Chapter 191
CHAPTER 191: Her
RHEA
The drive north is a complete blur. I push the car hard, my mind focused on only one thing: finding a place so remote that no one will ever find her. The only things that can strip away my immortality, the only weapon that could be used to kill me and bring her back.
I never want that.
Never.
When the night settles, I take a turn, following the dirt road and then driving deeper into the forest. There’s no one here, no settlement nearby either. Parts of north are completely deserted and untouched by the world.
It takes another hour for me to reach the location that I have in mind.
When I do, I park the car and exit, taking the shovel from the back seat.
I don’t waste a moment before I start digging. The quicker this happens, the better for me.
I dig until my muscles scream and sweat stings my eyes. To my luck, I’ve enough strength that I can go on for long.
She never had any.
And that’s why I’m alive and she’s nothing but a corpse.
I keep digging, pushing my limits, ignoring the pain and the soreness that grows over time. It doesn’t stop. Nothing stops. When I reach the point that the body has to be buried, a small sigh leaves my lips.
I grab the shovel and climb out of the hole.
For a moment, I stare down at the body, wondering whether she can feel it or not, whether she can see me or not.
I take a deep breath, pushing away these thoughts and focusing on my work.
With a grunt, I shove the body down into the grave, burying it deep, covering the remains of a life that had never mattered to anyone.
But as the first shovelful of dirt hits the bag, the world around me shifts.
The forest fades around me along with the night. I’m suddenly standing in a place that exists nowhere in reality, where the air tastes like a nightmare.
And there she is.
Her.
The weak, pathetic creature I used to be stands before me. Her defined every moment of her miserable existence.
are
gone, but the fear in her eyes remains, that constant, cowering fear that had
“You can’t hide me forever,” she whispers, voice all soft like silk and twice as suffocating.
“I just did,” I snap, gesturing toward the grave that somehow exists in both realities. “Six feet under, where you belong.”
“You think dirt and distance will make me disappear? I’m not just a body. I’m everything you were. Everything you came from,”
“Everything I destroyed,” I correct her. “I’m nothing like you.”
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“Aren’t you?”
I shake my head, anger forming within me. “You were weak. Pathetic. And you can do. What I can become,”
were always afraid. I’m not like that anymore. Not now that I know what
“Tell me,” She steps closer to me and it is a struggle not to back away from her.
I hold my ground, standing straight, meeting her gaze.
“How does it feel to be the monster now? How many people have you killed since your resurrection? How many lives have you destroyed?”
“They deserved it.”
“Did they?” Her eyes–my eyes–search my face. “Or are you just telling yourself that to make the bloodshed easier to swallow?”
I turn away, focusing on the shovel in my hands. “You don’t understand. You never had power. You don’t know what it’s like to finally be able to fight back.”
“I understand…” She moves even closer, and then she lifts her hand and places her palm flat against my chest, right above my heart. “I understand that you’re afraid.”
I push her away.
“I fear nothing.”
“You fear me. You fear what I represent. The part of you that could love without condition, that could forgive, that could see good in people even when they showed you none.”
“That part was naive. Stupid.”
“That part was human.”
The word hits me, and it makes something inside me snap and tighten.
give
I raise the shovel, as if I could strike her down, make her disappear through violence. But she doesn’t flinch, doesn’t retreat.
Instead, she moves closer.
“You’ll never be rid of me,” She whispers. “You can bury me now, but I’ll always be here.”
“You’re already gone.”
Her head shakes, “That’s where you’re wrong.”
“I’m not-”
“I was the part he loved. The part he wanted. And even though I’m gone, he only sees you as me.”
My stomach drops when she mentions him.
She smiles, the corners of her mouth curling upward.
I can feel the rage rising, and I grip the shovel so hard my knuckles go white. She knows well enough that it’s going to affect me, that he’s the root of this.
“He wants a queen, not a victim. I’ll make him forget you.”
“He won’t,” She insists. “The power, the darkness, the fear, that’s all just a substitute for what he really craves. Someone who needed him. Someone who made him feel like a protector instead of a destroyer. Someone like me. He won’t love a monster, and sooner or later, he’ll realise that and then, he’ll
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come for me.”
“He won’t.”
Her smile turns chilling. “Oh, he will. And you want to know what’s the best part?”
I stay quiet and her smile widens. I stare back at her, waiting till she’s done.
This is a vision. Just a vision.
العالم
“You’re the one who’s going to lead him back to me. You’re going to do exactly what you’ve been trying not to. Because at the end of the day, no matter how much you deny it, how hard you fight against it, the truth is you’re still me. You have my soul, and that means you have my weaknesses. Sooner or later, you’ll give in, and when you do, everything you’ve done and everything you are will be for nothing. Then, you’ll die, and I’ll live again. That’s the fate that awaits you.”
