The Scent of Illusion (Published under IMMAC)

Chapter 38: The Disintegration of Truth

Trigger warning: May contain sensitive topics such as death, sex, profanity, suicide, self-harm, drugs, alcohol, mental health, sexuality, etc. There might be depictions or references to sexual harassment. Please be guided accordingly and read at your own risk.

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The night was kind enough to stay clear, the way her mind could not be as it was filled with jumbled words and images that confused her the more she thought about any of it. Nothing made sense anymore. Not a single thing felt concrete and steady enough to hold on to. It was like everything she had ever known suddenly felt like a nightmare that she just had to wake up from, which was all the more painful to her.

While her childhood might not be the most ideal, there were still good moments that she knew she would keep as a memory. It may have been a struggle to be born into a more inferior pack, but the family that she knew and the people that surrounded her were able to remind Aurora to just make the most of what they had. It did not matter just how much they had or that they did not have a fancy house as long as they were together. It sounded sappy but that was how it was for her growing up.

The images of Jinia's face flashed in Aurora's mind, from when they were younger up to how they trained together in order to pursue that mission. They watched each other grow. They were more like the sibling that the other did not get and they felt lucky to have each other.

"Oh Jinia," Aurora cried into the wind, tears brimming her eyes as she aimlessly walked along the empty roads.

It was the dead of night and the wind was howling in a dramatic way of empathizing with Aurora, who was taking large strides into the forest, and yet her eyes remained staring in mid-air. Her mind wandered off to an unknown place, seeking comfort that could somewhat make her feel better.

The images that Emilia showed her were too vivid, too specific to be merely a joke. And as much as she wanted to believe that Emilia could have simply planned it so that Aurora would be more open to helping Grey Shadow, the blonde femme knew better than to doubt the friend who had been there for her through the good, the bad, and the ugly. They had gone through a lot of things together and Emilia had already proven herself loyal to Aurora, which gave her no room to be doubted at all.

But Aurora also did not know how else she could handle the overwhelming feelings that came in crashing waves. It was all too much at the same time that she was too disoriented to make any decision at the moment.

It all felt like the house that she was able to build, made up of all the truths that she believed in from when she was still a child, had crumbled right before her eyes and she could not even salvage a single thing. She felt helpless and useless, betrayed and used.

All the trust that she used to have was placed on the wrong people, people who made her believe that there was more to life than living under the shadow of a rival pack, that there was so much more that they could but most importantly, she believed that she was doing something good my working on the mission.

And then her mind would wander off to Jinia and Caroline, who sacrificed their lives for the cause.

Caroline spent her days bent over her desk as she worked on a potion that she thought would finally give Blood Rage the potential that was hidden from them. She worked hard just to give their pack an equal opportunity to have something good in their lives, tired of all the hustling and discomfort when they could have simply been living a good life.

On the other hand, Jinia offered herself if it meant Aurora could get inside the walls of Grey Shadow so they could find the potion that she believed was made by Grey Shadow themselves.

The three of them, and maybe more, believed in a vision and a mission that they thought would bring them a better life...

...but it might just be the one to ruin them.

Letting her feet take her wherever possible, she found herself standing in front of the cave. The mere sight of it made her heart hurt as if it was being clenched and drained of its blood. Looking at it no longer reminded her of the three of them eating the meat that Hayden stole so they would not be hungry. What she could remember by looking at the cave was the vision of the fire, the flames erupting and yet no one cared.

Stepping inside, she took one step at a time and followed the trail that she, Emilia, and Hayden followed. Upon stopping at the pile of bodies, she carefully examined them. They were quite decomposed but their clothes and other items were still intact. Carefully crouching down, she blindly glided her palm until she felt something cold against her skin. Taking it between her fingers, she raised it up until she saw that it was a dog tag of some sort. While on one side it showed Blood Rage's totem, the other side had a name engraved on it.

Aurora immediately searched the other bodies and collected, at least, five of them to compare to the one she found on the hilltop, the same one that she had around her neck.

With that, she continued her search as she looked around the room that Emilia had gone to during their inspection. While her vision was not that clear under the circumstances, she could see that the room was most likely an operating room of some sort. There were still some things intact but nothing entirely useful.

The images from the vision played in her head and every bit of it made sense the more she walked around. It all fit so perfectly and yet she still wanted some answers, answers that she obviously could not find in the cave that had been abandoned for so long.

Defeated, Aurora made her way outside of the cave and back into the quiet night except for the howling wind and the rustling of the trees. She lifted her chin, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. As she exhaled, she wished that some of the pain had been blown into the wind. A part of her wished that it was that easy.

Her truth had been compromised and she was not sure about a lot of things.

But she was sure of one thing. The answers might be at home.