Reapers - Master of Souls (Reapers Chronicles Book III)

14 - Withdrawal (3 of 3)

NP: The Words by Christina Perri

All of the steps that led me to you

And all of the hell I had to walk through

But I won't trade a day

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Everything felt light; my head, my feet. Even the sounds were muted as if I was under water. The world warped around me. My mouth tasted like strawberries, which was impossible since I had been allergic to strawberries since forever.

I treaded the hallways, following the colors that danced around me. They brought me to an arched window. The colors swirled together into a bright incandescent light. From it, stepped a ghostly figure of Rosario.

I leaned over the ledge to get a closer look. "You're not real, are you?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "Just accept it, Aramis."

"What?"

"Just accept that it's too late for you," she scoffed. "You're officially too FUBAR even by immortal standards and you know it. Vincent's going to waste his time going on a wild goose chase just so he could find a—" she quoted with her fingers "—cure for you. We both know it's pointless."

"You're not real," I murmured to myself. "None of this is."

Snickering, she hopped into the window and sat on the ledge. "Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, you know I'm right."

When she tried to touch my face, her luminescent hand just passed through me.

I wobbled away from her reach. "J-just... go away!"

"You wanted my advice?" With mock sympathy, she folded her arms in front of her. "Well here's one. Just take a dive already, stupid. You're doomed anyway. The more you delay the inevitable, the more you're dragging Vincent down with you."

"I... know that," I answered meekly. "But how can I help him if I'm dead?"

"You're helping just by being dead, Aramis," she said matter-of-factly. "Master Vladimir needs Vincent. Whose funeral do you think he would rather have? Yours or his beloved brother's?" She tapped me on the shoulder only for her fingers to disappear into me. "Acceptance, Aramis. Acceptance."

I thought about it. It was amazing how easy the decision came. "Alright."

With a nod of approval, Rosario vanished. "Good talk." Her voice lingered within the walls of the castle.

I walked aimlessly. My legs seemed to know where I was going, but my brain didn't. All I knew was that I had to something and now. I found myself taking the abandoned hallways to the dungeons.

Automatically, I went inside the laboratory. Any other day, I would rather die all over again than go back to this hell, but at the time I didn't feel anything. The voice at the back of my head told me none of this was real. This was just a dream. But every fiber of my being ached to run off screaming.

The shattered glass crunched under my boots. As soon as my eyes had adjusted to the lack of lighting, I went to a pile of broken tanks, skirting the half-dead Millie clones crawling on the floor.

I quickly spotted a Helcium shard big enough to use as a dagger. I picked it up and tightened my fingers around it. Blood trickled down from my hands as the sharp edges bit into my palms. The pain made my nape crawl, but I unblinkingly positioned the pointed end toward my throat and pulled.

The shard barely dug into the skin over my throat before it was knocked off my grip. To my surprise, I was being hauled away from the broken tanks by a pair of strong arms.