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She couldn’t breathe.

The green liquid was all around her, flooding her nose and mouth as she tried desperately to gasp for air, thrashing and struggling.

The binds around her didn’t waver.

Drowning, she was drowning.

She could feel the smooth glass against her skin.

A woman laughed manically.

She tried to scream, but only bubbles gushed forth from her lips. Her life was flashing past her eyes, her mind bombarded with images of-

Shadowy figures, exhaustion, a giant red wolf.

She wrenched her hands, trying to break the binds around her wrists.

Blood, dripping from her arms and splattering against stone, cold laughter.

She was being dragged lower and lower, further and further away from the light and the air she desperately craved.

Screaming, crying, fear and desperation.

The glass cage was so delicate, yet so unbreakable, and she slammed against its walls in a futile attempt to break free.

Freedom was just beyond the glass, but she couldn’t see it. She couldn’t see anything but the swirling green.

Something grabbed her arm, yanking her under and deeper into the darkness.

“Let go of me!”

The bubbles that escaped her throat danced tauntingly in the liquid, laughing mockingly at her frantic pleas.

They were laughing at her; they were all laughing at her as they watched her die with an air of morbid amusement.

The fingers around her arm tightened, and she could feel the fingernails bite into her flesh.

A voice calling in the distance, distorted by the water in her ears.

“Fate-chan!”

“Let go of me!”

Fate Testarossa screamed, lashing out as she bolted upright, sending covers flying even as a wave of electricity erupted from her and burned the air.

The grip around her arm loosened as Nanoha was blown backward into the wall.

Fated panted noisily, gasping heavily for air as panicked burgundy darted around the room. Her fists were clenched, and the veins in her neck were visible even in the darkness.

“Let go of me…” she whispered to no one, afraid and confused and completely lost.

Everything was all too real.

The sudden movement in the corner made Fate freeze, and suddenly she was plunged into the images again, greenness and suffocation and fear.

An almost-familiar voice snapped her out of her nightmare.

“Fate-chan?” Nanoha whispered, half-afraid. Burgundy eyes were dilated, so much that they appeared more black than red.

“Fate-chan, please,” Nanoha pleaded, eyes shining with unshed tears. “Wake up…”

Nanoha.

The greenness was dissolving, slowly fading as her eyes focused on slate-blue.

Nanoha.

Somewhere in the back of her head, Fate remembered the brunette. The fear in those wide eyes caused something deep inside Fate’s chest to twist painfully.

“Nano…ha?” Her voice was hoarse and rough.

The brunette made her way uncertainly to the bed.

One hand reached out hesitantly to touch a shoulder, and Fate flinched involuntarily, jerking away.

Undaunted, Nanoha tried again, placing a hand over Fate’s, fingers tightening when Fate tried to pull away.

A tear slid down Nanoha’s cheek when she realized that Fate’s hand was cold and clammy with sweat. She could almost feel the frantic pulsing under her wrist, and it killed her to know that her friend was suffering.

“It’s okay, Fate-chan, it’s just a nightmare. It’s okay,” Nanoha repeated reassuringly, over and over, trying to calm Fate down. “It’s over now. I’m here, it’s okay.”

Fate clenched her teeth and tried to still her rampant heartbeat, focusing on thinking of nothing.

She was pulled into a warm embrace, and finally, the cold tendrils of her nightmare released their hold on her and retreated back into the depths of her mind.

And suddenly she was crying. And she hated it, for she never cried.

She swiped at her tears angrily, but more fell to replace those lost.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, over and over, ashamed and embarrassed.

Everything just seemed so real.

Nanoha shushed her, murmuring quiet words of comfort, one hand running through damp blonde hair.

They lay like this, for what was left of the night, until Fate finally calmed down and slipped into a light doze. Slate-blue, however, remained stubbornly alert, on the lookout for anything that could possibly cause the slightest disturbance.

Nanoha’s arms never left Fate, as she watched over the exhausted blonde the entire night. But it was okay, for they were friends.

Friends.

There was an uncharacteristically serious look in Nanoha’s eyes as she gazed at the sleeping girl in her lap.

They were friends.

Somehow, Nanoha couldn’t shake off the feeling that not exactly everything was alright.

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Excerpt from part 1 of “Torn“, written by Enraptured.

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When I first read this fic, I was so affected by how Fate’s feelings were described. It was very clear in my head of how the scenes could have looked and I needed to sketch them for my own piece of mind. So here they are.
To En, you’re really a great writer. Keep up the wonderful work.
[edit:]
header image added.