Sophia watched as Tyler beat up Jake Parker and his goons, her body trembling with excitement, her face flushed red. As the growling words of her only friend, laced with thick obsession, entered her ears,
He beat them up to the point that their faces became utterly unrecognisable. Even their bones were broken, and bruises and blood covered all of their faces. Sophia covered her mouth with both of her hands, unable to stop herself from smiling so widely that it looked almost hideous.
Her red eyes shimmered with a dark, possessive glow. But right after a few moments, the sounds of punching stopped, and footsteps could be heard instead, and the sound grew closer and closer. She realised that he was coming towards this direction; panic surged in her mind, as if just on that cue, an ethereal figure with the same breathtaking and otherworldly appearance as her own materialised right in front of her eyes, floating slightly above the ground.
The ethereal figure donning her own appearance stated in a mocking tone,
"Yes, he is coming right here. I suggest you run."
The phantom took a pause and added with a smile, "Unless you want your man to see what an absolutely sadistic, murderous, and psychopathic bitch you are in truth."
Sophia gritted her teeth and glared at the figure, but hearing the steps grow closer, she immediately ran a bit farther away, making sure that her steps were as silent as possible. She hid herself behind another wall and heaved a sigh of relief. But just after a minute, she could hear the familiar sound of footsteps grow closer again.
The ethereal figure added this time with an amused laughter, "Run little monster, run."
Biting her cherry-red, soft lips, she ran away and started to climb up to the 4th floor straight, to the roof of the building. As she entered the open roof, she huffed loudly, out of breath from climbing up to the 4th floor straight. After she calmed down and her heartbeat stabilised, she looked towards the city from the top of that building.
The sun was close to setting at that moment, the sky took on a shade of red and yellow, and white clouds spread messily. She always found the concept of nature’s beauty somehow out of her grasp. Tyler would constantly babble to her whenever looking at the sky. He always regarded the sky as the most beautiful aspect of nature.
And somehow she understood that sentiment at that moment, even to her, the sky looked gorgeous today. She smiled.
But the voice of the ethereal figure interrupted her happy moment without a shred of mercy, "You didn’t even know about this part of him in your original life, did you?. Do you think he is the same as you?"
"You are an obnoxious bitch who wants to control him and have him to yourself because he is the only one who cares about you, and without that one person who cares about you, what would be the meaning of your life?"
"What would be the purpose of your existence? You would have no reason even to be alive?"
"You are but a selfish creature that is trying to hold onto life through him."
Each word of the phantom struck her at her deepest insecurities, her darkest secrets, the truths she was too afraid to face. Too dirty to even think about. She shouted in fury,
The phantom continued, "Oh, don’t worry, I’m not trying to deny that you love him. You do love him, and you love him very much, yes. But it’s a selfish love, a possessive love. Think about it? Like the time when you were kidnapped in your original life, the way that little boy who was even younger than you became a murderer at the age of 8."
"He nearly died at that moment, but the little boy did not let his body collapse until she freed you from the binding ropes. But could you ever do the same? Disregarding your own life like that, knowing that you might die the next moment, still caring for another person like that? Caring for him like that?"
Sophia dropped to her knees and continued to shout, unable to take the truth, like a broken machine, completely in denial, "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP,"
But the phantom smiled even more in amusement and stated the words, and then she added something that broke her even more than how broken she already was.
"You know it in your heart, you love him, but not for his sake, but for your own, for your own convenience, and you will never sacrifice yourself for him, your love is nothing but possessive love. But unlike you, his love is obsessive. Yes, he can’t think of anything but you, yet he will sacrifice himself for your sake again, and again and again, a thousand times over. His obsession has resulted in a sacrificial love, the exact opposite of yours."
Despair took over the red eyes of Sophia. Unable to respond to that claim. Biting her lips.
"So, what will you do? In the end, will you still go through with it? To escape from here, to get your wish?"
The Valkyrie’s eyes shot wide open, and she panted heavily as if her body had forgotten how to breathe. Her body was drenched in sweat. She had a hollow look in her eyes, and her body remained motionless, except for her chest rising and falling with each breath, the sounds of air entering and escaping from her lungs echoing loudly in the dark, large room.
Eventually, her breathing stabilised, but with those lost and unfocused eyes, her gaze remained fixed on the plain ceiling of the room. Tears started falling down her eyes, without her even realising it, she bit her lip and blood came out of it, and a twisted expression appeared on her face, only the muffled noise of her crying could be heard within the dark room.
Axel slowly opened his eyes, with lingering sleepiness, his mind jumbled, and pain evident all over his body. The first thing he saw after opening his eyes was light, an extreme amount of light, as if everything had been lit up in a white fire or something, but squinting his eyes, he could see that he was in a patient’s bed in the main infirmary. Then a pretty-looking nurse in white clothes appeared in front of him.