Yet I can’t bring myself to just ignore it.
Shaking my head at myself, I swivel and walk to the male on the ground.
“Hello?” I say, crouching next to him. “Are you all right?”
No answer.
My lips flatten in a thin line. I grab his arm and turn him around to check for a pulse. That’s when I see it.
His face is almost blue. Black veins spread all over his body, close to the surface of the skin. He’s unmoving, not breathing.
He’s…dead.
Damn it!That’s a pity.
But as I stand up to leave, I notice something glinting in his pocket. Curious, I reach forward and grab it.
A glass vial with blue liquid inside.
Zantrax.
Before I know it, the vial is in my pocket and I continue walking home.
17
The ground was burning. My bare feet cannot endure the heat. I run to escape the scorched earth, but there is no escape.
Everything on the horizon is dark—bleak.
“Giving up yet?” A voice whispers from behind.
I swivel around, my eyes widening in shock.
Red, viscous liquid covers her from head to toe. The only way I can tell it’s asheis because of the contours of her body. She’s not wearing any clothes. The scarlet liquid drapes her form, emphasizing her femininity.
She’s not abashed by her nudeness either. She has a lopsided smile on her face, her eyes watching me with great interest.
“Who… Who are you?”
“Who do you think I am, Nykander?”
Her voice is familiar, but I cannot remember where I heard it before.
“How do you know me?” I ask timidly.
Her laughter echos in the land of nothingness. Maniacal. Psychotic.
Then her features become solemn, her gaze piercing as she stares at me.
“Shall I perhaps call you, the Harbinger of Death?”
The moniker my mother had given me. The moniker that decided my wretched fate.
“Didn’t I tell you?” She smiles. “If you thought you’ve suffered until now… I have news for you.”
She comes closer—so close the red liquid dribbles down on me.
“You’re cursed. But it’s not by birth. No.” She shakes her head. “You’re cursed of your own making. And I will enjoy watching you suffer. Foralleternity.”
