Betrayal over betrayal

Suddenly, there were voices all around her. And this time, they weren't the voices in her head.

"Are you hurt?"

"Oh dear..."

"Why'd you do that?"

"Poor girl"

"How do you feel?"

"You should be more careful"

"Maria?!"

At that question, Maria jerked her head towards the voice, but regretted it as the sudden dizziness made her close her eyes. Two gentle hands were then around her shoulders, holding firmly, Yuna's fingers rubbing her back.

"Breathe, Maria. Breathe... Are you alright?"

"Dizzy... and very weak. I couldn't stand up.."

As Yuna was muttering things to calm her down, Maria noticed another voice behind her. Isabelle was shooing people away: "Give the girl some room to breathe, would ya?" Isabelle's voice was trembling slightly, and while Maria thought it was because of the sudden tension, she'd later learn that it was because of fear.

The voices still shouted in her ears, but with them being muffled by all the noise and dizziness, it sounded more like ringing in her ears.

Maria and Yuna stood there for a few minutes, and while Isabelle went out to call for the Academy's healer, the bell rang. As the crowd dispersed, some still looking weirdly at Maria, Yuna asked:

"Why on earth did you sit with him?"

"I kind of bumped into him a lot during the first few weeks of school and I didn't get the chance to learn his name. I didn't think he'd hurt me.."

Yuna's eyes were wide, lips half parted.

"You... you didn't know, did you?"

"Know what?"

And even though the cafeteria was empty, Yuna's voice dropped to a whisper.

"He... steals memories. If you let him get close, he will tread your memories, find your likes, your fears and other horrible things and he'll just... snatch that information."

Maria clenched her head and closed her eyes as a wave of nausea hit her. The voices, still echoing around, grew louder in volume, drowning out Yuna and trapping Maria into a frantic train of thought. She tried to think of what she could have lost by falling into Michael's dark eyes. Could he know... about the visions? About her listening in to that discussion oh so long ago? Could he know... at that, Maria felt her cheeks burnt up and she put her hands on her face. She felt... violated. Ripping somebody to pieces only to take what is most precious to them for yourself... she felt so betrayed. "Betrayal betrayal betrayal" she could hear the voices more clearly now. Why didn't anybody warn me? "They all betrayed you" the voices answered. Maria had been standing at the table for a good few minutes and they were all watching and yet no one intervened... "They don't need you. You're all alone..." they now whispered. But it wasn't true, Yuna and Isabelle had come to her aid, had they not? "Why didn't they come sooner?" The voices asked quietly and Maria had no answer.

Tears welled up as Maria finally opened up her eyes, taking the hands off her face. And, as nobody else was there, she finally let all the desperation and frustration out.

Yuna rubbed her back in a soothing motion, opening up the discussion only after Maria had calmed down a little.

"I'm really sorry you had to go through that."

"Why... why didn't you warn me?" Maria croaked.

"To put it simply: I thought you already knew. First years learn about him pretty quickly and stay away and we're already in our fourth week here... When I saw you in the cafeteria, it was already too late. I wish I knew..."

"They don't care about you" The voices whispered and Maria was still too tired to block them out. "They all think you're just a dumb earthen girl, no one worth saving." The rose in volume, relishing their freedom.

"They probably didn't tell just cause I'm an earthen.." Maria muttered out loud.

"Oh no, don't say that! They probably saw you run into him and thought you knew from someone else." Yuna was quick to intervene, as if she'd heard the voices herself. And with her gentle voice, a few of them did quiet down. The rest continued their assault. "Worthless, stupid, naive, foolish" They chanted. And Maria felt like she was drowning all over again.

Just then, Yuna hugged her tight as new tears came streaking down her cheeks. And suddenly, Maria wasn't drowning anymore. She took a shaky breath as the voices once again turned to whispers.

At that point, Isabelle came in, followed closely by a young woman, her white coat trailing behind her as she carried what Maria presumed was some sort of medical kit. The woman sat down next to her and asked her calmly:

"Hello, dear. Don't worry, I'll help you feel better. I just need to know a few things before I can help. Do you remember the memories that were affected? For example, do you remember your worst fear?"

Maria thought about that question, shivers running down her spine at the mere thought of it. Letting everyone down. Losing everyone she loved to the same impenetrable darkness from her dad's vision. She'd had plenty of nightmares about that.

"Yes." Maria struggled to say, as her tongue felt heavy with dread.

The nurse seemed relieved. "Good."

"That can happen?" Maria asked, scared of the answer.

"Rarely. But since you don't seem to suffer from that sort of amnesia, you shouldn't worry about it. Now, do you still feel dizziness?"

The questions continued. The nurse quickly arrived to a diagnostic (severe weakness due to being exposed to intense invasive magic) and gave her a potion bottle, the pink liquid swirling inside being the same color as her hair.

Maria drank the potion, the taste oddly reminiscent of the strawberry flavored cough syrup from back home, and instantly felt a little stronger. The dizziness was also washed away.

"Can you stand up now?" The nurse asked. Maria wobbled a little before standing up by herself.

"I still feel a little... heavy."

"That's alright. Any other classes for today?"

"Water training..."

The nurse pulled a small frown. "You will have to skip it, I'm afraid. No using elemental magic for at least the next 2 hours. And I'd recommend some rest for the next three. Now, don't worry, I'll write up a note you can deliver to your teacher-"

"Miss?" Maria interrupted.

"Yes?" The nurse replied, writing on a piece of paper.

"Why isn't he punished for doing something like this?"

"The boy who did this to you? Don't worry, he'll be punished for this. Quite a long week of detention awaits him."

She then handed Maria the note and left without another word.

Isabelle grabbed Yuna’s shoulder, her hand trembling slightly, her eyes stormy, but her voice calm. "C'mon. We should get back to class."

"And leave Maria here, weakened and all by herself? Isa, we have to at least help her get to her dorm room."

"Well, who's gonna tell the teacher why we're missing?" Isabelle asked, worry sifting through in her voice.

"You can go if you want! But I’m still going to help Maria get to the dorms."

Yuna helped Maria up and, to her surprise, Isabelle begrudgingly followed.

They went down the cobbled path in silence for a minute or so, before Yuna chimed in: "Isa, you’ve been really tense this whole walk. Are you sure you don’t want to go back? Nobody’s forcing you to stay."

Maria nodded reassuringly towards Isabelle, but Isabelle looked at her, some sort of guilt darkening her eyes, making them seem dark brown.

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” She said, but even Maria could tell she lied.

“No, you’re not. What’s eating you up, Isa?” Asked Yuna.

“Nothing.”

"You know you can't hide stuff from me, Isa. I want to help. Whatever it is, I’m sure we’ll figure it out."

“..It’s personal.”

“It’s about the dark guy, isn’t it?” Yuna asked, and Isabelle’s eyes went wide.

“No, it-“

“I knew it!” Yuna exclaimed, then fell silent for a second. “Did he… did he steal from your memories too?”

“No.”

“Then what’s wrong? C’mon, you can tell us.”

“It’s just- It’s complicated, okay?!”

Surprised by the sudden shout, Maria lifted her head up from the mismatched pattern of the path. She saw Isabelle all tensed up, face red and a few tears glinting at the corners of her eyes. She was also trembling.

“We’re not going to judge you, ok?” Said Yuna and Maria nodded. After all, that's what friends were for.

Isabelle sighed heavily. "Fine. I know a bit about mystery dark guy. He's got a hush hush little business, where he sells all the info he steals from others. Lovers or ex-lovers. Fears. Likes. Secrets. All he wants in exchange is money. If you got the money, we can pay for his silence. He might have a dodgy business, but he does deliver."

"How... do you know so much, Isa?" Yuna asked her. Isa nothing for a little while, still trembling, tears gliding down her cheeks, but Yuna still waited patiently.

"Look, you gotta remember this happened a few weeks back and I changed since then. I... I fixed it."

"Like I said, nobody's judging you, Isa."

Isabelle looked at Yuna, then she said: "First day of school, I asked Michael to find something bad about Maria. I was scared... I was scared I was losing you, Yuna! I didn’t know what to do. I don’t know a lot of people, I thought… I thought you were leaving me behind. For a girl you had only met three months back! A girl I didn't know at all and I- I thought- Actually I didn’t think at all! I just acted rashly. I was going to make her go away and I would have threatened to spill her secret otherwise. But then we had the whole slumber party and... I realized just how much I had overreacted. I changed my mind. I told him to keep the money and your dirty secret. You didn't know anything about him so... I think I got to him in time. I don't think he stole that secret."

At that confession, Maria stumbled and fell and if Yuna wouldn't have caught her, she probably would have bruised her knees. But at that point, that was the least of her concerns. My ears filled with the voices, shouting "Betrayal. Your own friends betrayed you. No one cares about you". Faintly, Maria could hear Yuna and Isabelle argue, while, for the first time in a long time, the sky darkened above her and it started raining. Tears, or rain, fell down her cheeks and the fighting stopped. Maria put her hands on top of her ears, desperate to stop the terrible cacophony, but it just seemed to make the voices louder.

"How could you do this to me!" Maria shouted at Isabelle. "Tear her down" the voices demanded and Maria was happy to oblige. "I thought you were just being shy, but no, you wanted to take away from me the only person who'd even to try and help me understand this world! You sent a creep to follow me and to violate my privacy-"

"I am sorry!" Shouted Isabelle, her hair slick with water, her face red.

"Well, sorry doesn't cut it! You are the worst! You try to betray me, then you try to be my friend, but then you didn't manage to get either of them right. So maybe just stop trying."

Thunder rumbled as Maria jerked her arm from Isabelle's grip and started moving forward one uneven step at a time. Leaving behind a shell shocked Isabelle, if only just for a moment.

"..But what if he didn't do this because of Isa?"

Yuna's hushed voice stopped Maria in her tracks. She could feel the tremor in Yuna's voice.

"Maria, I don't think this mess is Isa's fault. Somebody else must have put him up to this. We have to find Michael. NOW."