When Beatrix first tried to make contact with the Bloody Woman within her, she felt nothing. No response. No shift inside her chest. It was as if the other presence, the one that once burned through her veins, had vanished entirely.
Maybe she could force the power out herself, she thought. Draw it out through sheer will. But there was no guarantee it would work.
Then a thought struck her.
The last time the Bloody Woman's power had awakened, it wasn't because Beatrix called for it. It had happened when she was hurt, when her body was breaking, and her mind was on the edge of collapse. During that moment, her memories and thoughts had blurred, and something else had stepped forward.
What if the Bloody Woman wasn't separate at all? What if she existed inside Beatrix's subconscious, only emerging when Beatrix's conscious mind was forced aside?
That would mean the Bloody Woman only appeared when Beatrix herself couldn't act.
