Page 161 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

CHAPTER 6

KIARRA

Ablanket of numbness coats my body like a weight, pushing it down. My mind feels muddled with no clear thought or reasoning. It floats, wavering from one clouded void to another.

Something pushes me through the void to the light outside it.

“It’s okay,” a voice whispers beside me.

That voice. I recognize it.

“Ka… ne?” My voice is raw, dry, and scratchy. Like I’ve been screaming for hours. My mind tries to clear the fog holding it hostage, but it’s no use. My brain is just as exhausted as my body.

“Don’t try to talk, it’s okay. I’ve got you, and I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Out?” I mumble, feeling myself start to curl back into sleep.

“I… I didn’t know Kiarra… I promise I didn’t know…” Kane’s sad voice floats around me as I drift back toward the void.

“Hey! What are you doing in there?” a voice shouts out, just as I slowly drift back into the darkness.

* * *

My mind is filledwith a thick fog that slowly begins to clear. I hold on to it, wanting to stay in the haze, letting it wrap around me and pull me back under.

The pain in my body still lingers, my ability slowly pushing through the stagnant green potion to heal. But the pain is no match for the constant battle my mind and heart are in.

My logical mind wants to figure a way out of this hell, like it always has when it comes to King. To figure out a way to survive long enough to find some hope along the way. To fight. But it was never really me I was fighting for, was it? It was Alana or… Morana.

I wanted to escape so she could be free of the torment and suffering I thought she was going through because of me. If that ended up with us both living happily together… then it would have been a gift. But it was never the end goal. Getting her, and then us, free was.

My heart doesn’t want to feel any more pain. Her betrayal was not something I ever saw coming.

But even then, it’s nothing on what I feel now. On the torment and agony that consume every inch of my body.

My mind tells me to fight, but my heart asks, ‘for who?’

There’s no one left to fight for. And I wouldn’t know where to start if I had to fight for myself.

I’m wallowing in my own self-pity and grief, letting it devour me when a loud banging starts up beside me.

The banging becomes a continuous beat. One that grinds on my ears and shoots throughout my skull like a hammer to the head.

Peeling my eyes open, I squint against the harsh burn from the light above. The half beam is a lot brighter than before, and it takes me a moment to adjust before I can fully open my eyes.

Lifting my head slightly, I turn to look at the source, but there’s nothing there apart from the machine.

The banging picks up speed, and the machine shakes slightly from the impact behind it. It’s coming from whatever is in the next room. As if someone is slamming their body into the wall and using their full weight to do so.

I lay my head back down; the pain growing with each thump, making my mind turn scattered, no longer able to focus or think.

The banging continues, again and again, until my brain feels like it’s about to explode.

I try to move, but I’m barely able to lift my head again.

“Please…” I want to yell for whoever it is to stop, but it barely comes out in a whisper. I need just a moment to think… to try to focus on anything but the pain.

But the loud banging continues, shooting through my ears in waves.

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