Darkness.
The silence stretched out until it became unbearable.
For a moment, I thought this was death:
A bottomless pit.
A place where nothing hurts, because there's nothing left to hurt.
But I wasn't dead.
I knew it when the pain returned, sharp as glass in my chest.
A ragged gasp tore from my throat.
The air filled my lungs with a shudder that ran down my spine.
The darkness was no longer absolute:
Blue flashes flickered in the gloom, illuminating twisted metal walls.
I tried to move my arms.
That's when I felt it.
Something wet, hot, sinking into my flesh.
I looked down.
My legs were covered in blood.
Two creatures with eyes devoid of humanity were clinging to me.
Their jaws opened and closed with a nauseating crunch, tearing off chunks of muscle that regrew almost instantly.
My mind refused to grasp it.
I couldn't be alive.
Not like this.
I tried to shove them away, but my arms were trapped too.
A third monster was clinging to one of them, tearing the flesh until the bone was exposed.
Blood ran down my fingers in a dark river…
and yet, I was still conscious.
A tremor ran down my spine as I noticed the wounds closing before my eyes.
The skin was mending.
The bone was filling in with new, firmer, denser tissue.
I didn't feel the same pain.
It was something else:
A deep, almost electric heat throbbing inside me.
A jolt shook me as I remembered I wasn't alone.
I spun my head around.
Valentine lay nearby, in a pool of blood.
Her breathing was faint, but steady.
Her chest rose and fell as if she were asleep.
Two of the creatures were devouring her legs with the same methodical calm.
She didn't wake up.
Further away, barely illuminated by a blue flash, Claire was lying on her side.
Her hair fell over her face.
She had no visible wounds.
No creatures approached her.
It was as if something forced them to ignore her.
"Valentine… Claire…" My voice was a hollow croak.
Nothing.
Not a flicker.
A tremor went up my arms.
I didn't know if it was rage or fear.
Perhaps both.
As my wounds closed at an impossible rate, the creatures halted their feast.
Their jaws hung open.
Their necks tensed.
They looked at me.
For an instant, I thought I saw fear.
The sound that erupted from their throats was a sharp, inhuman screech.
They leaped away, scrambling into the shadows of the wrecked carriage.
I got up.
My legs supported my weight as if nothing had happened.
My breathing was deep and stable.
I felt something new in my veins:
A hot pressure that pulsed with every heartbeat.
It wasn't entirely mine.
I looked at my hands.
Blue blood dripped from my nails.
The wounds had vanished.
The silence returned, heavy, almost respectful.
And then I felt it.
A presence.
Dense.
Conscious.
A consciousness I already knew.
The one with the swollen veins.
The one who had marked me.
The one who had killed me.
My breath caught in a low gasp.
Footsteps sounded in the distance, advancing with that monstrous calm I had seen before.
I didn't know if I could face him.
But for the first time since this all began, I didn't feel the urge to run.
My gaze returned to Valentine.
She still hadn't woken up.
Her parted lips seemed about to whisper something that never arrived.
Her breathing was identical to mine.
I looked back at Claire.
Motionless.
Intact.
As if all this hell couldn't touch her.
Something inside me understood that nothing would ever be the same.
That I wasn't, either.
I clenched my teeth.
I took a step forward.
And I knew that, whatever happened, I would never be human again.
Darkness.
But not the same as before.
Now, I was a part of it.