Young Writers Society

Les looked incredibly confused, but Megara continued to ignore him.

She took Runi by the arm and guided her out of the room without a word, her grip firm enough to make it clear she wasn't going to talk in front of Les. She only loosened her grip when they were outside.

Megara sighed, leaning against the outside of the inn as throngs of people paraded by dressed in white and jewels. Several couples stumbled in and out of the inn, arms interlocked, giggling and blushing, clearly having had several drinks.

Megara looked at Runi, "You're not going to see me again after this," she said bluntly.

Runi didn't say anything for the first moment.

She just looked away from Megara, trying to push back the tears that were threatening to spill over. She couldn't let Megara see how much those words had hurt, even though she was sure she knew just how horrible it was to hear them.

"You didn't have to come all the way to the inn to tell me that," she said. She was digging her fingernails into the palms of her hands. Maybe the pain would distract her enough to hold back her tears. "I...I wasn't staying here waiting for an apology. You broke Les's heart. It would be cruel of me to just leave him here and go running back off to my world."

I will not cry. I will not cry.

She took a shaky breath. "Runi...I came to apologize. I...I wanted to see you, at least one more time," the tears she was trying to keep away seeped into her voice despite her efforts.

She closed her eyes, "I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't have...." She was making it worse. She furiously rubbed a tear from her eye, "I'll leave."

Megara was crying.

She was crying and apologizing, and it was Runi who had made her do it.

Her breath caught in her throat. She looked like Cornyx and sounded like Cornyx, but she hadn't...she hadn't wanted to do that thing he did. The thing where his voice got cold and distant. He never used the voice with her, but it was so much like Nissam's-

She shook the thought out of her head.

"Wait," she said, grabbing onto Megara's hand with a shaking wrist. "Please-Please don't go yet. It's not your fault. Please don't cry..."

Her grip on Megara's wrist tightened.

Megara shook her head, "Don't do that. Don't let that fact that I'm upset guilt you into letting me stay." She ran a hand through her hair, her fake hair. Gods, she really did lie about everything.

"It's a classic manipulation tactic," she continued, calming down slightly now that what she was saying was composed of fact rather than feeling, "I-I'm not someone you want around. Not now, especially. I...please, Runi."

Her grip loosened.

A second later, her hand fell limp at her side.

"...Were you...Were you..." She faltered, shrinking back against the inn wall instead of stepping forward like she wanted to. Even though she easily towered over Megara now, she felt so small. "Were you trying to push Jason and I away so we wouldn't get hurt?"

She loosed a frustrated sigh and let her head fall back against the wall with a dull thump. She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to find the right words to convey, explain, excuse herself from this tangled web of unrighted emotions.

"No not...not so you wouldn't get hurt," she turned her eyes to the heavens, hoping some god there would answer her prayer for words, "I know...I know you can handle whatever my life cooks up. I know you're not some little kid." Then, suddenly, something clicked. A small section, a sentence or two, of words that might say what she wanted, needed, them to say. "Eddie is a kid, though. I know I, and you, and Jason, can handle whatever happens, but Eddie can't. He won't survive if I'm not careful, as careful as possible. One wrong word heard by one wrong person could get him killed - again - and I won't be able to..." she squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back another round of tears, "Neither of us will survive if we're discovered again. If you, or Jason, or-" she gestured vaguely at the inn, "-whoever the hell blondie is up there say or do or are seen at the wrong place, at the wrong time, ever, both Eddie and I could be found and killed a second time."

She closed the gap between her and Runi and gently took her hands, her eyes pleading, "Please, I need you to understand this."

She understood it, but it didn't make it any easier to cope with.

"I understand," she softly said. "...Also, Les is definitely your brother. Maybe you can't see it because you're not seeing the two of you at once, but he looks like you as a guy."

She was rambling and trying to change the subject, even though she knew the best thing to do would be to end the conversation there. Megara would go back to Eddie, Runi would go to Les and say her goodbyes, and then Runi would go to her own world-

A grin spread across her face.

"What if you went to a place where they could never find you?" she asked, excitement seeping into her voice. The excitement sounded bizarre coming out of Cornyx's lips, but she barely gave it any thought. "A place where you could relax, and Eddie could have a normal childhood?"

Megara stared at her, her expression changing from emotion to emotion, confusion, anger, guilt, sadness, on and on in a loop until it settled into an unreadable mask.

"Don't mock me," she said quietly, "I don't appreciate fantasies."

Runi faltered.

Then she took a deep breath that she desperately needed, and reminded herself just how badly she wanted to be with Megara.

"I'm not mocking you," she reassured her. "But what if you two come with me when I leave? My apartment has enough room for all of us, and I can always get a bigger place to stay - I have the money saved up. Plus, I'm friends with one of the most magically talented people in the world. If there's any magical problems, he can help. And if there's any physical problems, his brother can take care of it."

Megara stared at her, then shook her head. "I'm not...I can't. I have things to take care of here, I can't just leave like that. I can't abandon..." she shook her head. "No, Runi. I just can't."

But she wanted to, and she wanted to say it. She wanted to jump on the opportunity right away and make plans. She wanted to believe that it would work.

But it wouldn't work.

She deflated like a popped balloon.

"What things do you have to take care of?" she asked. "I...I can help you with them. I just know that you were planning on running away to somewhere no one would ever find you, so...so I thought my world would work..."

Megara closed her eyes, "Runi..." she took a breath. Why did words have to be so hard? "Runi, I can't just leave my world. I know...I know you're not going to understand, but this...this is my world. As screwed up as they are, my family are the people who raised me. I know them best. If anyone can tear my father's world apart, it's me. I can't...I can't just let him keep everything when he took everything from me."

Her shoulders slumped a little more.

But, for once in her life, Runi didn't want to just go with what was presented to her. She had been content sitting on the sidelines with Nissam from start to finish, and the most she had achieved since then was her job as a barista.

She liked Megara.

A lot.

"You can go between worlds," she said - one last, desperate plea. "It's not a once in a lifetime thing. You...You could make my apartment your base of operations. Then you wouldn't have to worry about Eddie while you're kicking your dad's butt."

She took a deep breath.

"I...I haven't always lived where I live now," she admitted. "Grimmore - the place where Nissam was - was cut off from the rest of the world by some weird magic I still don't entirely understand. It was my world for the longest time. But then I didn't want to stay after what happened to Nissam, so I left it and found myself in a world that was still mine. It was just...different. And I felt really homesick for awhile, and like I should have done more in Grimmore, but things are a lot better now. A lot...safer. And I could go back to Grimmore anytime I wanted to - I just have to ask one of my friends."

Megara took a deep breath, prepared to reaffirm her point, then stopped. Thought about it.

She pulled Runi into a hug.

Megara didn't deserve Runi's affection right now. She didn't deserve anything from Runi. But still....

"Thank you."