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Dex

I opened my eyes feeling well rested for the first time since we came to Nocturne.

My dreams had been pleasant and filled with thoughts of Odessa.

Her smiling at me without restraint and a brand-new ring replacing that ugly one she wore now, marking her as mine.

We were outside the city laying in a field of wildflowers, and there was no war, no game, no death.

Just us. I knew if we stuck together, there’d be no tearing us apart.

That we could win this thing and get out of here.

Thinking of our future together felt like tempting fate. Something I knew better than to do, but I couldn’t help doing anyways.

Without a doubt in my soul, I knew that we could make each other happy.

I’d take her home and show her off to the world.

A bright light like Odessa was meant to be worshipped, not hidden away like something to be ashamed of.

From what I could gather, Odessa’s fiancé and family relied on her to obey them.

She wasn’t allowed to be herself or even decide what she wanted.

But she had wanted me. And that knowledge warmed me from the inside out.

The way we had fit so effortlessly together was unlike anything I’d ever known.

Even with our differences, I felt like we could still make this work once we were out of here.

If we could withstand the horrors that Nocturne had thrown at us, we could withstand anything.

I was certain that she would break things off with what’s his face, and then we would be free to do whatever we wanted.

My neck felt tight and my muscles sore, but I couldn’t hide the smile on my face, that was until I looked around and noticed Odessa wasn’t there. Panic clawed at my heart, and I leapt up from the ground.

“Odessa?” I called out, eyes wild and heart cracking in two.

Maybe something happened. Maybe she went to check out a noise and didn’t want to wake me. I pulled at my hair trying to figure out where she went. And there, in the soot that lined the ground, were two distinct footprints that belonged to the girl that had burrowed deep into my soul.

She wasn’t taken.

She’d walked away and taken the last scrap of humanity I had left in me, with her.

My hands slowly clenched into fists as the rage inside me turned into an inferno greater than the one that had burned through these tunnels.

After all I had done, she chose to leave.

I protected her when I didn’t have to. I’d killed for her.

Granted I planned to kill anyways, but I’d did so with her safety in mind.

I’d kept her secret when I could have turned her in for carrying a weapon.

And she just walked away with my pack? Like I meant nothing to her?

I cracked my neck and my knuckles, rolling my shoulders before I stalked down the tunnel Odessa had disappeared into. The fucking heart. The irony wasn’t lost on me that she had taken off down that particular tunnel. Taking my heart with her.

It was dark and smelt of mold and fire, but there were dimly lit sconces on the wall that were alight with flickering flames. The shadows danced across the floor, illuminating each step her boots had left behind. Each one like a bullet to my soul.

I could tell by the pattern of her walk it was deliberately done and not done out of panic or fear of being chased. The steps were even and unhurried. I knew because I’d spent my fair share tracking in another life. I was an expert hunter, and Odessa had just become my prey.