Voices of Humanity

Chapter Forty-Four

That last chapter made me go back and find it from Magnus's pov hehe (its chapter 25 of AH if you want to look too!).  Quite diff than Alice's version in terms of inner thoughts. This chapter is also in AH from Magnus's pov (chapter 27)

Its funny but I wrote these books so long ago now it's like they have become something new when I reread. Like I am a reader and didnt put the words on the page lol. I always feel like my characters write the story anyway 😝

Anyhoo... things have gone well so mmmfar for Alice right? That changes now...

——-

When I awoke the next morning, I found a comfortable sleepiness still clinging to my senses, encouraging me to remain unmoving. There was an arm draped lightly over my body, the gentle warmth of another being beside me.

For a moment in my confused, dreamlike state, I imagined it was my mother who held me close, offering me protection as she had when I was a child. I realized she had been in my dreams. She'd been there, a vision of her youthful self smiling at me, proud that I still lived, that I had found release from the monster who had owned us both... But as my eyes focused more clearly on the arm holding me I saw the grey skin.

Magnus. The impossibly kinda sibla man. It was he who laid by my side. And yet somehow I felt no fear in his arms, no threat. It was entirely strange and confusing. He should be my enemy, a monster no different from the others I had slain and yet I felt no malice towards him at all. I felt safe with him beside me, like I lay near a friend, not a foe. But that's when I felt the rumbling.

Magnus had agreed to travel through the woods for the first two days of our escape, but he had finally convinced me to continue by the road that we'd found. I'd been paying close attention to the lack of tracks upon it and hoped it might be a deserted stretch of highway but now, I was certain I felt a distinctive shaking vibration traveling along the ground. My heart skipped in surprise at the realization. I sat up abruptly, throwing off Magnus's arm and startling the sibla man.

"Alice?" he said in confusion, "what's wrong?"

I ignored him, pricking my ears as best I could. A horrible sick feeling overwhelmed me as I recognized the distant sound I heard. A car. The authorities had found us.

I scrambled up from the ground in panic. What could I do? Where would I run? The vehicle drew closer by the second and here I was, a fugitive caught in the open with a man who could betray my culpability in a heinous crime. He'd seen me stab my Master!

"Alice?"

Magnus's voice again, filled with confusion. He had no idea what was just ahead. Of course, he had no need to fear. They would be after me.

"They're coming," I said.

"Who's coming?" he asked, climbing to his feet now. He must have seen the fear in my eyes, but he didn't understand the cause. How could he?

"The authorities," I said, feeling a shiver travel along the surface of my skin as I spoke the words aloud making them all the more real.

I cursed myself for my inaction the night before. I could be safely in death by now with my loved ones, protected from the pain I knew the authorities would soon inflict. My eyes flashed to the knife on Magnus's belt. There was still time to correct my mistake.

"Kill me now," I pleaded. "A swift death will be far kinder than what the authorities have in store."

As he hesitated I grabbed for the knife at his hip. Perhaps a threat would motivate him to take action. My efforts were futile.