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Everything was supposed to be fine. They were supposed to be okay, here. FCG was meant to set up a scavenger hunt as team-building, and everyone would go back to their old selves. Their united selves.
The hunt had gone awry; a loose comment and struggle sent the group their separate ways. Not too far, never too far, not in a place like this. But they scattered around the garden, and Imogen spotted the last piece of the puzzle nestled in a large nest. She picked it up with an idle sigh and stuffed it into her bag.
Laudna was ahead of her. Imogen worried she would run off again, that she'd be alone and something would happen. It already had. Laudna hadn't come back from that lonely night in the woods the same. Imogen cursed herself further with each insecure comment, untrusting gaze, or words she knew weren't Laudna's own. She should have gone with her.
Laudna had stopped, fingers flexing and head tilting in the way it did when she was curious, or angry. Imogen couldn't tell which it was, for once. "Laud?"
Laudna twitched. Shadow began to seep from her skin, curling around her body and melting into the fey wild air. Imogen tensed. "...Are you alright?"
Laudna turned around, finally. Smiled. Smiled in a way that Laudna never would. Imogen's chest stuttered, and she took a step back. "Laudna, you're scarin' me."
There was something pressing against Imogen's throat, telling her it was useless. Laudna was already gone. Her eyes burned with tears that refused to yet fall, and the occupant of her girlfriend's body spoke.
"Finally. Do you know how long I've waited, for her will to weaken? Such a strong spirit."
It was Laudna's vocal chords, the voice she loved laced with a malice that Imogen never could have imagined passing Laudna's lips.
"Let her go." Imogen pushed through the break in her words, whilst the one in her heart grew larger each moment.
A bitter laugh left Lau— Delilah. "I think we both know that can't happen. But, I will make this quick."
Imogen barely had time to raise her hands before a burst of force slammed against her chest, knocking the wind out of her. The ground met her quickly, and she gasped out, "Orym, Fearne! Help!"
Frantic footfall echoed behind her and Delilah tsk-ed, like placating a misbehaved child. "That won't do."
Imogen watched as she raised her hand and did the same; her scars pulsed as sparks shot out of her fingertips, her shot going wide as heavy mist surrounded the area, and her friends were gone. She didn't have time to look back; her limbs locked as a brutal numbness overtook her, her muscles fighting against her commands, taking on new ones. Her lips tried to move to no avail, and the tears she kept at bay slipped down her cheeks as Delilah kneeled at her side, took her chin.
That same hand that stroked her hair after a nightmare, brought her water and let their fingers brush, wiped away any tears that ever fell now gripped her face forcefully. There was a glaze over dark eyes, and as Imogen stared into them, she found no trace of Laudna.
"She's in there,” Delilah expressed. "Poor girl's fighting so hard; I wonder what would happen if we got rid of the source of her fight."
Imogen tried to speak, in vain. She knew it was. Fear boiled in Imogen, not for her own mortality, but for the life Laudna would watch herself take. Imogen's lip trembled ever so slightly, her numb tongue moving to form the soundless word. Laudna.
Something different settled in Imogen's chest. Not the terror that swirled inside, but new, something that bloomed from her heart and began to spread. Her limbs turned from pins and needles to ice, her scars flickering as pieces of her vision faded in and out. Her lungs constricted, blood flowed all too fast. Imogen's heart worked to combat it, until it couldn't.
Imogen swore she saw dark eyes flicker before the nothing.
"Imogen!"
A scream ripped from Laudna's throat, once again her own.
Imogen was bleeding. Imogen was bleeding and her chest was still. Laudna's frantic hands couldn't stifle a flow of blood that had already stopped; she looked down at those hands, the same ones that had held Imogen's gaze to her own as the light left her eyes.
"Oh my gods."
"Help her!" Laudna cried, clutched Imogen tighter to her chest as if to keep her very soul tied to her still form.
Several bodies joined their side but she focused on none other than the one in her arms, looked into lavender eyes that still seemed to hold fear. Forever petrified by what Laudna had done.
A diamond was placed on Imogen's chest (too still, so still,) and dissipated into dust within moments of the blue glow that sapped its importance. Imogen didn't move.
"Why isn't it working?!" A voice vaguely touched her ears.
Laudna stared. Stared at her still chest, at her unblinking eyes; she screamed, and screamed, and kept screaming even as her ears pulsed, as the group was knocked off their feet.
"What did you do?!" Laudna let out a wail and ignored the rare need for oxygen. She was unsure who the question was directed towards.
"What I thought was best. A shame it was a waste."
A hand threaded in her hair, pulled, willed for the spirit to leave her mind. The body in her arms began to lose soothing warmth, dull to a chill that wasn't unlike Laudna's own.
Sobs nearly tore Laudna's larynx from her body as it curled into itself, around the woman she vowed to protect with everything she had.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
Laudna repeated it like a mantra, like if she said it enough it would reach wherever Imogen was.
Imogen always had so much faith in her. Stayed by her side no matter the danger, had told Laudna, promised Laudna, that she could never hurt her. She was wrong. So, very wrong.