Marty says, ‘Bye Laura.’

Demeter's descent was rapid and unbraked. A moment later, sprawled on the floor was a wrangled mass of white hair and moistureless skin. She was motionless, her widened eyes unmoving and her lips permanently fixed in an "O". She was dead. We'd won. One by one, the langsuirs faded, leaving nothing behind. Kiki, who bled through her nose, flew up to me.

    "You did good." She said.

I wanted to believe her, but after everything the night had thrown at us, it felt too good to be true. And it was. Soon enough, the arena trembled in the worst earthquake of the night. This tossed me from side to side, and I almost slid off the platform. Kiki was my savior, for she swiftly clutched my wrists and pulled me into the air. We swooped down to the others.

Claudine was in a panic, her pupils dilated as the earth shook her. "The void is unstable again. We have to get out of here. Now!"

On hearing her analysis, my heart sank, remembering how long it had taken us to come upon the arena. Claudine might have omitted the bit, but it would be even more difficult to locate the void's exit.

    "Claudine... grab Laura! Kiki, you get Demeter!" Fabian barked, after which he stretched forth an arm, rotating it fervently.

Despite the situation, Kiki still had it in her to whine. "Why do I get the corpse?"

No one replied, because everyone else was more focused on the gateway Fabian had just created. He'd achieved it far faster than the last time, but I wasn't given the opportunity to be fascinated, for he marched to me, his intense gaze pinned on me. He then scooped me into his arms and together, we jumped through the open circle held in space.

The impact of hitting a hard surface was cushioned by Fabian, as I lay on his body, the side of my face on his chest. After us, there were two more thuds, signifying the rest had made it out as well. Judging from the tarred road and the paved footpath, we were in Maile. We'd made it. Hearing a low blip, I turned to it. In the area Demeter's house had once occupied, there was nothing. Her home had disappeared into thin air, taking the portal to the void with it.

In that instant, I sensed my muscles ease, relief creeping in. The urge to remain like this, resting on Fabian's chest, was extreme, but as I spotted Laura's body twitching, I forgot it all. Laura was waking. I'd been exhausted a moment ago, but it was also forgotten, as I slithered and crawled to her. She slowly sat up, using the back of her hand to rub her eyes. I was the first person she saw when she finally opened them. On taking a look around, they widened.

     "Where—How?" Though broken, her words effectively conveyed her confusion. There was no easy way to answer her question, however.

    "You kinda went gaga." Sadly, that was the best I could come up with. Of course, there was much more to what had occurred after she'd entered her trance, but I conveniently left them out. If Laura couldn't remember she had attempted to murder several people, and had succeeded in some cases, then I wouldn't be reminding her.  

    "Oh." Despite only getting minimum details, her face fell.

Desperate to ensure she didn't turn sad, I blabbed whatever came to mind. "It's okay, though. You're safe now. Everyone's safe. Vrha's sealed." Notwithstanding, the good news didn't move Laura.

    "Not really." She declared.

    "Huh?"

    "She's in me." Her fingers drifted to the chain around her neck and she fondled it absentmindedly. "Having Vrha take control taught me something —she can't be chained. She'll only grow stronger, break out of her bonds. I can already feel her clawing out."

I'd been shocked before, but never like this. The disclosure that Vrha was yet to be defeated was, especially after the lengths that had been taken to stop her, terrifying. This battle was far from over —it was a knowledge frustrating enough to make me want to scream. 

    "Then what are we waiting around for?" Claudine promptly stepped in, her tone urgent. "We have to get you to the GC headquarters immediately."

She was offering the most reasonable suggestion, but Laura shook her head.

"She'll find a way out of anything we put her in. Only by severing her ties with the realms of the living can she be stopped. She was given one chance to reincarnate. If I die, that chance is gone."

At first, I didn't understand what Laura was implying, but the meaning eventually dawned on me. It was a billion times more horrifying than Vrha's potential re-emergence. My mind muddled as my chest grew heavier. What she was recommending was off the board. It wasn't happening. It couldn't.

    "No! No! No! That's a terrible idea!" With every syllable, my pitch increased. I sounded hysterical, but so what?

    "I know, but I'm begging you to not try and stop me." Laura addressed me calmly. I hated the serenity in her voice. She shouldn't even be considering this, but here we were, having this conversation.

    "But it's not fair!" My volume raised a notch. "You didn't do anything wrong, why do you have to die?" I didn't care that Laura was proposing she sacrifice herself for the sake of the sorcerers of the human realm. They didn't matter as much to me as she did. I didn't want her to die, period. Couldn't she see what she was doing? She was abandoning us —her family. Like water pouring off a cliff, my tears flowed.

      "Why does anything happen, really?" Keeping a dry eye, she replied to me. Momentarily, she looked down, and I knew —this had always been an option for her. She'd long accepted this could be her fate. "Just make sure Mom and Dad know it was my choice, okay?" She then peered into my eyes, her gaze appearing earnest. "Let them know I love them, but it has to be this way. For Olive and Oliver, they probably won't realize I'm gone for months. Tell them they'll always be knuckleheads in my book."

She could tell them that herself. As I realized she didn't intend to wait for a proper goodbye, I choked up. I didn't like the circumstances surrounding the message, and I certainly had no desire to be its deliverer.

     "And Martina..." Laura's call forced me to detract from my own sorrow and pay attention to her. To my surprise, she smiled, the side of her eyes crumpling. "Marty is a pretty cool name."

Sniffing, I probed. "You really think so?"

    "I do."

It meant a lot coming from her. I loved the nickname I'd adopted at barely three years old, dearly, but she'd been the only one to criticize it. Hearing her finally approve of it made me happy. And as a result, I cried harder.

Turning to everyone, who had now gathered around her, she said. "I'll need a dagger."

Her request was met without question, Fabian easily conjuring a knife and handing it to her. I wanted to scream at him for obeying her, for not assisting me to talk her out of it, but I couldn't. Laura was doing the right thing, and as much as I was against it, I recognized that.

With a single motion, she drove the blade into her heart. I bit down on my tongue to hold in a sob as I sighted blood rapidly staining the area around the dagger. Laura coughed, and out of her mouth came more of the red liquid. In spite of what the blade was doing to her, she drove it deeper in. I watched as her upper half plopped to the ground, her body writhing as she spat out more blood.

In the background, I picked up the combined noise of footsteps. Facing the direction it came from, I spotted Stanley, trailed by over a dozen guardians. The expression on his features showed he was stunned by the scene he'd returned to. Lucky him, how much he'd missed. My tears still rolling, I turned back to Laura, in time to catch her take her last breath.

A/N:
I'm shocked. This emotional scene was easy to write. Or maybe it wasn't emotional at all?

Edit: I gave this chapter to my baby sis and she bawled. I feel so evil right now. I love it!

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