Crisis of Fate: Chapter 1

THE END OF THE WORLD

The Year of The Escape

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Her nails dug trails of blood in his back, and he winced. He gripped her hair and pulled her head back, staring into her eyes as he thrust madly into her.

Never before. Never before had it been this passionate, this alive. Having Sai inside her had always been a miracle, but this was something else. The lust-soaked need for him had finally mastered Raendel.

Upon opening her eyes in the dream he grabbed her, pulling her to him. There was desperation tonight. Something primal screamed in the face of a lifetime of patient lovemaking. Each time before now, if they were too desperate for patience they had been instantly awoken. Every time when the sex became too passionate they were wrenched apart, thrown from each other’s arms to a cold, lonely bed and the darkness that brooded over them.

The mad desire had a fanatic hold of Raendel tonight, and the sounds of her climax urged him faster and harder. On his knees he held her up as she rose and fell upon him. His eyes lifted from her stomach to her chest to stop at her neck. Her head cast back in ecstasy, she screamed, the sound of her passion radiating around them, wrapping him in her femininity and sexual power.

She looked down at him, her mouth opened and gasping. She dropped on him, gripping his member tight, and rose as he screamed her name into the nothing that surrounded them, and he pumped his climax into her.

Sai collapsed, dropping to his back. Raendel squirmed out from beneath him and lifted to her elbows. Her eyes desperate and seeking, she was scared. Something was with them, some dark force drawing near. She knew it, and it knew her, and though she could not name the oppressive energy, she knew it to be an enemy.

“Tell me you love me. Tell me now. I must hear it,” she begged.

Sai opened his mouth to speak the words, and his throat exploded, throwing hot blood into her face.

Raendel screamed.

Sai struggled to speak, but the words would not form with his ragged and flapping throat. The world was soaked in blood as he fought to say the words. He gasped for air, filling his lungs with blood. He clawed out to her.

“No, Sai!” she screamed. She felt it all coming undone, the only thing that mattered to her bled out before her, her heart pulling and drawing to deeper levels of anguish. “No, Sai. It is not real, Love. You will wake up, baby. Please, no, this can’t be real!” She pressed down on his throat as hot blood spurted between her fingers. “Not real. You are coming to me. I’m in Bentay, baby. Please don’t go. I’m in Bentay, waiting for you. You’re coming. You will be here soon.”

And this time she knew he heard her. This time when she spoke of the city she lived in the words were not jumbling and breaking to shards of incomprehensible mumbling. She was getting through, and that scared her more than anything else.

“Please don’t take him from me. Please, anyone. Someone. Mother Fates, hear me. Please, you have to stop this. My life, take it please. I can’t do this without him.”

But she would have to do it all without him. He had been hers since she first learned of love. He was slipping away, and she had too much to do. Too much to say to him. She needed to tell him about all of it. She needed hours to explain how much she loved him. Words would not come. She needed to comfort him, to soothe the panic that clawed at him. She saw the need in his eyes for something…what? What could she give him before he was whisked away from her forever?

“I love you, baby. Please, who did this?” She beat his chest, her face scanning the nothing above them as the last pulses of blood left his body.

It came to Raendel then, and she grabbed him, laying a kiss on him before he was gone. But it was too late. His mouth, always so warm and ready for the words she needed or the affection he lavished on her, was hot with blood, slick and motionless. She kissed him, tasting his blood and growing nauseous. She dropped him to hit the bed with a thump and rattle of the springs.

She regretted that. She might have hurt him. She wanted to apologize, but knew better. Staring at his ripped throat, Raendel was unable to think of a single thing to do that might make any sense.

She waited to wake up, knowing this would end. She looked around, waiting for it all to fade. But it did not. She stared at him for hours, unable to wake up. Unable to escape the horror of the moment.

She lifted his arm and slipped close to his body, then dropped his lifeless arm around her and hugged his body to hers. She wept. For hours she wept before she finally woke up and screamed alone in her dark room.

Darkness was real and oppressive and she fumbled with her lamp, knocking it over and spilling the oil. She dropped to the ground and frantically fought to grab the only source of light she had.

She needed to get out of it. The sweet shadows that had always been her ally in a world of dark deeds and blood were turning on her now. She slipped on the oil-slick floor and dropped to her elbows painfully. She righted the lamp but knew it empty. She jumped to her feet, rushing wildly to her door, then struggled with the locks until she could rip the door open. The traps she had set snapped and fired, and she was hit in the hip with an arrow from her hidden crossbow.

Raendel cried out in pain, then lurched forward. She dropped into the hallway as the poison from the dart raced through her body. She thudded on the ground as she beat her fists and kicked for purchase. She sobbed and looked up, a slight sliver of light at the far end of the hall. She dragged herself a few feet before the poison worked its way through her system and shut her down.

Paralysis, and soon unconsciousness, and she lay with her chin on the floor, staring at the light peeking through the black curtain as it slowly faded from her vision. Unconsciousness drew her up into what she hoped was oblivion, but she soon realized was just her bed once more. She stared down at Sai’s dead body, and screamed and clawed at her face as the world ended.

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