58Morning comes. My face is warm where the sunlight is touching it. I open my eyes. Marin's not next to me.
As I walk into the next room, I wonder if I have the courage to ask Marin what she was talking about last night, or who Lindsay is.
As soon as I see Marin, that's the least of my worries.
She's lying on the floor, face down, in a pool of blood. My eyes widen in horror, and a terrified gasp escapes my lips. I guess I'm finally all out of screams.
"Marin!" I say, instantly kneeling by her. I gently turn her head to the side so she can breathe. Her eyes are open, her lips parted. There is blood all over her face and in her hair. Slowly, carefully, I pick her up out of the pool and move her to the bed, where I lay her on her back. I'm horrified at the sight of a deep gash in her middle. I look back at the blood I'd pulled her out of. When I check it out, I pick up a strange thing that ends up being a large length of intestine.
I yell out in shock, and then I hear footsteps behind me. I turn to see Marin standing in the doorway, a trail of blood from the bed and on the floor following her.
"Adin," she says, and blood spills out of her mouth as she speaks.
"Oh my goodness— Marin, what happened?!" I rush over and grab her arms, and she falls limp. I catch her and hold her against my chest.
"A…din…"
"Marin. Marin? Marin, wake up!" I shake her. "Marin, don't you dare die. If you die, what will I…?" I choke back sudden tears.
Something warm seeps into my body. Marin fades away. I grab at her desperately, trying to keep her here with me. But she becomes air and slips through my fingers, and I fall to my knees. "Marin…"
Suddenly, a burst of light fills the room, and my body feels like it is on fire. I yell out in pain, and my own body begins to disintegrate. There's nothing but darkness.
And...
then…
An arrow pierces Marin's heart.
Her limbs are ripped from her body.
She's surrounded by flames, and suffocates.
A shadow looms over her and devours her soul.
Water fills her lungs and drowns her.
Her fever grows so intense, so hot, it fries her brain.
I watch Marin die hundreds of different ways, and each time, my heart bleeds a little bit more, and each time, a little bit more of me dies inside. Dying, like Marin.
I throw myself in front of the arrow.
I shield her from the wind and my limbs are torn instead.
I suffocate in the smoke.
My soul is eaten by a monster.
I drown.
My brain burns up.
"Marin… just stay alive. Stay alive. Let me die instead, Marin; I can't let you die."
Is this a dream? It feels like one not at all, and yet completely so. Whatever it is, I live it out… will it kill me in the end? Will it kill Marin?
"I will do anything to save you, Marin!" I cry. But still she fades away. Why does she fade away?! Why is nothing I'm doing capable of saving her life, of saving her soul?!
A grassy field opens up in front of me. A woman with coal-black hair and bright green eyes weeps into her hands. Beside her is a girl with brown hair, brown eyes, and a rose in her hand. The wind blows and steals away the woman, and the rose-girl pricks her finger with a thorn. She kneels and licks the red substance that I now know is blood, then pinches her finger and smears scarlet onto a rock in front of her.
"I will find you," the girl hisses. "And I'm going to destroy you."
A girl strikingly identical to the woman who faded away floats past my vision in the sky, and then also fades.
My eyes fly open and Marin is breathing, breathing and very much alive, beside me.