The White Angel's Prayer

14. Penumbra

Thud.

The wall shuddered and shook with dangerous reverberations as Lucy collapsed into it, her right shoulder taking almost the full brunt of the impact. Handfuls of plaster crumbled over her head and sprinkled down the creases in her clothing before rolling off the curve of her ass and hitting the floor with smaller thuds. The immediate impact sent jarring strikes of pain down her arm, which shot straight towards her shredded hand. There were a couple of seconds where the burning, licking, demolishing flames of agony blinded her.

Deep breaths, Lucy thought as she exhaled shakily. Focusing her mind felt like finding the exit door through a burning blaze — gruelling but doable. Her stomach twisted with nausea, and for a second, she really thought she was going to empty what little contents sat in there (probably just bile), but she was able to control herself. And, eventually, after agonising minutes that felt like agonising hours, the wave of excruciating pain passed. The throbbing in her hand and leg started to die down, halting their pursuits to punish her for unnecessary labour.

Lucy started to move towards the last half of the stairs that she needed to go down. She had taken so long to get to this point, that the warring sounds of conflict outside had finally stopped. This did nothing but induce an unfamiliar, almost enigmatic sense of panic that clawed and squeezed through her chest, fighting tooth and nail to escape. She needed to find Bhu'ja, alive and in one piece, and not some bloodied corpse that she would have to leave here because she would be too weak to drag it away and give it a proper burial.

Her movements were jumbled, a little jerky, and frustratingly slow. Lucy held onto the cold, steel handrail as if it were her lifeline while she hopped down every step. The iciness that seeped into her skin was near freezing, and the hard carpet felt unusually soft beneath her sneakers like it would collapse beneath her weight and send her tumbling into whatever sat below.

Once Lucy finally hopped off the last step (miraculously, without falling again), the heavy sense of urgency partially lifted off her chest. She breathed out, exhaling lowly, the itching, crawling sensation on her skin finally settling. Her body had expected more pain than Lucy was willing to go through.

The lobby wasn't as cold as she remembered it being, but then again, she had been bleeding out in agony when Bhu'ja had carried her through there only an hour ago. The memory sent a glacial strike to burn her chest and stomach as if it wanted her to relive those moments. But even then, those seconds were but fleeting images in her mind, blurred together with no distinct beginning or end.

The pain was something Lucy would never forget, though. She could never describe it, like the words were only on the tip of her tongue, balancing but never tipping, but she could picture it so very clearly — the moment it happened. Those memories were abnormally hyper-realistic, from the pain to her feelings to the tiniest details of the chamber around her. Her nose twitched with the phantom smells of decay and blood.

Lucy grabbed the handle of the front door and pushed it open. Immediately, the sheen of the snow and glaring sunlight blinded her. She raised her arm to cover her eyes, and the door unwittingly slammed shut behind her. The frame rattled precariously, and though Lucy was temporarily blinded, she stilled, waiting for a noise, friend or foe, but nothing jumped out.

She blinked a few times, and when she was able to see through the blur of unavoidable tears, she started to move forward. Her sneakers crunched on the thin layer of snow as she finally saw the level of carnage that Bhu'ja had left in his wake.

Bodies laid strewn across the snow, drained of their crimson red blood that flourished through the hazy white around them, haloing their bodies like perfect snow angels. Injuries were indistinguishable from flesh. Lucy felt another pang of nausea as she observed and limped through the massacre — a collection of slaughtered, mauled corpses that served to remind Lucy of Bhu'ja's true power.