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“Is that him on the dirt? Go invis, shoot him”
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“I’ve got to take off my armor though”
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“They’ll be attracted to us so as long as Pearl works in the background it’ll be fine”
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“You’ve got this Pearl, get Jimmy!”
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Pearl snuck through the trees, free of her armor and anything else that would give away her position. Looking up, she tracked Jimmy as he walked along the cobblestone and dirt that hung suspended in midair some ways in front of her.
“If I could just get a little closer” she said, careful not to move any branches as she traipsed through. A few paces forward led her to an opening in the treetops and she saw him scuttling around above her.
“Almost there,” she whispered. She surveyed the nearby landscape until she found a branch to hide behind that also gave her a good view of Jimmy above her.
Carefully, Pearl nocked an arrow, lined up the shot, and let the arrow fly. She knew before it even landed that her aim had been off and tried another, this arrow making it a bit closer to her target.
Vaguely, she could see Jimmy spin around and pull out his own bow to nock an arrow. Pearl shot at him again and barely missed him. She had just a second to realize her mistake when Jimmy’s gaze followed the arc of her arrow and locked onto exactly where she was stood, still invisible.
In a flurry of movement, Pearl had no time to process that Jimmy had launched another arrow at her before she felt its impact hit her in the chest.
She staggered back with the hit, and time seemed to distort around her. The sound of blood roared in her ears. She tried to regain her footing, but as she struggled, she heard a squelch of flesh being torn before she registered a second arrow piercing the right side of her chest.
“No no no no no” she whispered frantically.
A second later, a third arrow struck her at the same time that a bolt of lightning struck the ground where she stood, and she fell.
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“That might be the last time we hear from Pearl”
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“She’s about to go on a rampage”
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“She’s about to kill everyone we’ve ever known”
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PearlescentMoon was shot by SolidarityGaming
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Gem gasped as the bolt of lightning cracked across the sky, down to where Pearl had been hit with a lethal arrow.
“Grian,” said Gem, shock coloring her voice.
“Oh no,” said Grian, his voice in sync with her own.
Gem darted toward Grian, grabbing his arm and whirling him around to face her. “Grian. Grian!”
Grian stared back at her, a look of abject horror on his face. “Oh no.”
“We have to go, we have to find her.” Gem said, tugging his arm and dragging him in the direction where the bolt of lightning had struck.
Grian shook himself out of his stupor and hurriedly followed Gem. He felt sick, the feeling reflected in Gem as well. They crashed through the underbrush of the forest, no longer caring how much noise they made. The sound of shrieks and whoops of joy sounded in the distance as they approached. After a kill like that, they doubted anyone was paying attention.
All at once, they burst through the trees and into a clearing that had been stained scarlet. Gem’s eyes followed the bright red to where it met a cloak of similar color, its fabric now wet with the blood of the person wearing it.
“No!” Gem said, almost refusing to acknowledge the truth that lay in front of her.
Grian stumbled, as if he himself had taken a blow as he wailed his own “Noo!”
Pearl sat with her cloak bunched under her feet, her knees on the ground and face looking toward the full moon overhead and the cobblestone floating in the air nearby. Three arrows stuck out horridly from her chest, blood blooming from around the shafts of each one.
“NO!”
“NOOO!”
Gem and Grian both screamed as they rushed to Pearl’s side, both of them catching her as she began to fall backward.
She spoke softly around the blood in her mouth. “This is a horrible day.” She gasped for breath, wincing as the movement shot pain through her torso. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes and into her ears. “This is a horrible day.”
“No Pearl, you can’t leave me. You can’t leave us.” Gem cried.
Grian sniffled, his own tears mixing into the dampness of Pearl’s cloak. “Pearl, what are we going to do without you? We need you.”
Pearl wheezed, and Gem could hear that at least one of her lungs had been punctured by the arrows and was filling with fluid as each second passed. The knowledge brought a wet sob from her lips and Gem squeezed Pearl’s hand.
“We can’t do this without you, Pearl,” she sobbed. “What if I just jump into the square hole and decide not to live without you?”
Grian made an indecipherable noise and then, “you’d have to jump in three times”
Pearl slightly shook her head and tried her best to smile. “Stop it. Don’t you dare. You need to win it, okay?” It took all of her strength to squeeze Gem’s hand. She turned to Grian and spoke again, “She needs to win.”
The look that Pearl and Grian shared was loaded.
“Promise me you’ll help Gem win.” Pearl said, her voice growing weaker.
Grian nodded, his breath hiccuping between quiet sobs. “I will. I promise.”
Pearl turned back to Gem. “Promise me you’ll try to win. For me.”
Gem nodded as well, forcing a watery smile. “For you Pearl, I will.”
Pearl returned it with a watery smile of her own. She gave a small, approving nod, and all at once she stilled, her hand going slack in Gem’s and her head falling back into Grian’s lap.
Gen and Grian both sat there in silence, trying to process that they had lost their dearest friend. Trying to process the fact that at the beginning of the day their friend had a long and bright future ahead of her but had somehow ended the day like this: a shell that Grian and Gem still clung onto even as it began to grow cold.
Gem wasn’t sure if it was minutes or hours, but eventually a rustling came from the bushes behind them and Scott stepped into the clearing. Guys?” he said. A second later his eyes fell on the tragic scene in front of him and he said barely above a whisper, “what happened?”
Gem sniffed and tried to find her voice. “She’s gone.”
“Jimmy’s just killed her.” Grian said, still staring blankly down at Pearl.
Scott bowed his head and said, “I’m so sorry for your loss”. He gazed at the two for a moment before deciding it was best to give them back their privacy. He could grieve and pay his respects later, after Pearl’s loved ones had their own time with her.
A few minutes passed before Grian reached to close Pearl’s eyes and then gently laid her head onto the ground. He then took his sleeve and wiped his face of the tears that had begun to dry there. His expressioned hardened into one of quiet anger. “Jimmy’s gonna—Jimmy’s going out of this series by my hand.”
Gem nodded. “Okay,” she said, swallowing the last of her tears and finally looked up from Pearl to meet Grian’s eyes. “I will help you with that.”