© Aline Dantas, 2025. All rights reserved.
Original work from *Ascendentes* universe.
Do not repost, translate, or redistribute without explicit permission.
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— ...what the fuck.
Her breathing was still ragged; she couldn't tell if it was the adrenaline, the fear, or from running like a madwoman until she finally found a spot far enough away to watch, with some composure, the damage she'd caused.
Dot pressed her right hand to her hip, forcing her breath to slow. She felt a ridiculous fear when she glanced at her left arm.
Part of her coat was gone. Slowly her right hand wrapped around her left arm in a vain attempt to hold the sensations in, but they didn't ease. If anything, the warmth in the freshly acquired tattoo prickled on her skin like something alive.
For the first time in years Dot felt real, gutting fear. She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them and returned her gaze to the chaos she'd just escaped.
The building had stopped exploding; the flames were being contained. The worst appeared to be over. Dot had survived, though she now stood with ripped jeans, a scraped knee and a few cuts on her leg. Her right arm was miraculously intact. The left one... the surprise it brought certainly hadn't been part of the plan.
— It was supposed to be just a pickup, damn it... she muttered to herself.
None of it made sense. The visions, the jumbled scenes.
Something slid into her eye; she swiped at it with the tips of her fingers and regretted it as the sting began: blood. She needed to get out of there. Her mind was racing, processing at a furious speed: where she was, where to go, what had happened it.
Worse: her contract had been corrupted.
The first drops of night rain hit her face. She closed her eyes and sighed.
She was alive. For now.
And she'd failed miserably at her mission.
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