REYNA

I shut my eyes, embracing for an impact. I saw the look in Viktor's eyes, I observed within the .005 seconds that it took for the bullet to pierce through the air. As if I were staring into the eye of a tiger, I watched the point of the bullet dart through the air, directly at me.

All I could think about was how my life would end, but it would all be okay because at least I reached my goal. At least I saved my mother. At least I could die, knowing that lives would be saved, and families could be reunited. It would all be worth it.

However, the time kept moving and with each passing second, as I awaited death, I realized that it never came.

Slowly, I peeled open my eyes to see the woman I fought so hard to just hug one more time was lying on the floor right in front of me. Blood was rushing from her chest, and her eyes were shut. It was easy to hug my legs to my chest as I swore it was all some nightmare that I would wake up from and be welcomed by the rays of sunshine dancing on my skin.

Her eyes bared open to me, staring into my soul. It was everything I wanted for years, but I never anticipated the soulless gaze of my mother that would soon haunt me forever.

Mom.

Saint stood in front of me, forcing me to lose sight of her eyes. Even as he crouched down and his lips began to move, I couldn't hear a thing. All I could hear was the gunshot. All I could hear was Viktor screaming at me—demanding me to tell him what had happened to his sister. All I could hear was her lifeless body hit the ground. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over again.

Saint began to shake me, growing more frantic with each passing second.

This wasn't happening to me. This wasn't reality. Mom was still alive. I had to find her.

He stopped and moved out of the way allowing me to look at my mother again. All I ever hoped for was just to feel her massaging my scalp as I slept beside her again. I missed the way she would hold me tightly every time I was scared. All I wanted was to see her give me that big thumb's up—just one more time.

Soon, Alessandro replaced Saint, crouching down in front of me. His face was cold and empty. It looked as though the mother he had only met a few moments ago hadn't just been shot right in front of him.

I broke my mother's gaze to look into the blue sky of Alessandro's eyes. He continued to stare at me, looking over my every feature, until finally, he pulled me in and hugged me.

"You look just like her," he whispered into my ear.

At once, all my tears began to fall. The sounds of gunshots ringing through the house finally made their way into my eardrums. I wanted to scream, but all I could focus on was the sobs that forced their way out of my throat. Alessandro's arms grew firmer around me as I continued to weep.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Saint blasting shots down the stairs, shooting anyone who dared come after us.

"I believe Viktor called all of his men! He knew this was happening! We got to go now!" Saint shouted over the course of gunshots.

I was yanked from Alessandro, forcing a sob out of me. Saint held onto me with an iron grip around my waist. No matter how hard I tried to pull away from him, I couldn't break away.

"Let me go!" I screamed. My eyes began to blur with tears. All I could see were blobs of color like a blue abstract painting.

Alessandro stood up with his gun, and like a statue, took Saint's place in defending the upstairs area.

"Please! Let me go!" I cried. Reaching out to my mother, hoping that she would just wake up and grab onto my hand.

"Reyna, we have to get out of here!" Saint yelled.

"You two go through the back. I'll keep you covered. I don't want anymore family casualties, Saint. I have faith you'll protect my... well, my sister," he said, but I only blocked out his words.

All I could focus on was my mother. Once again, I never got to say goodbye. Only this time, there was no longer any chance. I had no hope to cling on to. I had no faith that she would be out there. That spark in my gut that left no doubt in my mind that my mother was still out there somewhere had vanished. Like blowing out a candle, I was left in smoke and ruins.

Saint began to walk me further away from her, and I made sure to fight him with every step. I couldn't leave her. I couldn't be without her. There was no me anymore.

"Reyna, if you stay here, you could die," Saint said as if that would suddenly change everything.

"I don't care!" I sobbed. "I am no one without my mom. I lived for her, Saint! I fought, I changed, I breathed, I became everything I needed just so I can be with her again! Just for it all to be for nothing! Why cant you just understand that I need her? I don't want to be alive if she isn't!"

Saint stared at me. His gaze was so hard that I couldn't decipher it.

"You don't have much time," Alessandro warned us.

I turned around to go be with my mother again, but before I could crouch down beside her, I was thrown over Saint's shoulders. I pleaded and screamed to be released, crying out about how I would never forgive him.

He carried me down the stairs. I could see blood and dead bodies littered around the staircase. Most of them were people I had never seen before. One body in particular stood out to me—the bald guy's.

People were dying. War was happening.

"Mama!" I screamed, trying to claw my way to her. In the mist, I managed to catch Alessandro's eye . For the first time, he allowed me to see the heartbreak in them. It only lasted for a moment—it happened so quickly, I could have easily believed I was seeing things.

Alessandro turned back to his task at hand, walking after us down the stairs and toward the back door, his gun blasting with almost every other step.

Once he walked us to the back door, he turned to Saint, yelling, "get out of here!"

Saint finally placed me down, and the moment he did, I fought my urge to lunge at the door. I only stood there, blankly.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me, forcing me to run after him. The farther we got away from the house, the more that armor wrapped around my heart, only giving it enough space to beat. There was no way in it and there was no way out. We had to go around the dead bodies of Saint's soldiers.

"Fuck!" I heard him exclaim.

We didn't stop running until we were at his car. The moment we neared, the doors unlocked. He briefly let go of my hand to open the passenger door.

"Get in," he ordered.

"No," I cried.

"Reyna, get in the fucking car!" he yelled, glancing back at the house.

"No!" I shouted. "Not without my mom!"

"She's dead! If your mom was here, do you think this is how she'd want you to act? Do you really want her sacrifice to be for absolutely no reason? That house is full of girls and women like your mother—we still have the opportunity to save them—just like you wanted. I need you to be strong. Be strong for your mom, for those girls, for me, and for yourself!" he shouted in my face.

His words hung in the air like the thought of making something beautiful out of ugliness. Only, gravity dragged them to the ground and shattered them into bits and bits of pieces as if it were the most fragile glass. I wanted to be that woman on the TV screens that everyone loved because she wore her scars like a smile. A smile that brimmed with power. While, on the other hand, my scars bled and kept on bleeding.

I did what he asked—I sat down in the car. He quickly shut the door behind me and went over to the driver's seat where he got in.

My gaze remained out the window.

I could only stare at the anger of the trees as the wind forced them from side to side. The horrendous smell of blood and dead bodies coerced its way into my nostrils. There was no melancholy resting in my mind as Saint started up the car and began to drive down the road. As we drove, I noticed how the green of the grass was so dull that it could've been gray. Maybe the color of the world leaving the moment my mother did. Maybe it was the void in my heart that no longer searched for the beauty in everything else. Maybe it was me—seeing no point in it all.

It was going to rain any second now.

Rain was no longer my favorite thing in the world. I hated it. It proved that life was nothing but a cycle. We evaporate, condense, and then we precipitate. We dream and hope. Then, we realize that age and cruelty exist to even those who least deserve it. Lastly—the thing I hated more than anything now—was about letting it all go to start again.

I see the first splat of water on my window before another follows it. My gaze lifted into the gray of the clouds.

This was the world that truly existed—fear, hatred, worries, and death. Just nature that made sure to punish me with each splat of rain.

—

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Did y'all peep that character change?

And guys, if y'all keep saying I take a month to update—IM GOING TO CRY! It has only been 7 days! I get so sad when I'm proud of myself for something AND NO ONE NOTICES LMAO!

Oh and guys, if y'all want to be besties, you can add me on my personal instagram @ashmarie.w but shh don't tell anyone (I'm keeping this up for a day or two) It's a secret!

Anyways, this book is sadly coming to an end. I'm guessing there's only a few chapters left. By a few, I mean 2-4. Before I end it, I have a question;

Question: what do you think this book needs in order to be more perfect? (this will help me when I go in and edit and publish—be as brutal as necessary)