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"Mai! Wait!" Ann shouted, her hand stretched in the direction of a dark path filled with intimidating trees and suffocating bushes, a path no normal teenager would ever take alone...
But, of course, Mai was a Puppet twin. No normal teenager. Yet, nobody of the small 'friend' group knew her well enough to ensure she would be safe.
"What an unusual situation..." Felix commented, standing next to the way shorter girl. His hand were on his pockets, and his eyes locked in the direction of the pink haired girl that caused Mai to run away with her sharp tongue.
"What!? I didn't say anything that wasn't true. She's weird, and she got us lost in the middle of the woods for absolutely no reason!" Maggie yelled, her eyes burning, the dim light of the bonfire dancing on her skin, making it look warmer than usual.
But there was nothing warm about her expression. Stoic, bothered, even angry.
"Maggie, we're all annoyed at her, but maybe you should have thought of how your words could have made her feel, before..." Ann explained, her voice way softer and much more high-pitched than the pink girl's. Still, Maggie didn't soften her gaze.
"Why? Maybe she should have thought this through before making us go in this weird fucking adventure! We should be back in our cabins by now!" She resorted, hands crossed against her chest.
Felix chimed in, his brows furrowed. It was the first time in all those hours they spent together that the girls saw him really angry. "Well, it doesn't matter anymore! She ran away to god-knows-where, and you're gonna go look for her!" He said, his voice loud and somewhat scolding.
"What!?" Maggie exclaimed, getting up from the log she was originally sitting on. "Why me?"
"Are you stupid... You're the reason why she ran away and she put herself in potential danger! God, Maggie, I thought you'd be smarter than this!" Felix yelled, his tone and his face made it clear that he was losing his patience. His words also seemed to have strucked a nerve in Maggie, that put her hand into a fist.
"Really, you think you're so much smarter than all of your group of rabid dogs pretending to be men, while in reality, you're just as cocky! If not even worse!" He continued, slowly walking nearer to the taller girl, completely unbothered by her stiff position and angry expression.
"GUYS!" Ann yelled, she was sensing a fight, and it really wasn't the time, her senses are never wrong, anyway. She was the one that sensed her own band's doom before it happened, she was the one that sensed how her dress had no way of winning that fashion competition, before she got completely humbled by that glass of wine...
So she go between the two teenagers, putting an hand on Felix's chest to push him away, but not daring to touch Maggie.
Her senses may be right, but she won't let the future make her life miserable. Not anymore.
"Don't fight, it's no use, how about we all go look for mai?" Felix's shoulders relaxed, Ann put her hand away, Maggie was still stiff, but her expression was less angry. Instead, her normal, uncaring demeanor was back.
"And when we find her, Maggie will be the first to apologise." Felix added, pointing a finger at the short haired girl. She just shrugged.
"I guess... I owe her." She said, her voice somewhat defeated. Maggie knew that she went too far, but she thought her anger was justified. Yet again... Maybe he thought his anger against that little girl was justified too. She was a little annoying bitch, anyway, who cares if her knuckles were bleeding by so much slamming against the bathroom's door, begging him to get her out?
Maggie started to wonder if Mai's knuckles were bleeding now. Fuck... She was so stupid. All this time, she let her anger get the best of her. She thought it was strong, just what she needed to defend herself...
Little did she know, she was turning a bit more like her uncle every day.
She wondered if she looked like a fool right now. She was. But neither Felix or Ann decided to bother her. They saw the guilt in her face, Maggie expected laugh, but it never came. Not from them. Not from a girl and a boy that had the world against them, one way or another, just like she did.
Just like Mai, right now.
"Let's go" Maggie muttered, walking straight ahead to where Mai ran away, a few minutes ago. Felix smiled behind her, and both him and Ann started to follow her.
🌲
"Mai? Mai! Maaaiiiii?? Marilena!" Felix yelled, one of his hand pressed on the corner of his mouth, while the other rested in his pocket, fidgeting with a little heart-shaped pebble his boyfriend, Fede, had gifted him when they first got to the camp. a lucky charm.
"Her full name is... just Mai." Ann corrected her, Felix rolled his eyes and chuckled.
Maggie was walking just a few meter further, looking god knows where, that part of the forest was so thick and dark... She got herself cut on both legs by a thorned bush, but she just grunted and kept walking, even when she could not see her peers behind her anymore.
"Mai? Please, come out, I'm sorry." She said, her voice coming out more vulnerable than she wished. God, how come a strange girl that she barely knows had made her so soft?
She wanted to give up, her cuts burned, she couldn't see anything, she was dirty and drenched, cold, and hungry.
But the hunger made her think of the lizard Mai wanted her to lick, so it went away easily.
That's when she found a clearing, finally, some clear air, the suffocating bushes stopped, and her legs were finally free.
A lake was the first thing she saw.
A lake, and a girl her age with some familiar white hair knelt down on the edge of it.
"Mai?" She called out, the girl had her shoulders facing Maggie, and her head bowed down, like she was praying, or just deep in thought.
Mai looked down to the lake, the water was too clear to be true, limpid, reflecting the full moon.
"Woah... What is this place?" Maggie asked, more to herself than to mai.
Finally though, mai heard the girl's voice, and turned her head sharply around.
"Maggie?" She asked, looking at her with those purple eyes, caged by snow white lashes, that once freaked Maggie out, but that now, in the light of the moon, with the faint sound of the water, looked ethereal. And her skin... Shined almost like diamonds.
Maggie chuckled, disbelieving, "hey... I'm..." She had to force her words from her mouth, she never apologized before, she promised herself she'd never apologise to anyone, for any reason.
But maybe, the lack of apology was what was turning her into her uncle. Cold, harsh, ready to hit any child that acts like a child.
She won't let herself.
"I'm sorry, for having said those things. I was angry and I wasn't thinking." As she said those words, Maggie felt a weight fall off her shoulders.
Mai smiled.
"You don't have to forgive me, just... Please know that I wasn't mad at you, just... I was frustrated. And took my anger out on you." She finished, her cheeks heating up. God, she felt ridiculously soft.
Mai let a few minutes of silence pass, before she got up and turned completely around. That's when Maggie noticed a few shells resting in her hand.
"Huh? What's this?" Maggie asked, Mai just tilted her head.
"For you". Maggie smiled, how could she forgive her so easily? And with a gift, too?
"I don't think I deserve it." Maggie admitted, but Mai didn't put her hand away.
"Take one, and open it!" She said, excitedly. Way too excitedly... What if it was some kind of joke?
"Are you sure it's not a prank?" She asked, she expected her voice to have a hint of malice in it, but this time, it wasn't the case. Just pure curiosity.
"It's magic." She said, Maggie didn't think she would give her any other explanation, so she just obeyed.
Slowly stretched her arm to the shells, and took one from her. Small, brown, they just looked like nutshells with nothing magical in it.
"I'm gonna need a nutcracker" Maggie said, again, the usual hint of malice gone in her voice.
"No you won't. Just open it!" Mai urged, her bright, big smile had come back to her face.
"If you say so..." Maggie murmured, still a bit unsure, but she knew Mai well enough to know that, no matter how weird her actions are, she means no harm.
She never means harm. She never harmed and never will harm. Was Maggie jealous of that feature of hers?
She pressed her hands, the nutshell between her palms, and it did crack miraculously easily. Maggie was surprised. But the biggest surprise was the bright pink tounge of vapour that came out of it.
Maggie instantly covered her nose and mouth with her hand, but Mai got close and signaled her to relax.
"Don't you worry! These aren't toxic gases, this is magic!" Mai said, excited like a little kid at a birthday party.
The fumes colored the skies, and danced around like the gracefullest of birds. They seemed like fireworks, except they didn't come with loud noises that scared the animals.
"Woah... What is that?" Maggie asked an amazed smirk on her face. Her cheeks felt warm again.
"Harmless magic, just a little dancing fume, the color matches the soul of the one who cracked the shell." Mai explained, like it was the normalest of things.
"Wait... So my soul has the same colour as my hair?" Maggie asked, the two girls started to laugh.
"Maybe," Mai said after she stopped laughing. The fumes didn't last long, but it left behind some glitter-like shine, that fell on the lake's water, making it really look like pink diamonds.
"This place is beautiful, how'd you find it?" The taller girl asked, after having let a few seconds of silence pass.
"I always knew it was here." Mai admitted.
"And, by the way, what you said before..." Mai started, Maggie's expression turned serious, but she was ready to listen. this time, She'd listen.
"I forgive you. I know it wasn't your fault. I've seen it. You didn't mean to shout. You didn't mean to make me cry. You just couldn't help it. But I know you're trying to better yourself, and I appreciate it." Mai explained, somehow, those words his close to home.
"Mai, I..." Maggie started, Mai put the remaining shells in her overall's pocket, and took Maggie's hand. She blushed. Like, seriously blushed. And in the dark it was still obvious, and caused Mai to chuckle softly.
"Thanks." She said. But there was a void in the back of her throat. a void that needed to be filled, but that she didn't exactly know what to fill it with.
🌕
A few months later, it would have been an "I love you" what filled that void. And "I love you" was just what Maggie needed to set her soul alight.
And it would be pronounced on a date that was just like the night when she fell in love, sitting next to the lake in the middle of the woods, cracked magic nutshells all around as they saw the glittery fumes dance in the sky and making their glittery diamond fall all over their hair.