Heathen Chronicles - Changed

Chapter 25 - The Serum's Shadow

Raven's POV

I had spent the grueling, blood-soaked day killing criminals and was finally given permission to return to my room. I walked inside, dazed and feeling an anchor of loneliness pulling at my chest. The day's horrific events kept replaying in my mind over and over again, looping like a nightmare I couldn't wake from, until my legs buckled under me and I was forced to sit on the edge of my bed. The adrenaline rush still flowed through my body with a violent hum, so I couldn't stay down for long. I ended up forcing myself back up to pace up and down the small space; I felt a restless, terrifying energy, as if I were already ready for the next kill—my next kill.

I stopped abruptly when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My reflection looked different—predatory and evil in a way I had never seen before. I had never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be capable of harboring such dark and murderous thoughts.

My hands were heavily coated with dried blood, and my clothes were torn to shreds, stained with all the different kinds of bodily fluids from the men I had ended. I struggled to tear my eyes away from the mirror until I felt the desperate need to look down at my physical self to see if the reflection was telling the truth. I looked at my hands and nearly choked at the sight; I was shaking and couldn't believe it; they were dripping with blood—actually dripping with the life-force of the men I killed.

I ran into the bathroom and wrenched open the tap of hot water, allowing the scalding stream to spill over me. I was hoping that the heat would wash it all off—or better yet, burn it off my soul. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, trying my absolute best to get every trace of the blood off my skin. I didn't care if I tore off my own skin in the process; I just wanted the filth gone.

After almost an hour of exhaustive scrubbing, I gave up and slumped over onto my bed. I dropped my head into my hands, and I finally let it all out. Everything that I had held back during the day came pouring out in a flood, and I no longer had the capability of hiding my deep pain.

I blacked out a few minutes later, descending into a complete and heavy darkness; a darkness that I no longer had the physical or mental strength to evade.

'What have I done!? Oh God! What have I done!?'

I woke up in a strange field of white grass that covered the grounds as far as the eye could see.

Where was I? How did I get here? All these questions circled my mind like vultures, but no answers seemed to appear. I looked around and watched as a bronze path started to build itself in front of me; it reminded me of the story 'The Wizard of Oz', except the yellow path was bronze, cold, and ominous.

I was definitely dreaming.

I followed the metallic path into a dense, dead forest of pine trees the color of silver, black, and blue. The forest felt strangely welcoming despite being dead and decayed. I walked in cautiously and saw how the forest expanded, shifting from black and silver to a deep, metallic blue. The forest felt different now; more distant and dangerously exciting.

It changed again.

I was now in the middle of the forest and away from the bronze path where a big weeping willow grew out from an ancient well. In the middle of the trunk, crystal shards were joined together to form a sort of jagged mirror. An image of me slaying all those men formed like a movie on a TV screen. I fell to my knees and started heaving. The image changed again, and as I looked around, I realized that I was standing in a field. This one had bright white grass stained red with the blood of the men I killed, but instead of it being the criminals, it was my friends that lay dead. I knew that I was the cause of their death. I stared and screamed; what I saw was something that I never ever wanted to happen to them.