I look down and there’s a gaping hole in my chest. The snakes start crawling into it, filling it until there’s nothing left inside me but cold, writhing darkness.
They devour everything.
Inside me, around me. My nerves scream, but I’ve lost the ability to scream with them. I’m not even sure I’m real anymore. Just pain and pieces. Just a puppet made of meat.
When the stillness of death finally comes, I fall.
Not down — but in. Like I’ve been swallowed whole by the earth. It spits me out into another version of hell.
This one looks like home.
I’m at the cabin.Our cabin. But it’s wrong, a twisted version of it I never wanted to see.
The walls drip with something black, thick and slow like oil mixed with blood. The lights are flickering. The furniture’s rotting, the wood warped and cracked. Mold creeps along every surface like it’s alive, breathing in decay and exhaling grief.
I’m about to bolt from this cursed fucking place when the sight of her stops me cold. She’s here, and for a moment, everything seems better.
Adora’s sitting in the middle of the room, legs crossed, back turned to me. Her hair’s loose, spilling down her shoulders like silk. She’s wearing one of my shirts that should be white, but the fabric is soaked red.
My breath cuts off at the sight.
Her head tilts back, like she senses me. I rush forward, and drop to my knees in front of her.
Her hands rest in her lap, palms up. Her wrists — fuck — they’re slashed.
“Adora,” I choke.
She lifts her head. And I go cold.
It’s not her face anymore. It’s mine. How is it mine and hers at the same time?
Her lips curve into a mockery of a smile, her eyes hollow, bleeding the same black sludge from the cabin walls.
“You said you loved me,” she whispers in my voice.
I do. I do love you, adorable.
Her hands rise, and the cuts on her wrists start to open wider, like invisible blades are carving her apart, the flesh curling back from bone.
I try to reach for her, desperate to do something. To help her.
She screams before I can touch her, high-pitched and endless, filling the space with more pain.
The room ignites, flames licking up the walls like they were waiting for the right moment to strike. The air goes dry,blistering. I’m stuck in place, breathing in ash, wishing she’d at least let me touch her one last time.
She speaks again, her voice calm and final, like a death sentence.
“You did this.”
I know. I know that’s true.
The fire eats everything. Including me.
I deserve this hell.
20. Tribe
Adora
