SELENA'S POV
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It started with a feeling.
Not fear. Not pain.
Hunger.
Not the kind food could fix.
The kind that burned behind my ribs. That made my teeth ache. That made the light hurt.
I locked myself in my room.
Zack begged to stay. I sent him away.
He doesn't need to see me like this.
---
The mark on my back is glowing — brighter than ever. It pulses like a heartbeat that isn't mine.
And then…
> I scream.
Not a human scream.
It's deeper. Sharper. It cracks the walls. Shatters the lamp. Makes the mirror explode into dust.
I fall to my knees.
My fingers bleed — no, claws.
My skin splits — no, wings.
The mark pulses again. I can hear something whispering in my head:
> "Awaken, Zeria."
---
MOM'S VOICE (from outside):
> "Selena?! Open this door right now—what's going on?!"
> "Don't come in!" I cry.
> "Selena, open it—"
The door bursts open.
I barely have time to turn.
I see them — my parents.
My mom's eyes wide with shock. My dad reaching for something — his phone, maybe.
> "What the—"
They never finish their sentence.
Because the thing inside me lashes out — not to kill, but to protect.
It explodes from me — dark, fiery, violent energy.
They both fly backward. Slam into the walls.
The lights flicker. The air thickens. My ears ring with silence.
When I crawl forward…
They aren't moving.
> "No…"
I shake them. I beg. I scream.
But I already know.
> I killed them.
---
I crawl to the hallway, covered in blood, breathing like I'm dying.
That's when Zack arrives — too late to stop it.
He sees me.
Sees them.
And he doesn't say a word.
He just kneels, wraps his arms around me, and lets me sob into his chest.
> "It's not your fault," he whispers.
But I can feel it in my bones.
> It Was.
---
Want to follow up with Ravyn's reaction in Chapter 25, or Amara's next betrayal move?
UNKNOWN POV (Watcher)
From the street below, in the silence after the scream…
Someone watches the smoke curl from the windows.
She stands under the streetlight — arms crossed, heart pounding, breath shaky.
Amara.
She doesn't run.
She doesn't scream.
She just stares up at the house that used to be her home…
And wonders what Selena has become.
Her knuckles whiten around the notebook in her hand — the one she found in the attic.
The one with bloodstained pages and symbols too old for this world.
At the very bottom… one name was scratched in red:
> Klade.
She whispers it now like a secret prayer.
> "If she's something…
Then maybe I can be something too."
She turns, melts into the night.
She isn't ready to say his name out loud.
Not yet.
But she will be.
Very soon.
---
💬 Endnote :
> Something inside Selena just woke up.
And something inside Amara is starting to....
— Mysterious_frnd🖤