Chapter 124
Chapter one hundred twenty-four
Erik
I stare at the wall in front of me.
This is the final piece.
The ending cannot be sorrow. It cannot be survival.
It has to be power.
She was never meant to be pitied.
She was meant to be unstoppable.
She just has to remember it.
Reborn in Flame -
The terrors that once shadowed me
Have lost their sacred claim.
The child I was lies scattered still
Among the wreckage of her name.
Dreams in tatters, faith undone,
A silenced voice in flame.
But embers breathe beneath the ruin,
Ash remembers what it was.
You may unmask your twisted tale,
Let every secret fall.
When truth ascends its rightful throne
It will not restore the girl at all.
Vindication is a hollow hymn,
It cannot raise the past.
You tore the veil from my reflection,
Left me nameless in the blast.
But flames do not devour the spirit,
They temper it with fire.
What you meant for my destruction
Has only forged me higher.
I rise from the ashes,
I rise from the flame.
No verdict, no mercy
Can give back my name.
I rise from the silence
You fashioned from shame.
I rise, I rise,
Unchained.
Let the crowd embrace your sorrow,
Let them pity what they see.
Their justice cannot resurrect
The girl you tried to bury in me.
Out of the ashes I claim my throne,
Crowned in embers, I stand alone.
Your justice cannot set me free,
Only the fire remakes me.
I rise from the ashes,
I rise from the flame.
No verdict, no mercy
Can give back my name.
I rise.
I rise.
Reborn in flame.
My head bows and rests against the piano. I close my eyes.
“Is that how you see me?”
Her voice carries from the doorway.
I turn. Tears glide down her cheeks, steady and unhidden.
“You see me as strong?”
I nod.
Her breath catches. Then she lifts her chin.
Light moves through her expression, luminous. Free.
She draws herself up and nods.
“This is who I want to be.”