showed signs of backing down.

 

Aqua watched Marin's movements for any sign of an opening. There! she thought as Marin took a larger step than she had intended, and stumbled some. Aqua moved forward at a rate faster than any normal human should have been able to and backhanded Marin across her uninjured cheek and sent her flying into one of the nearby oak tree.

 

She turned to Darain for his reaction and saw mixed horror and fear written across his face. She's…a Letrangra, he thought in horror.

 

Aqua looked at Darain with injured eyes for the briefest of seconds before she closed off her emotions again. Then she turned her back to the small group and stuffed her hands into her pockets, before she stalked off into deeper, darker parts of the forest.