Chapter Text
Scott and Pearl. Cleo and Martyn. The Divorce Quartet. They had rejected their soulbonds, been whispered about by the other Lifers, hurt themselves to hurt their soulbound. And now, what had Cleo done? She had run away from Scott, run away from Martyn, run away from everyone and their stares to the one place nobody would think to look. She had run to Pearl.
Pearl was an outcast. She was a red still on her green life, she was a witch and a demoness and… Cleo had caused it. Cleo had stuck with Scott at the beginning. Cleo had given up on searching for her soulmate and decided to be soulmates with Scott instead. Cleo had rejected Martyn, and then Martyn had rejected Pearl, and now Pearl had gone red. During the trek to Pearl's tower, Cleo was tempted to just give up and turn back around. Why would Pearl help her? Pearl would probably kill her. Despite all of this, Cleo was standing at the bottom of Pearl’s base, shouting her name.
“Pearl? Pearl?”
“What’s this?” Cleo could practically hear Pearl’s grin as she came down the ladder.
“Pearl, I need your help,” Cleo replied, exasperated.
“Awww, poor Cleo, come to beg. What happened this time? Have you been kicked to the curb? Wanna talk about how it feels?” Pearl taunted
“Maybe Ren was right. You truly are an evil demoness,” retorted Cleo.
“You may not want to talk like that if you really need my help,” Pearl's voice was coated in fake sweetness.
Cleo sighed. She did really need Pearl’s help. “I do need your help. I need a place to stay.”Cleo held her breath, bracing herself for an onslaught of insults.
“You need a place to stay? You, ZombieCleo, with a soulbound who will do anything for you and a soulmate who loves you more than his own soulbound, needs a place to stay?” Pearl laughed. “And why, exactly, did you come to me?”
Cleo looked down. Pearl had every right to be angry. “Because-”
“Is it because everyone is scared of me? Is that it?” Pearl cut in.”Is it because you know that I am the only person on this server no one wants to cross? Well it's too late for that. You crossed me. So unless you have a really convincing reason why I should let you stay with me, you’re out of luck.” Pearl's voice had gotten dangerously soft, her scarlet eyes hardening, daring Cleo to explain herself.
“It is because everyone is scared of you,” conceded Cleo. “I need a place to stay where nobody would ever think to look, and your base was the first place I thought of.” Cleo brought her gaze up to meet Pearl’s eyes.
“And why don’t you want to be found?”
Cleo took a deep breath. “Because I’m tired of everyone. You don’t see how they look at me, how everyone whispers when I walk by. They blame me for Martyn building his eyesore of a base. They blame me for you being, well, you. Scotts running around doing god knows what and then I get blamed for it.” Cleo knelt down so she was shorter than Pearl, holding her gaze. “Please, Pearl, you are my last hope.”
Pearl regarded Cleo with disdain. “They’re right to blame you, you know,” Pearl turned on her heel and started back up the ladder before turning to Cleo with a smirk. “Well do you need a place to stay or not?”