There is a carnality to girlhood. It's saccharine sweet, cloying on the tongue and so very addictive. It hounds her, nipping at her heels as she runs for something more. This carnality, this consumption of despair and desire, has tailed Miroslava Romanova since she was small, and she fears it will not stop. She has known nothing but violence, nothing but broken limbs, and a voice crying out: Again!
The cruelty forced upon her has taken root, sticking to her like sap. It comforts her, now, the way that her hand feels around a throat. She imagines that his hand bruising her face would have a similar effect, despite the hatred burning beneath her skin, carving itself crudely into her bones. The hatred is the only thing she has that she knows to be wholeheartedly her. One thought of the comfort in oppression is trumped by the thoughts of gunpowder in the air and a metal hand crushing him for hurting her. Of bloody hands cradling her face and saving her.
Then she remembers: They did not save her. They will not save her. Miroslava Romanova and Alyona Ivanov saved themselves, and they will continue to do so.
Miroslava Romanova / Bella Ramsey
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Alyona Ivanov / Sofia Bryant
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