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↳ 025, late october

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The blood was thick in the air like war in hostile territory made of their own creation. It sat heavy on her skin like another layer entirely made of red.

She could hardly see through the haze, the screaming all around her playing like some stuttering record from another room deep within a house.

But she wasn't outside. Was she?

She couldn't feel her toes or her fingers but there was someone holding her. They were crying because she could still feel the way their tears hit her face, mixing and smearing with the gathering blood.

There was so much of that golden ichor in her throat she thought she could choke but as she tried to heave in air, it got lodged deeper and deeper within her like glue. It coated her lungs and insides like putty.

She could remember Naya's words, still haunting her, even on the brink of some unfathomable end.

It will all end in blood.

It was a curse, Colette realized. It had always been some sacred curse that would end them both.

She had been with Naya, not long ago. They had been stumbling somewhere, the woods perhaps? Hadn't Damon been with her? Or was she with Klaus, drawn there with her once beloved like a pet?

She was just a toy after all, some dog on a tight leash.

She coughed and her bones felt like they were splintering, her insides erupting with every little movement. Something sharp had been thrusted through her, she could remember that now. Yet, she couldn't remember what day it was or what she had done the night before.

Hadn't she been at a dance? A ball?

Her dress had been red, no black, no blue–

It had been red, right? It had been blood red, bloody and bold, it was red like everything she ever was now.

It was green, little girl. Green like the forest and trees around you.

There was howling someone closer to her but she couldn't look anywhere but the fading darkness in front of her eyes. She thought, just for a moment, she was looking at stars. Little flickering lights all around her.

There had been fire here, you can smell it, can't you? That smell won't ever leave you. You'll know it forever.

Was she close to burning again? She could feel it all over her, a horrible aching spreading and twisting through her flesh and bones. It was moving her, shifting and changing and she let out a cough, so wet it sounded like she was sucking in water. There was something horribly wrong, hadn't the gods meant to protect her?

Where were they now? As she lay dying?

Where had all her gods gone? Her makers? Her lovers?

There was muffled speaking but she couldn't hear. She was beginning not to hear at all, just as the feeling around her was slowly dissipating. She couldn't see the crying person anymore and she couldn't even hear the desperate screams and she wondered if it was she who was screaming.

Her throat was raw and thick, could she have been the one? Was she still the one?

You're nothing, like you've always been.

I'm not, she begged her gods, I'm not, I'm special.

You're a failure. You've failed. Death by blood, death by fire, death by love.

Her gods were angry as she blinked in the darkness, but she realized that so was she.

They might be rageful but she was worse. So much worse.

AUTHOR'S NOTE━━hope y'all noticed we went forward in time a little rn.....

i think i'll do this a couple more times in this book (unless i find a way for it to end perfectly for u guys!!) so def pay attention to the little "now" "then" and "afters" at the tops of chapters!!!

let me know what ur thoughts r!! any predictions?? guesses???

vote/comment mwUAH