Scott's P.O.V

I made my way to Shelby's room, as Em had said. I knocked on the door, and a small "come in!" came from the other side.

I went in, shutting the door behind me. I went and sat next to Shelby on her bed. "You needed me?" I asked.

"The darkness is still in there, Scott," she whimpered. "I'm scared."

"You'll... actually, I won't lie to you. Something will go wrong. But you need to learn how to hold off that darkness yourself, we can't do it for you."

"But how do I do that?"

"I don't know. But deep down, YOU know. For now, we'll do what we can to keep you from hurting anyone. But keep in mind, you may get hurt a bit while we try to do that. I can't keep lying to you, you are weak. Sensitive. But your physical strength is too much sometimes. Please, just try your hardest to stay in control."

"It's easier said than done... I know Mika's trying to apologise but... I just can't tolerate her."

I was unsure on what to say. I knew nothing about the past of these two girls. I shook my head. "I'll tell you a story," I said eventually. "Way back when, I was lonely. I had only one friend, a friend I barely saw, and I was bullied horrendously. And you'll never guess who the bully was. It was Lauren."

Shelby looked at me in shock. "But you two are so close!"

"We are, but that trust and friendship took almost one hundred years to build. Lauren put me in such a bad mental state. I... never thought someone like me could dip so low. 

"I went to bed in tears one night, just like many of my nights at that point. I could never get Lauren's horrible insults out of my head, the bruises from her friends hurt bad. I lifted the blankets to see an envelope. The envelope wasn't small, mind you. It was a peculiar size for an envelope. I opened the envelope to a letter, a letter stating that I was to be apart of the FAE. I didn't know what that meant, what it was, why I was chosen. I figured it was my sister pranking me when a huge burst of light came out of the envelope. I was the Soul of Life. 

"The next day, I did just as the letter had said; meet with the fellow FAE members on the forest path. I recognised two people. Jack, my childhood friend. And Lauren. But she didn't glare it me, laugh at me, hurt me. In fact, she didn't say a single word to me. She smiled, waved, and went back to talking with one of the girls I didn't recognise, that was Yammy. 

"Together, we walked along the forest path. We shared our names and elements. I expected Lauren to poke fun at me for proclaiming to be Life, but she gave a look of pride. And then she did something unexpected: she apologised. She explained herself, how she did what she did to fit in. But I didn't forgive her.

"For weeks, she tried over and over to apologise, but I turned her down every time. I knew I had to accept her apology one day, but still, I didn't forgive her. I despised her. I destroyed her in every training session with my new-found strength. My hate for her lasted a year until our first real, dangerous mission. 

"I won't go into specifics, it's not something I like thinking about, but I was in a near death situation. Lauren saved me. Even after that, I still didn't trust her. We worked together, our mentors would've been mad if she let me die.

"Slowly, I realised how hard she was trying. I accepted her apology in our fifth year in the FAE. Yes, it took that long. The more missions we went on, the more we got to know each other. In our fourteenth year, I told her about my sexuality. I still remember how happy she was. Our fiftieth year was the year our mentors passed on. We comforted each other during that time. And sixty-seven years in is when we lost Jack. She saw how destroyed I was, and at that point, she was the only one I trusted. My mind was as destroyed as it was when she bullied me. And I think she realised that.

"Finally, the seventy-fourth year, I was completely over what she did. It takes a while to forgive someone, but you still should hear them out, Shelby. Talk to Mika, find out what really happened. Talking is what got Lauren and I to where we are today. Tell Mika that it'll take a while to forgive her, but acknowledge that she's trying. Because you left her out there in tears."

Shelby stared down at her twirling thumbs. "O-okay..." she whispered, standing up. "But... can you be there too?"

"Sure."

Shelby's P.O.V

Everyone stared as I entered the room. Mika moved slightly closer to Meghan, further away from me. "Mika... can..." I mumbled. "C-can..." I glanced at Scott.

"Shelby wants to have a chat with you," Scott said for me.

Mika didn't move. "She won't hurt you," Scott assured her. "I won't let her hurt you."

Mika pulled Meghan up with her. "Can Meghan come?" she asked.

"Preferably not," I muttered in reply.

"Oh..."

"It's okay Mika, Scott's a good person," Meghan reassured her.

I plonked down in one of the spare rooms, Mika sat across from me, and Scott sat beside me. "Look, Mika," I began. "I can hear your apologies. But don't expect me to accept them."

Mika shook her head. "I get that," she said.

"I know that I'm hurting you by... well, almost stabbing you in the chest, but you have to understand that over this past year and a half, I've been through Hell and back. I was chosen as a Life soul, I got overwhelmed by my demons, I lead an evil organisation, I killed my cousin and some of my friends, including my closest childhood friend. I brought all of them back but my childhood friend, my cousin's boyfriend, and my cousin left me in the dust. I've had near-death experiences, gained powers I almost ruined the world with. And I haven't ever forgiven myself for that. My head is in such a horrible place, and you're just adding to the weight. So if you could, please stop constantly trying to apologise, because I just can't stand it right now." I looked at Scott, then at Mika. I stared into her eyes, trying to hold back the urge to squeeze her throat. "Maybe I'll be able to tolerate you one day." I picked up a pillow and it turned into a rock. "But that day just isn't today."

Mika didn't move a muscle, but Scott grabbed the rock, the pillow-sized rock, and threw it out the window and into the training field. "Shelby, remember what we talked about," he said.

I huffed and plonked back down. "Maybe I believe you were possessed, maybe I don't."

I stared out the window. In the clearing, right by the entrance to the woods, there stood a girl. A girl with brown hair. Brown hair with gold tips. A girl with no eyes.

A girl that was me.