Checkmate

And now I knew. I’ve always heard people say stuff about the truth hurting, but I never really believed it. I thought it was the lies that hurt the most. But not today; not right now when the truth was like a knife being shoved into my eye sockets.

I wanted to go home. I wanted to leave Flutura and never come back again. I would tear the pages out of my sketchbook and burn them in the backyard. I would never draw again.

Carnella put her hand down, releasing me. I fell to the ground and knocked over a table with a vase of flowers in the process. I rubbed my chest where the pain throbbed.

“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to die?” she asked me and she turned around and walked the other way slowly like she was pacing. “I did. Once. It was a long time when I was just fourteen. I wondered if death would be pleasant and calm or violent and painful. Is there really hell and heaven? Which one would I end up going to? To me, it was like an experiment. Life is a science lab to me. I plan on treating it like one.” She spun around on her heals to face me again.

I was silent, listening to her story with narrowed eyes.

She continued. “I wasn’t always a Shifter—or now you know—an Ultum-Shifter. No, I was once on bubbly little kid that was always happy. I was also curious and curiosity led me to hell.” Her eyes now went unfocused, like she was concentrating on the past memories. I thought I saw her shudder lightly. “I cut myself deep. I let myself bleed to death. I don’t know how long it was until someone came into my room and saw me pale as a ghost, shaking in a pool of blood. I didn’t even have the strength to look at who it was. I only saw their feet walking towards me.”

I stood up slowly and leaned against the wall. I didn’t know where this was going.

“I could barely hear them scream let alone talk. I was dying.”

“But you didn’t die,” I said to her.

She glared at me. “Thank you Captain Obvious. Would you like to tell this story for me?”

“No…” I said quietly and cringed into the wall.

“So, like I was saying. I was half unconscious and was barely aware of what was happening. But I knew that whoever or whatever was there, was carrying me away from the scene." Her eye lids fluttered and her eyes darted around the space between us. It looked as if she was having flashbacks. Strange. I remembered noticing this before, but I thought nothing of it; just a quirk of her's. But now I know the reason behind it.

I then wondered if I could get away. Would she notice? Possibly. But she was making it so easy to do so; she just closed her eyes and rubbed her face with her hand like she was rubbing the memories away.

I acted so quick I don't even think my mind was in control. It was all my body's doing. I quickly but quietly sprinted around her and away, trying to leave her in the hallway with me far away and safe. Trying. Trying to get away from her.

I barely got five feet away when I felt something hard and powerful knock me down and slam me into the floor. I felt paralyzed.

The sound of her wicked laugh made my skin crawl.

She said each word with slow precision. "You will never beat me!"

Then without wanting to, I started to cry. It seemed like everything was just falling apart. I was going to die, and nobody was going to stop it.