Page 24 of Burning Love

Alex’s world stopped.

Sophia let out a choked sob. “I-I don’t know. It happened so fast. I didn’t even feel it. Not at first…”

Alex felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. Her knees almost buckled.

No. No, not Sophia.

The breath rushed from her lungs. The sounds around them faded into a dull roar in her ears. It was just her and Sophia, locked in this terrible moment.

Sophia met her gaze, and Alex saw it in her eyes—the acceptance. The quiet resignation. She knew what this meant.

“I don’t want to die,” Sophia whispered. “But if I—when I turn, you have to?—”

“No,” Alex cut her off, stepping closer, her hands clenching into fists. “You’re not going to turn. Stop, Sophia. We’ll—We’ll figure something out.”

Sophia’s eyes filled with tears. “Please, Alex. We both know what happens next. I really… I really just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for everything. Fuck. I can’t believe this happened to me. I thought I’d moved quickly enough.”

The words twisted in Alex’s chest like a knife. This was the moment. This was when she was supposed to do what she’d done so many times before—what had to be done. She had put down countless people after they’d been bitten. Friends. Fellow soldiers. People she’d lived and worked alongside for years.

But this was Sophia.

Sophia, who laughed when it all seemed so bleak. Who made Alex feel something real in a world that had stolen so much from her. Who had become the only thing that made this life worth living.

Alex’s fingers brushed the hilt of her knife. Her mind screamed at her to do it. To end it before Sophia became something else. Before she became somethingwrong.

Do it, Alex.

Now.

But she couldn’t.

Her body refused to move; her muscles were locked in place.

“Alex,” someone barked. She barely registered the voice.

A hand gripped her shoulder. She turned sharply to see Ellen staring at her with hard, expectant eyes.

“Alex,” Ellen said again, quieter this time, like she was speaking to a child. “You know what has to happen.”

Others who were now standing around the two women in a circle murmured their agreement.

“She’s already dead,” someone muttered. “Do it before it’s too late.”

“It’s the rules,” said Ellen.

Alex swallowed, her throat raw. She turned back to Sophia, whose face was damp with sweat, but her eyes were steady. Steady and afraid. This was a cut-throat ending. But it was a game of survival now.

She knew.

She was waiting for Alex to do it.

The pressure of the knife in Alex’s grip felt unbearable. This was her job. This was survival.

Sophia squeezed her eyes shut. Her breath came out ragged.

Alex raised the knife.

She stared at Sophia, memorizing every detail. The sharp curve of her jaw, the softness in her lips, the defiance in her posture even now, standing at the edge of the inevitable.

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