Saturn [BELLAMY BLAKE BOOK 1]

19... this will destroy you

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Chapter Nineteen

Death. It seemed to be something that surrounded Ivy the past few months and days. It was an unavoidable plague that followed everyone, everywhere, and would soon be the inevitable undoing of them. Ivy remembered the first time she encountered death.

It was a busy Tuesday morning that day. Ivy was maybe, eight or nine years old at the time. It was the first time her parents were letting her make deliveries for her mom. The hallways were full, people were bustling back and forth on their own errands. They paid no mind to the girl making her way to various rooms with a bag full of newly stitched clothes done by her mother that needed delivering.

She had to pass through a wide hall that was filled with people, the movement was minimal, and Ivy had never seen it so full before. Strangers were pushed together in the small space, trying to get through, and Ivy had found herself trapped and afraid. People were yelling left and right for others to move or get out of their way. It was too loud for Ivy's ears to bear. She hugged the bag hanging off her shoulder tightly, imagining that it was her mom or dad to help ease the anxiety.

It all happened so fast. In a flash; Ivy blinked and suddenly, it wasn't so cramped anymore and she had no idea what was happening. There were feminine screams and gasps. Yells, shouting, 'Catch him!' others saying, 'Stay back!' Mothers shielded their children's eyes and others just couldn't bear to look on their own. A space had opened around the body, circled around it, still shocked to know what to do first. Ivy was the only living person standing there. Her eyes moved over the people staring back at her with a mix of fear and confusion, then her eyes flickered down to the dead body lying face-down on the floor a few feet away from her. There was a large stain of blood soaking the man's back where he had been stabbed multiple times.

Someone had finally gotten help, a guard followed by many others, that hurriedly rushed people out and ordered them to be questioned before continuing on with their regularly scheduled days as if things were normal. Ivy was finally moved from the spot she was standing in, where her feet were practically glued as she was unable to move a single limb. The guard asked her if she had seen anything, and if she knew what happened, and she had replied, "I don't know. I just want to go home now."

She cried after she was returned back home to her parents by a beginning guard who didn't know what the first thing was to tell a young girl who just witnessed a murder. Ivy cried, absolutely traumatized by what she had seen. All she could see through her teary eyes was red; the red that pooled out of the body and expanded out until it hit the soles of her shoes. She threw her favorite pair of sneakers into the trash that day.

Afterwards, Ivy couldn't find the appetite to even eat after seeing something so horrid. The image kept popping up in her head, making any hunger growing in her stomach, disappear instantaneously. She couldn't sleep either, and when she did, it was only for a few hours before she woke up crying from the nightmares that took over her once good, innocent dreams. Her small body became tired, weak, and pale; bags had formed under her eyes from the lack of care for her health. It hadn't occurred to her that what she had become afraid of, death, would soon happen to her if things didn't change. Ivy's parents decided that they should have a talk, things had gone too far and they weren't looking after their daughter and comforting her in the way she needed most.