Page 126 of My Solemn Vow
Maybe I’d believe that if blood wasn’t pooled all around her on my table like the rest on the floor by the chair.
54
ANTONELLA
THE VIOLENT LITTLE THING
No sooner had I fallen asleep than I wake again.
Gasping for air, I scream, pain radiating through every part of my body.
Valor’s voice is loud, coming in stereo from around me. “Let her take you. Don’t fight. Relax. Breathe. Please breathe.”
My body bends and breaks.
Each breath I take is more and more excruciating. Stabbing pains shoot through my abdomen and along my spine. It’s agonizing. I want nothing to do with this pain.
I want nothing to do with him.
Grinding my teeth, I try to scream, but I can’t get air.
Nothing moves.
Everything refuses to move except for the shivering that’s overtaken my body from the cold in the dark.
He didn’t listen, didn’t defend me, and now I’m dying.Fuck. Valor.
But then my lungs expand. The world feels different. Brighter. Like the sun against my face. When I try to blink, I open my eyes to find the sun high above in the sky, and the ground beneath me is snowy andbright.
Pine trees are dusted in snow, and a thick blanket is on the ground beneath me. The gray sky isn’t even as ugly as it normally feels.
I’m no longer cold.
It’s glaringly obvious something is wrong. Something has changed. Everything is wrong, so very wrong.
The world doesn’t make sense. My body moves, but it isn’t my own. I have four limbs at different angles like a dog. A wolf.
What in the fever dream is this? No. Not a fever dream. I’m dead, gone to hell, and it’s frozen over.What unlikely event led to this? At least hell is pretty.
“Come on, princess.” I hear Valor’s voice again.
Ahhh, yes, all eternity listening to that nickname.The way he made me feel. It’s only fair to be tormented by him in death. I groan, fighting down the anger and the betrayal coming in waves.Eventually, I’ll learn how to ignore him. He’s less obnoxious than most second graders anyway.
“Try to stand. If you keep fighting her, it’ll keep hurting.” Valor approaches me from somewhere off in my side vision and kneels beside me. We’re practically nose to nose.
At least I know he’s not just an audio hallucination in death.
Pain and heartbreak pierce me. Every memory and the way he looked at me refreshes the physical pain that’s still so fresh in my mind and body.
My begging and pleading as I told him I didn’t know. His anger as he didn’t believe me. The physical pain superseded by the emotional as Neil plunged that knife into my stomach.
I try to speak, but the hallucination I’m caught in feels too realistic. I’m silent. Unable.Wolves don’t talk.
At least this time no one can hear me beg for mercy.
“Quit fighting your wolf.”
Just a hallucination. A shitty as fuck hallucination who is bound and determined to make even death miserable.
