Page 14 of Eternal
I lower the phone and watch them. My team,my family. The ones who’ve bled beside me, I don’t want to forget this, grainy or not, I want to keep it.
I catch Vlad’s eye as he spins around, laughing with Roman. For a moment, it feels like everything is right, like we’ve all found something worth fighting for.
And for once, I’m glad I’m here to see it.
The song fades into the background, but I can still hear the sound of their laughter.
That’s the only noise I need tonight.
4
AZRA
“Can You Feel My Heart” by Bring Me the Horizon
Present
Kill and repeat.
Kill and repeat. Until all I can see is red. Until all I can smell is blood.
Kill and repeat.Everywhere they need me to. It’s been like that for two years now.
I used tolovedeeply when I was a kid, I had so much affection inside me. Who would’ve thought I’d end up where I am today, killing people to stop wanting to kill my younger self?
Funny thing is, two years into this, the look on their faces still never gets old.
Please. I will never do it again. Please.
And I always reply with the same thing.No, No, No.
Why would I stop… Why does he keep asking why I’m hurting him?
As if the pain in every woman’s eyes doesn’t already answer that.
“You all beg the same. It’s suffocating to hear you beg.”
The eyes of today’s victim staring back at me are pleading. Empty.Scared. But pleading for a pity I never even had for myself. Maybe it’s because he can’t speak anymore.
Should’ve never opened his damn mouth and asked again why I was here today. Stupid dinner. Stupid rich people. And stupidmen.
The look on his face when he saw me waiting by his dinner table after his guests had left. Me, a stranger, calmly preparing my knife and gun, like they’d actually do some good tonight. My black matte bullets, each one engraved with an iris.
I didn’t even want to be here.
It’s been months since I’ve been back at my place, months of missions everywhere.
This week was Paris. A name, a mission, and I came here.
My birthday was four days ago. I was already in the city, sitting in my hotel room, eating a bowl of yogurt and cereal, and re-watching Casablanca.
I had this pounding headache, probably the lack of sleep, or the flight, or both. The nightmares kept coming back, like they always do around this time of year. But I had a mission.
I almost miss home.
“I don’t enjoy this, you know? You bleed just like the others. You’re just…notspecial.”
I get up and clean my blade on his jacket. “Thank you for being so cooperative today. I was supposed to kill you yesterday, but this stupid headache was unbearable, you know?”
