Heathen Series - Changed

Chapter 25

Stephanie Pov...

I had spent the whole day killing criminals and was finally given permission to go to my room. I walked inside, dazed and feeling very lonely. The day's events kept replaying itself in my mind over and over again until my legs buckled under me, and I was forced to sit on my bed. The rush still flowed through my body, so I couldn't stay down for too long and ended up forcing myself back up to pace up and down; I was ready for the next kill - MY next kill.

I stopped and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My reflection looked different - evil in a way I had never seen before. I had never imagined that I would be capable of such thoughts.

My hands were coated with blood and my clothes were torn and stained with all the different kinds of bodily fluids. I struggled to tear my eyes away from the mirror until I felt the need to look down at myself to see if its reflection was true. I looked at my hands and nearly choked at what I saw; I was shaking and couldn't believe it; they were dripping with blood - actually dripping from the blood of the men I killed.

I ran into the bathroom and opened the tap of hot water allowing it to spill over me; hoping that it would wash it all off - burn it off. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed trying my best to get all the blood off. I didn't care if I tore off my own skin, I just wanted it gone.

***

After almost an hour of scrubbing I gave up and slumped over to my bed. I dropped my head in my hands, and I let it all out, everything that I had held back came pouring out and I no longer had the capability of hiding my pain.

I blacked out a few minutes later going into complete darkness; a darkness that I no longer had the strength to evade.

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

***

'I woke up in a field of white grass that covered the grounds surrounding me.

Where was I?

How did I get here?

All these questions circled my mind, 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 and ominous.

I was definitely dreaming.

I followed the path into a dense dead forest of pine trees the colour of silver, black and blue. The forest was very welcoming despite being dead. I walked in cautiously and saw how the forest expanded and went from black and silver to a black and 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 a well. In the middle of the trunk were crystal-shards joined together to form a sort of 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 got killed, and 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.

Something pulled me into the ground, I had kick out to try and loosen its grip. But the roots entangled my legs, and the thorns cut my skin rendering me helpless. The mud drowned me; its grains smothering the life out of me.