Chapter 626: The Night Something Inside Her Broke

Chapter 625: The Night Something Inside Her Broke

Warning: This Chapter contains sensitive and distressing themes, including violence and the abuse of a minor.

Someone was screaming.

The sound tore through the air, raw and broken, like it didn’t belong to anything human anymore.

Sophia didn’t know who it was.

At first.

It echoed around her, bouncing off stone walls, sharp enough to make her head throb. Her ears rang, a wet warmth trailing down the side of her neck as the sound refused to stop.

Everything was blurry.

The world tilted.

Her throat burned from pain and then she paused.

Oh.

The sound... it was coming from her.

She was the one screaming.

Her body shook violently, her chest rising and falling too fast, uneven, like she couldn’t catch her breath no matter how hard she tried.

Her vision cleared and she saw him.

Alaric.

He lay on the ground, unmoving.

A pool of blood spread beneath him, dark and endless, soaking into the stone and staining everything it touched. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

It stained her too.

Her dress.

Her hands.

Her legs.

Red.

So much red.

Her scream broke into something weaker, but it didn’t stop.

It couldn’t stop.

"I—" her voice cracked, but no words came out, just broken sound after broken sound.

She had begged.

She had begged her mother to stop.

To let him go.

To just—stop.

But her mother hadn’t listened.

Her mother never listened.

Sophia’s eyes widened again, her mind dragging her back to what had just happened—

Her mother’s hand.

The blade.

The smile.

And Alaric...

He had begged her mother but not for himself. He had begged for Sophia. For her mother to get Sophia out before she did anything to him. He had told her mother that Sophia was too young to witness something like this. It was too harsh on a child as young as Sophia.

But her mother had laughed coldly in reply.

"You are not her family," she had said, her voice laced with irritation. "You do not get to decide what she sees."

Sophia’s body shook harder.

Her breath hitched violently. She had watched as it happened. Alaric was weak already, his limbs bound, and so he could not fight back.

He had given her one last look and mouthed to her, "You are loved."

The blade had come down immediately after that with a wet, sickening sound.

It was from there the screams had started. They tore from her throat without control, the sound so raw it felt like it ripped something apart inside her.

And she hadn’t stopped since.

Even now.

She was still screaming.

Her legs trembled beneath her, slick with blood that wasn’t hers.

Her mother’s laughter echoed somewhere behind her, distant and warped, like it couldn’t quite reach her anymore.

"This is your fault, Sophia," her mother said.

But the words didn’t land.

They blurred together.

Because Sophia wasn’t just seeing Alaric anymore.

There were others. Flickers of something she didn’t understand.

People she had seen before... somewhere, but she wasn’t sure where.

She didn’t remember, but they had died similarly, with her watching.

Her stomach twisted violently, a sharp, painful lurch. She had not consumed anything, but she threw up.

Her body convulsed as she dropped to her knees, her hands shaking against the cold floor as everything inside her came up in broken, choking breaths.

"Please..." she cried.

Her voice was hoarse now.

Barely there.

"Make it stop... please..."

She didn’t know what she was asking for anymore.

The pain.

The noise.

The images.

Everything.

"Please..." she whispered again, tears streaming down her face.

"I’m sorry..."

Her fingers dug into the stone.

"I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry..."

It was her fault. She was the reason it happened.

He was kind.

He was—

Her breath hitched violently.

Sophia shook her head.

"No..."

He couldn’t be. He couldn’t be dead. There was no way he was dead.

Her gaze snapped back to him, to his body that was still. Eyes that had stared at her with warmth now stared back empty.

The scream died in her throat.

It turned into something quieter.

Something weaker.

Her mother moved closer.

And her body reacted. A low growl ripped from her throat.

Her wolf surged forward, her eyes shifting, blue burning bright with something fierce.

Her mother only laughed at the sight.

"It’s not my fault," she said lightly. "You are the cause of all of this."

Sophia’s wolf growled at her mother.

Her mother rolled her eyes.

"You know what," she said to Sophia, "since you like him so much, then stay with him."

And then she left.

Just like that.

And the silence that followed was worse.

Sophia’s body trembled.

Then, her bones cracked.

A sharp, painful sound as her body shifted back.

Involuntary again.

Her eyes were hollow as she stared at him.

At Alaric, or rather what was left of him.

Unsteadily, she moved.

Her knees dragged across the blood-stained floor as she crawled toward him.

Her hands slipped once.

Twice.

But she didn’t stop.

When she reached him, her fingers hovered for a second.

Just a second.

Then she touched him. He was cold, she knew he was gone, but it was like she had to be certain.

"No..."

Her voice trembled.

"This isn’t... this isn’t right..."

She shook her head again and then she had a thought. She was special, yes she was. Even her mother had said it. She was going to try to bring him back. Maybe she had powers like that.

She reached for his detached head with shaking hands, lifting it carefully, like it would break if she held it too tightly. It was heavy in her arms but she wasn’t giving up.

"I’ll fix it," she whispered.

Her voice cracked.

"I’ll fix it... I’ll fix it..."

She placed it back, carefully trying to align it, trying to make it right again.

But it didn’t work.

She prayed to the goddess, asking for help. Her wolf spoke to her, trying to ground her, but she was far too gone.

Sophia begged again. She begged the goddess to help her.

"Please!" she cried. "I’m special, right?! Bring him back! Bring him back, please!"

*Sophia,* her wolf called to her, but she wasn’t listening.

Her hands were on Alaric as she begged and begged the goddess to bring him back.

But no matter what she did, he didn’t come back.

Her words came out broken and with each word she said, it increased an octave.

"Please! Please!"

But nothing happened and she felt a sharp pain in her chest like it was being clawed out from the inside. Her hands moved there, trying to make it stop, but it didn’t.

Alaric’s body blurred before her and once more she saw other bodies, she heard screams and she covered her ears.

"Stop," she begged, screaming. "Stop!"