Time Will Tear Us Apart

19th Century

It was December 12, 1851, the day the battle began. The air was frigid and filled with anticipation. Almyra Jones, the leader of the Mortals, brought them to the battlefield early. She wanted them to scope out the area. She knew they wouldn win, but she had to give them hope. Almyra wanted this war between them and the Unseen to stop.

***

”A few hours after nightfall well head over to the field, ” Almyra points to the opening on the map, ”go where theres coverings. Trees, bushes, whatever can hide you. ” She points at the two soldiers at the end of the table and the two to the right of her.

”You four, pair off and will head with me and Blackwell t-.. ”

”Jones, it seems that Kian Blackwell is sick. ” Almyra spun around as one of the soldiers stumbled in, trying to steady himself and his breathing.

Kian Blackwell is Almyras best friend and a very loyal soldier. Theyve been friends since they were kids. She can have anything bad happen to him now. Not after everything theyve been through.

”Where is he? Take me to him now! ” She orders, walking towards him.

”Hes in one of the medical tents. Last one on the right. ” He stepped back in time as Almyra rushed outside and ran as fast as she could to the tent, not caring how she looked. Dodging soldiers and getting weird, but concerning, stares from them as she passes. She bursts into the tent, scaring over half of the nurses. As shes walking over to Kian, she notices that hes asleep. She sighs, crouching down beside his cot, resting her hand on his, gently squeezing it. Its hard to see him like this. A nurse started walking towards Almyra. She squeezed his hand once more before standing up and letting go.

”How is he? Is he alright? ” She quietly asked.

”I don know what happened, miss. One moment he was fine, the next he was on the floor. We think he was either poisoned or infected with some fast working disease. ” The nurse tried to explain, but it didn matter because the longer she listened, the agrier she became. She started pacing back and forth in front of his cot, getting even more furious as she wondered about who could have done this to him. To her. Everyone knows how important Kian is to her.

By this point, Almyra was fuming and knocked everything off the table in the middle of the tent and flipped it over, startling Kian awake.

”Almyra … Please. ” Kians voice was hoarse and barely audible. Almyra stopped in her tracks, turning towards Kian. His arm is raised, trying to reach for Almyra. She ran over and grabbed his hand, trying not to cry.

”D-don cry. Please don . Ill be o-okay. I promise. ” Almyra nodded her head, not believing one word he said. She knew he was going to die, but she didn want to believe it.

”W-what happened? How? ” Almyra stumbled over her words, tears now falling down her cheeks.

”Hey, Almyra. I-its okay. Im- Im fine. Don worry about me. ” Kian smiles.

He starts to cough up blood and the nurses quickly rush over to him, pushing Almyra away in the process. She starts screaming, No!, multiple times until shes dragged out of the tent by one of the nurses, who tries to console her and tell her that they
e doing all they can.

Almyra tries her best to stay composed as she rushes back to her tent. Once shes alone, she goes to her trunk and digs through her clothes and weapons to get to her journal that she keeps stashed at the bottom. Pulling it out, she flips to a blank page and begins writing down every person she could think of that would do this to him.

***

When Kian was four, his parents wanted to build a better life for them in America. They decided to move from England and settled down in Virginia. It was a small town, barely over a thousand people lived there, which made it a little easier for his parents, but not so much for Kian. He didn like it there, the kids were mean to him and he got made fun of for talking differently. As he got older he started to retaliate, which always made the situation worse.

His parents decided to send him to school to make friends since they were always so busy and didn want him to be alone all day. Kian went because he wanted to learn how to read and write, to make something for himself in the future.

The first week was harsh, multiple bloody noses and a black eye. He still didn retaliate. The next day, he met Almyra.

Kian thought it would be safer if he got to school before everyone else. He made it with no interaction with his other classmates, until he reached the building. There was a girl walking up the steps about to open the door when Everette ran up behind him and pushed him. Kian saw her turn her head to look, right before he hit the ground. The embarrassment of her witnessing this made him curl up into a ball to hide the redness in his face and from Everettes kicking.

”Everette! One more kick and youll regret it! ” That voice. Kian has heard that voice before, but he can figure out who. He looks up when he realizes that Everette has stopped kicking. The girl on the steps was now walking towards them with a scowl on her face.

”Oh hey Almyra, didn see you there. Im just gonna go sit down. ” Everette tried to walk past them, but Almyra grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him close to her.

”If you ever go near him again for any reason, I will make it hurt. ” He gulped and nodded. She let him go and he scurried down the road and up the steps until he was safe behind doors.

”Are you okay? ” She asks. Kian, not hearing a word she said, just fixated on her face, searching for some clue to figure out how he knows her.

”Do you want help up or not? Im not going to hold my hand out forever ” Snapping out of a daze, Kian grabs her hand and she helps pull him up.

”Sorry. Im not used to anyone helping me. ” Kian murmurs, looking at his feet.

”No need to apologize, you have me now, ” Almyra links her arm with his and pulls him alongside her as she walks towards the school.

”You don have to worry about the other kids anymore, ” she semi shields her mouth with her hand. ”They listen to me because they
e a little scared. ” She whispers to me, then bursts out laughing.

”Im Almyra Jones. ”

”Kian Blackwell. ”