Skylar Opens Up

“I really haven’t been very open with the three of you. I wanted to apologise for that. I’m part of your guild but I’m very closed off, and while we work well together in combat, we aren’t very close personally.” Skylar sighs and I can see that this is visibly difficult for her to say.

“I’m not a very trusting person, as you’ve probably been able to tell. I want to make an effort to explain myself now, tell you a bit about myself and in doing so, I want you to trust me more. I want to be genuine friends with you. This is very difficult for me and I’m trusting you with parts of myself that I swore I would share with no one. I only hope that this doesn’t backfire for me.”

Ivy draws in breath to speak, but Mia lays a hand on her arm to stop her. Skylar takes another deep breath and continues to open up to us. “When I was younger, I had a brother. He was four years older than me, but that didn’t stop us from being really close. Surprisingly close for siblings. I always heard from my friends about them having fights with their siblings. That was never the case for us.”

“My brother was an amazing person. My family loved him, I loved him, and he loved us just as much. It was the four of us, my parents, my brother and I, for years. We had a lot of good times together. That story I told you last night about the beach? My brother was there too, laughing just as hard as I was.”

“I didn’t want to tell you about this because it’s a very sensitive subject for me. 8 years ago, when I was 12 years old, my brother died. He didn’t just die, he was murdered. He was a part of the abyss, a shadow mage too, just like me. He saw the state of anarchy that this place was in, and he wanted to change it. He trained hard and he joined a guild to try to fight back.”

“One day, his guild went up against a gang who didn’t like the fact that they were trying to stop the **** trade. My brother’s guild should have won the fight. They were powerful and knew how to handle themselves. But one of my brother’s friends betrayed them. He sold them out to the gang to save his own skin.”

“The gang set up an ambush for my brothers guild, and half of them were dead before they could realise what was happening. My brother fought back but couldn’t hold his own. He was outnumbered, and he died trying to do what was right. My parents and I were heartbroken. We didn’t know what to do. I swore **** on the man who betrayed him and murdered my brother.”

“We grieved for a long time. I’m not sure any of us ever fully healed. Things changed after that day. He and I were very close, and I didn’t just lose a brother, I lost one of my best friends. My parents lost their child, and they didn’t know how to process it. They became very protective of me after that. I didn’t mind, and embraced their protection.”

Skylar looks down, having teared up as she’s saying all of this. With some effort, she holds back the tears and takes a few deep breaths. I hold Ivy’s hand and squeeze it. I know how she’s feeling, because I’m feeling it too. This woman does not deserve to have gone through such an awful thing, and we both want nothing more than to comfort her and try to make things better in any way that we can.

Skylar looks back up at us after a moment, her eyes still watery, but visibly determined to get through everything that she has to say. “I didn’t mind my parents becoming super protective, because I was betrayed too. I had a group of friends who I lent on for support while I was grieving my brother. Their support was really helpful at first.”

“A couple of weeks after my brother died, I’d found myself getting closer to this guy in my friend group. He was a year older than me, and he’d been there for me the whole time, comforted me and helped me cope with the whole thing. He was really nice to me and I really appreciated it. But what ended up happening was that he started to push me to do things.”

“He tried to get me to send him nudes of myself, and to have sex with him. I didn’t want to, but he kept pushing even after I said no. It turned out that he’d only been comforting me as a way to try to get into my pants. Once he realised that I wouldn’t fuck him no matter how much he pushed, he disappeared from my life and pretended I never existed.”

“He spread rumours through the school, told our friend group and our whole grade that I was a slut and a bitch. He humiliated me and turned everybody towards bullying me. I told the teachers what happened and they stopped anything direct from happening, but they couldn’t stop the whisperings or the judgemental stares.”

“Suddenly I had lost my brother and all my friends. I lost my brother to one of his friends betraying him, and I lost all of my friends and my dignity to one of my friends betraying me. How could I trust anybody after that? I didn’t think I could, and I stopped trying to talk to people.”

“I’m surrounded by different people now, but the damage was done. I leaned into my parents protection. I let them and even encouraged them to be protective with me. I wanted to be safe and they were the only people I felt that I could trust with that. They were the only people who stuck with me throughout everything.”

“They put in place new routines for me. New goals, new training schedules, a new way of life. I was to stay out of the abyss as much as possible, while simultaneously training to become stronger, so I could protect myself if push came to shove. My life became a constant cycle of eat, study, train, sleep. They put me on a strict diet, which is why I said I’d never tried pasta before. I had, just not in years.”

“The idea was that I would never be known enough in the abyss to be in such a dangerous position that my brother was. I was studying to get good grades in school, so I could go to a good university, which I now have. I’m getting a degree to get a good job, so I can be successful in the mundane world and never have to worry about anything to do with the abyss. I laid low in both worlds, quietly working towards a successful mundane life.”

“All the while, I never tried to make connections with anybody anymore. I’d been hurt at such a **** time in my life and it affected me badly. I didn’t feel like I could trust anybody, I didn’t want to trust anybody, because I didn’t want to be hurt again like that. I figured that I could go through my life quietly, not worrying about friends or a relationship or anything like that. I was mostly content with just my parents.”

“But now…things are different. You three came along into my life. I don’t know why I said yes to joining your guild when you asked. I still didn’t want to trust people at that point. Maybe that was my desire for companionship finally manifesting. Whatever the reason I joined, I remember seeing the way that Gemma fought with me when we were ambushed and I wondered if maybe, just maybe, I could trust her.”

“I didn’t think I’d grow to care this much about all of you. You all seem like amazing people. You’re a blast to hang around with, you’re introducing me to new things that I never thought I would get to experience, and you’re trying to do the right thing in this world full of people who back stab each other and forego all morals in favour of getting ahead.”

“This is me opening up to you and deciding to trust you. I want you to know me, and I want to get to know all of you better. I’m throwing my lot in with you, and I’m committing to this guild fully, if you’ll have me. I believe in your cause and I believe in the goodness of each of you. I want to be your friend.” Skylar takes a deep breath, and a tear streaks down her face as her voice breaks. “Please don’t hurt me.”

My heart breaks for her as I hear these words, and I feel a tear rolling down my cheek. Without a word Mia, being the closest to her, gets up and sits down next to her, wrapping her arms gently around Skylar and hugging her. Skylar hugs her back, tears running freely down her cheeks now. Ivy and I follow Mia’s lead, and soon we’re in a group hug with Skylar at the centre.

We sit there wordlessly for who knows how long. “Thank you.” Skylar says eventually. We move back from her to give her a little bit of space, as Mia speaks for the three of us. “You’re our friend now Skylar. Thank you for trusting us and opening up to us. We would sooner die than betray that trust.” Skylar smiles at her. “Thank you Mia.”

Ivy takes Skylar’s hand in hers, looks her in the eye and speaks with every ounce of sincerity that she can. “You’re safe with us. We’ll care for you in the same way that you care for us. We’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” Skylar smiles again at her genuine kindness. I take her hand from Ivy, and say my piece. “You deserve friendship, love and kindness. You’ll get all three from us. I’m glad to call you our friend.” I tell her. Tears spring to her eyes again, but if her broad smile is anything to go by, they’re tears of happiness. “Thank you. Thank you all.” We embrace her and she hugs us back happily.