Chapter 96 Goodbye Old Friend

*ANA*

“It’s time,” Mykhol leans down to meet me. I see him put on a sad smile as if he understands.

But I don’t think he can. I don’t think any of them will. All they see is a human who was caught.

They don’t know her like I do.

They won’t miss her laugh or her smiles or her- I have to stop myself there before I turn sick. A new wave of pain runs up my chest, beating hard into my heart.

I flinch but breathe. I quickly blink back the hot tears.

No, I won’t cry. I refuse to.

It’s the one thing I can still manage on my own today. I swallow before daring my eyes to look ahead to see the most difficult thing.

Uncle Charles was right when he said it would take a day to build. The scaffold looms over the courtyard with a sinister presence. Its shadow stretches out like a skeleton's hand, grasping for its next victim.

I hate it. I immediately want to strike it down as it is. I hope never to see it again. But that’s only half of it.

It’s seeing the person on top that cuts me the deepest.

As