Fury and Flame | 3

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J A K E

      Everything was black.

     Then, the scene opened up before me. A dark, cold room. A place like the many others I'd been in for gang business.

     As soon as I was there, I knew what had happened. And I smiled, for the first time in a long time.

      Hundsen's rotting, dead body was on the ground near me.

      I took a few steps closer, wanting to engrain this in my mind forever. The air was filled with the smell of decay, of death. His rotting face was horribly twisted, as if he'd spent his last few moments screaming in agony. My gaze traveled down lower to his neck. Red with the signs of strangulation. But that hadn't killed him.

The melting icicle in his chest had.

I'd finally gotten my revenge. Hundsen was dead. I could lay my ghosts to rest.

But I felt strange. This felt...incomplete. What was after?

It was then that I heard approaching footsteps. I turned, expecting to see one of the Club members. Another challenge.

      But it was not a gang member. Though it was a challenge, perhaps the biggest challenge I had.

      It was her. Delphinium. Delphinium.

      She simply stood there, cerulean eyes locked into mine, mouth firmly set. The light caught her shining hair and gave her skin an ethereal glow. She looked as if she wasn't meant to be a part of this earth. As I stared at her, I felt as if all the air had been sucked from my lungs. She seemed normal, the same as ever, and still...

She took a few steps closer to me. Her footsteps were the only sound in the dark room.

      I couldn't move.

      I wasn't sure whether I wanted to get closer or back away, but I wasn't given a choice. Why couldn't I move?

      Swallowing once, I had to force myself to be completely still. She was close to me now, so near that I had to stare down at her. The assassin stayed silent as she looked up at me in the way she always did.

I felt the urge to look away, to step back, anything to not let myself give in. Again.

      I didn't move a muscle as she reached up and put a warm hand to the side of my face. What was this? I needed to move, needed to step away. I hated this, hated how her touch made me feel. But I also didn't want her to go. And I hated myself for it.

      For a moment, she stood before me, the warmth of her skin seeping into my eternal cold. It was then that I finally found it within myself to step away. I hated myself for that too.

      A tear traced its way down her face. Then another. Why was she crying? Had I-

      Faster than anything I'd ever seen, she rammed her dagger into my heart. I flinched back, feeling the cold blade being pushed farther into my chest, against my bones. She'd...killed me.

      But...oddly enough, it didn't hurt. No blood seeped through the fatal wound she'd dealt me. "What..."

Then I glanced all the way down at myself for the first time. My skin was mottled several shades of green and gray. Rotting like Hundsen's.

"See?" Her face was wet with tears. "It doesn't matter. You're already dead."

I said nothing, simply staring down at myself. Though I'd been in battle many, many times, I never actually imagined being killed like this. Though I had expected my revenge might have something to do with it...