Helanie:
I panicked and started digging into the leaves, and there she was, lying there, blue, as if all the blood had been drained out of her body.
"Whoops! Am I supposed to apologize on their behalf? How was I supposed to know she was your friend?" Rune kept taunting and mocking while I began to shudder. I was on my knees, my heart crashing in my chest like thunder.
"No, no, no," I whispered, pulling the leaves away with shaking hands until I saw her face cold, still, and too quiet. She wasn’t smiling or talking anymore. Those beautiful eyes she rolled whenever someone teased her. Those lips that said sweet things whenever I was down. And that smile she had carried ever since she found her mate in Gavin. It was all gone.
My breath caught. I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently, then harder.
"Wake up. Please wake up, Salem! We can fight him. We’ll take down all the Zharns together, what have they done to you?" I begged, tears spilling down my cheeks.
She didn’t move. Her skin felt wrong. I knew— I knew—she was gone. But I couldn’t stop.
"Don’t do this, come on," I cried, rocking back and forth, holding her like maybe that would bring her back. My stomach twisted, my chest ached like something deep inside me had broken. The world felt too quiet. Too empty. I felt like a part of me had been stolen, and I could never truly be happy again.
"Tsk tsk tsk, you must need a hug. Especially now that you don’t have any dreams—and dreams spark hope. But good thing, I took away your crazy thoughts. Now you’ll just live in the moment and try to get better. Am I not helpful?" he whispered from behind me, leaning over.
"Ahhh!" I screamed and turned around, punching him in the face and knocking him far away.
"Fuck, you’re powerful," he gently touched his cheek, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw the blood coming from his mouth.
"You have no idea," I screamed, running at a speed he couldn’t escape from. I jumped in the air, crashing down with my knee into his chest. He spluttered blood and howled, but that asshole was like rubber. No matter how many bones I tried to break, they only bent, then went back into place.
"Ahhh! It’s so much fun," he said, coughing blood.
It didn’t even seem like he was suffering, he was enjoying the pain, getting pleasure from the wounds and injuries. While I sat on top of him and punched him over and over, I didn’t even realize the Zharns had come out from everywhere and started to attack me.
One of them bit me in the back, and I realized this is the pain Salem must have felt from their bites. I didn’t care to stop them. I kept hitting Rune, who only laughed louder and louder with every hit.
"Arghh!" That’s when I realized someone had ripped the Zharns off my back. I caught a glimpse of three big, beastly wolves attacking the Zharns from my peripheral vision, but I stayed on top of Rune, throwing the softest punches because I had lost the will to fight him or fight back.
After a while, I slowly stepped off Rune and started crawling back to Salem. I held her head in my arms and then hugged her. She was in a state that told me she didn’t die a peaceful death either.
I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see the world where she wasn’t a part of it anymore.
After some time, probably an hour, I felt someone touching my shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw the brothers had transitioned back. There were dead bodies all around me. Rune must have run away. That’s what he was good at.
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