Darkness Rising

CHAPTER [ 2 ] DIVERGED DESTINY

Lenore was dying.

Correction: Lenore had died and subsequently come back to life several times in the last hour thanks to the Blessing. And now she was, once again, in the process of dying.  This time she suspected it was for the final time – her life no longer suspended by the power of the Blessing.

The corruption had ravaged her body until it was nothing more than a husk. Yet, the emptiness inside was heavy – heavier than the gravity that kept her fixed to the ground. A part of Lenore was thankful for that emptiness. It meant the pain was no longer present.

If only she could escape the pain of remembering the faces of the people she had trusted. The family – her family had allowed this to happen. Not simply allowed; had planned from the beginning that she be their sacrifice. And after that betrayal they still couldn't give her the dignity of a peaceful death.

Once her purpose was fulfilled they had desecrated her body further by cutting the Blessing out of her. The knights had carried her away then – driven away from the city and tossed her like trash. Lenore wanted to laugh at how pitiful she was. Alone in life and alone death, with no one to mourn her. 

Arkaydian had willed this. Not only for her, but countless others. This wasn't a new story. How many of them were sacrificed for the sake of peace?

This wasn't right. A god that required sacrifice...what kind of god was that?

A shuddered breath rattled in her chest. Somehow, Lenore gathered the strength to move her fingers. She pressed them down into the wet earth, the small particles clinging and burrowing beneath her nails.

"Fuck Arkaydian's will..." 

Her arms shook as she dragged her body across the ground. Rage settled in the emptiness, and breathed a bit more strength into her failing body. Lenore didn't want to die yet. And this wasn't because she had some grand purpose or dream to fulfill. This wasn't some kind of awakening. 

It was the spirit of vengeance that kept the flame of life flickering. If there was a god of death, she would happily give the last drop of her life; of her humanity to see the Gillard family brought low. No, that wasn't good enough. That wouldn't satisfy this suffocating ache in her chest.

Lenore wanted to see everything the Gillard family cherished destroyed. They should be forced to watch as their world burned down around them. She wanted to be the one to burn it down. Death be damned. 

The rage only seemed to grow with every stuttering palpitation of her broken heart. She hoped that Arkaydian was watching her pathetic attempt to cling to life. This would not be the end of her story.

"I'm not dead, you bastards," she breathed into the ground, dirt crunching between her teeth. 

The early morning sky stretched out above her, an ocean of swirling blues and fading starlight. On the horizon the bronze light of the coming dawn guided Lenore forward and onward. She dragged her body over uneven ground, leaving a trail of blood. There was no desire to become a pile of decaying bones, the label Jane Doe tagged on her body. 

Lenore knew getting back to the city was unrealistic. But if she could get to a place that more people traversed then she'd have a fighting chance. All she needed was one stranger with a charitable heart. It was that sliver of a possibility that kept Lenore moving, even past the point of what her body should be capable of. 

A whistled tune that did not match the bird songs fluttering on the wind caught Lenore's attention. She was certain that the knights had tossed her body in an isolated area of land. Sure, the sounds of the highway in the distance had given her the mechanical chorus of cars and signs the city wasn't too far but it didn't mean human life was near.