667: Issue #2 "Activation"

Violet Eve

I hadn’t meant to be so mean to him, but I didn’t need anyone taking care of me, or even trying to.

As positive as I tried to be, I was pessimistic about tonight and this whole birthday thing. I wanted to get the fuck out of here, but I had to wait because the limo driver was the only one that could get me home.

I got up from the bench and picked up the Morning Glory. Such a beautiful flower with a color that matched my name. I loved flowers; mum had too. We had a garden for a while where we grew all sorts of things. All of that died when she did.

I hadn’t even bothered to check the time; I knew Jeremy had said Midnight, but I didn’t really care. Missy wouldn’t miss me then if she wasn’t already.

I started running one hand down the crypts while I twirled the flower between the fingers of the other.

Calm and quiet. That’s what I wanted and that’s what I was getting right now.

I stopped at a particularly grand mausoleum to see the name Beaumont carved out in large stone letters.

“Maybe I should pay my respects.” I looked down at the flower between my fingers and bent down to place it in front of the grave with other long withered bouquets and candle wax.

I didn’t notice the music anymore, or even the lights flashing on the opposite end of the cemetery—I also didn’t notice the fog that had rolled in.

It was light at first, a fine mist that laid low to the ground.

Slowly it crept in thicker and started to envelop everything. I couldn’t even see my own hand in front of my face as it slithered through me.

“What the hell?” I spun in a circle, trying to figure out which way I had been originally standing.

The fog cleared almost as quickly as it had begun. I spun back around to face the crypt when everything inside me just seized up.

Every joint in my body was locked in place, every muscle rigid. I felt as if the sinew would snap any moment if I went to move.

Was this another panic attack? Had the fog somehow brought one on for no reason?

Then I felt it. Like a tiny atom bomb went off in my gut. It felt like someone had shot me, but then the pain multiplied as millions of other explosions went off in my body.

It felt like my cells were ripping themselves apart one by one as the tension in my muscles released and my joints allowed me to fall over on my face.

Then the screaming started.

I could feel something visceral tearing through my DNA, multiplying at such a rapid rate that I thought I would explode.

I recognized this feeling, this agonizing rearrangement of my cells at a molecular level. I had seen this all before—when Henri had handed me the Diviner.

Was I dying? If I was—why?

I just kept screaming, clawing at my face and body as I felt it morph underneath my touch.

“UUuuuauaaaaagh!” A primal roar escaped my lips as it felt like every bone in my body shattered into a million pieces, my nerves on fire from the excruciating pain that was pressing against my person.

Death had to be the only option in this.

My skin began to crawl and I felt like my eyeballs were melting in their sockets.

I was now hyperventilating as I struggled to not lose consciousness. The searing sensation in my eye sockets had subsided, but I was now blind. Everything around me was dark and all I could hear was the distant screams where the party had just been going full force.

“Help me…please,” I called out to no one as I felt one last agonizing pop within my body before I passed out from the pain.