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Lily was crying, a not wholly unusual occurrence whenever she fought witches. She had just watched her best friend, Ivy, get cut in half, and they were coming for her next. Little fairies that looked more like goblins flitted in and out, twisting and yanking at her.
Her pastel pink dress was tattered, the knee high stockings torn, and her face was bruised. She certainly looked worse for wear, but refused to die in this labyrinth. I'm a magical girl. I can do this.
Twirling her stave in her hands, she leapt forward, propelling a deep blow into the side of the witch's midsection. There were so many limbs, and it was hard to dodge effectively. Just flailing arms and cut out flowers in a perverse version of a meadow, all leading to a writhing, skeletal mass at the center.
The laugh. The high, keening shriek was making her head hurt. Lily knew she had to get out of there quick, before it got any worse.
"Crisis Petal Dance!"
Like a dancer, she twirled faster and faster, her body gaining momentum and energy until it exploded in one massive hit at the witch, who screamed and started collapsing in on herself, taking the labyrinth with her.
A chaos seed. That was how much Ivy's life was worth at the end of the day, it seemed. Her best friend since elementary, the first one to ever talk to her when she saw her alone in the sandbox.
"You don't make a sandcastle like that, silly!"
"This isn't a sandcastle, it's a maze!"
"Oh! Mazes are hard. We'll have to build it every day to make it good!"
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There has been a missing persons alert issued for Ivy Yorkton, who went missing last week…
Everyone at school kept asking her if she was okay, if she had known where Ivy was going that night. It exhausted her. Even her parents at home would circle like worried birds, occasionally swooping in to offer her this or that. She couldn't tell anyone what happened, they'd have her committed.
"It wasn't worth it, Ivy." She sobbed, holding photos of the two of them to her chest. "And it's all my fault."
Though the photos didn't exist anymore, the memories remained. After the car accident, Lily had been so badly scarred that there was only so much surgery to fix it. She didn't eat, didn't look in the mirror, didn't even go to school. And Ivy wanted to change it. It was her fault. Her fault Ivy used the wish.
She tried to wish that Ivy and her would lead peaceful lives, but Kyubey never said how long they would be. It took weeks, months even, of effortless battles before Ivy died.
Your life is still peaceful. And Ivy died peacefully, without any pain. You got your wish. I don't understand why you're so upset.
"GET OUT!" Lily screamed, hurling pillows at the catlike creature who had appeared at the end of her bed. "LEAVE ME ALONE! I WISH I HAD NEVER MET YOU!"
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"Lily, just do it! You're so pretty, I'm sure he'll say yes!"
"Yeah, but then who will bug you on the weekend? I'm good without it right now, thanks."
Shaking, Lily looked at the witch. It was ripping hearts in half over and over, leaking giant tears onto a long dress covered in scissors. They came right for her in waves, clicking and snicking at her face as she threw them off with her long, silver staff.
Her mind was distracted, thinking back to before the accident, when Ivy tried to get her to ask out the cute guy from basketball. Did it disappoint her when she refused? Lily had always been the one to lead by example, to try things and report back to her friend. Maybe it has been Ivy's way of saying she was ready for romance, and she was just too dense to see.
SNICK!
Screaming, she held a hand over the wound, looking up at the witch again. It had paper cuts all over, long white hair falling like snow to the ground as it sometimes stopped to rip it out.
The frayed, damaged hearts and the names on them stayed with her long after battle.
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"I can't be a magical girl anymore!" She sobbed, hunched over in the hallway of an abandoned wing of the high school. "I don't want this anymore! I can't keep it up!"
The darkness was overtaking her bit by bit, the despair and hopelessness crushing her heart. Her eyes slowly lost their luster, and bit by bit, she started changing.
Long, bony fingers grew from her hands, and her hair tangled and matted in clumps. Her face, beautiful from Kyubey's magic, twisted and melted, like it was perpetually dripping as if made from hot wax. Her mind could only focus on one thing, over and over, as she transformed for the final time.
I'm sorry, Ivy. You wasted your wish.