“Lavimo…” Haven coughed out, head spinning as their green vines bulged out from their skin, making multiple tears along their arms, waist, and thighs before snaking across the ground. Their vines felt out of control, the small person barely able to stagger themselves up and off the ground to lean against the wall, but they didn’t see their lover anywhere. Instead, Orvana was smiling at them while surrounded by her horde of brainwashed children, lifting a pointed nail to her chin while she gazed at them.
It was such a fondly sadistic gaze, a twist between affection and cruelty that shouldn’t be able to coexist. They figured this would happen, Haven quickly beginning to heal the dull ache in their head and bruises along their back as Orvana flicked her wrist at the kids. “Kill them, darlings. Leave only Lavimo alive,” she dismissed, and Haven quickly pushed themselves off the wall as they watched Orvana teleport away, far too late for them to properly do anything to stop her.
God fucking damn it. What did that witch even want with Lavimo, anyway? Haven was absolutely seething. No one was allowed to touch what was theirs. Lavimo belonged to them, which meant it was their responsibility to care for him and protect him, and they would not let him be harmed. If anyone laid a finger on him, they swore they would not rest until that individual was mutilated, dead, and ten feet in the ground, healthy fertilizer for a nice, ripe tree.
But… looking around them were just a bunch of children. Haven didn’t care if these kids died, they didn’t know them and held no affection towards them. They were nothing but strangers who were probably far beyond saving anyways, so there was no point in wasting their energy. But Lavimo wouldn’t like it. Even when the kids all started circling them like vultures eying its prey before attacking, and even when one of the kids threw a knife directly at the point between their eyes, all they did was catch it with a quick vine before having the roots they’d planted in the cement using their own blood spring forth, creating a trap of thick greenery that the children couldn’t easily get through. Because no, Lavimo wouldn’t approve of them killing these kids at all. He might even get mad. He’d already shown how distraught he was when Orvana killed that little girl, so what would he think of them if Haven killed the rest?
However, they barely had much time to worry about that as the hoard of children cut down their vines effortlessly with thin black nails that somehow mimicked Orvana’s, backing them into a corner before Haven’s fight or flight instincts kicked in. Sharp, needle-like daggers kept striking at their neck, their vines not very good for defense as they bit their own tongue, their blood calming their elated nerves just a little before hoards of vines that had been building under the stone snaked between the cracks, big green bulbs budding and building all around the room. It was either this or they got killed, so Haven felt no remorse as they took the dagger they’d caught and stabbed the closest child in the stomach, gutting him from one side of his stomach to the other before their vines naturally grew into the open wound, the roots getting a hold of him as a source of life before they squeezed around his heart, sapping the vitality from him and soaking up all his blood.
He looked no older than fifty or so. And as their vines wrapped around his internal organs, they could see how his eyes sparked back to life. They saw and registered the way he looked at them, choking on blood curdling in his throat as desperate pleas escaped his mouth. “He… help… help…”
But there was nothing they could do. He was already half dead, and Haven wasn’t the type of healer that could do anything for him. So they just finished the job quickly as the bulbs they’d created earlier ripened and exploded, pale green dust bursting from the pods as the children breathed in the seeds that Haven used to kill their victims.
Because their healing had conditions. They could only heal people they cared about, which included themselves and Lavimo. They had never been able to heal anyone else, just the same as they had never been able to care about anyone else. Objectively speaking, they understood these children were in pain and they didn’t feel like prolonging that or making it worse for them, but they didn’t have the right attachment or necessary empathy to expand their healing further. All they could do was spread their seeds into the children’s lungs, vines and flowers exploding and weedling out from their throats and mouths as colorful flowers twisted around their limbs, suffocating them effortlessly.
Haven only had two concepts. Their first one was the concept of healing those you loved, but only those you loved. If they did not love someone, they could not heal them, and it just so happened that the only two people whose lives they valued were their own as well as Lavimo’s. The second concept was the concept of parasitic plants. They developed seeds for them and were always nurturing them in their body, the vines growing stronger off any blood or water they came into contact with, and whenever they so wished, they could have the vines mature and grow so that they came out of their body and could be used as weapons. Haven’s healing concept worked hand in hand with it, so that no matter how much nutrients their vines stole from their body or how much blood the plants absorbed from them, it would always be replenished. But these children didn’t have the same capabilities. The moment Haven’s seeds were lodged in their bodies, and the moment they reached out and attached themselves to the children’s innards, was the moment they were done for.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“No, no… no!” gasped one child as their senses finally returned to them, clawing on the ground as flowers exploded from their eyes and leaves peaked from their throat. Their voice was collapsing, hard to talk and hard to breathe around the roots and flowers stuck in their throat, their tears only fueling the plants and making them hungrier for something to nurture them as Haven watched them struggle. “No, mama… mama, please…” they begged, crawling on the ground, ever closer to them.
The hypnotization must have fully broken by now. But it was already too late to save them. If they’d had the proper concepts or capabilities, Haven would have liked to have saved them, because they knew it’s what Lavimo would have wanted. But when they looked at this child begging for their life, vines exploding from their throat as their lungs got ripped open, they felt nothing in particular.
“Don’t worry. I’ll put you out of your misery,” they promised, voice monotone and cold with an expressionless face as they extended their hand, the vines squeezing around all of the children’s hearts as screams heightened and shriveled… before getting cut off, choked out wails dying and becoming muffled as the plants cut off their lives.
That was all Haven could do for them. It’s not like they wanted to kill children, but they lacked the empathy to properly care about their lost lives. They couldn’t even understand why so many of them had begged for their parents in their final moments. But maybe that was just because Haven could barely remember their own mother and father. Those figures in their life had been dead since they were six years old, and they didn’t remember having a strong connection with them in the first place. They were merely the people who gave them food and shelter. After they’d died, the orphanage gave them that instead. When the orphanage was destroyed by the apocalypse, they were taken in by royalty thanks to their status as Lavimo’s best friend and received all the care they needed plus far more niceties. Were parents really all that important?
But none of that mattered. They stepped through the overgrown jungle they’d accidentally created, parasitic vines and flowers ready to leap at anything that wasn’t Haven or something Haven prioritized. And what they prioritized more than anything else was Lavimo, so they needed to make sure he was alive. If he was dead, or if he was injured in any life-threatening way, they swore they would massacre this whole place. They walked swiftly down the hallway, following the path they’d come from as hungry plants and vibrant flowers grew everywhere they stepped.
Lavimo, Lavimo, Lavimo, Lavimo, Lavimo… their pace quickened as they looked around, rapidly casting their gaze around the dungeon and at all the prisoners, only to not see him. Lavimo, Lavimo… where was he? If any harm came to what was theirs, they swore they would rip Orvana to shreds… they’d sensed the immense power gap between themselves and that woman before, which was why they hadn’t tried to fight her earlier, but if she took Lavimo away from them, that would be different. Haven would not tolerate him getting taken away, not by anyone.
Because Lavimo was theirs. Theirs, theirs, theirs… no one else could have him…
Though, all of a sudden, their attention was diverted to the woman in the very last cage, and they suddenly registered that her gag had been taken off somehow, though that barely registered as important to them. And her voice was deep and commanding of attention, and despite how much she must’ve been abused and tortured, she still sounded strong. What was her name again…? She was the pirate, the one who killed her son… though in the end, her name didn’t really matter.
“Your friend went that way!” the woman gruffed out, ocean blue eyes flaring as she tugged against her chains. “Down the hall, take a left! Go to him now, he needs you with him!”
And Haven’s mint eyes flared without another word, their vines and flowers immediately going to wedge themselves into the woman’s chains as the plants drove themselves into the metal. The small yet violent person wasn’t really conscious of their own instinctive action to help the woman who aided them in their desperate search for Lavimo, and merely quickened their pace as they moved down the halls, pushing themselves against the walls as Hera tugged lightly against her chains, looking down at what Haven had left behind.
…parasitic plants, huh? Well, that was interesting, she had to admit. Her long black hair was dangling on the ground, the plants wrapping themselves around her handcuffs as they desperately looked for more nutrients. And Hera felt like she could give these things the very nutrients they craved. Perhaps Haven had just handed the woman her chance of escape on a silver platter, and she quickly calmed herself before she began biding her time for the right opportunity. What an interesting duo, she thought… she’d have to keep an eye out for them in the future. Once she escaped from this hellhole, she’d make sure to pay them a visit… once she found her son, at least…
What would you have done in their situation? Thank you for any comments, and thank you all so much for reading Death Card <3
Is Haven an interesting character?
