𝐆𝐎𝐃𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 || ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴀꜱᴛ ᴋɪɴɢᴅᴏᴍ

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎 - ꜱᴀᴄʀɪꜰɪᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀꜱʜ ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴏɴᴇꜱ.

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎 -
ꜱᴀᴄʀɪꜰɪᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀꜱʜ ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴏɴᴇꜱ.
ᴀᴄᴛ ᴏɴᴇ - ᴏᴍᴇɴꜱ

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THE TEARS LEFT
stains on her cheeks. Left her eyes swollen and red and bloodshot and the usual bright emerald green dull in colour. Her limbs were weak, shaky, paralyzed as she tried to wrap her mind around what had happened.

They were dead.

Their screams were a ghostly overlay, echoing through one ear and tunneling through to the other, an endless noise that rung against her bleeding ears. She wanted it to stop, she wanted it all to stop. The pain, the noise, the screams. No matter how hard she tried, how much her palms cupped her ears, how hard she buried her nails into the skin of her hands, they didn't stop.

She could feel the blood pool in her palms, the red staining her fingertips and seeping beneath her nails.

Just stop.

She pleaded within her mind. They didn't listen. They just kept on screaming. Over and over, with pain in their lungs and skin melting from their bones, with fire crackling against wood.

The whole night she'd watched, helpless as the fire died down into nothing but embers and hot coals, as the smoke was left coil and fly high into the clouds. Till it became nothing but the debris of fallen structures and the ash of bones.

She sat still, curled up against the base of a tree, twirling the knife in her hand. Her fingertips flexed around the handle and with a tight unwavering grip, she angrily stabbed the blade down into the large root of the tree that stuck out from the ground beside her.

The wood splintered around the blade, peeling back the flesh of bark to reveal the green skin beneath.

Freyja tore her knife out and repeated the action, over and over, earning a glance of concern from Brida who'd barely so much as spoken, opting to stay silent in her grief.

"Freyja." Uhtred calmly called her name, his voice nothing but a whisper as he turned his chin towards her direction. His cerulean eyes flickered to the stabbing knife in her hand and with a sigh, he called her name once more. "Freyja."

She refused to stop, she couldn't stop. It was the only thing keeping her there, keeping her from running straight into the village and killing everyone in sight.

It wasn't such a bad idea at that moment, but Freyja knew that her alone or even with Uhtred and Brida by her side, it was only a wish calling for death.

When she didn't acknowledge his voice, Uhtred shifted his weight and turned towards her, his hand reaching out and fingers wrapping around her wrist, bringing her actions to a still.

He didn't take the knife away, and maybe he should have, but all he had right now was his trust in her to not do anything stupid. They needed to stick together.

Finally, after hours of staring at the curling smoke, Freyja ripped her eyes away and looked at him and something in Uhtred's heart broke even more.

He saw the evidence of tears in her dull eyes, saw the dark shadows beneath them and as he looked down, he saw the blood on her hands. He thought she'd gotten rid of that habit.