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“There’s no point in running anymore.”
Madam swirled her glass as she smiled down at him, her face drawn into a mockery of kindness.
Iris didn't look up to see it. His hands itched. The blood had dried and was flaking. The echoes of screams reverberated in his head.
“I told you they would hate you. I warned you. It was only a matter of time,” she leaned closer, “I hope you finally learned your lesson.”
There was more caked under his fingernails. He wondered how long it would take to get out. If it would ever come out.
“It’s just too bad some of them got away, isn't it?”
He opened his mouth to reply, but no words came. The echoes of begging were worse than the screams.
“No matter where you go, it is always the same. They will fear and loathe you,” she stepped forward and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look away from his bloodstained hands and meet her eyes.
The startling pink glow illuminated her lily-white face.
“Iris, home is the only place you will ever be safe,” her smile was cold, “And we must protect it.”
A door slammed behind him. Scuffling.
“Protect it from murderers and thieves - you know what they are like, what they are capable of.”
He couldn't move, pinned into place by her glowing eye.
“Death would be a kindness for this one, really,” Madam swept Iris's blood-matted hair away from his face, “After all, he is to blame for what you've done.”
Someone was yelling his name. His pulse thundered in his ears.
“I know you would never have done any of this without his influence,” her hand twisted cruelly in his hair, her stolen pink gaze boring ever deeper into his eyes, “I know he controlled you.”
He couldn't breathe. A body slammed to the ground behind him.
Her cold smile vanished, “Now kill him."
He’d taken out eight on the way in, but they had known he was coming.
Of course they had known. He’d had no choice.
They’d taken his Iris.
Lillium’s breath came in gasps, stabbing against his broken ribs. Blood trickled into his remaining eye. He squinted through the haze and pain.
Iris slowly turned to face him, eyes unfocused.
“Iris! Iris, PLEASE. It’s me! I-”. Lillium tried to scrabble away from him. The thud of a guard's unforgiving boot crumpled him back to the floor at Iris’s feet.
Iris drew his blade.
“IRIS!”
Home is the only place you will ever be safe.
And we must protect it.
The blade did not miss.