Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
SHE HAD BEEN tripping and stumbling through the foliage of vines and roots, blind. The earth-shattering screams reverberated along the trunks of the trees like hymns symphonized by the devil himself. Orianna didn't know how long she had been running, but she knew she was heading in the right direction since the pain-induced screams were getting louder and louder, as she plowed through the heaps of vines and greens that kept lashing at her face and arms.
The curve of the hill seemed familiar when she neared it. Her predictions were only confirmed when she spotted the empty red and black cloth backpack sitting near the entrance of the open grove. Orianna's footfalls were calculated and light as she rounded the entry weaving through lines of greens and roots. As she neared the edge of the area, she crouched behind a heavy cover of plants and vines.
Through the spaces in between the roots she peaked out, and she was met with a gut-wrenching sight, her intestines began to coil into knots. Marlin was on the floor writhing around like a wounded gazelle, the blade of a knife had been dragged on the surface of his flesh cutting deep into the muscle, from his torso until his rib cage. His rich olive-toned skin lacked color it had paled into a pallid ashen, blood was draining from his body, pooling around him. He was grunting and tightly clenching onto the torn bits of flesh. Ruby was hunched over his body, a knife in hand with a blade that was shaped in a wavy form.
The crystal blue in her eyes dimmed and flooded with the color of sepia. The exposed skin on her neck and biceps were throbbing, the porcelain flesh that was dusted with glimmer and glowed like stardust on her skin had conformed into a chalky reptilian coat of beige. Her plump pale lips were glossed over with a fresh coat of saliva. She was muttering something over and over under her breath, as she took another blade out of her pocket and started to trace his chest with the blade before applying pressure, blood oozed out of the puncture. And Marlin released another pained wail.
"There's no other way," she whispered under her breath over and over. The blade of her knife digging into the flesh further and dragging. Her voice held an airy and slightly distant quality to it. Her body was present, it was there staring down at Marlin with a ruthless and animalistic glint shimmering amidst the pools of sepia, but the eldest Spolce sibling, her true self was watching like a spectator in a theater surrounded by darkness.
Orianna grasped the hilt of the steel knife in her belt, before throwing it, the weight of the blade was different from the bone-like talon, the sharpened knife wedged itself right by her torso a little right of the hip far from where she aimed. It had stuck itself into her body nonetheless, puncturing her flesh, blood seeped out of the opening staining the light blue cotton. She whipped around, her grip on the knife tightened. Orianna's breath hitched in her throat she took a small step back.
