Page 160 of Eternal
Used.
Used.
Used.
Cleansed. Purified. Before being used.
The words are turning around in my mind, it feels like eternity when it was only a few seconds, they’re sinking deep in my skull.
I grip his jaw, forcing his glassy eyes open. “Who’s cleansing them?”
Antony barely breathes. His pulse flutters weakly under my fingers, slipping away, his lips part, but nothing comes at first, only a rasp of air, a last, pathetic attempt to cling to life.
Then… “The church…”
Cold dread spills through my veins.
“What church?” My voice tightened around him. “Give me a name.”
What the fuck does that mean?
I step back, hands curling into fists, my breath is sharp and uneven. This isn’t trafficking. It’s not just rich men using theirpower to make people disappear. This is organized, structured, it’s a system.
His lips part, but nothing comes out.Nosound.Noconfession.Noanswer.No.
No, no, no.
Not right now.
I shake him, my fingers slipping in his blood. His head lolls, heavy, empty. His chest barely moves.
“Come back.” My voice cracks with desperation. “Come back to life, you fucking cunt, I’m not done!”
He doesn’t move. He doesn’t reply. He’s pale and the water is all bloodied. I drive my knife into him. Deep. “Speak.” I rip it out. Stab again. “Fucking speak!”
I don’t stop.
Ican’tstop.
The blade sinks into flesh, over and over, warm and wet. The fountain is red now, my hands are red, my vision isred, red, red.
I stab and stab until my arms shake from anger, until my breath hurts in my chest, until there’s almost nothing left to stab anymore.
I want to scream, I want to rip him violently from death’s grip and shake what’s left of him until he coughs up every last answer he owes me, until his soul crawls back into his destroyed body and tells me everything.
But he’s dead.
My chest heaves, and my hands shake.
He’s gone. He’s been gone, but I kept going.
I tip my head back, exhaling the frustration. And I see the sky. The same sky that once was so vast over a little girl pointing at constellations, believing in stories her mother told her. The same sky that once watched me laugh, watched me dream, watched me happy.
I bet the stars never thought they’d witness me like this.
I bet they never thought I’d become the monster staring back at them.
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