#noah evans

“Hang her!”

“Kill her!”

“Murderer!”

“Guilty, guilty, guilty!”

Justine awoke to a strangling sensation encircling her neck. Her hand shot to pull at whatever she felt tightening around her throat, only to meet sweat that trickled down her face.

A dream, that’s all it was. But it didn’t change the fact her entire body was perspirating within the freezing bedroom.

EL had decided to take the bed that day, leaving her and Noah sleeping on the floor. Noah didn’t look any better in his sleep, tossing and turning as if the friction it gave him was doing anything to warm him up beneath his thin blanket.

It wasn’t as if sleeping on the floor was a new sensation for her. Even before the circumstances that forced their hands to ration the bed came forth, it was already all too familiar with her.

Jailed and despised. They didn’t deem a child murderer even worth a cot. No matter how many tears spilled onto the hardwood with a pitter-patter, those wouldn’t be enough to prove her innocence.

How foolish they were for believing a young girl such as her could even strangle the boy! The handprints were clearly of a large man-! And yet… And yet, their frenzied hatred blinded them to the truth. Pushed, pushed, pushed until her beloved sir and lady snuck her away to the tower she was now trapped in. One prison for another…

But she couldn’t have regretted it one bit. For as much as she bickered with Noah, she had to admit he was a figure of trust to her. At least she wasn’t being persecuted for nothing at all. She hadn’t told him yet why she arrived at the tower, even though he had been pestering her for it. Maybe if he was kinder, she would have trusted him with such sensitive information, but as of then she was content with harassing him back for his own story.

With the way he was thrashing in his sleep, she was half-afraid he would’ve crushed his own glasses. The thought was certainly amusing, but she wouldn’t have wanted him to get assaulted by another Nepe all because he was too short-sighted. Ever so carefully she slipped out of her blanket, only enough to reach for the spectacles. 

Until—

“HAH-!” His head thrust right into her arm, causing the two to recoil from their respective injuries. 

“Ow! What was that for Noah?!” Justine cried out, clutching her arm close to her chest. Was the man’s head made of stone?! 

He seemed to be just as affected from their collision seeing as he rubbed his forehead with a hand. His other was blindly feeling around the floor in the dark for his spectacles.

“Nothing- Now what were you doing, hovering over me?!”

“You- moron! Here! I was only trying to save your glasses… hmph.” Justine huffed out before handing the pair over.

“Thank you… for the head injury…” So much for being grateful. He sighed out before putting the glasses back on.

“You’re welcome then!” She exclaimed with a pout before slapping her mouth shut.

She had completely forgotten about EL’s presence in the room. He seemed to still be resting away peacefully without a care in the world.

Must have been nice.

Although Noah wasn’t going back to sleep either.

“Aren’t you going to sleep again?” Justine whispered into the air, carefully treading her words so as to not make any more raucous noise. Noah only snorted at this attempt and talked as he always had.

“No. I don’t… feel like it. You know, EL doesn’t wake up unless he wants to. You’re fine.”

“Really?” “I mean it. Haven’t you ever noticed? We catch each other in the middle of the night quite a bit, but never him.”

“...It is a bit strange. But I suppose he is a heavy sleeper. My lady Elizabeth was too…”

“To this extent?” Noah inquired. Justine was quick to shut it down though, knowing how his nature was when it came to his curiosities

“I can’t remember…”

“Being in this tower does that. I can’t remember much either… Besides all the terrible feelings.” That must have been the most sympathetic thing she had ever heard from him. Most vulnerable as well.

“Nothing happy at all?”

“Can you?”

“... If I try hard enough.”

“I don’t recommend that… If you stumble across a stolen memory, what then? If we aren’t there to snap you out of it?” He sharply responded. What he said was out of concern, but it still felt to be a harsh truth she couldn’t swallow.

“So I have to stay miserable?! With the Nepis holding my happy memories hostage while all I’m left with is this— this loneliness!” And finally she would snap, letting the floodgates unleash all her ugly feelings.

“Calm down– Look. That’s how adulthood is. Lonely. As if no one’s going to understand you anymore. Senseless fighting and all the evils of this world… You can only pray for good to our God. Make your own happiness… Proclaim your innocence for as long as you have it. Since clearly you’re still so naive as to have your own.” The fact Noah still believed her innocent… She didn’t know what feeling that brought about, but she felt a need to argue with him somehow.

“That’s all I’ve been doing! Innocence? The only ones that ever believed in me were my sir and lady. Praying? What have I done wrong to have suffered as I have? I inquire this genuinely… genuinely.” She choked out, and how thankful she was that in the darkness he couldn’t have seen the tears that threatened to drip onto her cheeks.

“I-” She must have unloaded far too much onto him, seeing as to how he didn’t even know what to say. In the darkness she could hear him sigh before coming up with something to say. 

“Justine. I have not a single idea of what you suffered… But I promise that no matter how much we endure, it is not because we are receiving judgment. That’s what our deaths are for… God will be merciful, and reward us for our good deeds. As long as you stay that… Naive… stupid child, your innocence will be recognized.” Did he have to say stupid?!

“...Well what does that mean for you then?! Haven’t you already committed blasphemy by saying you would give the deceased an apostle’s blessing free of charge?!”