#nespri

               No one knew what the dark held in store for those caught in it.

               Nespri didn’t know.

               Her shrill screamed broke the shuffling quietness of the dark followed by the thud that was created when she fell back onto the floorboards.

               “Nespri!!!” Scalen called out for his moirail, attempting to find her in the dark. He ran towards the source of the scream, and when his foot hit something that let out a weak cry of pain, he calm to a halting stop.

               The lights woke from their nap and Scalen found, at his feet, his moirail, with a rusty lead pipe embedded in her abdomen. One elbow was propping her up so that she wasn’t laying flat on her back while one hand was where the pipe was, presumably pressing down on the wound. Covering his mouth with his hand in shock, Scalen dropped to his knees beside the heiress.

               “Oh God, Nespri…” was the only thing that left the pseudo purple blood’s lips before he went into his act-before-react mode. He turned to one of the other trolls in the room who was watching with a concerned gaze. “Go get medical supplies, now!” He shouted. Though he attempted to sound composed, the fear in his voice was clear. Startled by the sudden order, the troll nodded and rushed off. Scalen turned back to his moirail and gently set his hand on her shoulder. She was trembling. He’s never felt her tremble this hard. “It’s going to be alright…” he told her soothingly, hoping the words would comfort both of them.

               Weakly nodding, Nespri kept pressing her hand down against the wound, trying to ignore the fact that her hand was turning tyrian from her blood. Listening to Scalen’s words of comfort, Nespri kept applying pressure around the wound, wincing every time she moved her hand.

               Soon enough, the troll Scalen had sent off returned and handed a first-aid kit to Scalen, who didn’t even bother to thank him, he just popped it open immediately. “Look, Nespri, we have a first-aid kit now. You’re going to be alright…” Scalen reached for the bandages in the kit but stopped himself. These bandages would go to waste if they were used to stop the bleeding once the pipe was taken out… “You, I need you again.” Scalen said, turning back to the troll whose name he did not know. “When I pull the pipe out, you’re going to press… press…” He looked back at Nespri and the first thing he did was snatch the scarf around her waist, untying it and holding it out to the unnamed troll. “You’re going to press this against the wound while I disinfect it and dress it. Is that clear?” The troll nodded and took the scarf, moving over to kneel beside Nespri and Scalen.

               Grabbing onto the lead pipe, Scalen looked at his moirail and frowned at the fear in her eyes. “This is going to hurt, Nespri, but I promise it’ll be alright afterwards.” He told her. She frowned though nodded, voicing no protests. “Okay… one… two… three!”

               Scalen yanked the pipe out and there was a splash of tyrian blood and another pain-ridden shriek from Nespri, making him cringe. Instantly, Scalen discarded the pipe and grabbed the rubbing alcohol in the first-aid kit, trying to apply it to the wound that was being pressed on with Nespri’s scarf. Nespri was unintentionally putting up a fight however, squirming and wiggling about in pain and discomfort. Though luckily, Scalen managed to clean the wound, which meant he only had to dress it. Reaching for the roll of bandages and snatching them, the purple blood smacked away the hands of the troll that held Nespri’s bloodied scarf and immediately went to work on dressing her wound.

               Minutes passed by and now, Scalen was sitting beside his injured, but treated, moirail. The troll that assisted in this treatment was sent off, allowing Scalen to be alone with Nespri.

               “I told you everything was going to be alright.” He stated with a weak smile.

               “Y-yeah…” Nespri replied, her voice shakier than ever. Scalen assumed it was from the pain from earlier and attempted to shrug it off.

               “Come on, let’s get up now…” Scalen pulled himself to his feet and reached down to gently take a hold of Nespri’s hands and help her to her feet. The moment he let go, though, she flinched, cried out, and fell to her knees. Alarms went off in Scalen’s mind as he dropped down to her level. “Nespri?”

               The small tyrian blood was silent for a few heartbeats before letting out a small giggle. It was a forced laugh and Scalen didn’t like that at all.

               “What’s wrong?”

               “I-it hurts s-so much, Sc-Scalen…”

               Scalen’s heart dropped into his stomach.

               He didn’t… he couldn’t have… he didn’t mistreat her, did he?

               Nespri forced herself to lean towards him, her bloody hand outstretched to gently cup his cheek. She was shaking harder than ever. “Y-you tried your b-best and I-I’m glad you did…” said the heiress, smiling weakly and letting a small chuckle. Scalen could feel tears stinging his eyes as he stared at Nespri in a stunned, horrified silence.

               “B-but I—“

               “Sh-shh… You did a-all you could. You did a-all you could th-this whole tide. Th-thank you. Th-thank you so much, Scalen. I-I love you. Y-you’re the best morayeel a troll c-could ask for…”

               “N-Nespri…”

               Scalen’s heart shattered like glass that was hit by a bullet as he watched her smile once more and lean closer to him, gently tugging him down at the same time so she could press her lips against his forehead. He put his hand over the hand of hers that was still on his cheek. The purple blood felt her go rigid and let out a small pained noise before she collapsed in his arms. “Nespri!”

               Her intense trembling died down to limp stillness and he listened as the last breath left her lips, tears streaking down his cheeks as he sat there, holding her in his arms. He… she… she was gone…

              She was fucking gone.

                                                                     sʜᴇ ᴡᴀs ᴅʀᴏᴡɴɪɴɢ.                                                                      sʜᴇ ᴡᴀs ғᴜᴄᴋɪɴɢ ᴅʀᴏᴡɴɪɴɢ.                                                                      ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴇxᴘʟᴀɪɴ ʜᴏᴡ.

           Her lungs filled with water and a silent bubbling scream emitted from her lips and rose above to the sky. Oh, if only she could get to the surface as quickly and easily as those bubbles. And if only she had those bubbles back just for those few extra moments of air.

           How this was happening, she did not know. The small girl could only flail her arms through the water in a feeble attempt to reach the surface. The pressure bore down on her body and made her feel as if she were being crushed from all around. Another silenced wail occurred and more seawater filled her system.

           Eyes getting bleary and peripheral vision growing dark, another attempt was made to escape this fate. But it seemed like pressure wanted to keep things on the track. Her lungs were being squeezed of every drop of air there was left and soon, the feeling of controlling her limbs was lost.

           She was feeling lighter despite the pressure that crushed her. Lighter… was she floating? Was she sinking? It was impossible to tell now that her vision went black. Her chest grew tight and it appeared that everything was over now.

           Hands grabbed onto her arms and pulled her up to safety. Head surfacing, Nespri’s eyes opened immediately and she took a desperate gasp for air, the feeling of air returning to her lungs feeling so achingly unknown.

           “Nespri! What’s wrong?”

           A familiar voice snapping her back to reality, Nespri looked up to notice that her moirail, Scalen, was looking down at her with a concerned expression. He was sitting on the floor a few feet away from her recuperacoon with her laying in front of him, her head resting in his lap.

           The tyrian blood could only stare up at him with a startled gaze, still trying to refill her lungs with oxygen. “…Nespri?” Scalen asked once more, gently this time.

           Nespri wiggled around and got herself into a sitting position in front of her moirail, immediately moving forward to wrap her arms around his torso. Her face was buried into his sweater, his familiar scent washing over her and comforting her.

           “Day terror?” he asked, returning the hug. She responded with a weak nod. The faux indigo blood let out a sigh and pressed a pale kiss to the top of her head, rubbing her back in soothing circles.

           “I was drowning…”

           “Drowning, you say?”

           “I don’t know how, though…”

           “…Nespri?” Scalen stopped rubbing his moirail’s back, prompting her to look up at him.