CHAPTER FOURTY FIVE: QUEEN CARINA'S STAGE

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There is a flash of green, a cry of pain and everything happens so quickly that no one reacts at first until after the body rolls off of the table onto the hard wooden floor of the stage

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There is a flash of green, a cry of pain and everything happens so quickly that no one reacts at first until after the body rolls off of the table onto the hard wooden floor of the stage. People start to react when they see the blood start to pool; that's when the shouting starts and chaos erupts.

"Carina!" Andrea screams manically in desperation, raw genuine human fear in her eyes as she rushes to her foster daughter in a panic, looking so strangely crazed.

Carina only blinks slowly, wondering why she has felt no pain yet, wondering what has happened. She doesn't hear Andrea's cries, she hears nothing for a moment as the world goes in slow motion. Perhaps it is adrenaline, perhaps the burning hot pain will strike her just in a moment. But for now she feels strange, numb, perhaps in shock?

Not really knowing exactly what to think, Carina slowly looks down at her dress and is confused to find that there is no blood. Her eyes quickly assess the rest of her, and is shocked as she appears to be unharmed.

She looks near her and is surprised to see Niklaus there, his hair so dishevelled and looking red in the face like he was trying to reach her in time or defend her to some degree. Odd. To attempt to risk his life for hers, selflessness is not a trait Carina would usually expect from an Arron. He is speaking, worry evident on his features - such an uncharacteristic look for him - but she is not listening, instead she looks.

She turns around with those big black orbs and sees thick, dark blood just starting to pool at her feet, like the foamy white tide when a person stands on the shore and the waves first tickle their feet. But this is not water, this is something far less clean, more sinister, it is blood but it isn't hers. Carina's eyes carefully follow the trail the blood leaves until she finds her source. A bleeding girl lies not to far away.

Carina thinks for a moment that she must be dreaming because she feels very disorientated, is she hallucinating? Is this even real? She doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at the strange scene in front of her.

A bleeding girl lies near her feet, so much smaller than she originally looked, so much more breakable - like a doll. Bite marks adorn her skin look jewellery and Carina can tell it is Sheshu's bite, that viper who now has scarlet staining her pearly white fangs.

It is the girl's right arm that has been savaged, with blood streaming out of her wounds that are quite deep, perfect tan skin now reduced to mangled flesh and her silver knife that she had intended for wickedness, sits in amongst the Gave Noir remains, discarded when that snake had lunged at her, biting her and knocking her off the table.

Sheshu cocks her scaly head to the side for a moment when she sees Carina staring and slithers back to her side, content that the threat has been dealt with.

Carina feels arms around as she is almost yanked from her chair as Andrea pulls her foster daughter into a surprising hug, stroking Carina's black hair almost as if to soothe her own panic. Carina doesn't know whether to embrace her back, Andrea has never been this frantic before. It is strange to see her lose her usual calm and collected exterior.

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