06. Am I In The Afterlife Yet?

ERIN

Where was I?

I could not tell. But I could feel myself awake–ish, however I could not feel any form of physicality in me. I could not feel my arms or legs or head – they were not present and I felt invisible.

At this point, it was like I only existed on a thin line of consciousness, powered to be somehow kept 'alive' by a force I couldn't quite understand right now.

Is this the afterlife?

Have I been delivered to the cold arms of death?

But a dead person shouldn't be able to think, how can I do so then?

I phantomed the answer to those questions and couldn't find a befitting response, leaving me very confused. If I was really dead, would I be able to think these thoughts?

Would I also be able to hear the faint sounds of a voice in the distance?

I paused my thoughts, listening closer to reason out the sound; who or what was making it, why it was making it and where it was coming from. And then after a quick moment, the sound became more audible and my eyes instantly widened.

They were the agonizing tears of a baby.

I heard it, the sound of pain was scarily evident in its outcry, and its voice sounded even less mature than a newborn's. It was oddly underdeveloped, yet seemed to be subjected to a type of excruciating and serious pain.

The distress in its wailing was loud and filled up all my senses. Where exactly was this baby? And what was it doing in MY afterlife?

And then the realization hit me like a ton of bricks – could that be my baby?

It may be; the child was crying as though someone was literally gutting it and yanking out its tiny, little organs piece by piece.

That was my child. Magnus' child. Our baby that he killed.

And at the brink of that realization, I felt physicality being restored and a body to house my thin consciousness.

Then, I looked down, immediately gasping in sheer horror as my eyes took in the terrifying image before them – my own image!

My purple ball gown was torn from my chest downward, exposing my blood–stained skin. The near–entirety of the fabric was stained with a crimson shade of my own blood. More blood was oozing heavily from the fresh, mutilated wound slashed on my stomach.

Magnus' stab wound was there, but only wider – as though something from inside me had crawled its way out of my belly, like literally bursting through my skin.

The skin was ripped open, exposing the raw interior and organs that laid within. It was practically mangled, its tissues shredded like tattered remnants of cloth.

My brows furrowed in confusion as I wondered the logic behind this disgusting injury, but I figured the crying, pre–mature baby had somehow found its way out of me and tore me open.

It was the afterlife, so I felt no pain despite the magnitude of the laceration on my stomach.

But out of sheer curiosity, my hands reached for the ruptured stomach, shaking in anxiety and apprehension. I felt around the shredded edges of the injury with fidgety fingers and shut my eyes, hoping to feel pain.

But I felt nothing.

The sound of the crying baby had suddenly stopped and I retracted my hand away from my stomach quickly, bringing it to my face and stared at my blood stained hands.

"Magnus. Look what you've done." Tears welled up in my eyes as my last moments replayed in my head, reliving how I was brutally killed by the love of my life. How he had paid no mind to the fact that I was carrying his child and killed me in cold blood.

I remembered Anexa's betrayal, the proud smirk on her face and how her features were void of remourse. How Magnus had also rejected me, severing our mate bond.

The gory image of him stabbing my parents, and the soul–wrenching aftermath of their bodies laying in their own pool of blood. All because of their immense thirst for power.

I took my eyes away from my palms and I arched my brows, nearly stumbling on my own feet out of shock as I found out that I was no longer in the dark and empathy realm of my consciousness.

I was in the mate–choosing ball, again.

What?

I looked down at myself, the bloody hole was still there but I was somehow back at the ball, dead – I presume.

My thoughts were confirmed when people walked past me, chit-chatting away and not noticing the gory ghost that stood before them. I really was dead.

But why was I here?

I could not hold on to that thought for long because just then, I heard the loud shattering of glass and I immediately swung around towards the direction.

Lo and behold, I saw that wolves had broken through the windows and doors and were trooping into the hall.

My eyebrows raised as my hands immediately clasped over my mouth upon the recognition of those wolves. Those were Magnus' warrior wolves!

The whole room erupted in panicked screams and yells as everyone started to frenzy about, some scurrying to safety while some others tried to shift into their wolf form and challenge the attackers.

However, it proved impossible as they seemed to be unable to shift.

The horror on their faces when they realized they couldn't bring out their wolves was immense. And the attackers wasted no time before ruthlessly going on to murder whoever was in sight.

I felt a sudden ringing upon my chest and I looked down to see that god-damned amulet, still around my neck.

"Shit." I gave a deep frown as I stared at the still darkened necklace, and was about to reach for it and try yanking it out again.

But then, I was distracted by the incoming snapping of claws hitting the ground as a wolf began charging at me.

It was moving incredibly fast and was already too close for me to duck away, so out of reflex, I shielded my face and shut my eyes, expecting the worst – despite being a ghost.

I seemed to have completely forgotten that I couldn't be harmed. The wolf had simply ran right through me.

I opened one eye first to peek, seeing dead bodies littered around and laying in their own pools of blood.

I heard the pained cries of dying humans filled the air, the thick, metallic smell of blood assaulting my nostrils, and the menacing growls of the angry wolves rang across the hall.

By the time I opened the other eye, I saw that the wolves had stopped attacking and were already leaving the hall.

They were advancing to the back in their many numbers, literally tearing down a wall to go further into the building. Where were they going to?

I stood there, my brows furrowed as I watched the fleeting herd of wolves and wondered what they were up to.

Then, like lightning striking, my eyes widened with sudden realization. They darted, connecting the dots as clarity washed over me, replacing confusion with surprise and fear.

They were following the route I took that led me to the rooftop, where Alpha Axel was. Oh shit! They're here to kill him, just as Magnus had said.

Was this why I was still somewhat alive and brought back here? Was the moon–goddess tasking me to rescue Axel? A second–chance, maybe?

But how on earth would I be able to do that? How can I save Axel?