Untethering Dark

Chapter Forty-Five

Cold cocooned Astrid, a blanket of snow her burial shroud.

Its weight pressed all around, shielding her from the world outside. It should’ve been claustrophobic, suffocating...but swaddled as such, it eased away her cares. Nothing could touch her now. Nothing could disturb her endless sleep.

At least nothing except Death, itself, and all that comes with entering a new realm of existence. Or nonexistence was perhaps more accurate, but there was no point debating it.

She ached at every joint, and in parts of her body she hadn’t previously been aware of, muscles a soupy jelly.

If this was Death, it was rife with sensation, even more so than the final moments of her life. A hole blown right through the middle of her chest should’ve eclipsed all, but every nerve ending exploded with new feeling.

The ache grew to acute pain at twin points on either side of her head, something pushing—no, tearing —through her skin, and sprouting from her head. Her jaw ached something fierce, too, teeth loosening then falling bloody onto her tongue. She spat, spittle and chunks of dentition hitting her chin, some landing on her chest, wet and warm. The urge to brush them away was met with a deep pang in her solar plexus but no movement from her arms and hands.

Where each tooth fell, sharpened points emerged. Fangs, a mouth full of them. Nails hardened, then elongated.

The cold deepened, so sharp it was almost fire coursing through her limbs.

Broken down, rearranged anew.

This was not Death, but Winter’s icy womb.

The last threads tethering Astrid to humanity snapped.