Page 236 of Once Upon a Fable

I never told her but I was sickly proud that out of all our wounds and all our scars, we’d taken a sliver of power back by marking ourselves. We owned us, not them. Our blood had said so.

Stop it!

I shot to the surface for air, drinking down oxygen and shoving away memories. They weren’t permitted in the light of day. My mind and walls knew that. So why the fuck had I had two in such a short amount of time?

My fingers burned as if I still held Gemma’s throat in my hands.

My head automatically snapped to the bank before I could stop myself,my eyes unwilling to see the truth. The truth of an empty riverside, of no one there.

Wait, what?

I flinched and coughed as my legs forgot how to swim and I drank a mouthful of river by accident.

She’s...she’s still here.

I blinked.

I couldn’t understand.

Why?

She was free.

I’d let her go.

I’d hurt her again.

In some broken cavern in my heart, I’d fully expected her to run as far and as fast as she could. I’d almost snarled at her to get away from me before I could hurt her again.

So...why hadn’t she gone?

Panic suddenly flared down my limbs.

No.

She was lying down.

I could barely see her, enveloped by the long grass swaying softly in the sun.

She’s lying down...

She wasn’t hating me, cursing me, or plotting my demise. She was...

Dead?

Holy shit, did I kill her?

I bolted. I swam like a drowning otter and shot across the pool as fast as I could.

Please, please, please...

I couldn’t breathe.

My head pounded.

My body throbbed.

I was two seconds away from hurling up our meagre breakfast. If I’d killed her now? If I stole the only thing in my life that granted a second’s worth of peace? If I hurt the one person who actually tried tohelpme?