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Cruz disappeared Completely

The first thing she focused on was a dead body

Since being swept up in the madness, Cruz had seen more violence and death than she had in her previous seventeen years of life, by a factor of a thousand tied wo white belly Her mouth isted into a look of horror and pain Someone had stabbed her in both eyes, then left the knife sticking from the side of her neck

Cruz stepped around her Down the long driveway past other dead Past wounded who still crawled and snapped at the air, still trying to obey the Chared them to the arms of the Grim Reaper

It was a long walk to the Triunfo Cruz stuck to the sidewalk A ed it off

People are all about vision They will disht confirms

She walked quickly when she focused, slohen she did not Once or twice she broke into a trot, but her limbs were leaden with dread and she couldn’t keep it up

And the oppressive attention of the Dark Watchers was on her She had dealt with the her protracted time at the hospital, but it had , unjust, for theious that they enjoyed slaughter and pain and fear, and Cruz was convinced that’s what they were doing: enjoying

She considered calling herherwhat, exactly? That Cruz loved her? She did, but love was only a part of what she felt That generous es of betrayal, of resentment

Hi, Mo: Why did you never defend me from Dad?

Explain that, Mom You kne scared I was You kne vulnerable I was And you watched hi

When she considered calling her father, she quickly disht not want her dead, but gone? Gone would be just fine with him

And that, she realized, was the whole list of people she cared anything about, aside froly, Dekka

And Arory

She laughed silently at her own absurd nascent crush on hieous And, despite what Cruz had seen of him in the heat of battle, in calmer times he waswell, kind of sweet Centered Funny, sometimes But he was also a white, cis-male, presumably hetero dude ould be horrified by the notion of anything more than friendship He would think she was creepy A freak of nature Delusional