I Love You Awesome Nerds

The tower came into view, along with the people still atop it.

There she was.

A spot of pink amongst the green.

“There she is!” A guard cried, pointing as Elphaba swept towards them.

“Elphie! What are you doing?!” Glinda cried.

“I promised I wouldn’t leave you behind again!” Elphaba called back. “Let go of her!”

The sight of the guards’ holding back her best friend, their fingers gripping her bare arm with enough strength to cause bruises, caused white hot rage to fill Elphaba. She flung out her hand and the guards staggered back as if they’d been hit by a wave.

“Glinda, come with me,” Elphaba said, pulling the broom to a stop beside the wall.

“I… I can’t,” Glinda said, tears shining in her brown eyes. “Elphie, I can’t.”

Elphaba swallowed. The guards began staggering back to their feet. She was running out of time. 

“Come with me,” she said again, her hand outstretched towards Glinda. “Please.” 

Time seemed to stand still for a moment as Elphaba watched the indecision in Glinda’s eyes. 

She saw the moment Glinda made up her mind, and saw her hand twitch towards hers.

And then she saw a guard straighten up behind her and raise his pistol. 

She used a wave of force to knock Glinda to the ground and a shot rang out a second later.

She watched it happen as if in slow motion, completely powerless to stop it.

The pain was white-hot. Sickening and dirty and unlike anything Elphaba had felt before.

It knocked her off-balance, and she almost tipped backwards off her broom.

She wasn’t sure how she was still holding onto it.

She pressed her other hand to her stomach, and when she pulled it back her green skin was slick with red.

Silence had fallen around them. Even the monkeys had stopped their howling.

“Elphie…”

Elphaba’s grip on the broom slackened as the levitation spell began to falter. 

She took a final look at Glinda before she pitched backwards and began plummeting towards the ground.

Glinda’s screams were lost in the howling of the wind.

“Elphaba!” Glinda staggered to her feet and rushed to the edge. She reached out a hand to try and grab some part of Elphaba, but she was already beyond reach. She turned to the stunned crowd of on-lookers. “Do something!” Her eyes fell on the huddle of monkeys. “Chistery, please.”

A look of understanding passed between them, and he let out a small grunt before turning to the monkeys gathered around him.

Chistery leapt off the side of the building and began speeding towards the ground. Towards Elphaba.

Glinda didn’t get a chance to react as another monkey scooped her up and began flying after them. 

As the ground rushed up to meet Elphaba, she couldn’t help but feel… disappointed.

Was this really how her story ends?

Shot by a guard before she’d even had the chance to live?

The chance to do some good?

The chance to tell Glinda… 

No, she’d had her chance to tell Glinda. She’d had a million chances and she’d chickened out of each one.

She couldn’t blame the Emerald City guard for that.

Elphaba could hear shouts in the distance and thought she must be getting closer to the ground.

Will there be anything left of me to bury?

She swore she could hear Glinda calling for her, but she was hundreds of feet from the top of the tower by now.

She braced for impact but it never came. 

Instead she was snatched from the air as a pair of strong arms grabbed her roughly around the middle. 

The arms pressed against the bullet wound in her side, and she let out the first cry of pain since it happened. 

She wasn’t sure how long they flew, but eventually the city gave way to poppy fields which became woods, and Elphaba was lowered to the ground with surprising gentleness.

“I’m sorry,” Elphaba said, wincing as she tried to sit up. “I didn’t- ah!” She cut herself off with a grunt of pain and closed her eyes as she waited for it to pass. “I didn’t know what that spell would do. I thought I was helping, I’m sorry.”

Chistery helped her lean against a tree, and she could tell by the look in his eyes that he was sorry too. He looked at the dark patch spreading across her dress and then back to her face. She could see her blood on his fur.

“I know,” she said, wincing again. “It’s bad.”

He put a hand on her shoulder, squeezed it, and then retreated. 

“Elphie!” 

Glinda was at her side in seconds. She unfastened the cloak still around Elphaba’s neck and balled it up before pressing it to the wound in her side.

Elphaba winced and tried to pull her hand away but Glinda held it in place.

“What do I do?” Glinda asked. Elphaba’s head was beginning to drop to her chest, so Glinda cupped her face with her free hand. “Elphie, look at me, you have to tell me what to do!”

Elphaba laughed. It sounded weak and wet. She could taste blood in her mouth.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything to do.”

“Don’t talk that way,” Glinda said. “There must be something. You aren’t allowed to die, Elphaba Thropp, do you hear me? I forbid it.”

“As much as I loathe to disappoint you, I don’t think I get a say.” She scrunched up her face in a grimace of pain.

Glinda looked around them frantically, but Chistery and the other monkey had already taken flight again. They were alone.

“You just need to hold on,” Glinda said. “I’ll go for help and we can get you patched up-”

“No,” Elphaba said, cutting her off. “Please. Please don’t leave. I don’t… I don’t want to die alone.”

Despite every effort to keep them at bay, tears began slipping down Glinda’s cheeks.

“You aren’t going to die,” Glinda said.

Elphaba laughed again, but it was little more than a breathless chuckle. “You’re a…” Elphaba swallowed, her breathing becoming shallow, “bad liar.”

“I’m not bad at anything,” Glinda said. “Except magic, but…” She trailed off, before grabbing the bag that was still slung over Elphaba’s shoulder. “Magic! Of course!”

She pulled out the Grimmerie and dropped it to the floor before flipping it open.

“Elphie, you can find a spell, right?”

“No,” Elphaba said. “Listen… Need to tell you something.”

“Of course you can find a spell,” Glinda said, her flipping of the pages bordering on frantic. “I can’t read it, so you have to. There must be something-”

“Glinda. Stop.” Elphaba’s hand closed around Glinda’s wrist. “Stop,” she said again. “I don’t want that.” 

“What do you mean you don’t want it?” Glinda pulled her wrist free of Elphaba’s grasp, and tried not to look at the bloody handprint that remained. She resumed flipping through the book. 

“It won’t work,” Elphaba said. “Look at the monkeys. It’ll… change me.”

“Better changed than dead.”

“Not for me.”

“And what about me?!” Glinda snapped, finally tearing her eyes away from the book to look at Elphaba.

She wished she hadn’t.

There was resignation on her face. Acceptance. Tears shone in her eyes but they didn’t fall. Not yet. 

“Glinda, you can’t fix this.”

“Elphie, I can't lose you,” Glinda said. “I… I love you.”

“I love you too,” Elphaba said, finally letting her own tears fall. She held out a hand to Glinda. “Please. Just sit with me.” 

Glinda sniffed and took hold of her hand. “This isn’t fair.”

“No,” Elphaba said. “No it isn’t.”

Glinda wrapped Elphaba in her arms and held her as tightly as she dared.

She could feel each shake and shiver as Elphaba fought to hang on.

“Does it hurt?” Glinda asked.

“Not so much now,” Elphaba said. 

“Good,” Glinda said, her voice wobbling because she knew what that meant. “I’m glad you aren’t in pain.”

“You need to keep fighting them, Glinda,” Elphaba said, feeling suddenly very cold. “The Wizard and Morrible. They can’t win.”

“Shh,” Glinda said. “Save your strength.”

Elphaba tried to laugh again, but it turned into a weak cough. “Save it for what?”

“For help,” Glinda said, her eyes still scanning the dark skies for signs of Chistery returning. “Help will come, I know it will.”

There was nothing left for Elphaba to say. She knew no help was coming.

Dying was taking longer than Elphaba thought it should, but she was glad of the extra time.

The sun had begun to set, and streaks of orange and pink jutted into the darkening sky as though they'd been made by a painter. She wondered when pink had become her favourite colour. 

She tried to move and winced as the pain in her side grew white hot again.

“Elphie, what is it?”

“Need to lie down.”

Glinda helped her lie down so her head was in her lap and softly shushed her as Elphaba let out cries of pain.

Glinda ran a thumb over her forehead and down the side of her face. She tried to smile but her mouth quivered and tears slipped from her eyes and joined the ones already sliding down Elphaba’s cheeks.

“You’re beautiful,” Elphaba said. “Don’t think I ever told you that before.”

Glinda swallowed and let out something between a laugh and a sob. “Not with your words. But when you looked at me when you thought I wasn’t paying attention, I could see it in your eyes.”

Elphaba smiled. “Nothing gets past you.”

“Remember that day we all went to pick flowers for Doctor Dillamond? Nessa, Boq, and Fiyero were all doing something and we just sat and watched the sunset?”

Elphaba nodded. How could she forget? It had been the best day of her life.

“I wish I’d kissed you then.”

Elphaba took a breath and tried to steady the shivering that was shaking her voice. “Kiss me now.”

Glinda did.

It was their first and last kiss. It was soft and gentle and wet with tears, and when they finished Glinda’s forehead stayed resting on Elphaba’s until the hand that had been stroking her cheek fell away.

When the Emerald City guards finally found them, Glinda had stopped crying. The tear tracks on her face had hardened into a mask of grief.

Her dress was dirty and bloody, and her arms had started to bruise from where the guards had grabbed her earlier.

Glinda was numb to all of it. 

“Miss Upland?”

She didn’t turn to look. Her eyes remain fixed on the last dying rays of sunlight.

“Miss Upland, we need to escort you back to Emerald City.”

“Which one of you did this?”

“M-me,” a voice said. “She was stealing the Grimmerie, I did what-”

“Good news,” Glinda said, cutting him off. Her voice shook with a rage she didn’t know she had. “She’s dead.”

On the ground, the Grimmerie flipped open as the pages turned of their own accord.