Chapter 42

Sarah's POV

The mansion seemed to hold its breath, the walls vibrating with a terrible anticipation. It felt like the ground beneath me was shifting, as if the very foundation of my existence was unraveling. I could hear the sounds of the ritual echoing through the halls, distant whispers and dark chants reverberating through the air. The blood moon was at its apex, and there was no escaping what was about to happen.

"Please, Eren," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Please don't let this happen."

"Sarah..." he whispered, his voice shaking. "I never wanted this. But it's too late now. The demon... it demands its price."

A bitter laugh bubbled up in my chest, but it quickly turned to tears. The demon. The blood moon. The curse. None of it had been real to me before, and now, as I stood in this cursed place, it all felt like a nightmare that I couldn't wake from. How had I gotten here? How had I been so blind to the darkness surrounding me?

"You didn't even try to fight it," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, trembling with rage and heartbreak. "You never fought for us."

Eren flinched, as if my words had struck him harder than anything else. But it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to change what was about to happen.

Before he could say anything more, Eleanor and Victor stepped forward, their cold eyes fixed on me. Eleanor's lips curled into a smile, but it was a smile devoid of warmth. It was the smile of someone who had won-someone who had claimed what was rightfully theirs.

"Time's up, Sarah," Eleanor said, her voice smooth and cruel. "We've waited for what truly felt like centuries for this moment. The blood moon is here, and the sacrifice must be made."

I tried to push back, tried to fight, but I felt the cold hands of Victor and Eleanor seize me, dragging me toward the chamber. I kicked and screamed, but they were too strong, too determined. The mansion seemed to tighten around me, the walls closing in as the ritual began.

"Please, Eren," I begged one last time, my voice a desperate plea for mercy. "Please stop this."

But his eyes, once filled with love, were now cold and distant. He didn't even move. He couldn't.

As I was being dragged by Victor and Eleanor, everything blurred together- the lies, the love, and the betrayal. I thought of the first time I had met Eren, of the way he had smiled at me, the way I had felt safe in his arms. I thought of the way his touch had once felt like a promise. Now, it felt like the chains that bound me to this fate.

His eyes met mine, and for a fleeting moment, it was as though I saw the man I had once married-the man who had promised to protect me, the man who had whispered words of love in my ear in the quiet hours of the night. But that man was gone, replaced by someone I didn't recognize. Someone who would allow me to be sacrificed for a curse that had never been mine to carry.

And then, as I was forced onto the altar, the blood moon cast its crimson glow over me. The ritual had begun, and there was no going back. The rituals chanting intensified, I closed my eyes, surrendering to the inevitable. I couldn't scream anymore nor fight back. There was nothing left to do but wait for the darkness to take me.

Just then, a flicker of something-something I couldn't quite grasp, stirred in the air. A sensation, like a distant memory, a warning. The blood moon, though it loomed ominously above, seemed to pulse in a way that felt... wrong. Something was shifting, something was stirring beneath the surface.