Ruthless~ a sequel to Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Chapter I

All Cath could feel was heat, it enveloped her arms, ran up her spine, and crawled into her fingertips. It was fire, fire in her body, flaming, enraging. She heard screams, shouts, Cath couldn't make out what they said but they sounded angry. Very angry. Her vision blurred so that all she could see was flames. They seemed to be everywhere, they seemed to have been eating her alive. Cath was choking, smoke filled her lungs as she gasped for air. Where was Jest? Was he ok? Had the others gone through? Flames danced up her arm, she vision clearing slowly. She could make out a figure in the distance. The room was burning, flames engulfed the curtains, consuming the bedpost, and dancing on the vanity. Cath layed there, helpless. The figure moved closer, inching, watching Cath suffer as it just stood there over her. Cath could make out its features so very slightly. It wore something on its head, something flat, perhaps the hat the newspaper boy wore, but it wasn't a boy, it had to have been a girl, she wore a simple dress. black and white... could it be possible? "Mary Ann?"

Cath said, as soon as the words came out, smoke drowned her, pushing her back to the floor where she lay limp. "You left me to die. You knew that it would kill me and yet you still turned your back on me and walked right through that door with your little party of four." Her words were like venom, she spat them out and expected return. "But it was just an illusion. You're not real, none of this is real, it's all in my head." Mary Ann glared at Cath and began to pace the burning room, it seemed to have no effect on her as she causally strolled. "You know what isn't real Cathrine? Our little bakery dream. You knew it wouldn't have happened since the first day and yet you drew me in with every sweet you baked." Cath felt betrayal stabbed deep in to her heart, how could she say that? "No, it was our dream from the begininng, you were the logic and I was the baking." Cath said, choking down her coughs.

"How dare you! Mary Ann cried. "Every single day, I watched you bake sweets that won the king while I stayed to clean up your dishes, clean the flour from behind your ears. I used to envy your talent. And I used to try and measure up with you by my logic, now I know that I had no need for that nonsense for I had been far better than you from the day I was born. I wouldn't have left you to die. I would have at least tried to help you." Mary Ann's confession hit Cath. She had alwasy looked at Mary Ann to be a friend, a friend who supported her. But perhaps this is all just Cath's making up. "No, Mary Ann, this is just a dream and I will wake up." Cath groaned as she tried to stand up. Mary Ann took no pity and put one foot against Cath's corset and kicked. The remainder of smoky air left her with one final cough, stifling for air, she felt pain, stabbing pain as if millions of tiny needles were pricking at her skin, digging deeper and deeper. The flames licked at her skin, the smell of scorching flesh made it's way to her nose, the unpleasant scent leaving Cath begging for mercy. Begging for Jest. Mary Ann had began to laugh like a mad woman, the look in her eye, hallow like the sisters, not a shine in them, they used to have been filled with a whole world, but now, it looked like an endless abyss of darkness. There was no emotion in her, not even the slightest drop of sadness or anger or betrayal.

Her laughter haunted Cath, she felt as if her body had turned to ice, the sudden laughs sending shivers down her spine. Like ice that had reached every inch her body. Like the split moment of obening the ice box. But it felt like an eternity. Mary Ann smoothed out her dress and took a deep breath. "Farewell Your Highness." Mary Ann strolled to the door, shut it, and Cath heard a click, a lock.

Then she heard them, voices calling to her. Cath, Cath, please Cath, Lady Pinkerton, get up...

At first they were faint, then they got, louder and louder, tearing her from the smoky room. Cath was glad to finally be leaving, but where was the going? Perhaps to heaven...?

♥