Colin's posts

She was sitting there, waiting, for hours. However, she could see he was trying.

Every so often his facial expressions changed slightly... and she could tell that he was fighting with his memories... and what little remnants were trying to take over him once more and make him Vanessa's.

However, eventually, his eyes opened again, and he looked at her.

"..." he was silent, and she could almost see the tears threatening to emerge from his eyes.

"...my whole life has been a mistake..." he said quietly.

"I've taken all the wrong turns..."

"..." Chris was silent.

He then closed his eyes and seemed to slump forward slightly.

He was doing as he was told.

And she had no idea who would emerge from this new... 'shell'.

One thing was certain, though... it seemed like he genuinely cared Ayla.

Even being the scummy little worm he was known to be, she could see the sincerity in his eyes.

For better or for worse, his life was genuinely about Ayla now, it seemed.

Chris just clenched his eyes shut, tightly, and nodded quickly.

"Do it!" he said.

And so she did. It was awkward, and it barely worked... but it worked.

And when Chris opened his eyes again, he had a blank expression in them.

He was silent, and looked at Ashleigh intently.

Expectantly.

And she knew why. He was awaiting orders.

She could tell she'd given him a migraine.

The tears from his eyes proved it, even if he wasn't saying anything.

That's when he looked at her, his eyes filled with a quiet panic.

"Get her out of my head!" he suddenly exclaimed.

"I'd rather die than go back to her!" he told her.

"I don't care what happens to me at this point, so long as I don't endanger Ayla!" he continued, before pausing.

"...more than I already have..."

"....whatever." Chris replied.

"Just do it." he said.

"I feel her clawing her way back into my brain." he told her.

"Dunno how long before I just give up and equate life without Ayla to being back in Vanessa's servitude." he went on.

"So might as well yank it from me now." he reasoned.

"If it works, then I'm never going back and I can be put on trial and probably put to death. If it doesn't, I'll die and we've skipped a whole lot of middlemen and red tape." he shrugged.

"A... chance?" Chris asked, confused for a moment... before it clicked.

"...I see." he said.

"Tell me." he then went on.

"Can you do it for Ayla as well?" he asked.

"Because I'll say it right now... if you free me from Vanessa, but it has to be a life without Ayla... just kill me know." he told her.

"She's all I have now." he mumbled.

"I can't go back to Vanessa, nor do I WANT to, and I have nobody else willing to tolerate my existence." he continued.

"...well, present company excluded, for however long." he added.

"....." Chris was silent, pondering whether or not to keep pretending he was asleep, before deciding it was time to get it over with.

"All right." he said.

"I'm awake." he told her.

"So, tell me. Why are you here?" he asked.

"I can think of a number of reasons... and most of them end with you giving me what I arguably deserve." he went on.

"But... humour me, I suppose." he continued.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" he asked, his tone having a surprising lack of sarcasm.

"Of course." Hal replied.

He then paused for a moment.

"Should call Zeke and tell him he can return now..." he muttered.

"Don't need him unnecessarily staying away..." he went on.

"Regardless, go and do what needs doing." he then told her.

"Let me know your progress when there is any."

"....oh." Hal mumbled.

"Eh-heh." he chuckled.

"Well... hm." he muttered.

"Ah!" he then exclaimed, snapping his fingers.

...which caused a small sapphire to appear in Angela's hand.

"Okay, didn't mean to actually DO that..." Hal admitted.

"But if you put that sapphire on each of them, it'll end their stasis." he informed her.

"Once it absorbs all three, it'll shatter and dissipate into dust."

Hal was silent, before thinking about it.

"Second wish: granted." he told her, snapping his fingers and causing the three of them to disappear.

"First wish: granted, but temporarily." he went on, snapping his fingers again.

"You still have a time limit. But it's not urgent." he continued.

"Basically, I can induce that kind of stasis for a month at most. Any longer, and their mana will start to... well... act weird." he muttered.

"It's just one of those weird quirks of mana." he sighed.

"However, you DO have an additional month before... well... the official time limit for them starts."

Hal just sighed.

"Well..." he said, before giving her the lowdown of what he had witnessed from the small window in the door.

"So it seems that the elf collapsed from the overall stress and strain of the ordeal, as has Hazel." he went on.

"And Jenkins most likely from exerting as much effort as he did, for as long as he did." he then said.

"They all need serious help." he continued.

"And I will literally do anything and everything I can to help." he told her.

"You KNOW what I mean by that, too." he added.

While all of this didn't take TOO long... it took long enough.

Ayla was laying on the floor, motionless. So was Hazel now.

And Chris was barely keeping it together.

It had taken so much mental strength and fortitude from him, that blood was starting to trickle down from his nose... before he, himself collapsed onto the floor.

That was when Hal burst in, texting Angela to either get to the room herself quickly, call a team to get there, or both.

The trio needed help, and they needed it NOW.

Chris growled a little.

"No she won't." he said.

"I won't let you!" he declared.

He then pulsed out more mana, causing the quartz to start to shake a little bit... and then they started to all pulse out smaller mana pulses.

However, they were doing so in such a way, that it was interfering with the shadow.

The pulses were erratic and of different concentrates, it was finding it hard to adjust to them, and therefore was unable to try and enter Hazel's body.

"I know that if you cease to exist... the contact is broken between your kind and Vanessa." Chris strain, straining to keep the quartz chunks pulsing.

"And I know that if you can't enter a body within a certain amount of time... you cease to exist."

Chris just narrowed his eyes.

"...I don't take orders from you." he told her.

"And I no longer take orders from Vanessa." he went on.

"I... I am my own person!" he then yelled.

With that, he let loose with a small but powerful pulse of mana.

As this happened, the gems surrounding them started to glow brightly... and the show found itself forcibly torn from Ayla's body.