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She didn’t kno long she was trapped in a world where all she had were her thoughts, none of which were entirely pleasant at theother than just lie here like this Braith sat with her, his arms around her, his hands on her face, and in her hair The look on his face, the fright in his eyes was al sensation started in the tips of her toes, and gradually began to spread upward At first it wasn’t unpleasant, and she welconess that had enco her frozen hands over a fire and heating thean to prick at her skin It quickly becaet through it Unfortunately herworked its way through her arms, up to her shoulders, across her neck, and into her chest She tried to fist her hands against the pain, they wouldn’t move Frustration filled her, she tried to screa other than lay here like a useless luan inside of her; the only proble for at the moment… a true death to free her from this relentless pain, or eternal life

The heat pierced her heart; her non-beating heart She’d never experienced anything like this, never expected to hear the silence of the vital organ that had once pulsated so fluidly within her She hadn’t realized how much of a constant part of her it had been until she was blanketed by the heavy cloak of silence that followed its cessation

Tendrils of heat brushed against the organ as gentle and quiet as a butterfly’s wings The heat retreated for ainto it once hout She didn’t knohat the heat was, but she pictured Braith’s blood flowing in to fill the spaces that her blood had left behind Pictured it filling her cells, rehydrating thee in her mind; it was farto consuers flickered as she felt a heaving inside her chest before it seeped out again Hope swelled within her She had ress but at least it was so an to increase; her body was on fire as it prickled through her extremities She lurched, her body jerked as warain and she knew that it would re sensation in her fingers and toes started to worsen as it spread into her torso A scream welled inside of her, but herher froers brushed her face as he leaned over her Her skin felt as if it had been scrubbed away to expose her nerve endings His silky touch was e away froh, couldn’t pull away, as her body still wasn’t hers It was this fleshy shell that had become her coffin

"Aria?"

Just when she thought she couldn’t take anymore, her body broke free of its paralysis Braith leaned over her as she opened her mouth and the screa, ripped free of her in an unending echo that left her throat ravaged and her body drained as she fell lifelessly back to the bed

Braith reached for her but she moved away from him, unable to bear his touch on her brutalized skin She curled into the fetal position, but even that was almost too much to bear Her body shook and shivered, she was hot, she was cold, she was dying, she was living, and she was doing it all too fast Braith’s hand fell back to his side; hopelessness filled his gaze as her teeth began to chatter

She yearned to tell hi to lie, she wasn’t alright, and the ht now Every muscle in her body screa shattered into ainside of her felt as if it were changing, and soht was fleeting It didn’tback, and no ed it She forced herself to open her hand toward hi to sense that she couldn’t stand htly into her palhtly She kept her eyes focused on hiled to simply survive her own death

"You look like shit"

Braith could barely lift his head to look at Jack He felt beaten and drained in ways he hadn’t thought possible He hated himself, he hated this whole awful reed to this She’d told hih he’d been terrified she would die, petrified of losing her, there had been another part so entirely enthralled with the prospect of having her by his side forever that he’d talked hiet through this

Now, he knew that he’d been co to take this fro he could do He couldn’t even touch her without causing her to moan or scream He’d seen a lot of wretchedness and death in his extensive life, but he’d never experienced anything like this Even the one atte compared to this, but then that person hadn’t been Aria, and he hadn’t cared about what they’d endured, or whether they would survive

Aria was the strongest person he knew, and she was falling apart before hihtmare he’d created for her He’d never hated himself more, he didn’t have a clue how to ly offered up his own life to go back in ti?

He hadn’t, and now she was the one paying for his lack of good judgment Ashby had once said that eventually he would end up changing her no matter what, that he wouldn’t be able to resist He didn’t believe that was true, he believed he could have refrained fro so However, he couldn’t deny the fact that when she’d agreed to this, a part of him, the darkest and most primeval part had thrilled at the prospect and wouldn’t have been stopped by anything, or anyone

It was a piece of himself he didn’t like, but over the past fewit, or the fact that the person that brought it out, and kept it under control the most, was Aria

"How bad is it Braith?"

He tiredly ran a hand through his sweaty, tangled hair His ht, he was exhausted from lack of sleep, and yet it should be worse, he should be eventhrough He was barely able to hold Jack’s gaze for more than a moment "Bad, real bad"

Xavier stood behind Jack, his head bowed and his hands enfolded in his volu of blood on the kitchen table "Did you get any sleep?"

Braith shook his head "No"

"Did she?"

"She’s sleeping now, but not well"

"You should take a break Why don’t you let us watch over her while you take a shower, lanced over his shoulder at the shadowed bedroom He tried to pick up on so her any good, but he was going to do everything he could for her, especially since any second ht be her last His teeth clenched, his hands tensed around the doorfra to shreds; he wanted to rip himself to shreds