True Silk, Book I | 18+ (Completed)

chapter xii | Life After Death

CHAPTER XII
LIFE AFTER DEATH

᥏ SAKURA WAS DEAD. After being forced to flee by Kristen – and I was beginning to inquire on her disappearance – she'd been ambushed by one of the vampiric women of the abolitionist cadre. Within a matter of seconds, Sakura was frenetically thrashing beneath the woman twice her size. This clash was suddenly whirled into an unfair halt when the woman – probably apprehending the failure of any other literal procedure – forcefully drove that dagger, tha same dagger to exterminate Marius, through her stomach.

Following that her death be inevitable.

I couldn't even picture it, not as I silently beheld the sight of the glass case – where her forever sleeping body laid upon a bed of cushions and daisies – was. No image came to mind of her mind, especially not if I closed my eyes and tried hard enough.

Instead, Carinus' blue-grey eyes appeared in the darkness of shut eyelids.

Riddled with guilt, I kept my sickened head lowered, standing thoughtfully between him and Sakura's lover, Lord Carter. Pure, tenured devestation racked through him, rolling frustration of his helplessness to the situation off him in sudden, sporadic influxes.

However heartbreakingly milk-and-water it may have been regarded, Lord Carter was crying. Without the pathetic sobs others reported, he displayed his patent distress with damask, wetted eyes and a tightly locked jaw. The more I conspicuously glanced at him from the corner of my blameful eyes, the more I wanted to cry myself.

So I just slipped my lips back between my teeth to shut up, contritely barring my eyes till they hurt. I hadn't the right the weep, not for her. It was my fault she was there, in a fancy box for the deceased. How we have always glorified the dead, as if it's something marvellous enough for the screen. It isn't. Nor has it ever been.

Sympathising wind forgivingly exhaled through our hair and our funeral clothing, it seemed that even the cruel world surrounding this little area was grieving with us as well. There weren't many for the bewailing flock of lament, and why I received an invite I couldn't understand. King Salkamenos meant to express his dearest apologies, and so was I, though . . .

Somewhere in the background of my maelstrom of self-depreciative reflections, a mournful caterwaul resounded. Little did it sound particularly genuine. Likely just the attention seeking of someone who really couldn't stand the vision of her.

The gentle cries of the depressed resonated through my very being, drawing me closer to the ground than I've ever felt. Weights, each of a thousand pounds, flew down like a bird to land on my shoulders. My entire body felt progressively heavier by the millisecond that creepily walked by.

This moment of silent given for the late Sakura ended at around noon, when the sun jovially caught herself right over my head to watch me beat down hard on myself. Carinus' icy hand grazed my back, freezing even through the flimsy linen of my fluttering blouse and the mild warmth given off by the sun. He humbly muttered, so that only I could heard, "Just the time you need. I'll be back at the car."

With that said, the King unexpectedly emplaced a tender kiss to my temple. Dipping my brows at the sudden tingle I perceived searing my nerves, I whirled my head around after the initial surprise. Although, by the point, he was already leaving.

Leaving without explanation of his actions. How typical of him.

Glimpsing hesitantly at Carter, I saw that he had laid his arms upon one another against his chest. His jaw was still clenched like an titanium vice. "I'm sorry," I, with guilt fuelling my speech, grumbled.