Page 40 of Bloody Valentine

I laid her down in the snow, wiping my tears and grabbing my gun. I had to catch that fucking woman. I couldn’t ruin this. Libby’s death would be for nothing if I failed.

I ran toward the cliff. The woman was breathing heavily, her back against the cold air with me in front of her.

She whimpered, backing up as far as she could.

“Stop,” I said, my entire torso and arms covered in blood. “I am sorry it has to be this way. I really am, Abigail.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Maddox!” She screamed at me.

“It’s not my choice. I have to do this. For the Elders. For my sister. For the Divine...I am truly sorry.”

She shook her head, sniffling and looking behind her at the windy cliff’s edge.

“If I’m meant to die…” she said, with dead defeated eyes. “Then it will be on my own terms!”

Before I could even respond, she turned her body and jumped off the cliff. I ran, but it was too late. She was gone, disappeared into the oblivion of the mist and darkness below.

“Fuck!” I fell to my knees beside the rocks.

“All of this was for nothing? My sister died in vain!” I screamed to the sky. My target was gone. The woman who resembled my sister was gone…

Wait.

The woman looked like Liberty.

I felt sick, staring at a pile of large rocks beside the craig. My hands shook, holding my midsection and jerking forward to vomit into the abyss. I cried out angrily, snatching one of the larger rocks from the ground and heading back to Liberty’s body.

“No!”I screamed, disgusted at myself and what I had become.

Libby looked so much like the woman who jumped…there were just a few features that were different.I couldn’t let her death be in vain. Two souls were taken tonight by that fucking man. St. Valentine.

I cried, audibly letting out my anger and grief as I smashed the rock down onto the face of my dead sister. I contorted her flesh until she was unrecognizable.

“Fuck you, St. Valentine! Is this what you want of your precious Divine? Broken, mindless soldiers existing only to kill those you deem fit?”

I couldn’t look at Liberty’s face. My cell phone chimed, and I scrolled my blood-covered fingers to see it was my father. He demanded my presence at the ritual. The Divine order called to me. It was time to present them with my chosen sacrifice.

“My blood is your blood,” I cried, agonizing at my own hand. “You have my back…and I have yours.”

Throwing her dead mangled corpse over my shoulder and placing the mask over my face, something clicked inside me. You couldn’t escape your fate, could you? You could only accept it or lose more of what you loved.

“I am Maddox Nathanael Valentine…” I said weakly, walking toward the tombs beneath the university with my sister in tow.

“I belong to the Divine…” I continued the mantra, arriving in a blur at the arena where everyone waited in black cloaks. The elders stood at the front, their crests adorning their heads with skulls, masking their features.

I threw Liberty onto the slab, stripping her clothes from her body, picking up the dagger, and stabbing it into her heart. I stared at her broken body one last time, a sob escaping my throat as I roughly dragged the weapon down.

Her blood spilled, following the channels of the stone, draining down to meet in the center pool of the ceramic bowl.

Barely able to see through my tears, I fell to my knees before the altar.

Covered in my sister’s blood, I looked through the crowd at my brother. Our father held his shoulder, and I wondered if he would be able to tell who this was.

I wiped my face, reaching an unsteady hand to rest on Liberty’s. These words would brand my soul eternally, awakening the spirit of my powerful ancestor.

“And you Chosen One…feel the power within the Divine…”

I choked back a sob and forced myself to continue. To utter the words I had dreaded my entire life.

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