Blood.
Lots of it splattered across the grimy floor as Lydia Collins doubled over, her body convulsing.
The half-eaten doughnut slipped from her trembling fingers, landing with a wet thud beside the growing puddle of her bloody vomit.
"A...Amanda, something is wrong with me..." She gasped, reaching out desperately toward her friend.
Amanda didn't move or flinch from the plastic chair she sat on, just opposite the bed where Lydia was.
She sat perfectly still, watching Lydia writhe in agony with the detached interest of someone observing a bug slowly dying under a magnifying glass.
"Amanda? Why... are you not helping me..." Lydia's voice cracked as another wave of nausea hit her. More blood streamed from her mouth down to her jaw.
A slow, satisfied smile spread across Amanda's face like oil across water.
"Because, sweetie, this is exactly what's supposed to happen." She said, standing with deliberate leisure, brushing off invisible dust from her clean jeans.
Her words hit Lydia like a physical blow and she furrowed her brows in confusion.
"The poison is working beautifully." Amanda stated, her voice bright and conversational, as if she were discussing the great weather.
"Faster than I expected, actually. Lucien said it would take at least an hour, but look at you, already bleeding out like a stuck pig."
"Poison? Lucien?" The name felt like broken glass scraping against Lydia's throat.
That was her online boyfriend. The man who'd sent her love messages every morning for a whole year. The one who'd promised to marry her, to finally give her the love she'd been denied her entire life.
"What does Lucien have to do with..." Lydia managed to ask despite the harsh bites in her stomach.
"Everything, you pathetic fool." Amanda's mask of friendship didn't just slip; it shattered completely, revealing something cold and vicious underneath.
"Did you honestly think someone like him could love something like you? Look at yourself, Lydia. Really look."
Lydia tried to focus through the haze of pain, but her reflection in the cracked mirror across her small room showed her the truth she'd tried so hard to ignore.
Forty years old but looking eighty. Obese from years of eating nothing but cheap junk food, her hair thin and greasy. Clothes that hadn't been properly cleaned in months.
"You were nothing but a walking bank account. A lonely, desperate woman so starved for affection that she'd give away every penny for the illusion of love." Amanda continued, examining her manicured nails with bored interest.
The room spun around Lydia as the truth crashed over her like ice water.
One year of sweet messages; 'Good morning, beautiful' and 'I can't wait to hold you in my arms.' One year of carefully crafted lies designed to drain her of everything she'd worked for since she was fifteen years old.
"We took everything, every penny you scraped together working three jobs, sleeping four hours a night, eating garbage so you could save money for your precious future together." Amanda was audacious with her confession. No remorse, no guilt.
"Just so you could find love... God, how pathetic you were!" She added, scrunching up her nose in disgust.
"Even your own mother didn't want you. Raised in foster care, aged out of the system with nothing but a sixth-grade education and a body nobody could ever love. Who would want you? Girl, even the men at your cleaning jobs wouldn't touch you if you paid them." Amanda's words cut deeper than the poison burning through Lydia's organs.
Tears streamed down her cheeks, mixing with blood on her jaw. Each word was designed to destroy not just her body, but her soul.
Her stomach lurched, but there was nothing left to vomit except more blood.
"The hilarious part is how grateful you were. 'Thank you for loving me,' you'd say. 'I never thought anyone could want me.' It was almost too easy." Amanda continued, shaking her head with fake pity.
Lydia tried to speak, but only a wet choking sound emerged.Through the agony, rage began to build in her chest.
She'd trusted this woman, had seen her as the first real friend she'd ever had for two years. She had shared her deepest fears, her childhood trauma, her desperate longing for someone to see value in her.
However, another sharp bite in her stomach reminded her she didn't have time to be nursing rage now, but rather find ways to stay alive.
"Please... I won't tell anyone. Just call... an ambulance." She managed to stutter in a whisper.
Amanda laughed at that.
"You wouldn't be able to, because you're dying soon. But don't worry. Lucien and I will put your money to good use. We're thinking of starting a family. Your sacrifice will give us the life you always dreamed of having." Amanda told her and began walking toward the door, purposely sashaying her hips as if to prove a point.
She paused at the door, looking back one final time with a contented smile.
"Goodbye, Lydia. Thank you for being so wonderfully, predictably stupid."
The door slammed shut with finality, the lock clicking into place from the outside.
Lydia collapsed completely, her cheek pressed against the cold, filthy floor. The walls seemed to close in as her vision darkened at the edges.
Forty years.
Forty years of hoping that someday, someone would see past her appearance, her poverty, her awkwardness. Forty years of believing that if she just saved enough money, worked hard enough, sacrificed enough, she could buy herself a different life.
And this was how it ended.
But as her consciousness began to fade, something else burned through the despair, a promise she made to herself, to whatever force in the universe might be listening.
If there was a God, if there was any justice anywhere, she would find them again. She would make them pay for what they'd stolen from her. Not just the money; her hope, her trust, her chance at happiness.
Her eyes closed as her heart gave one final, stuttering beat.
Everything went black.
~~~~~~~~~~
For what felt like eternity, Lydia's soul wandered in unconsciousness.
Darkness. Nothingness. Just endless void.
Then suddenly, she could make out some screaming, metal twisting, glass shattering...
Pain exploded through her consciousness like lightning, dragging her back from the void. But this was different; sharp and immediate instead of the slow burn of poison.
Her body felt wrong, too light, too flexible, as if she'd been poured into a different container.
Rain droplets hit her face as she lay sprawled across wet asphalt, surrounded by the twisted remains of what had been an expensive sports car.
Her eyes opened slowly and through her blurred vision, she could make out two figures locked in violent combat just a few feet away from where she lay.
"This is afterlife, right?" She wondered inwardly. She was certain she had died.
The two figures moved with inhuman speed and strength, their bodies colliding with sounds like thunder. One sent the other crashing into a nearby streetlight, bending the metal pole like it was made of paper.
The taller one; devastatingly handsome in a way that seemed almost artificial, wore an expensive suit that somehow remained pristine despite the violence.
When he moved, it was with fluid grace that spoke of predatory power barely contained. His opponent was broader, more casual in dress, but raw energy seemed to ripple beneath his skin like barely contained wildfire.
"You have no claim here!" The suited man snarled, his voice carrying an authority that made the air itself vibrate.
"She's mine to claim! I felt the pull the moment I caught her scent!" The other roared back with a deep animalistic growl.
They had each other by the throat now, fingers that looked more like claws digging into flesh that should have been torn but somehow remained unmarked.
Their eyes blazed with inhuman fire; one set burning gold, the other a savage amber.
Lydia tried to make sense of what she was seeing, but her thoughts felt scattered, foreign.
She remembered dying, Amanda's cruel laughter and the taste of blood. But now she lay in the wreckage of a car she'd never seen before, in clothes that weren't hers, with skin that felt too smooth, too young.
A soft whimper escaped her lips, barely audible over the sound of the rain and the ongoing battle yet these men heard the sound.
Both creatures froze instantly. Their heads snapped toward her with predatory focus, their violent struggle forgotten. The silence that followed was more terrifying than their fighting had been.
Then they both started running toward her.
"Oh no, did I land in hell? Am I going to get consumed by these monsters in death after suffering so much in life?" Terror flooded Lydia's system as these inhuman beings approached with supernatural speed.
She tried to scream, tried to scramble away, but her body wouldn't obey. Her limbs felt like they were made of lead, and when she opened her mouth, only a strangled whisper emerged.
"No... This is..."