One Killing Maze

Chapter 25

There was a tearing pain in her chest as if someone had been slowly ripping at her insides and finally made it to her heart. She felt like crying, like screaming and running away, but she had lost all feeling in her legs. All she wished for now was to grow wings and to fly far, far away from this place.

"How...?" Was the first thing that left her lips.

Y/n had seen him die. The knife sticking out from the other side of his body, the sheen of his blood soaking his clothes and dripping onto her own, prone figure.

The words that Gilbert had said not long ago rang in her head loudly, "it's actually...really easy to fake your death," maybe it really was true. Sasha was standing right in front of her, after all...then, who else could've lived?

S/n? Yui? Norrington?

Levi?

Sasha lifted a hand slowly to place on his chest, his brows furrowing while a conflicted smile replaced his soft look.

"I was dying and...someone helped me," he seemed conflicted with his own answer, "no...I...I think I actually did die. But I'm here, I'm alive."

What? Y/n took a reflexive step back, readjusting her grip on the blade she held so tightly a moment ago. It was slipping between her fingers.

"And the others?" She questioned, staring forward with a piercing gaze, "what about them? The ones you killed to get to this point?"

"They were a part of something that-"

"No. Even further back...it didn't start with here," she interrupted with a frown, "the moment you betrayed me."

Betrayal. Something nobody could easily forget. That betrayal was seared deep in her mind, the first thing her consciousness drifted to when she thought back upon the maze and the things that happened inside of it.

The stinging of her neck as black and white dots filled her vision. She was sure that her mind registered it even before she had lost consciousness.

Sasha flinched, his brows furrowing.

"I...I had no choice." Y/n's lips peeled upwards in contempt of his words.

"No choice?" She repeated, almost breathless, almost laughing at his words, "you had a choice, Sasha. You just decided to make the worst one possible."

It didn't seem like Sasha could say anything in return, or maybe he thought it was best for him to not speak on the matter, but his expression did look hurt...and almost regretful; but there was no way he could change the past.

"And now...now you decided that it would be best to repeat history, huh? Gather everyone that had just a little connection to the past and kill them off?" She hissed, the same hurt that was so clear on her face moments ago washing away into bitterness, "like me...like Levi?"

"No- no. That...this was not my idea... This was all Gilbert's plan. He was the one who approached me after seeing me trying to leave the facility," he explained, emphasizing the blame on her uncle, "at first, I wanted nothing to do with this...this maze...but the thought of seeing you again- I just...couldn't let it go."

She didn't know whether or not to believe him when he said that it was solely Gilbert's plan to capture the remaining ties with One Killer Maze's production and keep them here, but the thought of him using her name as bait for the one before her caused her gut to twist.

Y/n wanted to cry, to scream to her heart's content; but she couldn't, no, not that she couldn't, she wouldn't in front of him.

"Then, what about Levi?" He hadn't answered her before, so she repeated his brother's name, "was it just as easy to kill him like you did to the others?"