Auriferous

chapter 8

Lael ran through the deserted streets, her eyes watery and her chest pounding. In her hand, she gripped a long plant cutter she had swiped from her garden before running off into the dark. Before her, a flickering lampost illuminated a fingerprint. A red fingerprint. Lael's heart pulsed, skipping a beat in anxiousness. Her head felt light and faint, her body heavy and hot. She slowly inched forward, she could see a few shadows around, either dialling for the police or running away. She did not blame them. She felt horrible for feeling relieved when she saw the body was not maura. For forgetting that someone could have lost their loved one and yet she felt relieved. Then, it hit her like a hurricane swinging her off her footing. It was Alaric. Maura was going to meet alaric. Lael could not believe that she did not recognise him at first. She was not close to alaric, but seeing him motionless, blood around him. She had just seen him the previous day for tea with maura. A tear rolled down her cheek and hit the ground. As she tilted her head to look at the pavement, where her shoes were soaking in his blood, she threw the plant cutter away from her onto the pavement. She crumpled down to the ground as a small black box sparkled in her view. She tried swallowing saliva, but all she succeeded was forming bile in her mouth. She could feel the red seeping into her knees as she carefully picked the box out of the pool of blood and opened it gingerly. It shone brightly, blinding her eyes. The box was already half covered in red coating but the ring was still as vibrantly transparent. The first time she ever said the word. In all the seventeen years of her life, she had never uttered the word. But now, she could not help but cry out the word as she clutched at her bathrobe. 'Mom.' Just then, a voice from the sidelines rang out. It sounded familiar but lael could not place it, not with the tears clogging her eyes and the choke in her throat. "You can't even handle a bit of blood? I have to get a video of such a cry girl pouring her guts out. I would most definitely have over millions of views in no time on youtube." Lael was usually tough at handeling sarcastic people, but at that moment all she wanted was to hate her life. To cry out as if her life would be erased, as if she could disappear into a magical fairytale. She did not and could not bear to look at alaric's pale face any longer. His face should have been darkened to a natural tan. Lael felt a heavy aching in her head as she lifted her bloody hand to her forehead. The world was ringing around her. There was a shrill high pitched pierce in her ears. She thought she looked like a maniac when she ran her bloody fingers through her hair roughly and as the sirens of ambulances arriving at the scene rang loudly, an arm rushed forward to catch her before she collapsed into the puddle of blood. "Mom" lael whispered again as she fell into darkness, pixels, blood filled terrors.