LAST WORDS

Sophia woke up with a groan, her entire body feeling weighed down by lead, her head pounding painfully.

Someone nearby helped her sit up, then pressed a glass of water to her hands and told her to drink. She gulped the water down quickly, grateful to have something ease the dryness of her throat, then finally cracked her eyes open.

For a moment she was blinded, the sudden onslaught of light making her squeeze her eyes shut again, but not before she noticed that it was Elliot beside her bed, instead of Selene, like she had expected.

"How long have I been unconscious?" She asked, her voice sounding a bit hoarse.

"For three days, Miss."

Sophia gasped a little. Three whole days? What the hell had happened to her?

She asked Elliot to tell her what she had missed, and he informed her that the doctor had came, but was unable to diagnose her as she seemed to be inflicted with some kind of illness they'd never come across before. He also mentioned that her mother said she used to get quick ill like this when she was a child, but had assumed the strange illness went away when she didn't show any symptoms after a while.

The mysterious nature of her illness was troubling, but there was an even more pressing issue she had to deal with. When she asked about Selene, Elliot made a face, as if he were reluctant to talk about it. Apparently Selene seemed to be an entirely different person suddenly, no longer was she bloodthirsty and ruthless, instead she seemed to be acting like a spoiled brat, and cried for days in her room when someone had spoken about how Cassius was now engaged to someone else. She even dismissed Elliot as her personal knight, seemingly having forgotten she ever hired him in the first place.

From there it was easy to come to the conclusion, the universe had somehow forced Selene into playing the role she was always meant to play, a shallow, bratty villainess. Sophia was, too, forced to endure a strange illness that the body of the original character had when she was a child. She wondered now if behind the scenes, Sophia had originally died because of this illness.

The universe was actively trying to remove them from the plot, to set things right.

Sophia grit her teeth.

Thankfully her memories were safe. Other than her illness, it seemed the author hadn't bothered with giving the book Sophia any personality traits or quirks, so Sophia was safe to continue with being who she was. Only now she was burdened with an illness that nobody could cure.

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't figure out a plan to set things right. She had sorcery on her side, that was part of the story that the universe couldn't erase as the author had planted the seeds for it themselves. But now Sophia's body was too weak to channel any magic, and she was left weak and defenceless.

She would have to deal with her illness, first, before she could deal with Selene, and thankfully, she knew just the person to cure her.

Anastasia arrived two days later, looking every bit as miserable as Sophia remembered. Now she wished she hadn't out right antagonised her so early, but she wasn't too worried. Anastasia looked very obviously surprised and a little disturbed as she looked at Sophia. Sophia was much paler than when they'd last seen each other. Her cheeks looked hollow and her eyes were sunken in. She looked as if she was on her death bed.

Sophia could feel it too, the way she got weaker and weaker as more time went on, the longer she slept, the harder she felt it was to focus.

But she would not die without a fight, and she would certainly not die before bringing Selene back.

"You asked to see me?" Anastasia said, a little uncertainly, looking over her shoulder as if she were expecting Selene to burst in at any moment.

She probably would have, knowing that Cassius' fiancée was here, but Sophia had the foresight to make James lock her in her room, so she wouldn't interrupt their time together.

"Yes." Sophia replied, her voice sounding feeble and scratchy. "I wanted to apologise."

Anastasia blinked at her in surprise.

"I'm sure you can tell, but I'm very sick. I'm... dying, I can feel it. While I've been laying here, forced to admit to myself that my short life is coming to an end, I felt that I had endless regrets and guilt. I regret that I spent so much of life dictated by my sister, hating who she hated, liking who she liked, and I felt sorry that I was so cruel to you. You've come to see me after all, while my sister hasn't once stopped by to check up on me. I guess it goes to show just what kind of person she really is." Sophia tried to laugh self deprecatingly, but it only lead to a fit of coughing.

Anastasia quickly handed her a glass of water that was sitting on her bedside table, looking concerned but mostly astonished.

"So I called you here because I wanted to say I'm sorry, to you, Anastasia. I know that you might never forgive me for the words I've said to you, but I am sorry all the same."

There was no reply from Anastasia, who simply sat still in her chair.

Sophia continued talking anyway. "Now I feel I can die without regrets."

Then she closed her eyes and took a big, dramatic, last breath.