“I-I’m so-rry…”
Ruby panted like a lion. If Rae squinted hard enough, she might have been able to see the red of the blood dripping from her mouth. Finally, Jackson took hold of Ruby’s nipple and bit to satisfy his mother.
“I mean it,” Rae muttered. “Look at me.”
Slowly, she pulled Jackson away from her breast, revealing the thin pricks of blood. Rae gasped with revulsion and turned to stare at the calming fields outside the window. It didn’t help.
Ruby grabbed her shoulders and violently thrashed, fists landing firmly against her shoulders and neck. Luckily, it had been years since Ruby led the coalition army to victory in Dagon. Rae had gone through much worse with her alphas, and any physical exercise was put to shame with the mental torment her sister made her suffer by keeping her alive after the pregnancy.
The tantrum ended when the car stopped, but the toddlers screamed so hard it sounded like their vocal cords were scraping their throats dry. For a while, it was all that encompassed the vehicle, but as Ruby reconciled her violence by hurriedly combing her own hair, Rae could see the obvious weakness and wished to exploit it to no end.
“You put on the tough exterior of a leader, yet your own children wish to bleed you,” Rae said.
Ruby lashed back with biting words. “I have chosen to let Severin make you immortal, so it is only fitting I be permitted to explore death’s uncertainty. Beware, sister. Once your life expires, you will become an even bigger martyr for them. They will celebrate and shed tears of joy.”
As the driver opened his door, a chill ran through the car’s interior. Quietly swallowing, Rae placed her fingers against her sternum. “Once again, I apologize. You are right, sister. I have a lot to learn.”
When Rae stepped out of the vehicle, she weakly collapsed and fell into the dense blades of grass. Eyes open, she observed the dark and sun-soaked green around her. Monumentally vibrant trees created a cathedral of nature, shrouding them in a mysteriously innocent glow. Her lungs inhaled the fresh air around her, cold and pure. Beauty—true and natural beauty surrounded them.
“What is this place?” she dared to ask.
Dancing within the invisible air stream above her head, a bright orange butterfly swooped down and landed on her nose. “Oh my!” Rae nearly clasped her hand on the insect to catch it—it was so beautiful! However, out of respect for its life, she resisted the urge and let it linger until it flew away.
Rae stood back up and wanted to laugh and express her joy, but the next thing she saw was her sister’s ugly face, thin from worry and too much obsessive planning. The children were kept in the car, out of sight and mind. Ruby tossed a heavy and very old rifle against her chest, hurting her but only mildly compared to most of what she went through. “You act like you’ve never been outside,” she said.
Rae barely touched the bark on one of the trees but, worried she might get infected with some unknown poison, she secretly rubbed the sappy excess on her dress. “It’s been some time,” she admitted. “But I’ve never seen so many trees in one place before. Is this another gift granted by the New Republic?”
“No, it is not,” she muttered. “This is what the world used to be like. It is the last vestige of the real world, before the alphas made idols out of machine and experimentation. Now, let that sink in while I focus. I think I see my first target.”
Ruby breathed and took aim at a small bird perched in one of the trees. She squinted her eyes elegantly until the trophy matched up with her sight. “Ordinarily, it is uncommon to hunt such a docile target, but the urge to fire can be too strong, and most of the animals have been eradicated years before the Republic gained its strength back,” she added.
Still, it was something to hit, and once the bullet tore through the air, both women felt a wave of exhilaration rush through their upper thighs.
Rae ran forward and jumped over a large fallen branch hidden in the grass. Tossing her gun to the side, she yelled, “You got it!”
Dead, dead, dead.
If there was anything the world had to offer as consolation, it was the ascent of death. That was the only prize worth winning.
Rae stooped to get a better sight on the blackbird, but her smile wavered as soon as she saw that the wing was twitching, erratic and sad. The endless struggle to hold onto life ended with muscle spasms, and the silence that came afterward forced more nausea into Rae’s throat.
The morning dew hung on the blades, and life seemed to grace every inch of this space. Yet, Death cut like a scythe, and the endless toil of mankind merely lived to taste one dot of virtue. What did Death have to say about this? Absolutely nothing. Death makes a deal with the innocent, and so it goes, on and on until the world burns.
The blackbird was just like her—brittle and weak but full of old truths. Myths propagated by sinister men wishing to justify the cruelest actions... Even Ruby must have known she was playing a man’s game by gripping her silly hands around the phallic instrument of death.
Like a child, she dipped her hand into the green and red beneath her. She allowed herself the strength to hold the gift of nature against the clean air and away from the mixed soil. “I would like to keep her,” Rae said.
Ruby lowered the rifle. The driver of the car came beside her and graciously offered his hand to stow the weapon until another animal came into a clearing.
“A trophy is a very fine thing to want to keep,” Ruby said, seeming pleased.
Rae didn’t dare move lest she disturb the soul of the poor creature. She wanted it to know that it died in honor, but sentiments such as honor seemed to only exist for the living’s appreciation. That was what she couldn’t wrap her head around. The most beautiful ideas lifted the dead from their graves, but they would never be able to experience them. To Rae, it seemed like a horrible punishment issued from an unjust system.
Cassian had once remarked on how the world was built from chaos. But as her mind expanded with age, she came to realize even the worst madness served to prop up a very structured house.
Ruby bent down next to her sister and kissed her temple tenderly. “It is now an icon.”
“Like me? I’m an… icon?”