17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter seventeen
I opened my eyes, Maddox’s final words making my heart break. Spitting out the herb, I moved quickly. Maddox looked at me, his eyes wide in shock behind his mask. His raised hand came down to land on the stone in a hard strike right where my body had been seconds before.
“I’m so sorry, Maddox. I told you, you always have a choice. I choose my own fate. And you’ve chosen yours.”
He still looked bewildered as I bolted from the altar, his body slamming forward with the force of the blade. He spun around, his mask falling from his face. He was looking up at me while now on his back on the slab.
“And what’s your choice, Little Virgin? What fate has my love chosen?” he whispered.
With tears in my eyes, I grabbed the dagger from his grip, screaming my anger and pain as I slammed it down as hard as I could into his chest.
“I choose to live!” I sobbed, his blood soaking through his shirt to my hands. “I loved you too. You could have chosen me, you idiot! You could have chosen us, and we would have created our own fate together.”
I felt his ribs crack, and blood seeped out from his mouth as he smiled and coughed.
“Run…my chosen…or your fate…is…sealed.”
I looked up at all the cloaked figures around me. They were bowing, unphased at what just happened. I tried to pull the dagger out to protect myself, but the blood was flowing out so fast, running down the sides of the stone into a huge ceramic bowl below me.
I panted, continuing my best to free the weapon out of Maddox’s chest. He said to run. I needed to listen. I looked at his unblinking blue eyes, letting the tears fall for his death before turning to run.
There was so much blood, all of it falling into the channels to collect at the bottom. I was blinded by my tears.
What had I done?
I slipped on the liquid, falling over the stone and smashing face-first directly into the ceramic bowl.
I choked on Maddox’s blood as I lifted up to grip the side of the tub, throwing my hair back and splashing the front center of cloaked figures.
These men had crests on their heads. One of them was the multiple-horned deer.
A valentine.
These men were above the rest, perhaps the order that slain so many.
Maddox was right…I sealed my fate.
With a frustrated cry of desperation and defeat, I threw handfuls of the blood of their leader onto the rest of the figures surrounding me.
“You wanted this! You sick freaks! You demanded a sacrifice! Well, here it is! Bathe in your fate! Your bloody Valentine!”
The End