the black raven | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐒

□ damian □

No one is allowed to visit Alfred right now. He is in his third surgery, the one to remove the blood clot in his head. If I recall, the Doctor had called it a thrombectomy.

I am ensured he is in the best care by Dick and Tim, the younger of the two having practically lived with me ever since I woke up. Richard I don't see much of though, as he is flowing in and out from GCPD - he has buried himself in a manhunt to find our Father - and to our sister's room.

Speaking of, they have kept us seperate.

I'm glad.

Just like I'm glad I had angered my dear sister enough to send her out of harms way before the blast to the Manor came.

Abruptly, Tim slumps down into the chair closest to me, letting out a heavy sigh. I blink, staring at him.

"What are you doing, brother?"

Timothy meets my eyes, a glossy and unrequited blankness in them. He sighs, "Sitting with my brother."

I frown. He looks exhausted, with dark bags under his eyes and a sunken posture. I attempt a different route, although my years of training as an assassin fight to keep a head above the rising tide.

"Timothy. You need to get up. This.. This is not healthy."

He scoffs. "What are you talking about, Dami? I'm one of the few people in this family who isn't hurt."

I shake my head. The thought crosses my mind before I can regain total control of myself, and the feeling it brings is foreign to me.

This family is falling apart.

I am hopeless to stop it.

Just seeing this emptiness from Timothy, even for a quiet moment, brings upon a tight, bitter taste in my throat. It pokes uncomfortable thorns, a hot blurriness coming to form the slightest gloss over my own eyes.

"I do not care. Your face is showing signs of fatigue, and not only can our enemies see it but the people of Gotham-"

"Fuck them. All of them." His curse catches me, a flicker of a ghostly pain in my chest. I purse my lips. Clench my jaw. I know him. Timothy is my brother. He is the boy who is fascinated by the living world of technology and how it works. He is the mediator alongside Alfred, always observing both sides before choosing a side.

He is not this dark eyed, sunken shadow of hopelessness that I see.

And yet here he is, sitting across from me without looking to change his mind. And certainly nothing I can say will change that.

"You know," Timothy's voice breaks up an octave, and my eyes shut, "I can't tell this time. I can't make sense of it. I can make it out almost every other time, but this time I just can't seem to figure it out."

I take a deep breath as I feel it, cold and moving quickly down my cheek: a tear. I make sure to make it dissapear in an instant. I open my mouth to speak, but then my ears are ruptured. Timothy startles at the sound and I immediately recognize it.

A violent scream from down the hall, and I rip my IV out. I don't care that I stumble right away, weak in the knees with my head giving me hell, louder and harsher than a thunderstorm.

My sister just screamed, and I will not watch this family suffer anymore.

I barely make it to the door when the lights flicker, my eyes blinking black and a fever yellow as the lights charge on and off too rapidly for my body to process.

But Mara screamed. It was guttural, like something had hurt her.

No one touches my sister and lives, not without her permission. Ever. Not when that sound escapes her.

I cant help it. "Mara!"

I can barely walk; I'm holding onto the barely there window ledge near the entrance of the hospital room, but I appreciate that Timothy has already bolted, and I saw another tall figure run past me. It must've been Dick with the mop on his head that he calls a hairstyle.

My arms shake quietly as I fight to stay up, as I fight to tell myself to keep going. I can't let Mara be harmed alone, but if I cannot win the vattle with myself I will not be able to win the battle to get to her.

I crumble.

I lost-

Someone grabs me under my arms, hoisting me onto my feet. I look up to find an unfamiliar face staring back. Even in the flickering lights, I observe he is tall, standing around 5'11. He has fluffy dirty blonde hair, and bright blue eyes focused sharp on what's ahead of him.

I don't know who he is, but I am grateful. We walk together as fast - or because of me as slow - as we possibly can to get down the hall. I see Dick and a doctor toe to toe, and I hear faint voices become clearer as we near.

"- and I don't give a damn about the fucking protocol -!"

But then, as me and this stranger round the corner to enter the room, the sight does something to me. It puts a shot through my heart and a hole through my head all at once, and I feel a million things come shattering down. It's terrifying and liberating.

Mara's IV is dripping out on the floor, there's blood on the sheets, and my sister is crumpled on the floor, hands fisted and muscles tense - or, what's left of her deteriorated muscles. She looks as though she's shrunken to just skin and bones, pale as white snow, and it's when she raises her head that a deep, instinctive feeling rips through me.

Blood has run down her face, bleeding tears from her eyes. Her nose, mouth, and ears are the same. Her eyes, her deep oak eyes are almost soaked with tears yet all I can see if blackness.

All I observe is an abyss of deep soulessness, something mother had told me about years ago as I first became attuned to the extraneous evils of the world.

And what mother said about the eyes that bleed, the bones that stick out, and the mouth that pleads for help was something that should never relate to my little sister.

But here she is, with an entity I'd only ever seen in Ruinbooks of the Hallows, books only existing in the assassin world; the host of Nyx.

authors note -

so hi. i'm not dead. i feel horrible for keeping everyone hanging with this book, and i deeply apologize for that. a lot has happened in my life that's changed from pandemic times where i had time on my hands galore, and that has shrunken to close to nothing.

that being said, i apologize again. i love all of you for sticking with this book for so long and for an upkeep of support and love for Mara and these lovely characters.

anywho, onto logistics here.

this chapter will be the final chapter of this book. DONT FREAK OUT, ITS OKAY! I'm not leaving you all with just this book, i have planned an entire series!! so, that being said again, i will update this with either the new name of the book OR you'll see the book itself on my page thing. I'll also probably post something in the message function thing too :)

also I will still be editing this book until it's all fixed up simultaneously :)

thank you all for all the love and support, it means the world to me and i owe everything to you lovely gorgeous human beings <333

remember to be kind to yourselves, drink some water, have a lil snack, and sleep!

LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!

- sierra ;)

P.S. i'm prioritizing my mental health now, after a long time that I didn't and it just got worse and worse, so hopefully prioritizing means I'll make time to write. <3