Soul not Included

Chapter 119

I came at the wrong moment.

I had stayed with the Brothers for that night. Fell asleep relatively quickly compared to how I'm used to. Augie held my hand the whole night while Simon used his waking moments to go eat or probably to talk to Oliver.

I had a dream of being chased. Being chased and caught. Murdered, torn and burned. much like the vampires Simon and I caught last time. Much like the vampires that everyone is currently hunting down.

I woke up suddenly after the burning, the fire felt so real and my skin still prickled where the flames would have licked me. Augie was still sleeping soundly but his hand was firmly gripping mine. Like he was reacting to my reactions. If that was the case then it wouldn't be surprising.

I flipped some of his hair out of his face and slowly released myself from him before leaving the room. I didn't want to go back to sleep. I was afraid of jumping back into the fire.

While death isn't particularly scary it doesn't mean that I don't have a list of other ways I'd prefer to die. Fire isn't on the list of death preferences. Doesn't even make it on the top ten. The list of course changes as the years go by. I used to have frozen to death at my number one spot when I was younger. Around the age of twelve or so. That was before I read up what freezing to death actually entails. That dropped out of first place rather fast. 

With age I think I've left behind any desire of a tragic, unique or unusual death and simply desire a simple one.

One that didn't include getting torn apart by vampires. (Never thought that would even have to be said before in my original life)

Regardless, i woke up from dreaming and remembered that I had to tell Oliver about what I spoke about with Grace. Probably get him to make me understand why they put so much faith in my thoughts and opinions and whether or not that had to do with my ability or not. It just didn't make sense to me that trained warriors would wait for someone like me to confirm ideas they've already had. And if anyone should be listened to the most regarding actions that should be taken against potential threats I would think it would be the person that literally had lifetimes of experience as a fucking soldier.

And that's how i found myself back to Oliver.

Just that I came at the wrong moment.

Demetri was there. not that that was the thing that caught my attention.

There  was blood in the air.

Simon was soaked through. His arms and face and even his hair was drenched. 

He's a messy eater, I know. I kissed him right after his meal once, i remembered. Not that that was important.

He tasted like copper. I taste the copper in my mouth right now.

Oliver's cotton candy pink hair was a perfect halo, untouched of all the blood, illuminating his pure white face that was currently sunk into a person. Several people were already dead below his throne.

Demetri was moving towards me. His lips formed my name, i registered that amount but his voice sounded far away. He didn't approach though. 

His eyes are still gold, i registered that too but my body was still frozen. 

The tourists, the children, the screaming.

The deep and unrelenting guilt of having escaped that while literal toddlers were taken into this very room to be preyed upon.

"Mari," Simon whispered. His bloody hands on my shoulder.

I turned around and allowed him to usher me out. He stepped out with me. There were no thoughts running through my head anymore. The screaming went quiet but after that I went blank.