|4|Ophelia
I cracked my eyes open. Why was my bed so stiff? The wood groaned as I slowly rose.
I rubbed my eyes, "What?" I said as my head hit the ceiling.
And that's when everything hit me. I was in a cupboard under the sink, crouched with my bleeding back to the rough wood. My tears had dried, turning my skin sticky like the sweat that had coated me during the fight with Alaric. When I realised he'd killed my mother. When I killed Hael. When I'd run from the courtyard to the kitchens to get Mallory executed.
I could almost hear Mallory's screams, echoing in the tiny space, in my head. How shrill her voice was, raw and filled with pain before it was silenced.
I sniffled, wiping my nose on the sleeve of my red dress.
I had started this day with only the death of my mother, and had ended it with the death of Hael and Mallory.
My chest shook as I held back a sob.
My mother was gone.
Hael was gone.
Mallory was gone.
And it was all because of me.
I was the reason for all these deaths.
No one could tell me otherwise.
"Run east. Go past the Bone Lakes and the River Jedz. Once you reach the end of the river, make a circle on the dirt and draw a line through the circle. Shout, 'Mavla Keest' and follow them." That was what Mallory had told me before... Before I hid in the cupboard. Clearly it was something important, Mallory had been telling me to remember again and again until the guards had come.
The wood groaned against my back, raking across the already bleeding stings. As long as I stayed in this cupboard, I wouldn't be able to look at Mallory. Look at what had probably happened to her.
But I was going to face it eventually. I couldn't keep running away from it.
So why bother now?
I burst out of the cupboards. I didn't know how, but the kitchens were empty. Completely.
Except for one person.
Mallory.
She was lying down on the floor, face up. Her hair turned red as her blood pooled around her. It leaked from her mouth and open throat, spilling across her spotless skin.
"Oh, god." I clapped a hand over my mouth, stifling a sob.
She was dead. She really was dead.
I'd never be able to scheme ways to convince her to let me stay in the kitchens, she would never sneak me snacks in the middle of the night, never would I come down here and talk to her about my life. Not when she didn't have hers.
"No," I whispered to myself as I continued to stare at the scene. Her blood continued to pool onto the floor. It would stain, be a permanent reminder of how she'd been murdered.
For me.
No, because of me.
My knees crashed into the floor, and I ran my fingers across her face.
"No, no, no." I sobbed as I cupped her cheek. The blood had long since stopped leaking, but I brought my hands to her chest and pressed down. Maybe her heart would restart and she'd come back to life.
"No, no, no, no, no, no." I moved my hands to her neck when her heart didn't start pumping. I pushed one hand against the cut, banging the other against her chest. The reason why her heart hadn't restarted the first time was because her neck was still split. With it closed, she would wake up. Blood would fill her veins and give her colour, it would turn her hair back to its bright brown, not to the dull colour it was now.
"Mallory." I squeezed her hand.
"MALLORY," I screeched as she didn't come back. Her eyes stared at the ceiling above us, not even glancing my way.
"NO." I screamed and punched her heart like how I'd punched Alaric, Hael, and Warren. I killed a person, why couldn't I save one?
"PLEASE," I begged curling over her body. Maybe my tears would bring her back to life like the stories. Or my begging will be heard to the gods and they would show mercy and bring her back.
"N- No," I sagged. Her body was cold against mine, blood wet against my skin.
"You can't die," I whispered to her. "Not when everyone else has."
As though her ghost was consoling me, a breeze swept through the room and caressed my skin.
Run east. Go past the Bone Lakes and the River Jedz. Once you reach the end of the river, make a circle on the dirt and draw a line through the circle. Shout, 'Mavla Keest' and follow them.
Why did Mallory have to be so cryptic? Couldn't she just tell me why before she'd died? Why did she have to protect me? Why did she have to die?
I hiccupped and wiped my nose on my shoulder. The tip of my nose burned at the friction, like how it would burn whenever I got a cold. Mallory always made me soup when I got sick, and my mother would read me my favourite stories and sit at my bedside. Every single time. I used to think they were stifling and overprotective, but I'd take that any day over the events of the past twenty four hours.
Run east.
How could I have run while her body cooled here?
Go past the Bone Lakes.
The very lakes my mother had taken me to one time to read together.
Past the River Jedz.
Me, my mother, and my father had had a picnic there when I was younger.
Make a circle on the dirt and draw a line through the circle. Shout, 'Mavla Keest' and follow them.
Those were her last words.
I shivered as I let out one long exhale.
Mallory's death couldn't have meant nothing. To protect me, she had given up her life. Why would she give up her life for a murderer? Her life was worth millions of mine. The life of someone as bright and upbringing as Mallory was worth the lives of billions of killers.
Her death couldn't have meant nothing.
It couldn't have.
Run east.
That seemed like a good place to start.
I reached inside the cupboard for the backpack Mallory had gotten for me. Its weight fell against my sore back, and for a second I wished I didn't need to take it.
But I wouldn't survive without it.
And it was the last thing Mallory had given to me.
I grabbed a puff pastry and looked at Mallory's body.
She still stared at the ceiling with blank eyes.
"I'm so sorry." I whispered before I left, alone and with one goal.
I was going to kill Alaric Yerpen and destroy his whole cursed empire.
No matter what it took.
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