The God & The Shadow

Chapter 81

She wasn't cold anymore.

She could feel everything, all the heat and flames that covered her body. The blood on her face and hands. The sharp pain coming from her stomach and chest. The heavy object weighing down on her legs.

She could feel everything, and yet she couldn't move. Not even open her eyes or get rid of the fallen debris slowly crushing her body underneath its heavy weight. She didn't have the energy to move it away. Not anymore.

She knew how it would go. Unable to move, she'd be trapped in the own mess she made. Her immortal body could only go so far without its necessities. Once it runs out, her mind would start its hallucinations and drive her insane in its pretense of comfort. After, her consciousness would soon wear out, as will her breathing.

Then, she'd die. That was it.
It would be the end of her.

"What a mess," she heard a low, distant voice drawled out. She was closer to death than she thought—the hallucinations were already beginning.

She contemplated on whether or not she should begin making her peace already, but decided better on it, even in death. Not even the threat of the end of her could make her stop and surrender.

"...maybe underneath the rubble..." If death was coming for her, she wanted it instantaneously. She didn't like how her mind was giving her false hope, let alone making voices she knew weren't from real people. It was her own, personal hell.

But, what could she do if not listen? She couldn't even move to stop it, so she had no choice but to let it all play out.

"...blew nearly half the building..." The same voice said.

"...could've stopped it..." Another voice drawled, to her chagrin. She could barely make out who was talking, but she knew her mind had made up two people, engaged in conversation.

"...find her..."
"...go back..."
"...help the others..."

At this point, she was beginning to consider praying to the gods to end her suffering already. She didn't know who would answer or if they still did that, but she guessed it was worth a shot if she got to that level of desperation.

Humoring the illusions of her mind, she let it play it all out. The voices had stopped talking, only to be replaced with what sounded like hurried footsteps wading through the ocean of debris. She didn't know where they were—if the bomb had blown up the Midas building entirely and destroyed everything in it.

It most likely had. If she could, she would've cringed, and might as well have broken down. This was probably the biggest fuck up she could have possibly encountered. There was no way Tarrin would forgive her for blowing up his company, even in death. If she were to see him on the other side of life, she had to ready herself for his lectures and chastising.

I give you my company, and you blow it up? she could already hear him saying.

Great, now she was hearing Tarrin's voice alongside the crumpling of stones that felt like a breath away from where she laid unconscious. Her mind conjured up the same voice of the man, calling her name with such concern she'd only heard rarely. Perhaps if she had enough energy, she'd ask try and ask out loud if they could kill her at the chance that it wasn't just the fantasies of her dying mind that she'd been hearing.