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Hunter reeled back slightly out of his sleeping bag at the flash of thunder outside the window.
The blonde-haired boy frowned, clutching the edges of his sleeping bag as the thunder rumbled. He felt incredibly tired, yet was unable to sleep. Rain was pelting down upon the window just ahead of him. He blinked his melancholy magenta eyes in slight curiosity.
He wanted to visit the human realm someday, and he had gotten that wish. Just... not in the way he wanted. He desired to go there with his uncle, the man who told him what he knew of the Human Realm. He said the nights were quiet, and that the rain didn't boil like it did in his... former residence.
It sounded very nice in the moment, when he believed Emperor Belos was a good man. The savior of the Boiling Isles. Just how everyone else thought it was. Hunter's lip twitched, and he sat up a bit more.
His dark eyebrows furrowed a bit, glancing over at his room-mate, Gus, who was asleep. Hunter had attempted to comfort Gus, who seemed to be grieving in a more open way. He couldn't blame him, truly. Sometimes Hunter wanted to let it all out too. He had to stay strong though, right?
The witch drew himself up quietly, creeping over to the window and leaning over to look out of it. Reflection was not Hunter's favorite thing. Especially when he didn't know what to think about. Well, for starters, he found out he was a Grimwalker. That was when he had realized his life was a massive lie. A big, fat lie that he didn't want to let go of. He wanted to sink his fingernails into it and hold it close, and just forget it was a lie. He was a clone though. How could he forget that? There were previous Golden Guards, and he was just another one. One to be thrown away effortlessly by an uncaring man.
Belos had more sinister intent than he had realized. Hell, the man tried to kill him. Technically, he tried to twice. Twice is too many times for the man he thought was his uncle.
Hunter snarled gently, getting frustrated with himself. Why did he call Belos his uncle still, when he really wasn't? Hunter was just the clone of a Witch Hunter, who was close to Belos. Perhaps a family member. He wasn't too sure, but it irked him how he didn't know so many things. Was this what Belos wanted? For him to not know anything? Of course it was, that was what was keeping Hunter alive, for Titan's sake. Not to mention the Day of Unity... that was absolute chaos. When he witnessed the man, the man who believed in him, who he believed in, was killed... It brought tears to his eyes. It brought tears to his eyes because he realized that he was dead now. Belos was dead, and he was killed so effortlessly by a being in a child's form. HE TURNED HIM INTO MUSH WITH THE FLICK OF HIS FINGER!
Hunter let out a soft sigh. He was not the type to get emotional easily, yet he felt his vision slightly blur as the tears accumulated in his magenta gaze. No, hold them back. It's not time to cry. Something felt so awfully wrong about him being here. About him being still... alive. He had a lot of close calls to death, yet he still survived. Was this just fate? Was he meant to outlive the other Golden Guards? Hold out a different destiny? One different from his predecessors?
Those cold piercing blue eyes that belonged to his uncle constantly flitted to him. Hunter didn't think much of it at the time, but his gears were beginning to grind. What if he expected him to fail? To be just like the rest of them? He waited for him to fail, didn't he?
All these questions he was asking was making himself angry. He didn't want to even ask himself these things, when he obviously knew the answer.
And the conclusion? It was all just a big lie. Everything was. His life was. Everything Belos told him were lies. He was a big, big, liar. He used Hunter for his own personal gain, he used everyone and he LIED TO ALL OF THEM.
Hunter grasped at his own elbows, beginning to tremble. He felt as though he were going mad.
His breath began to come in heavy, ragged and quiet gasps. He could feel the goop sliding off of his shoulder, down his back. The goop Belos turned into when he had been exploded against a wall. Oh Titan, he's all over me! GETHIMOFFGETHIM-
"Hunter?"
Hunter whirled around to face the voice, who had saved him short of a near panic attack. He was still shaking, breathing heavily. Luz was standing in the doorway, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
"What're you doing up?" She asked him, but her expression drooped when she realized the look on his face and his body language.
She walked over to him, motioning for him to sit down. He obeyed, his knees drawn up to his chest. She slumped down in front of him, frowning.
"You're thinking about him, aren't you?" Hunter did not have to answer, because she already knew the answer. Luz let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair briefly. Her hair was growing longer.
"Hunter, I.. I know we didn't get much of a chance to talk earlier... I just..." she trailed off, sighing and continuing, "It's been... hard. For all of us, but I don't think you're realizing how much it's affecting you."
It didn't take rocket science to figure out that Hunter was hurting, hurting mentally, but he wanted to stay strong. So he was just bottling it all up. "I get it, really, I do. I know they don't know what really happened."
Hunter understood what she meant. In Belos' mind, he figured out that Luz had accidentally helped him become who he was in present day. That she technically sped up his process to find the Collector and become the Emperor. He knew that she blamed herself, and he knew she was hurting too.
"I-- I didn't know that this would happen. I didn't know what he was planning, really..." Hunter did in fact also blame himself for these events, like Luz did. Maybe to some lesser extent, but it was still there. The feeling gnawing at him.
"You and me both, Hunter." She frowned, placing one of her arms on her knee. She stared at him with these sparkly brown eyes. She looked close to crying herself. Her lip trembled as she spoke, "It's okay to feel that way. I know you feel weak, I do too. But, I think that just proves you've been strong for too long."
She reached out to him, and for once he did not recoil at the appreciative touch on his shoulder. The Grimwalker acknowledged deep down that Luz was comforting him, but also trying to comfort herself. Yet those words felt touching to him. Like a breath of new, fresh air. Hunter gazed at her, his eyes welling up. This was his invitation to let it all out, basically. A tear fell down one of his cheeks.
That was the first time Luz had seen him cry.
One tear turned into two, two turned into many. Hunter began to quietly sob, and Luz wrapped herself around him. Hunter allowed his body to slightly rack with sobs, while he clung to her, his face buried in her shoulder. Luz closed her eyes, shiny tears beginning to leak out of her eyes. The rain pattered on the window even harder at this moment, a rumble of lightning rupturing through the night. Somehow, this did not disturb the quietly crying and sobbing duo.
There are just some things that we do that we regret.
Then there's some who move on.
And some just don't.