•//SU//•
What better way to start the book than with a depressing contest entry?
Plush-ie
(It only just now occurred to me that I haven't ever posted anything about these characters. I'll post some old drawings later, and maybe some new ones as illustrations for this.)
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•//And Then There Were None//•

A WISE GEM once said that corruption was like a tear in the fabric of the mind.

I never understood what that meant. I was never really good with metaphors.

But now? Now I knew better.

I knelt on the hard floor, head in my hands as I sobbed. I had never cried before; I'd always chalked it up to a weak human response to sadness.

Now, I was living it. And I felt weak, hopeless— powerless.

   I hated it. I hated myself for being clueless, for not seeing the signs before it was too late. I hated her for not trusting me enough to tell me.

   Things would never be the same without her.

   As I sat there crying, I could only think one thing.

When did things get so awful?
-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-
   AMETRINE SAT ALONE on the couch, hands folded in her lap, when I walked in. A goofy grin sat upon my features as I plopped down next to her.

   "Hey, stranger!" I greeted, throwing an arm around her.

   Startled, Ametrine laughed as she turned to me. "Soda, hey!" she replied, smiling broadly. "What's up?"

   "Oh, just checking up on my best friend. You've been in here for ages! Mauvie and I were getting worried," I explained, kicking back and resting my right ankle on my left knee.

   Ametrine's grin faltered, a deep frown flitting across her features before disappearing. "Yeah, you know me!" she said, her tone empty and flat, and her smile not quite reaching her soft lilac eyes. "I'm just... Thinking, I guess."

   "You've always been a thinker, Ami," I joked, tossing a wink her way. "Come on, let's go have some fun!" I hopped up, spinning around to help her up.

   "What kind of fun?" she asked, taking my hand as she stood. Her wavy, bi-colored hair slipped from her shoulders.

   "Who knows? Let's just go," I said, turning to leave the living room of our house. "Yo, Mauvie! Where'd you go?" I called, seeing her absence.

   "Right here, darling," Mauve Pearl answered, walking in from the hall. "Ah! Ami, there you are. I was beginning to grow quite worried about you!"

   "Yeah, sorry Mauve. I was just thinking," Ametrine said quietly. Then, turning to me, she added, "Listen, Soda. I'd love to go hang out with you, but right now probably isn't the best—"

   Suddenly, she dropped to her knees, clutching her head.

   "Ami!" I cried, falling down beside her. "What's wrong? What's happening?!"

   Seeming not to hear me, she cried, "I-it hurts! Make it stop! Make it STOP!"

   "Sodalite, get back!" Mauve cried, urgent worry lacing her usually-delicate voice. Obeying reluctantly, I scrambled backwards and clambered to my feet.

   As quickly as it began, Ametrine's fit halted. Groaning, she looked up at me. She smirked, and I didn't have to guess at what had happened. She'd switched, but admittedly, it had never happened like that before.

   That was the— for lack of a better term— difficult part about being friends with Ametrine. Her split personality made it rather confusing at times. Half of the time, she was calm and complacent. The other half of the time, well...

   "Dude, what're you staring at me like that for?" Ametrine said, standing up. Her eyes were now a fiery orange. "C'mon, Sodapop. Let's go get into some trouble."

   "Trin, maybe you should relax for a while," I put in quickly.

   "Huh?" She tilted her head at me. "What're you talkin' about? I feel fine." As she said this, she put a hand to her head and winced. Then, she was back to normal- well, as normal as she'd get.

   I exchanged a worried look with Mauve. "You don't look fine," I said tentatively. "Especially after what just happened."

   "Look, Soda. I have no idea what in the Diamonds' name you're talkin' about. Let's just get outta here, huh? Being inside is makin' you crazy."

   "Soda is right, dear," Mauve insisted. "You really ought to rest."

   Ametrine narrowed her eyes. "You guys havin' some issues today or somethin'?" She examined us, her gaze scrutinizing. "Whatever, I'll just go by myself. Who needs you guys, anyway?"

   That wasn't right. Even when she was like this, Ametrine never behaved like that.

   "Just... Let her go, darling," Mauve said as Ametrine walked away.

   "No, Mauve. She's acting strange, we can't let her go off on her own right now," I insisted, striding after her. Mauve sighed and let me go.

   "Trin, wait up!" I called. She looked back at me, smiling.

   "Nice of you to join us," she said.

   Us?

   "Yeah, I couldn't let my bestie go adventuring without me," I said, punctuating it with a half-hearted laugh.

   "Glad you came to your senses, Sodapop," Trin said, not-so-discreetly wincing. "Jeez, my head..."

"Are you alright?" I asked.

   "Yeah. I've had splitting headaches like this for a while now, but I can handle it."

   I frowned, not liking the sound of that. We trekked on, looking for adventure. Frequently, Ametrine had to stop to catch her breath. When she did, she had heated conversations with herself. I always gave her her space, so I didn't know what she was saying.

   Eventually, we came across a gem-made building which, over time, had sunken deep into a ravine.

   "Oh, wow, what's that?" I asked, as if Ametrine would know. She shrugged weakly from beside me.

   "Stop," she said, her voice pleading. "Please, leave me alone."

   I looked at her, a question on the end of my tongue, until I realized that she wasn't talking to me.

   "No," she said, answering her own question. "Get out, now!"

   I looked on, terror settling heavily in my stomach. "Ametrine?"

   "Let me GO! Let me go, let me go, let me go!"

   Once again, she fell to her knees and grabbed at her head, pulling her hair. But this time, she screamed. She screamed, and screamed, and screamed. The same words, over and over.

   "It hurts, make it stop! Make it stop, make it stop!"

   It was as if she was a fusion coming undone.

   Except... She wasn't a fusion. There was only Ametrine. There were no two gems able to unfuse and put an end to the pain.

   I couldn't do anything to stop it.

   And then, the chant changed. Now, Ametrine held out a shaking arm towards me. "HELP ME!" she said, repeating it over and over.

   As I reached out to take her hand, she froze, the word 'help' halfway from her mouth. I took an involuntary step back.

   "...Ametrine?"

   Her arm dropped, and she once again clutched her head. "No..." she whispered.

   Her fingers stretched into claws.

   "No! Nonono! Sodalite, help me! Help me!" Her teeth grew into fangs as she stood up.

   Ametrine was corrupting, right before my eyes.

   This couldn't be happening. She began to sob as spikes protruded from her back. Her arms bulged and expanded, causing her to collapse forward.

   "Ametrine, fight it! You have to fight it!" I cried, terrified.

   "I-I can't! I can't stop it!" A tail appeared, giving her an odd, almost dragon-like form. Looking at me dead in the eye, she said one last thing.

   "I'll miss you."

   Her face stretched into a sharp snout, and she growled.

   Ametrine was gone.

   And then, before I could process what just happened, the corruption that was once my friend tackled me into the ravine.

   We crashed through a wall, rolling into the chamber. I pushed away, scared beyond belief. She lunged at me again, pinning me to the ground and scratching at me with her deadly claws. I somehow made it out from under her, having just enough time to draw my weapon from my gem.

   The curved blade arced through the air, and I realized in that moment that I would have to use it on Ametrine.

   "No," I said out loud. "That isn't Ami. Not anymore."

   The beast charged.

   I closed my eyes and raised my weapon.

   Shhhhk.

   I opened my eyes at the sickening sound of the blade stabbing into her chest. She stared straight into my eyes, and I choked out two words.

   "I'm sorry."

   Ametrine exploded in a puff of white smoke, her purple and orange gem clattering to the floor. With tears in my eyes, I knelt by the gem and formed a blue bubble around it.

   "I'll miss you too, Ami," I whispered, tears streaming down my face.

   And I cried.
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   AS AMETRINE'S GEM floated in a bubble in front of me, I continued to cry. It was too much, too soon. It felt like I had just met her, just for her to be snatched away.

   I understood the metaphor now. But the gem who said it? She was wrong.

A tear happens quickly, instantaneously. That isn't what it is to be corrupted. Long before the physical corruption, the mind is falling apart.

   Corruption is not a tear in the fabric of the mind. It is a painful unraveling, a coming apart slowly from the seams.

   A tear can be patched, sewn up as if nothing had ever happened.

   But once unraveled, that fabric becomes impossible to fix.

   At the thought of Ametrine being gone forever, my sobs were renewed. It was too much. It was all too much...

   "Sodalite?"

   I turned my gaze sharply on the source of the voice.

   "M-Mauve."

   The pearl silently held her arms open, and with tears blurring my vision, I bolted into her embrace. Her arms wrapped tightly around my shaking body as I clutched onto her.

   I felt her silent tears fall lightly upon my head, the sensation almost calming. Mauve muttered reassurances into the top of my head, but I think it was for her sake as much as mine.

   Ametrine, soft and caring, fierce and bold.

   Ametrine, who was hurting and was too scared to say anything.

   Ametrine, who would never again smile, or laugh, or cry, or love, or live.

   It wasn't fair.

   As my sobs subsided, leaving only silent tears in their wake, Mauve let her arms fall. I took a single step back, looking up at her.

   "Come," she said softly. Linking her arm through mine, we walked back to the blue bubble that held my best friend.

   I reached out a hand, tracing a finger down the surface of it.

   "Goodbye, Ametrine," I whispered.

   I tapped the top of the bubble, and it disappeared with a quiet 'pop'.

   And without another word, Mauve Pearl and I turned and walked away. Lingering in the doorway for another moment longer, I thought I heard Ametrine's voice echo sadly in my head.

  'Goodbye, Sodalite.'

   A single, final tear fell to the floor.

   And then there were none.

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