Iawoke to the sensation of fire coursing through my veins—raw, consuming, alive.Each jolt of pain was more agonizing than the last, stealing my breath, dragging me back into a world I no longer recognized.
The pit was alive.
A writhing mass of serpents coiled over me, their slick bodies sliding across torn skin, scales gleaming, fangs bared.They struck without mercy, again and again, piercing deep, their venom a torment I could not escape.
I screamed, hoarse and ragged, as their bites tore through me like searing needles.But beneath the agony, I could feel something else—something darker, something purposeful.
The venom.
And the antidote.
Twisting together inside me like enemies locked in war.
It surged through my blood, battling the poison that had infected me, fighting to cleanse it.Their healing was no act of mercy—it was as savage as the sickness it sought to destroy.
Between the convulsions, my mind shattered into fragments.
Elizabeth.
Her face haunted me—those pale, frightened eyes etched into memory—the last time I saw her.I could still feel her slipping from my arms, still hear her voice in my bones.
Was she safe?
Did she escape?
I didn’t know.
And the not knowing was its own kind of torture.
All I could do was endure.
I writhed beneath the swarm, powerless, as the serpents moved with single-minded purpose—each one a tormentor, a savior, a curse and a cure in the same breath.Their mission was etched into the pain they inflicted, a language of suffering I could no longer fight.
Then—suddenly—they stopped.
One by one, the serpents slithered away, disappearing into the shadows of the pit, leaving me alone in the silence they abandoned.I lay there, drenched in sweat, my body trembling, skin torn and bruised, marked by a thousand wounds.Each breath felt foreign, each heartbeat uncertain—a question I had no answer for.
Broken—but purified.
Time unraveled around me.
Reality blurred, slipping at the edges of my awareness, until the tremors inside me dulled to a distant roar—quiet enough to breathe, to think, to move.
With a guttural groan, I rolled onto my side, pain screaming through every muscle, my body a ruin barely stitched together by will.I crawled toward the edge of the pit, dragging myself inch by agonizing inch.
Each movement was a battle.
Each breath, a victory.
At the edge, I braced my arms and forced myself upright, staggering to my feet as my legs shook beneath me.A caftan lay crumpled on the cold stone floor—a shred of dignity amidst the carnage.I seized it, slipped it over my battered frame, and without looking back, left the snake pit behind.
One thought dominated all others.
Elizabeth.
“Where is she?”
The words tore from my lips—hoarse, broken—a vow and a question fused in desperation.
