CHAPTER 15

We all went back, our minds clouded. I'd never thought I'd live to see a sane person supporting Diamond like that. With Emerald, it always seemed as if he was doing it half out of fear, half out of his personal interests. But Daphne, she just blindly trusted Diamond, childhood memories messing with her rational mind. Other than her relationship, she actually seemed like such a sweet girl. I guess she'd be the hardest to devillainize as she's not even a villain and I didn't know what we'd have to do to get her to see Diamond will never be good.
Once we got back, everyone was glad we didn't get hurt (only Jennifer had a nasty bruise) but wanted to hear about the new villain and why we looked so annoyed.

"Oh Daphne?" Ruby said once we were done with the explanation, "I remember her. She and Diamond would hang out almost every day."
"So what are we going to do next? Convince Daphne about what Diamond is like?" Thane asked while poking a stick at a fire that was recently put together.
Jennifer shook her head.
"You should've seen her, she's so fucking stubborn."
"Hey, try to relax," said Felix reassuringly to which Jennifer just looked away.
"So what do we do then?" Tina complained, probably seeing Isaac was attempting to come up with a plan, yet seemed to be lost.
"Ey, don't rush it," Nick remarked, "we still have time, right?"
"I suppose," Isaac said, looking at his father, "Diamond just introduced us to Daphne, we don't have a clock ticking."

We got back not long before the sun set. Since it was still July, days were long so by the time it was dark, most have already gone to sleep. I was just about to do that myself as meeting with Daphne had exhausted me, when Isaac called me over.
"I'm gonna be on the first night shift with Irene, I wanna make sure we can really trust her, just thought I'd let you know," Isaac said. I could sense in his voice that he still held a grudge against Irene due to how little she told us.
"Can I join?" I asked, surprising Isaac a bit. I think Irene's mysterious behaviour made her even more interesting, I wanted to get to know her better.
"You sure?" I nodded. I looked at Irene who was sitting by the fire, staring at the hissing flames. There was a weird expression in her eyes, a mix of shock and pain. The scar on her face looked as if it was made by fire, but then again it was such a weird scar, this couldn't have been made by natural fire.
Felix and Jennifer were also there, they usually stayed up late (and then complained when they had to be wakened up in the morning). Quite often they toasted whatever food they could find on the fire and make the first night shift some company.
Isaac turned around and started walking towards Irene, nudging me to follow him.

"So the last villain is Daphne then, huh? I saw her a few times when she was a star," Irene said, sparking up the conversation a bit.
"I did too," Jennifer muttered, "I had no idea she was on Diamond's side though."
"Me neither," Irene shook her head. Jennifer was still angry at Daphne, but Irene seemed rather calm about it. She almost seemed too calm, but I couldn't pin anything being specifically wrong about her other than just being mysterious and surprisingly calm.
"You said you were from Emerald's Labyrinth then? Anything you wanna tell us about that?" Isaac said, changing the theme. He didn't make himself sound too forceful, but was trying to get any useful information Irene would feel comfortable sharing.
"It was just girls," Irene shrugged, "I guess that's not something usual."
"Was that scar caused by a villain there then?" Felix asked. Jennifer glared at him, as Irene stated before her scar was something she didn't like talking about. Irene looked away, her hair falling over her face and hiding most of her expression from us. But yet, we got an answer.
"I guess we could say so," Irene muttered quietly. She looked up and narrowed her eyes as she was thinking about something. It almost seemed as if she was thinking about whenever to tell us something or not.
"Emerald made it, I can tell you that much," she said, even more quietly than before, I actually barely heard what she said.
"I kinda assumed either Emerald or Diamond had their fingers in between," Felix said.
"Funnily enough, I've never even seen Diamond, I've just heard about her until now," Irene said.
She seemed a bit more distant after telling us Emerald caused her scar. I could see that she was probably still going through that event over and over again in her mind. Because of that, Isaac decided he wouldn't ask her anything too personal or Labyrinth related anymore. She talked about her home in Ireland before Labyrinth a bit, we learned how old she was, that she had no siblings and in general what her life was like then Halfway through the conversation Felix and Jennifer went to sleep as it was already midnight. But not long after they left, Ruby seemed to have woken up. His shadowy body was barely visible in the dark as he walked towards us.

"What are you doing up?" I asked.
"I had a nightmare," Ruby answered, "I'll stay here a bit."
"I don't think we've ever properly met, I'm Irene," Irene said.
"Ruby," Ruby replied and smiled. Irene's attention seemed to be on Ruby's eyes.
"Hope you don't mind me asking this but why are your eyes gray? Usually your guys' eye colors fit your name."
"I blinded myself," Ruby replied blandly. I think Ruby had already accepted he was blind a long time ago. After all, he was reminded by it every day when he opened his eyes to nothing but darkness.
"Your still just a child, you shouldn't have to go through that," Irene said sympathetically. Ruby just shrugged.
"I don't think I've had a normal childhood anyways," he said, "I have a feeling you've gone through more than you should have for your age too."
Although Ruby couldn't see Irene's shocked expression, the short silence should've told him enough.
"I guess we're even then," Irene said at last.

CHAPTER 16
December 23rd 2016