Page 133 of Demonic Cage
I snatch the dagger from the well just before a cobra can strike me. Now running, the green creatures slither after me at a frightening speed. I scream as one drops down from the ceiling and lands in front of me. I turn around, then sprint in the other direction. There are too many of them.
They surround me. I turn and turn, but it’s hopeless. I can hardly breathe. I hold the key dagger with my limp, bandaged hand, which Lavian told me not to use in a fight because anyone’s blood could deactivate it.
Snakes block my path everywhere. As one gets closer, I push it away with my bag, but it’s useless. They’ve surrounded me, their yellow eyes narrowing mockingly. They don’t come any closer, keeping me in a circle. I hear footsteps. Shuffling. Sylla’s black robe glides over the salty stones. Her face is as always – smiling, yet not. Pale as a statue, just like the demon remnants around her. My lips tremble. It was her. She petrified the demons. And people. A gorgon.
I remember nearly turning to stone from the dark parts of my soul she showed me when we first met. I recall the blueberry-purple veins in my hand as I froze, unable to move. The thought dries my mouth. There’s nowhere to run.
The woman’s hair is made of blue snakes, with remaining black locks blending among the slippery creatures. A jade-greencobra slowly slides across her golden forehead, and before I can close my eyes, her gaze captures me.
I feel my body and soul breaking. Hatred tears me apart. My hand is stained with my mother’s blood, the other covered in dusty ashes. I see my father’s burning body.
“No…” Maya cries. I cry too. I move closer to my sister. I slit her throat. The red liquid splashes on my face. Her head tilts to an impossible angle.
Then the wounds close up. The cut on Maya’s neck seals. The dagger falls from my mother’s heart, my father’s ashes form a body. And I do it again. I kill them. Once. Twice. Dozens of times.
Each time, I lose a piece of my soul. Everything becomes blurry.
I can barely see.
I am like a robot.
I slash at my family.
I cry and kill.
My face burns with tears.
I scream and burn.
I don’t know what’s happening.
“Why am I punishing them?” I ask, trembling, as Nathan’s figure appears before me. I don’t kill him, or even hurt him.
“And why not you?”
The boy smiles.
“You like to be hurt. You like when they hurt you.”
I nod, then kill my father. It’s dark and cold. Getting colder. Something is draining the fire from my heart. I am just a body again. I want to kill myself. But I kill others. I look at the dagger. How easy it would be to plunge it into myself…
No one needs me. I need no one. No one loves me. I love no one.
It’s dark. I am disappearing. I press the knife to my heart.
Darya’s figure appears before me. His silver hair glistens wetly, his eyes stormy.
“What are you still doing here?” he asks, looking at me in confusion. He gestures around at the corpses.
“I thought you knew this is what you wanted.”
My eyes sting with tears.
“I don’t want to kill my family.”
“Liar!!!” Darya’s voice makes me press my hands to my ears as if it will burst my eardrums.
“What else are you guilty of, Lotte?”
