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Those dead, lost eyes stared into her. Burned her heart, made it ache with brokenness and vengefulness. Those bright blue eyes were like bullets piercing into her already scarred skin. Those eyes were not his.
“You can’t kill your own kin.” It spoke, voice mimicking his. She knew better than to believe the council's sick lies. Those mistakes will not happen again, not with him.
The gun in her hand felt cold, even with the gloves. It rattled as her body trembled. Her eyes narrowed, the electric yellow meeting its fake blue ones. A venomous reply sat on the tip of her tongue. Though something was holding her back from speaking to this… creature, to this mimic of someone she once held dearly. An outside source of some sorts that chained her back, twisted her with those damned strings that so many used.
“You are not my brother.” She spoke, after moments of hesitation, moments left in silence for it to stare painedly at her. “You are a copy, a pure mimic of him. Don’t think I can’t see through your silent string of lies.” The grip on the gun tightened as the gritted words left her mouth. They both were unmoving, waiting for the other.
Its eyes sadden, deepened with useless grief of something that did not exist. “Please, I just need you to-”
It flinched when a gunshot went off, the bullet flew past its head. Its eyes are full of fear in an instant. Pathetic, how can someone act so harmless? A lie! All of it. She pointed the pistol back at it, aimed for its head. A lethal spot if you hit right.
Why can’t she shoot it?
Why can’t she shoot him?
The mimic put its hand in front of it, she could see them shaking. She scowled. What a stupid act. It said nothing more, choosing to just stare sadly and hopefully at her. Perhaps waiting for her to buy into its act of show and put the gun down. It's laughable, how something so intelligent can be so idiotic. Their sole purpose was to mimic yet they make mistakes that cost them their soulless life. If she hadn’t remembered every little detail of him, she wouldn’t have noticed that it wasn’t him.
She wouldn’t have noticed that its eyes weren't dull like his.
one small mistake can lead to a big outcome, He used to say to her when they were on streets together. She hated it when he said that, it made her angry at how calm he was. She was older, she was supposed to be the calm one.
Her eyes were blank when her finger put pressure on the trigger of the gun.
The bullet pierced its head, straight in the forehead. A smile perked on her lips, visible now as her gas mask was discarded hours ago while entering this place. Victory against the council’s lies, again, she concluded as the mimic's body went limp.
Yet it stood there, blood gushing out of its head, limply. Her eyebrows furrowed with confusion, silently watching the blood fall onto its clothes. She let her feet guide her closer to the being created of shadows and thunder. A droplet fell on the floor, staining the rocks they stood on. A sound. Her ear flicked as she listened more closely. It sounded almost like boiling water, bubbles popping.
She jolted back, her eyes wide as realization set in.
The mimic's body started to bleed through their eyes and mouth, the crimsoned colored blood gushing out as it stood there.
The bubbling grew louder as blood started to pile up in the cave they stood in.
She didn’t have time to turn around and run before the mimic exploded, the insides staining both the walls and ground as an infinite amount of blood mixed with skin and bones almost acted like water as it flooded the area. The mimic is no longer there, but everywhere as its organs and blood made the cave its home. Her legs were pushed down by the thick liquid-like substance, making contact with the ground before it swept her up.
The rushing liquid swallowed everything whole, getting higher and higher before she was drowning in it. Drowning in blood. She gagged and choked, the taste of copper and iron flooding her mouth. The scene was gut wrenching to whoever witnessed, if anyone did witness it, at least. Her lungs were filled with blood that was not hers, struggling to lift her head to the surface that she did not know. She was disorientated, not knowing which way was up or down, left or right was meaningless when you were blinded. Her mind was blank and all over the place at the same time, it hurt. It hurt so much. Her lungs burned, her whole body burned.
She couldn’t move her body, the blood moving it for her as it filled a once beautiful underground river. The constant pressure of something beating against every inch of her body was overwhelming, it was agony.
Pure agony.
Agony she hadn’t felt in a long time.
After what felt like hours but were mere seconds her hand broke the surface, coated in blood yet see-able to a keen eye.
Someone grabbed it, accompanied by another person as they pulled her onto a higher rock. She choked, gore dripping out of her mouth as her throat gagged on the foreign liquid. A fuzzy noise replaced the voices of those who pulled her to the surface.
“Valentine! Valentine? Valentine, say something!”
“How do you expect her to say something after just almost drowning!? In blood too for divinity's sake!”
She could feel someone place their hand on her back, she hissed in pain as the stinging feeling returned. They took it off, muttering an apology, or so Valentine thinks.
Everything was… staticy. To say the least, she could barely hear anything that wasn’t the loud ringing in her ears, or see anything too. The blood flowing from her hair and into her eyes stung like shit.
“-You stop!? I’m trying to help!”
“Yelling isn’t helping, Ech-!”
Valentine flattened and covered her ears with her hands as best as she could. She let her head fall onto the rocks, muttering incoherent sentences as best as her voice would let her. It was hoarse, both from screaming and letting blood into her lungs and airways.
It was cold, she was freezing. The snow beneath her knees felt frigid as the wind swept past her. The specs of ice clung to her bare arms. It was so cold, her lungs felt like they had been frozen as she struggled to breath again. She was going to die alone, freezing to death in a place where she didn’t remember getting to, no one to help, no will know-
Valentine jerks upright in bed, her breathing evening as she looks around her room. She flicked the lamp on by her bedside and stared at the mess of her floor. Like it had been when she fell asleep.
“It was just a dream” Valentine heard herself say, like she didn’t believe it fully. “It was just a dream- it was just a dream.” She repeated as she lifted the white blanket off of her. The room was cold, a chilly breeze brushed her arms as she stood up to look out the open window. Gently moving her guitar out of the way to stand in front of it and look at the bright lights that never seemed to shut off in the city.
It felt nice.