NOVEL WEB Chapter 22: Rule Number One
"Why?" I asked, more than a little confused. "What's wrong with me that you had to protect me?" I really couldn't understand it. What was the point of looking back and regretting something or feeling guilty for not being able to change the past?
The past was over and done with; there was no point in wishing to redo it.
Ah shit…
'Deal accepted,' came the female voice inside my head, and all of a sudden, it was like I couldn't breathe.
He didn't make a deal. It was just a stupid word, one that everyone says without thinking! He wasn't trying to make a deal! There needed to be a way to go back and change it.
No, I wouldn't accept the deal, no matter what the voice in my head said.
I opened my eyes wide and quickly placed the hand not holding Teddy against Luca's mouth. "Take it back!" I cried, tears flowing down my cheeks as my body started to shake from lack of air. "You can't make wishes, never make wishes."
"I wouldn't even if I could," murmured Luca softly, the back of his hand caressing my cheek as if nothing was wrong.
But why could he understand that everything was wrong?!? Why?!?
"No! Take it back. Dimitri!" I screamed, my voice breaking as I frantically looked around the bathroom, seeing nothing.
Before I could even close my mouth, the door to the bathroom slammed open, and I could hear a series of footsteps rushing into the bathroom.
"I'm here, Kitten," murmured Dimitri, and I could feel Luca being pushed away from me as Dimitri pulled me into his arms. "I need you to breathe for me, okay? Feel my chest; I am here, right in front of you. Feel it expanding? I need you to do that, too, okay?"
Shaking my head, I could feel myself starting to get dizzy but taking in a breath really wasn't in the cards right now.
"What happened?" asked a calm voice behind Dimitri. He seemed to be annoyingly calm, given everything that was happening, and I lifted my head to hiss at him.
Fuck being normal. Luca was going to disappear like that woman, and it would be all my fault, and then Dimitri would hate me because I took away his friend, and then he would never speak to me again, and I would go back to being all alone with only the voices again.
I didn't want that to happen! I couldn't let that happen.
I needed to stop whatever was going to happen next. If some part of me could grant wishes and make deals, then there needed to be a part of me that could break the contract.
I needed to save Luca.
"That's not the way it works, Little Bit," murmured Greed softly and I could feel his arms wrapping around me from behind, completely ignoring the fact that Dimitri was holding me against his chest. "He made an open-ended wish, and it was accepted. There is no going back after that."
"No!" I screamed, flinging back my head so fast that Dimitri struggled to keep me from bashing my head against the glass.
"What the fuck did you do to her!" bellowed Dimitri, his entire body vibrated with his fury.
"Nothing!" replied Luca, honest confusion in his voice. "I was washing her face, I saw the scars, and I wished that I had been able to protect her from it."
"Crisse," snarled Dimitri as he pulled me even closer toward him. I could still feel Greed behind me, trying to offer his own comfort, but all I saw was everything crumbling around me.
I wasn't built to be on my own, and Dimitri showed up out of the blue when I needed him. Now, he was going to leave me, and it was all my fault.
"I'm not going anywhere, Kitten," murmured Dimitri, his massive hand cupping my head and pressing me even closer to his heart. "Even if Luca disappears right now, I'm not leaving you, nor will I blame you."
"Do you trust me?" asked Greed, his soft voice like a soothing balm, and I took the first real breath since I realized just what Luca had done.
"With everything that I am," I replied, not caring that I was talking out loud. The crazy train had already left the station with the scene I was making; I might as well save some effort and talk to Greed out loud.
"Then trust that I won't let anything happen to the meat sack," purred Greed, his peppermint breath right in front of me as I felt him lick a tear off my cheek. "This will be his payment, your tears. You know I can't stand to see you cry."
"His full payment?" I asked, opening my eyes. "After all, it's not like his wish can be granted. It would require going back into the past, which is not possible."
"You and I both know that isn't true," chuckled Greed. "There are many ways to interpret his wish."
"But he did save my life; that has to count for something," I pressed, not caring that everyone in the bathroom seemed to be listening to my one-sided conversation. I wasn't going to let the matter go until I ironed out every last detail.
If the devil was in the detail, then I would use the devil to save my knight.
"Let it go for now," pleaded Greed. "Trust that I will not take away your toy. If you want to keep him, then you will be close. Have I ever lied to you?"
My body froze at Greed's words. He was right. I did trust him, and he had never lied to me once, even when the truth wasn't what I wanted to hear. He had always protected me in his own way, and I needed to believe in that.
"Okay," I answered. Sitting straighter, I wiped the tears off my cheeks as I stared up at where Dimitri's head should have been.
"Rule number one," I announced as I sucked in yet another breath of air. "No saying wish. Period, end of story."
"I can't make that promise," replied Dimitri, his thumb catching a tear that I didn't know I had missed. "But I promise that I won't make a wish lightly, and I will specify absolutely everything before I do. No open-ended wishes."
"And the others?" I challenged. If they were important to Dimitri, then they were important to me. I needed to protect them as best I could.
"We promise," answered the calm voice. As soon as he uttered the words, I felt the world slip away, and I hid in the darkness that had once been my only friend.