The Voidbreak Crisis

5. Run

Matilda felt ill, a strange, twisting feeling filled her gut. She remembered awakening in that vault, locked in a powerful cage. But there was something else, something before that. She stumbled along, holding her stomach. She'd tried to find Reaper, but he was nowhere to be found. She felt pursued by something, something powerful, something furious. She could feel it's cold breath on her back when she slept. She felt strong, steel claws on her arms when she awoke, but there was nothing there. She felt unsafe, she felt terrified. She didn't know what it was, or why she didn't remember what had killed her, but she felt a strange sense of dread that had only increased since she left that village. It had been a year now, and it was only growing. She had to get out of here. She felt the power getting ever closer, and saw a strange figure standing on the hill far to the south. She felt a wave of impossibly powerful psychic energy wash over her, and saw the figure rush down the hill, it's silver blade reflecting the setting sun briefly.

"Who are you?" She whispered, dashing out of her cave.

"You remember me, don't you, Matilda? Has it really been that long?" A strong, male voice echoed through the air around her. It was him, that man from the village. But why did she feel such dread? He had resisted her psychic assault, which scared her, but how was he tracking her? She hadn't left a trail of any sort. She felt her stomach lurch, and she threw up on the grassy hill; a sickly, black pool. She was unwell, she needed to run. She fled for weeks, far to the south, until she was lost in the Caerinian desert. There was something inside her. Something... alive. She felt weaker with each passing day, and felt a powerful presence inside of her womb. She was cursed, she was sure of it. She needed out, she needed a respite from this chase. She needed to leave this world. She summoned all of her power and created an enourmos orb of black energy in her hands. She hurled it forwards, where it collapsed into a pinpoint of energy, that rapidly expanded, ripping open a hole in the void, as bolts of energy fired out, blasting the sand around her into glass and creating a powerful sandstorm. She lept through as it slammed shut behind her, and was in the burning abyss for a split second, but that was long enough for her to see someone reaching out to her.

"NO!!" She screamed, as the memories came flooding back in to her mind at the sight of that armored claw. She fell out of the void, far above a dense pine forest, and fell through their boughs, richocheting off of the branches and snapping them with her back. She hit the forest floor with an echoing boom that shook snow off of the highest branches. A second thunderclap signaled the void snapping shut behind her. She began to weep as she crawled away, throwing up again as she struggled to get to her feet. She knew why she felt ill, she knew how she had been captured. Worse still, she remembered what had killed her, and how.

"I wa-" The words caught in her throat as she threw up again. She had been violated, attacked, in a horrific way.

"How could he!?" She screamed at the sky, making the birds drop from the branches, as their hearts stopped. She crawled slowly into a small cave and wept, curled into a fetal position, as her nightmares forced her to relive that night over and over. His impossible power, his adamantine grip, and worse, his insane eyes floated around her head as she screamed in her sleep. She had never been overpowered like that, and had never once been invaded against her will, but she wasn't strong enough. And he took what he wanted from her. For seven days and nights, he took from her. Seven days and nights of unending torture. Even as the sun burned her skin, he continued. Even as she screamed in pain and disgust, he continued. She jolted awake as her gut jerked again, and she rolled over to vomit again. She pressed her hand against her stomach, and felt a faint heartbeat deep inside of her. It sent shivers up her spine, and she threw up again. What was she going to do?

For two years, she lay alone in that forest, in misery and horror, feeling the creature inside of her grow with each passing day, until one night, in the middle of summer, she felt a horrific pain deep inside of her, and felt her muscles contract as her stomach lurched. She screamed, making the creatures of the forest drop dead instantly. For two months, she screamed in pain, until she was vomiting blood daily. Finally, in the ending days of autumn, she felt something leave her. She awoke the next day, her pain almost gone, and heard something screaming. She looked down near her legs to behold a small, naked child, that pulsed with a strange power. But she did not feel her instincts screaming at her to kill it, like they normally did. Instead, she felt nothing. Her instincts were silent, the ceaseless chanting in her mind was gone. But the child continued to scream. She gathered it up in her arms in shock, and gathered her torn garments around it to keep it warm. It was a baby girl. She pressed it against her breasts, and as it began suckling, she felt a hole inside of her open up. She felt nothing for this creature. Yet she held it. She had seen mortal mothers with their children, and had seen how they loved them, and what they did for them. But she felt nothing for this being she had created. She had a child. And she was terrified.