PATIENCE

Where the grey blankness of the camp was suffocating, the white of the walls surrounding me now was shocking. The brightness tore at my eyes as I blinked against it. The walls were bare of any lasting sign of the Seraphics—no blood, no claw marks, and no red wrath.

I had missed the colourlessness of white. I let the simplicity and easiness of it cloak me in a warm embrace, replacing the thrum of adrenaline coursing through me.

The being with the dark blue hair guided me to an empty bed. Her short hair was sharp along her jaw, as though someone had sliced into it with a blade.

"You're in the infirmary. Relax." She squeezed my shoulder lightly—and that was when I saw her eyes.

I made a move to speak.

"Don't talk. I need to check your jaw."

Flecks of light glimmered in them, floating and dancing in the expanse of blue. It was as though someone had dropped the night sky into her eyes with a pipette, the stars gleaming with every blink of her translucent eyelids.

I found myself wishing my memories were as immortal and ever-lasting as the pain they brought. I ached with an emptiness as I racked my mind for what her kind were called.

It was the most painful thing the Seraphics had wrenched from us. Our familiarity. Our recognition and warmth toward other communities. I recognised her beauty and the kindness in her eyes. But that was all. We had been left strangers to each other.

She traced her fingertips along my jaw and then snapped it into my place with a click. The sound reverberated along my bones. Before I could take my next breath, she did the same with both my legs, a sharp pain radiating up my knee as she checked for broken bones.

"You'll be fine," she said, rising to a water jug into the corner of the room. "The pain will last a while but your bones are already healing." She extended a glass of water towards me. "Drink up. I'll give you something for the pain."

She slipped through the white curtains around the last bed in the corner of the room, and I caught a glimpse of another being laying on the bed while she rummaged through some drawers.

A green-skinned being.

She returned to me with an orange pill. I couldn't help but continue to stare at the small parting in the curtain. His green scaly skin was a shock against the white curtain.

"Thank you." I took the pill from her, my throat dry.

"Take it and then rest for a bit," she ordered. "I'm going to go check up on the other guy, and then I'll be right back."

My eyes followed her as I swallowed the pill. She pulled the curtains away from the bed again.

I drew my sights away from the being, my breath catching in my throat. Fear swam through me, fighting past the shackles and restraints of my patience. Wherever I looked, a patch of green floated in my vision, as though his green skin had scarred my vision.

The nurse hummed in deep thought as she checked his wounds. She patted his arm lightly. "I don't think these wounds are going to heal easily. You'll get worse before you get better, so rest up."

Wounds inflicted by a Sin never did heal easily.

Especially wounds inflicted by Wrath.

His strikes didn't just cause pain—they caused agony. A pain akin to the red hot beams of fire.

A pain that I had been lucky so far to have avoided.

I risked another glance at the green-skinned being. His skin was littered with hues of purple and brown, his eye black and swollen. His jaw was protruding at an odd angle and he leaned forward on the bed as though every inch of his body hurt.

Wrath had turned that angry, snarling creature that had cornered me in the camp into a cowering, hunched shadow of a body.

He looked as though he was close to tears.

I averted my eyes, the fear in my veins dissipating. I didn't trust Wrath with anything. Not my life, not my Virtue, and not my feelings. But there was a thought that had been engrained in me since the dawn of time. A thought that told me that Wrath would burn the world for me.

The only problem was that he would burn me in the process, too.

I felt the being's gaze on the side of my head, two sharp eyes pointed in my direction from the corner of the room. His attention zoned in on me. Where Wrath's glare made me feel warm, the being's stare was leaving me cold.

"You," he snarled in that same scratchy voice.

Even with the way his eyebrows clenched in a threatening frown, even with the way his nails dug into the bed sheets, I couldn't help but feel at ease. Calm. Relaxed. My fear had all but disappeared.

I made eye contact with the being, knowing that he wouldn't harm a hair on my head. "What's your name?" I asked.

He snarled again, his lip curling upwards. "Sendran."

"Oh no, Sendran, you're hurt," I began calmly. "You must be in so much pain."

The being pulled away from the edge of his bed, his eyes flashing.

"Do you want more?" I asked.

His angry demeanour switched to a confused one. "More what?"

I sipped on the remainder of my water. "Pain."

He visibly paled. A sheen of sweat formed on his forehead, glistening in the dim light before he yanked his curtain close.

And then—I felt him.

My cheeks grew warm as I sensed Wrath's approach. It was as though he was stalking me, lingering in the shadows, waiting for his chance to strike.

But I knew Wrath better than that—like the back of my hand. Wrath didn't need to wait to strike. His violence needed no welcome. He was toying with me.

Like a predator plays with its food.

The door struggled on its hinges as Wrath shoved it open. For a moment its creaking was the only sound in the room.

But then footsteps sounded behind me. Loud, long strides that thumped into the ground beneath me.

"There's nothing like the end to a hunt, is there?"

I did not know if it was the orange painkiller or the fact that I had just fallen from the sky, but the warm darkness of his voice suddenly left me dizzy.

I turned to face him.

"No. There isn't."

•••

I promise there's another chapter coming very soon!! *raises hands* don't shoot!

I hope you guys enjoyed this short chapter nonetheless and leave a vote if you did xoxo

I haven't had the time to write in a very very long time and just want you all to know that your support means the world to me.

Love,
Laila