Vera's legs were about to give away, she ran... she ran as fast as she could, not looking back, she heard Fayette's voice so clearly that she believed the two of them to be running behind her unconsciously.
'Run! we have to run!'
When her eyes set on the gradually unravelling darkness, to her surprise and wonder, there was only one path available!
"There is an intersection! it doesn't have any mist! it's safe!!" She shouted gleefully, not getting an answer... she assumed they were just too exalted to answer.
Running inside the intersection, her eyes witnessed how the vines disappeared and the mist resurfaced through the dark corridors.
*BAANG!!*
She fell heavily on the ground, completely assured that they would be okay now that the mist is back.
"We did it! It's clear!!"
She shouted gleefully, expecting them to literally fall on top of her.
But no such thing happened...
"Vale? Faye...?"
Panting heavily, she moved her gaze back to the dark corridors, only for her heart to drop when she saw... that she was by herself.
...
'N-No...' Her lips quivered, her eyes shook, it wasn't those two delightful figures that caught up... it was the darkness of the alleyways.
Forsaking her fatigue, she dropped her bag on the ground and ran with all her strength back to the intersections.
*THUD!!*
*THUD!!*
Hoping, even praying she ran through the alleyway that seemed to be infinite, endless, her steps weren't firm, they were weak, almost lifeless...
"No... please no... God, I'm begging you...!'
When she finally found the intersection, her legs gave away... she fell heavily on her knees, but the pain produced by her knees, couldn't possibly be compared to a sliver of what her heart and soul is currently undergoing.
Tears rolled down her eyelids overflowing with sorrow.
It was at that time she understood.
'Don't look back... keep running... I didn't train a coward.'
In front of her were three intersections, all of them blocked by vines.
!!!!!!!
After a relatively heavy palpitation of her heart, the images of her beloved and her best friend, smiling... phased through her mind.
*COUGH!!*
The Auburn-haired sorrowful woman spat a mouthful of blood right at this instant, thick and with a great volume.
Her quivering eyes gradually turned chaotic, her breaths hastened... regarding the blood, she just spat as if the realization just dawned in her mind.
'They're no longer here... they're no l-longer with me... t-they are no longer here... Valentine... Fayette!'
VALENTINE... FAYETTE!
!!!!
*THUD!*
Her consciousness gave away at that moment, the weight too much for her fragile heart to take, her body fell on the blood that she just spat.
Like puppet that just lots its strings.
**
**
"UGGGH!!! B-Bastard...!"
"You were always a piece of shit... having you as my son has always been my biggest regret... you and that filthy bitch."
Within a dark room, Valentine sat on a chair with a bloodied body, he doesn't know how many times it has taken place, how many knives had gone inside his skin, tearing his organs, destroying his mind.
But he doesn't care... because he can feel that warmth, even in this torture, he's still holding Fayette in his arms.
"I have hated you for too long, son of a bitch... as long as I'm not dead, as long as I still have consciousness... there is always hope... hope that I will find you once again in this filthy netherworld filled with sinners and demons and slit that disgusting throat of yours, Magnus!"
The Bringer of Euthanasia shouted those words to his father... the man who stood in front of him, dressed in graceful clothes with his grey hair shining slightly, he had a bloody knife in his hand, staining his entire right side.
"Is that so? very well, but until then, Valentine... I'll make sure that you suffer... I'll make sure that you suffer like never has suffered before... it seems stabbing you is rather ineffective... how about this then?" The man smirked and moved his hand to the side as if he was holding something in the air.
Valentine panted and tilted his head in bewilderment, but the moment he blinked... he was no longer holding air... he was holding a beautiful auburn-haired woman who struggled to free her neck from that hold, she was naked and her legs even tried to kick Magnus who only regarded her with all the coldness in the world.
Annabelle Londonderry Maxwell.
"M-Mother... MOTHER!!" it was at this moment that Valentine's heart finally showed a reaction, even more than his Fayette, even more than his sister and Francesca... this is definitely his weak spot.
"S-Son.. d-don't look... please."
*PUCHI!!*
"AAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
"BASTARD! BASTAAARDDD!!!!! I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU!"
Not in a different position was Fayette, the beautiful blonde also sported a bloodied body.
In front of her was her ex-husband, the man she had been betrothed to, the man she had children with and eventually killed.
"Even as I torture you like this, you still won't relent... a headstrong bitch as always... I never loved you, it was just responsibility." The man also held a bloodied knife, staring at her with disdain while another woman stood beside him.
The mistress he had behind her back.
"There is nothing you can tell me that will make me think anything I did was wrong, piece of trash... whatever doubt I had was because of our children, and now that I am here, I finally realised that my taste for men was shit... I managed to meet a man that vastly outstripped anyone I had in the past, anyone I have ever loved, even 'him'... so what if you never loved me? do you think I cared? hmph! I was happy the moment you got that bitch! that meant you'd finally let me be!"
"SLUT!" The man seemingly got offended as he fiercely lunged at the seating Fayette and started to stab her yet again, everywhere, her breasts, her thighs...
*PUCH!!*
*PUCH!!*
*PUCH!!*
"HAHAHAHAHA!! K-KEEP GOING! KEEP STABBING ME! THAT'S ALL YOU CAN DO! THAT'S ALL YOU EVER WAY, TIGHTLY BOUND LIKE THIS, IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU COULD HAVE EVER OVERPOWERED ME, LITTLE SHIT!"
"All I can do? no, you're wrong Fayette... there is a lot more I can do..." The man smirked and separated himself from her bloodied and panting figure.
When he moved aside, there she saw that bitch holding someone, and her heart dropped.
"D-Danielle..."
"Mother..."
The man walked back with a smile and dragged his body back before coming to a stop beside his daughter, Danielle.
"Stop..."
The man snickered further upon witnessing Fayette's despair, this is what he sought desperately.
He dragged the bloodied knife along the girl's contours and took her in his arms, the girl was younger than the moment Fayette died in that hospital bed, right now... she's just a teenager.
"Please stop... it's my daughter..."
"M-Mother... d-don't look..."
Just like Valentine, Fayette also has a weak spot, one that the Mahogany Tree knows very well.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Before the bastard could even plunge the knife in his daughter, yet another yell was heard that got Fayette's attention as her eyes got bloodshot.
There, that whore smiled gleefully while plunging a knife in her son's waist over and over!
OVER AND OVER AND OVER...
"BITCH! RELEASE MY SON RIGHT NOW!! EDDIE! FIGHT BACK HOW I TAUGHT YOU! FIGHT BAAACCKK!!" She struggled, contorted, twisted but the only thing she could see was how her ex-husband plunged a knife straight into their daughter's abdomen, right in her belly.
"M-MOTHER! HELP ME!"
!!!!!
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
Her children's despaired wails resonated within this darkness domain, and gradually... Fayette's mind crumbled as she quivered, drowning in a mess of tears.
"STOP! P-PLEASE! STOP!!"
The warmth she felt... the arms that enveloped her outside this domain no longer seemed as prominent.
**
**
When Vera's eyes opened, they no longer contained light.
She pushed her lifeless body from the ground, she doesn't know how long has taken place, she only knows that now she's alone... abandoned.
'If you ever dare to take your own life after everything we have gone through, I'm going to haunt you, Vera... remember that...' Fayette's words remained in her head like flashlights in the night.
She couldn't forget them, she couldn't go around them.
Right now, she wants nothing more than to die.
She had been prepared, if it ever reached this stage, she'd die with them but... it didn't go as planned.
"Valentine..." she thought about him, the man she loves, what would he tell her now? he hadn't said a word...
"He would tell me to leave, Vale... you would have told me to leave..."
They didn't ask for help because they knew she was going to turn around to try and save them or die with them.
That's why rather than feel reassured that she's alive, or sad that her two companions have likely perished, she felt abandoned...
She walked with slow steps to the bag that she had.
'You want me to live... so, I will live...'
Vera took the backpack, placed her Rose Eagle Thorn in her hand and moved away, walking through the accursed alleyways with living flesh, but... a dead soul.
The days of happiness and joy are finished, they finished too soon.... right now, suffering and sorrow await.