Pages | Chapter 19 | Lingering

[marsgemwrites]

 Erin and Skereth make preparations for the upcoming ball and old fears make themselves known once more.
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This chapter contains some mentions of blood.


Chapter 19. Lingering

Erin and Skereth were shopping for formal clothes to wear for the ball. Erin was excited to go, the most formal dance she had ever been to was prom. And now she was going to a royal ball with people who were some of her best friends she had ever met. Erin cast a glance at Skereth. She was wearing a loose sleeveless tunic of sorts, it showed off her sleeve of tattoos.

Erin quietly admired Skereth's sculpted arms, something she had caught herself doing every time Skereth's arms were exposed. The woman was undeniably attractive, a fact that was confusing the hell out of Erin. For all thirty years of her life that she remembered, fifteen of which were fake, Erin had only ever dated men. The furthest she had got with a woman was drunkenly making out in college.

But here she was, constantly catching herself admiring Skereth. She was worried that the way she was behaving was creepy. Her looks lingered far longer than socially acceptable for friends. Erin wondered if Skereth noticed.

She shook her head, Pull yourself together, Erin. She thought hurriedly. She instead brought her focus back to shopping. Skereth looked down at Erin, "You're uncharacteristically quiet, Green Eyes,"

Erin's heart fluttered at the nickname Skereth had started using for her. Her heart had fluttered...that really wasn't her most hetero moment, "I'm just thinking," Erin mused.

"What about?" Skereth asked, looking forward again.

Erin shrugged, "Oh, stuff and things."

"How descriptive," Skereth teased.

Erin chuckled, "I don't know, I'm just thinking,"

"Well, whatever you were thinking about you'll have to put it to bed because we're here," Skereth said pushing open the door to a shop. Erin followed her in, her cheeks hot with a blush.

In the shop were mannequins dressed in various stunning formal clothes, both masculine and feminine styles. Erin didn't know where to start. There was a dress that was the colour of the sky just after the sun had set, that stunning deep blue. Another was periwinkle with a skirt that shimmered with silver.

There were dresses in red, green, pink, yellow, every colour of the rainbow. Skereth was looking at jackets. They had ornate patterns and came in as many different colours and styles as the dresses did.

After a solid thirty minutes of looking Erin and Skereth had found three outfits they wanted to try on each. After Erin wanted every dress in the shop Skereth decided to limit it to three being tried on per a trip to the dressing room.

Erin had narrowed it down to a red dress, a blue dress, and a dark pink one. She and Skereth walked into one of the large dressing rooms and stepped behind the provided screens then attempted to try on her dresses. There were two things hindering this. One was the presence of Skereth changing behind a screen on the opposite side of the room. And the other was the fact that the medieval-esc dresses were a nightmare.

Erin stood awkwardly in her undergarments and poked her head around the side of the screen, "Skereth… I haven't worn any fancy dresses yet…"

Skereth turned to Erin, "Do you need a hand?" Erin nodded awkwardly, "Alright, let me put a shirt on."

Erin waited for Skereth a moment. The other woman appeared wearing smart black trousers and an unfastened shirt that could only be described as poofy. Skereth looked Erin up and down, "You're wearing underwear? Are you rich or something?"

Erin was utterly confused, "What?"

"It's far less common for people who aren't rich to wear underwear," Skereth explained.

"On Earth everyone wears it. Well, almost everyone."

Skereth made a "huh" sound. It was then that Erin realised something, "Wait, you're not wearing underwear?" Erin asked, attempting to keep the squeak from her voice.

Skereth shook her head and pulled her shirt open as proof. Erin quickly grabbed the lapels of the shirt and pulled them shut again, "This is incredibly counterproductive, Green Eyes." Skereth said wryly.

"I don't know about Sunreth but on Earth we don't randomly flash people." Erin said, attempting to be stern.

"Really? People do it all the time here,"

"Please tell me you're joking,"

Skereth laughed, "Of course I am! I'm just messing with you because you're easy to fluster."

"Am not," Erin crossed her arms in mock irritation.

"Oh really?" Skereth stepped closer to Erin and bent down deliberately to whisper in her ear, "If you're not easy to fluster your heartbeat and breathing should be level and your cheeks shouldn't be burning red." Erin could feel Skereth's breath on her neck, "But I know for sure that those things are all happening right now." Skereth stepped back as she trailed off to see the result of her teasing and looked very pleased with herself.

"Wipe that smug grin off your face and help me put this dress on," Erin said in a voice slightly deeper and huskier than she'd expected.

Skereth conceded and picked up a dress to help Erin into it.

It took them a good forty minutes of trying on the different outfits over and over again before they decided. Erin had chosen the blue dress. It had a flowing skirt and a corset for the top with an ornate design. Skereth was still wearing her outfit. A white vest jacket, the white shirt from earlier and tight formal trousers. Erin couldn't help but notice their clothes went well together.

Skereth walked up behind her and put her chin on the top of Erin's head, "This was fun, we should do this again."

Erin looked at her in the mirror, "It was fun, yes." Then something strange happened, Skereth, a normally confident woman, seemed nervous, "Are you okay?" Erin asked, a little worried.

"Yes, yes. I was just wondering if maybe you might like to.. uhm, well today was fun and I like spending time with you," she paused then spoke the next words really quickly, "would'you possiblimaybe like'ta g'ondate wi'me?"

Erin blinked at the garble, "Could you repeat that?"

Skereth took a breath and tried again, "Would you like to go on a date with me?"

Erin turned to face Skereth, she looked into her beautiful brown eyes. There was no sign of that twinkle Skereth always had in her eyes when she made a joke. She was serious. Erin considered it, could she have feelings towards Skereth? It certainly wasn't impossible, she had been incredibly flustered by the woman's words earlier after all.

"Erin it's been a minute since you last spoke, I'm starting to worry I killed you, are you alive?"

"Uh, yes, I'm alive," Erin said shaking her head and focusing on Skereth again, "I think," she paused, "I think would like to,"

"Like to?" Skereth urged hopefully.

"Like to go on a date with you," Erin clarified softly.

Skereth did a little bounce that was probably a very restrained jump for joy. She looked at Erin sternly, "And you're not just saying that? You genuinely want to go?"

"Yes, Skereth, I genuinely want to go on a date with you,"

Skereth did the little bounce again, "Okay, I promise you won't regret it. This will be the best date you have ever been on."

"The guys I've dated haven't set the bar that high," Erin said slowly.

"Well I am going to set the bar so high that no one will ever be able to live up to this date!"

"Nice to see you're back to your old, cocky self."

Skereth shrugged, "I can't be shy for very long. Plus you got like a million times prettier when I tried to ask you out, so please refrain from doing that again."

"Be more ugly, noted."

"Not more ugly!" Skereth shook her head vigorously, "just less gorgeous when I'm asking you something important."

"Got it," Erin said with feigned seriousness.

"You're mocking me,"

"Not at all," Erin said as she went back to her screen, "now get changed so we can use Chad's work money to buy this stuff."

"Good plan." Skereth replied.

---

Erin sat bolt upright, wet with sweat. She was shaking violently from a nightmare. It was the first she'd had since Sevadus had taught her the basics of protection and it was a bad one. Not only had she been bound by bittermist, but so had all her friends.

They all had chains made from the mist and her friends couldn't talk, like they'd been muted with a mute button. Erin remembered seeing masked figures again, the same ones as before. This time they were asking her to take them somewhere. And Erin knew where to go. She lead them somewhere she didn't know yet she was absolutely certain she was on the right path.

Every so often a jab of bittermist would poke at one of her friends, probably an incentive for her to keep moving.

She finally reached what she felt was the destination. The masked figures forced her friends to start digging. She watched, helplessly, as they dug at the damp ground. She saw their hands start to bleed but they couldn't stop. She could see that they wanted to, but they couldn't

When Erin tried to help she was yanked back by the bittermist shackles, "Let me help!" She shouted. She shouted again and again, but every time her shackles were pulled, jerking her away from her friends.

Erin felt tears stream down her face as she slumped to the ground. After what felt like an eternity the movements of her friends grew more frantic. They'd found something. Erin looked as best she could from her viewpoint.

The masked figures used the bittermist chains to pull away Erin's friends then used magic to pull something from the ground. It was a coffin.

One figure pulled a knife from their belt and started to pry the lid off. And that was when Erin had woken up.

She looked at her wrists. The rash wasn't there this time. Erin frowned, weird, she thought. She would have to ask someone about it in the morning. Erin looked at the clock on the wall, "Two O five.." she muttered, "I could go for a walk."

Erin pulled on her trousers, boots, and coat and left the room. She quietly walked through the building and waved her hand over the lock to leave, making sure to lock it again.

All was silent as Erin walked through Lynsereen. She had two whole days before the date with Skereth, but she promised it would be good and Erin couldn't help but trust her. She had the face of someone trustworthy. Also the face of someone capable of breaking Erin's heart.

But Erin tried not to focus on that, right now it was exciting and she didn't need her anxiety to ruin it. The cool night air helped calm her down after the dream, but she still had the image of her friends on the floor, bound, digging.

She remembered the blood on their hands and hoped beyond hope that they hadn't somehow been hurt by her dream.

She walked for a good half an hour before she found herself at the Lurans'. She wasn't sure how she'd got there, she also wasn't sure if anyone would be awake, but she decided to try. She knocked on the door, quiet enough to not disturb them in their sleep, but loud enough to be heard if someone was awake.

A slightly annoyed looking Meria opened the door, she looked ready to tell off the person knocking at nearly three AM. But when she realised it was Erin, her face softened, "Are you okay, dear?" Erin shrugged, "Would you like to come in?" Erin just nodded and Meria let her in.

They sat on the sofa. On the coffee table was a book, open and face down. Meria must have been reading.

"Do you want a cup of tea and to talk about why you're here at nearly three AM?" Meria asked softly, not a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"Yes to the tea, but no to talking about it, I just wanted to be somewhere that wasn't the inn."

"And you came here because it makes you think of my daughter," Meria said knowingly. Erin just nodded again, realising it must be true, "I would get her but she went home tonight, so it's just me and Kerin. I love my daughter but honestly, she's one-hundred and forty, she doesn't need to live here." Meria let out an exasperated sigh.

"One-hundred and forty, huh? That's a ninety year age gap between us," Erin laughed.

"Eh, I've seen worse. Three-hundred was a ridiculous one I can remember off the top of my head. They were mimics, both well over five hundred."

"I doubt I could put up with living that long," Erin said.

Meria shook her head, "No, me neither. Although, I could easily live another two-hundred or so years."

Erin sighed, "Ages on Earth are so much less confusing. Average life span is seventy something. No crazy ages, nice and simple double digits, rarely triple."

"It's more exciting this way," Meria said, "plus when you throw magic into the mix some people can slow their aging so much they basically stop aging altogether."

"I suppose that is pretty cool," Erin agreed.

"You mother actually sped up her aging so she would, in theory, not live much longer than your father," she paused, "it's such a shame."

Erin just nodded then changed the subject, not wanting to get emotional, "May I have that tea now?"

"Of course, dear. Green tea is good for the mood, so I'll make you a cup of that."

"Sounds great. Thank you, Meria."

Comments

[scara]

Skereth made a "huh" sound. It was then that Erin realised something, "Wait, you're not wearing underwear?" Erin asked, attempting to keep the squeak from her voice.
Skereth shook her head and pulled her shirt open as proof. Erin quickly grabbed the lapels of the shirt and pulled them shut again, "This is incredibly counterproductive, Green Eyes." Skereth said wryly.

The whole discussion between Mars and I about medieval underwear leading to this glorious Skereth and Erin moment XD

Just so you all know I squeed at this chapter while editing ^_^

Skereth shrugged, "I can't be shy for very long. Plus you got like a million times prettier when I tried to ask you out, so please refrain from doing that again."
"Be more ugly, noted."
"Not more ugly!" Skereth shook her head vigorously, "just less gorgeous when I'm asking you something important."
"Got it," Erin said with feigned seriousness.

Another favourite series moment XD

[ruddiestbubbles]

Hmmm I hope things go well for Aurey on her date! ^.^

[(Anonymous)]

Am I the only one who thinks Erin's first reaction should have been checking to see if any of her friends hands were bleeding? This is especially bad.
-Observing Anon