Angel III | Remedy of Regret

RAVEN'S POV :

The growing pains within my eyelids were trammelling my feeble attempt of drifting them apart to the worse. Racked by the fervid ache that was permeating through the veins, my entire skeletal muscle movements were crippled. Although the physical suffering was foreign and fatal, it somehow infested draconian strength in me.

Propping my cold elbow on the floor, I tried to acquire a stable posture. My limbs felt extreme fatigue and while I attempted to flex the stiffened muscles, jolts of electrifying convulsions engulfed my whole body like a gigantic sheet with sharp poignant needles.

"AAAAH..!!! OUCH!!"

The side of my jaw cramped a little as I shrieked in pain. The area around my lips felt benumbed and oddly dry. The calcified stiffness pulled my facial skin and threatened to split my mouth even with the slightest attempt of speaking. Not wanting to risk ruining the structure of my fine jawline, I reached for the nearest goblet of water.

The throbbing in my limbs kept inclining with every movement along with the stinging pang in my head but I decided to ignore them all. I poured the cold water on my head and the chillness settled on my crown before slowly descending my frowned forehead, heavy eyelids and finally reached my stiffened mouth. As the stickiness slowly began to retreat from my wrinkling skin, I used the back of my hands to wipe the substance off but instead, the viscosity of the liquid kept weirdly increasing.

"What the-"

As I kept wiping my mouth with one hand, I used my other hand to grope the floor for another goblet of water but the floor felt just as sticky and slimy as my mouth. I immediately brushed my hands on my pants and the shocking sight caught my eyes and attention at an instant. The colour of the liquid that coated my hands were definitely not of water.

That's when I noticed the floor beneath me and yes, it was in the very same colour as well. I touched the viscous liquid and involuntarily inhaled its foreign scent. As much as it smelled stale and stagnant, it strangely felt instigating and imprudent. The enticing scent of it alone felt addictive and unknowingly my mouth began to get watery. Blood... Just when I brought it to my lips, a shot of memory crashed down onto me in a heartbeat, like a blaring thunder.

"RAVEN!!!"

Her agonizing scream replayed in my head as the sound of her sobbing and weepings started to subside in the freezing night air.

"RAVEN!!!"

AGAIN. Again I heard her shriek in torment. The heart wrecking sound of her bedevilled bawl echoed in my eardrums. I covered my ears to eliminate the scorch of guilt her cry evoked in me. I shut my eyes tight, and the first image that appeared was her eyes. Every micro square of her emerald eyes was soaking with tears. Terror was crystal clear in her reddened eyes. I tried to shake that image off but it only enlarged with my pathetic attempt. Staring into her fear-struck orbs, I caught a glimpse of what terrorized her.

I focused on the image that her azure orbs reflected. The image grew closer and closer along with the horror that multiplied in her already swollen eyes. The image glanced down at her with a beastly grin, mocking her inability to fight back. It played with her emotions like a predator watching its prey run and rummage before ripping it in half. As the image of her predator got clearer, I saw its fierce eyes radiating in the exact same colour as her dreadful ones. Elegant azure. Oddly, it resembled mine as well.

"RAVEN!!!!!!"

Breaking out of the trance, I stumbled backwards and my legs stumbled onto something soft and I tripped over, grasping onto the same soft object for friction. It was long and had a number of lean soft ends. One. Two. Three...

Five.

It had five lean soft ends.

I lifted up the object and a thousand jolts of lightning struck both my heart and head at once.

The object was an arm.

An arm, wretchedly torn away from its body with dried blood all over it. I recognized the familiar piece of simple jewellery that adorned that lifeless limb. That's when, my eyes caught the sight of the figure that laid stationary on the floor, inches away from the ripped arm. In a split second, events and memories of earlier hours came rushing in and engulfed my brain like a monstrous hurricane.

Flames of hell painfully danced in my heart, as it was flared up by unseen fate's hand. In my eyes now, so far distanced was the redemption from all that's of temporal sand. What's left was nothing but regrets with no remedies whatsoever. I attempted to run to her side but instead of sprinting, my legs established a supernatural speed of the lightning.

The speed that I have so far witnessed only in... Them.

The rest of our population but I don't remember acquiring such speed or strength until moments ago. Disdaining the complicating thought, I slumped to the floor and stared at her lifeless body for a few minutes. Like a moron, I didn't know what to do. She was laying on her belly. Her hair was pulled in her usual flowery braid with strands of loose hair escaping the tie.

"Mer- Meredith??" I called but she did not respond like she always had.

"Meredith Demogorgon!"

I called her by the full name that she abhorred the most but still, I failed to get her attention. The thudding of my heartbeat kept pacing and the remorse was rupturing me on the inside with every passing second. I moved her shoulders with my shaking hands. No response. Bracing courage over contrition, I slowly flipped her body over. Only to stab my heart with the dagger of deadly depression.

The arduous sight of her disfigured features burned corrosive acid in my eyes as I fumbled away from her deformed body, screaming in dread.

Her eyes were swollen and gauging out of the socket. Her skin was in the palest white, revealing her dead nerves and blackened veins. Her neck was ripped in half, exposing her bones and torn cartilages. Her entire body was immersed in a blood bath, staining the pretty dress I recalled gifting for her birthday.

In a heartbeat, the image of the beast I saw in her eyes popped up in my mind. The same emerald orbs, sharp jawbone, devilish smile... It was actually an image of myself. Realisation inflicted a million doses of poison in my heart.

I did that to her...

I sucked the life out of her...

I ripped her limbs in a fit of monstrous blood lust despite her pleading tormented cries...

Strange suffocation began submerging in my congested chest. The misery of loss was marring my sanity. It felt as though countless hands soaked in the deadliest venom had grabbed the core of my heart and they were agonizingly extracting my soul from its very root.

The excruciating pain was overwhelming and I was completely clueless about what I should be doing to eliminate the torture. I needed a remedy to heal the unbearable agony that my monstrosity had resulted in.

Crying...

Yes, crying...

That's what I needed to do. That's the cause of this building suffocation and piercing affliction that's plunging in my core. That's the only way to eradicate my grievous emotion. The remedy to my regret is crying.

But I can't cry.

Demogorgons can't cry.

Regret shredded my heart again as I gathered her lifeless figure in my arms. My body was trembling in anxiety. I needed to release this emotion, this pain and misery that was accumulating in me before it consumes me from inside out. Clenching my teeth, I shut my eyes tight and tried to shed tears, but nothing emerged from my sinful eyes.

"Mother... Mother, I'm sorry."

The word I've refused to address her all the while slipped out of my quivering lips.

"Mother... Please..."

But it was too late. She couldn't hear me. She could never hear me ever again. All these years, while she was right beside me, I refused to address her properly. Called her by her first name but now, when I'm begging her, crying her name out, she is not in the state of responding. Regret and paranoia slaughtered my ego once again.

Knowing how I'd taken the life of the woman who gave mine.

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