A much needed visit [Diane]

[Brynn Ciel Devereux]

Brynn has so much going on, from Anto, to the demon, to everything he had figured out. Diane and Anto, and a whole other personality to his boyfriend. Brynn has bough some flowers and a get well soon card for De. Even some little chocolates if she could eat them. He walked through pristine white halls as a short nurse clicked down the corridor leading him to Diane's room. She pointed with a frown walking away.

Brynn knocked opening the door slightly to see Diane in a not so great condition. He smiled softly walking over taking a seat placing the gifts on the table beside her. She was asleep so he sat for a while just kind of planning to leave soon. He didn't want to wake her. The room was bright and very white as he peered around.

[Diane McLain]

Diane shook in her sleep, finding it cold without Brendan by her side. She frowned, mumbling "Brendan..." in a soft, quiet voice, barely heard even by herself. Her eyes opened slowly, seeing his bed was empty. Quickly, she woke, pulling herself up on the bed and looking around herself.

Her eyes fell on Brynn, her tired mind taking a few moments to piece it together. "Brynn..." she said tiredly, before her eyes widened, "Brynn!" she gasped, realising that he was visiting her, and remembering that she was afraid that he would never talk to her again. "Oh, Gods...." she muttered, shaking her head. "Um, hi." she said, smiling and laughing, "Sorry, my heads a little... frazzled. W-what are you doing here? I thought-" she stopped herself, biting her bottom lip as she looked down, a strand of hair falling over her eyes which she nervously tucked away. She didn't want to admit what she'd thought.

She looked back up to him. She was pale, except for her cheeks which had a light rosy, glossy tint to them that refused to go away. Awake, she looked much more alive and well as it was hidden by her personality. Although she looked far better, she still realised she must have looked a mess. Brynn had not seen her since she'd lost all of her weight, not to mention the tattoos that she had gained, including the one beside her eye and the one snaking around her wrist. The rest were, thankfully, hidden.

She looked around the room carefully, a thought suddenly filling her with unknown terror. She looked at Brynn, her eyes glassy as she asked "Is Antosha here?" her voice hollow and cold.

[Brynn Ciel Devereux]

Brynn was shocked b y her movement. He jumped looking over with a small smile. "Hey don't get so excited, you might hurt yourself." He said with a small smile her words brought back the memories of his scrying session. He looked sideways as things began to quiet down.

"I know everything..." He said quietly peering at the bright flowers. "It's ok, I swear everyone has secrets." He said shrugging looking down. This felt strange to say. "But I guess what I'm saying that it was long ago and I forgive you mmkay?" He said with a small smile.

"I even got the flowers and nasty chocolate assortment to prove it." He said grinning pointing to her gift. "No Antosha isn't here, I haven't seen him in awhile. He's been eager about his mail though, like he's waiting for something."

[Diane McLain]

Diane smiled and blushed. "You're a... you're a very forgiving person, you know that?" she told him, a smile on her face. She almost felt sorry for him - yes, he had seen the horrors, but it would take a while for him to learn how to deal with them, and all in all he was still pretty innocent. He needed to realise that sometimes it wasn't right to forgive people... but she wasn't going to teach him that now.

"Excuse me," she called out, a little louder than her talking voice to speak to the nurse that was walking past. Her chest stung as she raised her voice, and she put her hand to her chest, but otherwise tried to ignore it. The nurse turned to her. "Do you know where Bren is?" she asked.

"Just getting a check-up, darling. Won't be long." she replied, running off.

Diane nodded, her eyes gliding back to Brynn's before shifting away uncomfortably. A weight had been lifted knowing that Antosha wasn't there, but another one had been put on realising how strange this all was. "I did try to warn you..." she said, her eyes glistening a little, "And I am... so so sorry for everything I've done. I swear to God that I never meant to hurt you. I-I was just trying to help you and..." she stopped, realising that she was putting her foot in her mouth if she continued. "Lets just... yeah..." she trailed off. "Thank you, for the sweets and flowers. You shouldn't have," she tried to end her rambling on a good note.

[Brynn Ciel Devereux]

Brynn just shrugged with a smile as a new person was mentioned. "Bren?" He said raising an eyebrow. "Who's Bren?" He said giving a small coy smile. The room was strange and cold. She did warn him, but about what was it again? It seemed long ago. He didn't ask though but merely nodded.

"It's no problem." He said peering at the gifts. "Just a small token of...getting better?" He said with a small smile.

[Diane McLain]

Diane frowned, pulling a confused but happy face, "Jesus Christ Brynn, we really need to talk more often!" she told him, shocked. "Speaking of which," she said, turning around to her bedside table, pulling her phone off the desk, "My phone broke. I need your number again," she said briefly, handing him the phone to add it himself.

"Brendan is my boyrfriend, Brynn. You would have known this if you answered my text God knows how long ago. The one to come to the coffee place?" she said. It seemed so long ago. She smiled and rolled her eyes, leaning back, "Do you even know why I'm in this place, Brynn...?" she asked him softly, wondering if he got the non-magical explanation or the magic one, or even any explanation at all.

[Brynn Ciel Devereux]

Brynn smiled. "Sorry texting is weird for me." He said programming his number in the phone handing it back. He thought back to getting that text not remembering it for some reason. How did De get here anyways? He couldn't quite remember. "Uhm I think I know parts but not all of it in detail." He said quietly.

"I know there was a spirit involved." He said quietly looking at her a bit shocked. "A rather violent one. The one that had Anto I think." He said quietly.

[Diane McLain]

Diane smiled and shrugged, a little surprised he had known so much and offhandedly saying, "Yeah, well it.. wait, what?" she asked bluntly, turning to him with horror in her eyes. "Antosha had a spirit possession thing...? Since when?!" she blurted out. She was silently cursing herself, knowing that Antosha was the last thing that she wanted to talk to her, but she was like a moth to a flame when it came to him. She wasn't interested, and probably still wouldn't forgive him even if he had been possessed the entire year; she knew that it was a hypocrytical thought, but she knew that that demon fed from real thoughts and emotions and the darkest parts of your world. It may have been extreme and corrupt, but at the end of the day it was still a part of Antosha, just as what she had been was a dark part of herself. If there had been any way of living her life without ever seeking redemption, she would have done it. She still felt cold when people forgave her.

"Fuck it, I don't even want to know..." she said rolling her eyes and turning away. "He's still a bastard in my books..." she said before falling silent.

She looked down, looking at her hands and remembering what she had been talking about in the first place, "Um, yeah. Demon thing. Practically starved me to death. I 'forgot'" she used air quotes, "to take my last antibiotics and got a massive infection. Because that's the sort of idiot I am..." she said, her voice sarcastically chipper. "So, don't be offended if I don't eat the chocs straight away, I'm barely managing water at the moment."

[Brynn Ciel Devereux]

Brynn was a bit surprised she didn't know. "Yea, uhm it was right before you were possessed. It made him all nasty and be a jerk." He said quietly. "I tried helping him, in the end I did I think." He said quietly. He sat there. "I don't know Anto was only being a jerk because of the spirit." He said trying to protect his boyfriend.

"To each his own." He smiled. He frowned at what happened to her. "Ouch I'm sorry." He said frowning. "It's ok I wasn't sure if you were able to eat or not." He said smiling a bit. "I'm sure you'll be better soon enough."

[Diane McLain]

Diane turned quiet, looking at her hands. It was a scary thing when even your hands looked skinny, she thought to herself, trying not to think of much else. "I-" she stopped, finding it hard to say the words. She wanted to justify herself to Brynn, didn't want to seem as this cruel prejudice beast. "He owned me, Brynn," she said, looking up to him, her eyes glassy. "He really did for a long time just... own me. He knew I'd do anything for him, and all he'd have to do was click his fingers and I'd be there. And-and he really did. He just tried to protect you from all the bad things, and used me as a human shield. And I still kept coming back..." she said, lowering her eyes away. "That's why I hate him. If anything, the demon was good. He made me realise just how much I was trapped and needed to get away."

She turned away, realising that the words were probably a strange thing to say to someone's boyfriend, but she just needed to explain herself; "I don't hate Antosha, as such. I just hate what he meant to me, and how much I... just let it happen. And how much he let it happen," she frowned, an angry fire in her eyes.

"B-but now I have Brendan, and everythings all right..." she said, her hands twisting around the bed sheets. She smiled, though still had to try to stop herself from crying. It was like talking about some catastrophe from years ago, the wounds still hurting but simply glad to be in the clear. It was the same as when she thought about when Brendan was hurt, or when she remembered hearing her mother had disappeared. "B-Brynn c-could I have a hug?" she asked softly, barely heard and unsure if it would seem a strange request or not.

[Brynn Ciel Devereux]

Brynn listened to her words for once realizing how much Diane really did bend for him. How much she took in his place. It made him feel like the bad guy here. "I...I'm sorry." He said quietly hearing her out. Diane had everything much harder then him. He took her for granted. Brynn hadn't known anything of what Anto did or not.

He looked over at the empty bed to where he presumed Bren was being held. "Well that's good. What matters now is that you're happy." He said with a small smile as a silence slowly blanketed over them. He looked up at her request smiling softly. "Of course...I hope I don't break you with my big strong muscles." He said sarcastically standing up giving her a tender hug as if to say things would be so much better now.

[Diane McLain]

Diane smiled, glad to have Brynn joking. It was good to be around someone that could be so carefree sometimes. She leaned into him, resting her head on her shoulder, "Pretty much anyone could break me in two just now. Just be careful," she said lightly, smiling through every word. "You have nothing to be sorry for, so never apologise. It's that bastard-" she stopped herself quickly, pulling herself back. "I'm sorry Brynn... I know its not very nice to have someone talking bad about someone you love." she said with a sigh, looking away.

She turned back to him suddenly, a serious look on her face as she took his hand quickly, almost looking desperate, "Brynn, I heard about your power and... and I want it. I want to forget, Brynn. Please, I don't want to remember, and I don't want to hate someone that you love so much. J-Just be careful; I don't want to forget a moment of Mayu..." she said, looking down slowly. It was clear that she'd thought of this thoroughly, in fact ever since she had learnt about Brynn's power.

[Brynn Ciel Devereux]

Brynn smiled at her humor pulling away gently before sitting back hearing her out. His power? No not again, the first time he did it messed up a relationship, then again it ended up working out. "Diane...I know it seems simple for me to do, but you have to understand these memories will be impossible to retrieve, well almost." He said looking sideways. "And if they do come back it'll hurt, not physically but maybe emotionally." He looked down.

"And I can't guarantee I'll pick out just the right memories so you might forget a few things. Of course I'll be planting memories to fill the gap, probably happy ones." He explained. "All in all, I want you to be absolutely sure with this." He said quietly. He wouldn't make her forget Anto just forget hating him.

[Diane McLain]

She laughed darkly, shaking her head softly. It was sort of sad; Brynn was such a lovely, sweet guy, but at the end of the day he was incredibly naive. "Brynn, this is your boyfriend we're talking about," she said, looking up at him, feeling herself shivering, "Don't you get it? I really liked him, and that hurts me more than anything that could ever happen could. And now I hate him, and somehow it hurts even more... we're not exactly going to be able to play happy families anytime soon."

She looked down, turning away, "Just... you don't know what its like to have the person you love wonder if you love them or someone else. And what am I meant to say? And thats why I hate him..." she tightened her hands into tight fists, her eyes glaring into the nothingness. "And thats why I'm one hundred percent sure. Let me just be happy when Brendan, yeah?" she asked, almost begged. She didn't know what she would do without this opportunity.

[Brynn Ciel Devereux]

Brynn was quiet and he just nodded. "Yea..." He said quietly but his words didn't register in his own head. He was only here to be used for people. Not that he didn't like it as long as it helped. But his power had a tendency to cause problems and then he being the one blamed. "Sit back try to go to sleep, it'll make things easier on me." He said closing his own eyes and black surrounded him.

Like with everyone else he saw it chains upon chains connected in the black. Each one a special memory that shouldn't be replaced, good or bad. He tried singling out the ones concerning Antosha as many slid away. Then he needed to sift through the memories watching them for the ones that made Diane hate Antosha so much. By doing this he learned how hurt she felt, how much trouble Anto made.

Brynn felt his own eyes watering up as links of the chain broke off fading into nothing almost never to be found or seen again. New ones slowly faded in their place, they were fake memories created by him. This made Brynn feel awful doing this to people. It was a curse and a gift to him.

Reality hit hard as Brynn's eyes fluttered open. 2 hours had passed, he wondered if Diane was awake or sleeping through it all. He shook her hand gently. "Diane wake up..." If he was correct in his magic she should have had an idea of who Antosha was but more as someone she had just met days ago.