Heron Lake Plateau [m] Got death on his breath, halitosis

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Red, red ribbons.

Silky strands of scarlet, like serpents, coiled and undulated, striking and hissing. They wrapped around every surface, as if the entire world were made of this material. Above, the dark sky was alight with stars that bled red, their drips falling from the heavens to splatter onto the world below. She felt sticky with it as she watched the vipers spit their venom, their words like liquid fire, coursing through her veins.

A tail tip caressed her cheek before grasping her chin, tilting her head upwards to meet the mirror-like eyes of the ribbon snakes. "Poor, lonely Reina. Look at you; see how pathetic you are, a burden to all you've touched. Your family is fortunate they're not here to see what you have become—an empty, broken shell of a lost girl, loved by none but an egotistical rapist." A malicious laugh echoed around and within her.

Her reflection, now amplified and multiplied by the mirrors that now surrounded her, stared back. Once bright blue eyes were darkly rimmed and dead, her cheeks gaunt, her complexion ghastly. A once gorgeous caramel red coat appeared thin and muted, the color leached by her malnutrition and drug use.

Tears of blood trailed down her cheeks, her neck, only to drip onto the floor, soaking into the very ribbons that surround her. Her blood, the essence of her life, powered the world she now lived in. If only she had not been a bleeding heart from the beginning.

If she had never given her heart freely, desperately wanting what would never be given. Not by Reverie. Not by Everett. Least of all Tybault.

Tybault? Why did his name enter her thoughts? 

“Reina…you’re nothing. You add no worth to the pack. Poor, unloved, healer of the Hushed Willows, a burden to all. Why must you be in the thick of everything? Why must drama surround you and follow you with every breath and every step you take?” Tybault’s form had appeared behind her reflection, his golden stare piercing her soul. His nose sensually travelled from shoulder to ear, inhaling her scent, his eyes closing in pleasure.

“It is over, Reina, darling.” Ruin’s voice left Tyabault’s lips before his jaws opened wide, advancing on the neck of her reflection.

“NO!” Reina, herself, screamed, reaching for her reflection. For herself.

Jaws closed. A snap. Darkness seized her.