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CH.1
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2024-10-29 19:42:56"Ah...Alex! Please be gentle! Oh, God!!"
A seductive, feminine moan shattered the silence, causing Serena's world to grind to a crashing halt.
She stood frozen, unable to process the tangled, passionate embrace unfolding before her very eyes.
It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on reality. All she could do was watch in numb shock as her entire life shattered into jagged shards around her.
She saw the rapturous expression on Alex's face, the way he held the other woman with such achingly familiar yet utterly foreign intimacy.
It felt like an out-of-body experience, like she was watching some horrible scene in a movie she couldn't turn off or fast-forward through.
All she wanted was to escape, to run away from this fresh hell, but her body simply refused to obey her mental commands.
"Oh, Alex! I can't imagine you this intimate with that loser," the woman gasped between breathy moans, her words mingling obscenely with the sounds of frantically writhing bodies and the creaking of the bed frame.
"Diana..." Alex grunted, his voice a low rumble of pleasure. "Leave Serena out of this for now! You're the one I love and want to spend my life with."
Those words detonated like a grenade at Serena's feet, the shrapnel of their impact shredding what little remained of her heart.
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she watched the man she loved wrapped up in another woman's arms, utterly oblivious to her presence.
She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing every ounce of her willpower on calming her ragged breaths and the tremors wracking her body. Slowly, through sheer force of will, she regained a tentative hold on her whirlwind of emotions.
That's when the final, devastating piece clicked into place.
Diana?
Was Alex really having an affair...with her supposed best friend? Her trusted confidante and sister in all but blood?
A fresh wave of nausea and dizzying vertigo slammed into Serena as the full, horrific reality crashed over her like a tsunami.
Her heart raced, her head spun, and she struggled just to remain upright as she processed this ultimate betrayal.
She couldn't believe that this was the same girl she had loved like family, the one person outside of Alex that she trusted above all others.
How could Diana do this to her? How could someone she held so dear violate that bond in such a cruel, unconscionable way?
At that moment, Serena simply didn't know how to react. She was numb, paralyzed by the all-consuming storm of hurt, anger, and disbelief raging within her.
Clap...clap...clap.
The mocking sound of Serena's slow, deliberate applause shattered the lurid tableau, finally alerting the oblivious lovers to her presence.
They froze in comically stunned poses, like erotic statues.
Alex snapped his head around to face her, disbelief and naked panic written across his features.
His expression was a sickening mixture of shock and like he'd just been caught red-handed in the most despicable of crimes. His face drained of color, his eyes widening in abject horror as his mouth worked uselessly.
How the hell was she here?
"Serena!" he finally managed to croak out. "It’s not what you think. I can explain!"
The flimsy lie was almost enough to break through Serena's numb haze and ignite her fury anew.
She could no longer contain her anger, her hurt, her disgust at this bald-faced hypocrisy.
She dashed forward, putting every ounce of her weight behind a vicious slap that caught Alex square across the cheek.
The sharp crack of impact echoed through the bedroom like a gunshot, the explosive sound shockingly loud in the stillness that followed. Alex stumbled backward, clutching his face in stunned agony, his eyes filled with a very different kind of pain now.
Serena could see the angry red welt already blooming across his skin, a visceral reminder of her fury and his ultimate betrayal.
She stood there, chest heaving with exertion and emotion, her palm still stinging from the force of the slap.
She couldn't believe what she had just done...what he had driven her to do with his reprehensible actions.
The tears she had been fighting so hard to hold back finally broke through in a torrent, cascading down her cheeks in an unstoppable stream.
"After everything we've been through?" she choked out, her voice trembling with the force of her hurt and anger. How could he do this to her, to them?
Serena turned her burning gaze to Diana then, unable to even look at Alex any longer. The other woman stared back, completely devoid of remorse or guilt. In fact, she looked...proud? Smug, even, as if she had won some grand prize rather than betraying her closest friend in the most vile way imaginable.
"And you..." Serena's words caught in her constricted throat as a fresh wave of anguish slammed into her. "Diana...how could you?"
"Serena, please stop. This isn't new anymore," Diana said calmly as if she didn't grasp the gravity of the situation. "Alex and I love each other. It's not my fault you were too blind to see it."
Serena laughed bitterly at the irony of it all. A whirlwind of thoughts and emotions raced through her head as she tried to process the magnitude of this betrayal by her husband and so-called best friend.
What kind of punishment could possibly fit such a heinous act?
She clenched her fists, trying to contain the fury boiling up from deep within.
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Only the monsters remained a seemingly endless horde that would continue to ravage and destroy until the entire world was little more than a barren, lifeless husk. Knox could not, would not, allow that to happen. Not after everything, not after the unfathomable sacrifices that had already been made in the pursuit of preventing such a future from coming to pass. Too much had been lost, too many lives extinguished in the fires of this onslaught. Darkness swirled around him and began coiling outwards to merge with the torrential downpour. The vortex rapidly expanded, growing in size and ferocity until it became an all-consuming maw ready to devour everything in its path. The earth itself seemed to tremble by the vortex of annihilation taking form, as if the very world were protesting the profane nature of the forces being brought to bear. The air itself seemed to warp and twist, reality buckling under the strain of the immense power being channeled. Each bolt of lightning tha
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Meredith drew on her newly regained powers and unleashed a torrent of energy at the beasts. The demons recoiled, shrieking in fury and anguish as magic seared their rotting flesh. The stench of burning meat filled the air, mingling with the miasma that clung to the creatures.Meredith maintained the onslaught, driving them back through the shattered doorway with relentless determination.Next, she sealed the room with an impenetrable barrier when the last of the abominations stumbled back into the hall, wailing in pain and wrath.She turned to face the trembling girl. "Stay here if you wish to live, child," Meredith instructed. "This madness needs to cease, and soon, before it swallows us all."Then she swept from the chamber and out into the chaos that had engulfed the estate's once-clean halls. The hallway ahead was a nightmare come true, with claw marks on the walls, bloody paintings, and the crushed bodies of fallen defenders strewn over the floor like discarded objects.Meredi
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"I'm the only woman alive now who can give you an heir, bear you children to carry on your bloodline..." Her words were a hushed whisper. "I am your rightful mate at long last. We were always meant to be together as one, you and I. Two halves of the same whole."She sniffled again as a fresh wave of tears spilled forth. "You should have accepted my request earlier, when I simply wanted to enjoy one night with my betrothed...to bask in the warmth of your embrace, as is my right as your—"Her words died on her lips when Knox suddenly closed the distance and wrapped his hand around her slender throat in a grip, wrenching her forward until her feet left the ground. Then he slammed her head back against the stone wall with brutal force to crack her skull. Sirona let out a pained, wheezing laugh as she stared up at him with wild, unfocused eyes. A thin trickle of crimson seeped from the corner of her mouth, tracing a macabre path down her chin."You...you wouldn't dare..." she choked out
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The huge double doors to the dungeon at one of Knox's estates slid open, revealing his towering figure. An oppressive air accompanied him, making it feel as if the very atmosphere held its breath in his presence. Dark tendrils like mist swirled around him, and his eyes that was always cold, blazed with a fury that made them appear even icier than usual. His mind was still reeling from the hateful words Serena had hurled at him in the car earlier, and in a moment of desperation, he had teleported himself here.Knox despised himself for losing control and slapping Serena in a moment of anger. He couldn’t forgive himself, especially when the thought crossed his mind that perhaps Sirona had found a way to bypass his restraint meant to keep her in check, and had gotten into Serena’s mind. More than half of him believed the venomous words Serena had spoken weren't hers but were instead Sirona’s doing. This belief drove him to the dungeon, determined to confirm his theory.His eyes lan
