'Pain…'
'I'm in so much pain… It hurts. It hurts so much.'
Warm, sticky blood spread thickly under Helena's palms as she tried to push herself up. But her arms dissolved into tremors and dropped her face-first back into the slick puddle.
"Aaaahhh!" The impact slapped against her cheek, forcing a sharp gasp that dragged the suffocating stench of copper straight into her chest.
Her lungs seized under every breath.
Unable to move, she could only lie there as the fresh, pooling heat slicked over her body began to turn deathly cold against her skin.
When she tried to drag herself backward, her legs stayed dead, useless weight anchors trailing through the dark until her spine thudded against a freezing stone wall.
The chill bit through her shredded clothes, deep into her bones at the exact moment a violent spike of white heat fractured her skull.
