Page 49 of Bloody Valentine

Maybe I always would be.

I was done.

There was no saving Vivian, but I wouldn’t let her death be for nothing. After laying Vivian to rest, I was going to take Hayes and run. I didn’t know when they would find me, but I would be prepared to kill them all when they did. I was not a fucking puppet, and I wouldn’t allow them to use me any longer.

I had left a note for Kieran. The quiet kid in my class. The one who looked at bodies the same as myself. The intricate way that he saw the world, maybe he could lead change to the fucked up society of the Divines members.

The ceremony was all set up, with candles and thousands of cloaked figures surrounding the large ceramic pool at the base in the center. I couldn’t look at it, knowing soon it would fill up with Vivian’s blood.

I didn’t even get to say goodbye.

I didn’t get to tell her that I was taking her advice, that I was going to run and be the deciding factor for my own fate.

I laid her on the altar, acknowledging each Elder with their name in Latin and bowing my head to each member. I moved the blanket away from Vivian, making sure to block her nakedness from the Divine.

I didn’t want them to see what’s mine.

She was my Little Virgin. So pure and beautiful.

I was happy that she wouldn’t feel this. My hands were shaking.

It was a sort of peace in my mind to simply fall asleep and not wake up. I didn’t want her pain anymore.

I just wanted peace, hers and my own.

“I am sorry, Little Virgin. May you find your own fate in the finality of your slumbers,” I whispered to only her, kissing her beautiful lips one last time.

My hands shook as the ceremonial dagger was brought to me and revealed within the cloth and mask.

I waved the artifacts over Vivian’s body, pausing for a second over her face before placing it over my own. It felt better this way, like it would be someone else to end her life. The last band of chains that bound me would break with her final breath.

“My king,” the underling said as I grabbed the dagger.

I made a slice, very shallow, on Vivian’s thigh. She moaned softly in her sleep, though I tried to be gentle. The cut next was much deeper. I punished myself with that cut, hitting the bones in my palm. I joined my nearly severed hand to her thigh, feeling the thrum of our blood joining one another.

It was so powerful.

So right.

It solidified that running from my fate was truly the best thing I could do.

I looked at her beautiful face one last time, tears streaming down my cheeks behind the mask as I raised the dagger high above her heart.

“I love you…my Little Virgin. With this dagger, I claim your soul and shatter my own in turn.”

Chapter seventeen

Iopened my eyes, Maddox’s final words making my heart break. Spitting out the herb, I moved quickly. Maddox looked at me, his eyes wide in shock behind his mask. His raised hand came down to land on the stone in a hard strike right where my body had been seconds before.

“I’m so sorry, Maddox. I told you, youalwayshave a choice. I choose my own fate. And you’ve chosen yours.”

He still looked bewildered as I bolted from the altar, his body slamming forward with the force of the blade. He spun around,his mask falling from his face. He was looking up at me while now on his back on the slab.

“And what’s your choice, Little Virgin? What fate has my love chosen?” he whispered.

With tears in my eyes, I grabbed the dagger from his grip, screaming my anger and pain as I slammed it down as hard as I could into his chest.

“I choose to live!” I sobbed, his blood soaking through his shirt to my hands. “I loved you too. You could have chosen me, you idiot! You could have chosenus,and we would have created our own fate together.”

---