Here's a snippet of the newest chapter of ruthlessness!
Greetings all! I'm in a kind of writing rut, so I decided to give it a sneak peek now that I can feel it fading.
Almost immediately, Lauren began to fall. Her eyes were still closed, and what she heard made her keep them clenched shut.
A cacophony of different noises assaulted her. The song continued, the piano pulses seeming to match up with the sound of hoofbeats, barely decipherable over a child’s cries.
Flashes of light began filtering through her vision, and she realized that her eyes weren’t closed at all. It was just darkness all around her. The flashes began to become more frequent, bringing scenes of color that burned into her retinas.
At first, she saw herself holding Andy when he finally left the NICU. She marveled as the quiet child breathed deeply, slumber smoothing out the plains of the baby’s face. Slowly, as Lauren watched, Andy awoke, and when he opened his mouth, a deafening cry escaped him. Darkness overtook the scene. Lauren was no longer watching as she held Andy, only watching as Andy was taken from her arms, crying. She watched as her younger self, only slightly past age three, reached for him, her cries accompanying Andy’s.
She saw a man at an altar, and a woman clutching at her stomach.
She saw great flashes of red and gold and white as she felt the feeling of strength overcoming not only her but the entire room, exploding in a cascade of pure power.
She saw a mother cradling two bundles, tears streaming as they were removed from her hands.
The scenes began to change, as Lauren fell deeper into the void, the sounds of hoofbeats and a child crying still accompanying the music.
She saw two children running alongside each other, skipping over rocks that shone like stars amid an expansive pool of water. The rocks seemed to glow brightly, a kaleidoscope of color, when the children landed on them and they disappeared entirely as the children passed them.
Everything changed when one of the children stumbled.Â
“You’re in danger, little wolf.” A voice came to her somewhere from the back of her mind.
As the child fell, the crying became wailing, and the light began to dull, leaving the fallen child in darkness that seemed all-encompassing. The other child kept going, seemingly unaware.
As they got farther apart, the crying got louder. It became wailing then screaming. The ground began to shake, the water becoming disturbed. As if it was raining, thousands of droplets hit the water. The hoof beats were thundering, matching the staccato of the hiccuping breaths of the crying child. Then there was no sound, there was no light, and they were alone in the dark.
Then a light broke through the dark, bright and brilliant and warm. Golden.
“You’re not ready to see this.” That same voice came. She vaguely recognized it as Andreas’s.
The fallen child reached toward it, letting the warmth and light travel up their arm, racing up as it spread through their body. The child began laughing, a light tinkling sound, and contentment spread through the air, surging through even Lauren. Happy tears flowed down her cheeks, the detachment of the emotion leaving Lauren feeling like she was in someone else’s body.Â
“It is too soon, you need to open your eyes.” Andreas directed, but Lauren’s body was no longer her own.
The light shifted, the gold accompanied by white and specks of red. Surges of power jolted through the child, straightening their limbs as they began to stand. The child studied their hands, flexing their fingers, watching as the light danced around their fingertips.
Then the light reached their heart.
Pain like no other flooded Lauren’s body as she watched the child convulse, the light growing brighter and brighter as the darkness was burnt away. Everything was burnt away, including the child, including Lauren-
New chapters coming on the 30th!
yousharknotpass
blakekathryn
stormborns
vaporwave
titsay
