Heartless Sin || John Murphy

3

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SIX YEARS LATER

Byrd awoke with a start, cold sweat running down her back as her chest heaved. She clenched her eyes shut, running her shaking hand through her sweaty hair as she tried to calm herself. Her eyes flicked to the wall, eyes raking over the artwork there; reading the words over and over again until she finally began to breath normally. Nightmares weren't an unusual thing for her to wake up from anymore, dreams hardly came by her mind. She closed her eyes again at the knock that came to her door, screwing her hands into the scratchy bed sheets beneath her.

'Wanlida, Blodreina needs you in her quarters,' A man called.

'I'll be there when I get there,' She replied.

'She said it's urgent.'

'I'll get there when I get there!'

Footsteps retreated from her door quickly, her eyes flicking over to the image of her mother on the wall once more. She had died during the Dark Year, when everything became too much for her; her body finally shutting down for good. She'd refused to eat for the next two weeks, refusing to come out of her room for a month. And, every thing about her had gone down hill from there. She was dead inside, haunted by her actions and troubled in her mind. She no longer found death as pleasing as she once had, instead she felt nothing when she killed anymore; not pleasure, not guilt, not anger. Just nothing.

'Byrd-' Octavia stated as she pushed her door open, only to be cut off as a knife flew past her head and out into the hall.

'I said I was coming,' She sneered.

She wasn't scared of Octavia like everyone else in the bunker, they were partners in the whole scheme of things; though, no body else in the bunker, besides Indra, knew that. They made decisions together, worked out their issues through physically fighting and comforted each other if in desperate need. But, everyone else in the bunker only knew her as Wanlida, the bringer of death. She was the lion they'd put criminals up against if they'd committed something that couldn't be punished by being thrown into the pit to battle it out with others, or if they lost the crowd due to their actions. It was blood sport down there, it had been for years.

'I wanted to see what was taking so long?' Octavia queried.

'I just woke up,' She muttered as she slipped out of bed; 'Is it such a crime to want to sleep a little longer?'

'Nightmares?'

'I don't want to talk about it. What do you want?'

'To talk about who we're putting in the pit next.'

'Then you can wait, or talk to Indra.'

'You're in first. Then... It's Kane.'

'So? He betrayed us, he gets to battle it out like the others. No special treatment.'