I N T E R N A L
F I R E
Yevgeniy had left her there, quietly sipping her tea as the pains came creeping back. Her head thudded mercilessly and her chest burned with a hellish pain as her heart seemed on the verge of giving out. The young Qadir pushed herself slowly up to stand, clutching her wooden teacup close to her chest in aching fingers as she staggered off from her spot beside the blazing fire outside the Emporium. The seventeen-year-old tripped through the slums, dragging herself through it until she reached the old asylum inside a cruelly ironic district- the Vampire District.
Her head reeled as she lurched through the dark halls of the asylum, her unsteady footsteps echoing through the otherwise quiet air of the dusty structure. She rounded a corner and suddenly felt another sharp stab-like pain in her chest and was sent flailing forward, grabbing onto the doorknob of her room- one she'd managed to snatch the key of and keep, thankful for the lack of rent on old asylum rooms.
She stumbled forward into the dim torchlight of her room, slamming the door back close unintentionally as she fell back into it, gasping for breath that didn't come. Her nails scratched at her chest as she wheezed for air and tumbled forward after a few steps, crumbling onto the creaking floor of her room like a ragdoll. An empty wail emitted from the young woman as she clawed at the iron collar she'd worn since she was the age of eight.
Azra finally folded to the feeling of death itself that pressed on her very soul, crawling like a child across the floor until she reached the ragged blankets in the corner of the den, collapsing onto them with a frail sob. Her eyes squeezed closed as she seemed to fracture internally- something breaking under the pressure of such intense pain. Her wrist throbbed from where the Sanguine's fangs had dug into her skin.
Flashes of her life went by and she gave another quiet whimper of pain. She saw the deserts of Farah'deen, as scorching hot as the fever that covered her. Her twin, the beautiful Gul, dancing along the path they traveled beside one another, her sandaled feet kicking up sand like a mule. Laughter burned in her memories, but she didn't taste the happiness of those memories, only the bone-dry sand under their feet.
The forum of the marketplace appeared again, jeering at Gul's death while her mother's haunting screams stabbed pain further into her heart.
Azra!
Azra!
Azra, my baby!
Her mother's wails whirled like a dust devil past her, lashing her viciously as the iron collar around her throat seemed to tighten. The flames of her owners' home licked across her skin, but she disregarded the screeching of the scorched soul that belonged to the man that bought her like cattle. The ghosts of the man's children, burned alongside him, left searing kisses on her cheeks as they whispered her sins. Her feet burned from the unfriendly sand under her as she flew across the desert winds, flying away from her burning sins that sat in her chest and scalded her heart.
The Qadir's breath stilled as she reached Regalia in her memories, reaching her moments of now. A second, a moment, a minute passed in silence. Not even the dust rustled with a breath from the suddenly stilled girl.
Then, her eyes snapped open in the dawn light and she scratched her nails across the wood of her creaking floor as she pulled herself to her feet. Her crimson eyes glittering in the dusty sunlight that crept into her asylum room.
T A G S
@sacricolist @DolittleGuy @Caelamus
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