Sneak Peek: Ruben Ch5 - 1 (Patreon)

Author's Note: And before you guys ask, yea this isn't how I planned for these releases to go. I did attempt to write some of Ozara and I actually got 2k words out but my brain refused to go any further. I'm thinking the fact that I'm switching between ... three ;) and it feels like actual full stories, my brain is rebelling. Kinda like if I was doing ToA, FtC, and then Insight all at once. So yea, Ruben is next. Here you go, content.

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"Tell me why me!?" you shout, squeezing her wrist and then clawing at it though you knew it would do nothing. You could imagine her dropping you, and that would be the end. Everything would end right here. "Why me? Why not anyone else?"

"Why you?" She repeats, pausing and looking at you. You take in all of her face and ponder who this woman was before she became this creature. Was her skin always so sallow? And her eyes always so crestfallen, desolate land where no emotion dared thrive besides that of vengeance? Did these veins always call her skin home, and what of the dark splotches? Her hair was probably the only kept up thing about her, but you could see it thinning and knew that bald spots probably existed in a multitude of places.

"Because," she begins again, speaking slowly as if she was coming to terms with her own words as well, "if the brightest of them all cannot properly lead the way and show that things can get better and be different. Then who can?"

She snorts, "for centuries, I've had to listen to the laments of the innocents who passed due to the houses," she informs you, "not only those from my village but centuries worth of innocence. All of them forever pervading my body and screaming to me their tale. But now they are silent." She nods her head, slowly at first, as if she still wasn't sure whether her conclusion was the right one or not. And then more vigorously. "My cause is virtuous." She finally looks at you, and for the first time, her expression changes to one of hatred and repulsiveness.

"And you must die." Everything shifts into slow motion as she throws you and your body plunges down the side of the waterfall. You scream and thrash, and your mind recalls the many times Laurens would hold you over the side of the balcony's railing, threatening to release you and watch as you plummet to the ground. He never did it, but you had nightmares where he did. This … this was the nightmare. Involuntarily you feel your body morphing into your second form, something within you knowing that this form would save you. Foolish. Between your screams and thrashes, your mind chuckles, laughing at how you would die broken in more ways than one. The form that should be able to save you would spell your doom.

This wasn't the first time you fell. But it would be your last.