Alpha [Epsilon #3] {ON-HOLD}

|10| Hallucinate

(v.) to perceive something that does not exist

"Stupid girl," I spat. I tossed the bloodied surgical knife back onto the silver tray. It clattered to a halt amid the other equipment, and I braced my hands against the marble countertop, glaring at the smattering of blood it left in its wake.

It had been stupid of me to try take someone else under my wing – a weakling at that. She didn't have the guts to do my work. She didn't even have the guts to observe.

Alia was a lost cause. She was oblivious, gullible, and naïve, and as a result she stuck out like a sore thumb. Even when I'd opened the door to find her standing in the middle of the hallway, she looked out of place. She was simply one of those people who didn't belong in this world, and it wasn't my fault that she refused to try and fit in.

"Her loss, right, Southerner?" I kept my eyes glued to the tray of devices. I opted for the largest blade – something akin to a butcher's knife before snatching it up. "Now only one of us gets to have fun."

At that moment, I glanced up in the mirror to look at him, but what I saw there coated my entire world in ice.

My heart started to beat impossibly hard, and my head started to spin. At first, I didn't believe what I was seeing. I mean, I didn't want to believe what I was seeing... despite the glaring similarities that matched my painfully raw memories.

Her long, golden locks pooled around the armrests of the chair. Her skin – just as pale as I remembered – held that same rosy undertone, setting her alight with that gentle glow she always had. And those eyes, those emerald-green eyes... they stared at me. They stared at me in the mirror.

They pleaded with me.

I whipped around in an instant, unable to breathe, unable to think. It didn't make sense. Raina was dead. Raina was dead, so what was she doing here, strapped to the chair my prisoner had just sat in seconds ago? Blood leaking out the same flesh wound I'd just carved moments ago?

"Raina?" I whispered, my voice so terribly small.

She gazed back at me. She made no move, no sound. Her beautiful face held no expression, with her bow-like lips serene and her jaw completely relaxed. The only thing that stood out were her beautiful, emerald eyes. They looked scared, petrified, as though pleading with me. But for what?

A choked sound escaped me. My hands shook. No, this wasn't really her. This wasn't—

Suddenly, her body locked up. I watched on in horror as her limbs twisted at the joints, slow as though someone were winding a weave. Blood leaked as the skin on her arms and legs tore under the strain of the torsion. As her neck snapped back, a horrifying crack sounded, and a whimper left my throat. "AZURE!" Raina screamed, the sound rattling my very soul. Little red dots formed along her throat, almost in the formation of a bite, slowly expanding into puncture wounds. "AZUREEE!" She screeched again as the punctures started to bleed. Soon, her entire throat was covered in blood.