Ash wheeled us up the open pathway. Gently, slowly, first… allowing for just a few more moments of reprieve, a few more moments to prepare. The outside funneled into the tunnel the unrelenting sound of downpour and the crackle of thunder stronger than ever.

Abandon all hope ye who enters here.

The Blightfall felt like teardrops of despair falling from the decaying heavens. Usually, even the greyest of clouds had their silver lining, a faint glimmer of optimism in an ocean so wrought with bleakness.

My time with the Matriarchs had gotten me scrounging so desperately for one, I usually would be able to find a faint trace of it even if I was, after all, only grasping at straws.

I'll be fine, Ria was here. Things will work out, we'll just bargain with Amelia. We can end this here, my blood will solve everything.

It was amazing how many lights I could see at the end of so many dark tunnels. But now there was just darkness, no silver lining - throughout the length of this dark tunnel there was only rain, and we were steadily approaching its end.

And still there was no light.

"I'll be increasing the speed now," Ash warned me.

Even if I could, or wanted to right then, I wouldn't be able to find the words to respond to that… because all I could think about was the worst, and if the worst does happen, it's strange to think that my last words, the last things I'd give voice to wouldn't even be my own.

A part of me wished to just circle back and stay whirring on idle in the corner of the parking lot. The rest of me, however, simply reached for the lever protruding out the side of the steering wheel and flicked on the windshield wipers

If there was no light… we'll just have to make our own.

Steady, ready, catching speed, Ash picked up the pace. Within moments, within seconds, we'll reach… reaching…

We reached.

Immediately already the searing urge had begun to resurface, together, a merciless miasma of pouring red, relentlessly battering against the windshield - close, so close to a scream, a shout - I resisted, barely, my teeth clamping the bottom of my lips so forcefully, breaking the skin, the taste of blood becoming ever more prevalent on the tip of my tongue.

Ash swerved - the first turn drifting us sideways onto the road, with endless thick puddles of crimson coating the asphalt. Faster, more pressure on the pedal had a never-ending miasma of hazy red passing us by in hurry.

This all, and only in a span of a few brief seconds… and already I could bear with the pain no longer. It seized my body again, every muscle stiff, frozen in place… it burrowed within me, that invisible knife twisting and turning, stabbing, slicing… trying to force my lips apart.

But I wasn't going to let it part. Not this time. I felt a warmness trickle down my chin, felt the same warmth dribbling droplets to my chest. I didn't care how many droplets had to be spilled… my voice wasn't a toy, so go fuck yourself, you stupid rain.

The city streets were wider and more expansive than any parking lot out there. Ash could turn too early, too late, make a brief lapse in judgment, and the price to pay for it would have been lenient.

It would have been… had the road been only deserted today.

We weren't the only ones did the drastic change in weather take in by surprise. The outside was a murky red onslaught of utter chaos and disarray - and we got caught in the middle of it all.

Anarchy was the only way to describe it. The ceaseless horning of rushing cars, the booming crashes of those that lost control. Police sirens echoing in the distance.

All enshrouded within a dense fog of blood.

The veering headlights in the distance, frenzied desperate screams from those unfortunate few unable to find shelter in time would become our only fleeting warning to swerve out of the way to avoid collision with any oncoming vehicles zig-zagging out of control, to narrowly miss the running strays blinded by their own panic.

For every turn and swerve made so abruptly, the pain surging through me intensified by the hundreds. Tears again, cascading, unable to control, mixing with the blood that continued to spill.

Dying but without death. Pain but without release. Over and over again once again.

There wasn't even chance of a reprieve, not a sound, not of sight - blaring horns, crackling thunder, pelting raindrops - and the endless red horizon beyond the windshield, it pained me to simply take a glance at it.

But I couldn't just look away. I had to see, had to know, through every turn, every scream, every screech of wheels, when it was all going to be finally over.

That light at the end of the tunnel.

It had to be there, somewhere… past the landmarks whizzing us by, past the shopping complex, the park, the grocery store, alleyway where we first met, through the roads growing ever more familiar… the far was getting near, the long was turning short…

"Just a bit more… only a bit more," Ash muttered, speaking for us both. "We're almost there."

Almost there. After so many close calls, near brushes with disaster. We were almost there.

So why didn't it feel like it?

The next turn, the turn that'll set us to the outskirts of the city, it felt different… the twist she made for it, it wasn't like the rest before… what was it - a turn too tight? A brake too fast?

There it was again in her widened eyes - horror and shock, she tried to remedy it, a quick spin the opposite way but the car wasn't responding to her anymore.

Ash was doing her best, everything she could to regain control of the vehicle. As the wheels skidded, screeching, traction slipping away in the growing puddles of red, her grip was still firm, her gaze was still ready, and her resolve still stood strong.

But sometimes, you know… you just get the sometimes.

The inevitable, the imminent happened. We crashed.

So many happenings in the blink of an eye, I missed most of them. All I saw was a streetlight to the front of us, all I heard was the deafening crunch of shattered glass and the shrill sound of crumpled metal, and all I felt then… was the cold damp air funneling through my open lips.

I couldn't close them.

"Master, I…" Ash's voice in the sudden stillness. I don't think she noticed yet. "I'm sorry, I… I couldn't - But we're almost there! Just a little longer. Please just bear with it a little longer. I promise I'll - "

"You won't save him!" The blood kept flowing, the tears kept streaming, and my voice kept speaking. "You couldn't save us! You couldn't save anyone!"

My neck slumped sideways, my unwilling gaze flopping to Ash's side, and there I could plainly see - a mortified expression, her eyes quivering, shimmering in anguish… and all I could do was only watch.

"Where's Lenora, Eshwlyn?" I spoke again, hearing for the first time, a bitter contempt sounding beyond the demented screams. "Where is she?!"