The Rebirth

Chapter 5

Ravenna’s POV

The pain didn't feel real at first.

I stared at the knife, my mind in limbo as if it couldn't grasp the concept of someone being so cruel she didn't bat an eye to kill.

It was when she yanked the blade out and blood gushed from the wound, forcing the air from my lungs, that the pain became real.

My body screamed in agony, the ache hitting every part of me until my vision went white.

“Lilith please,” I managed as I struggled against the ropes once more but that only seemed to intensify the pain.

“Goodbye, Ravenna.” were her last words before she walked away leaving me helpless.

My eyes burned, but I didn’t know if it was from tears or blood loss. The ceiling above me blurred in and out of focus, the flickering bulb stretching into streaks of white and gold. 

I tried to move.

I couldn’t.

Warmth pooled beneath me, spreading slowly, soaking into my clothes, sticky against my skin. The metallic scent was suffocating now. I could taste it every time I tried to swallow.

I didn’t have the strength to scream. I didn’t even have the strength to whisper.

Maybe it was the fast blood loss. Or the realization my baby was gone.

A broken sound escaped me, barely more than air.

“I’m sorry,” I tried to say, though I wasn’t sure if the words formed properly. My lips trembled uselessly. “I’m so sorry.”

I had failed her.

Just yesterday I had promised, without ever saying it out loud, that I would protect her. That I would give her everything I never had. That she would never feel unwanted. Never feel abandoned. Never question whether she deserved to exist.

And now she was dying because of me, because she chose someone like me to be her mother.

It was pathetic I believed I was capable of loving this baby when all my life I was never loved.

My parents didn’t love me.

They left me in an orphanage with that old doll. 

Damien didn’t love me either.

I could see that now with painful clarity. I had been convenient. Loyal. Useful.

Replaceable.

A weak laugh bubbled in my chest and died there.

And my adoptive father…

That hurt the most.

My chest tightened, not from blood loss this time but from something deeper. The belief that his love had been conditional. That I had only ever been a substitute. A shadow standing in for the daughter he truly wanted.

He was the closest thing to love I knew and in my last moments I couldn't help but wonder…

What if it had never been real?

My vision blurred further, shapes dissolving into gray. The room felt colder now. Or maybe that was just me.

It felt like I was floating until the shadows formed a figure that became vivid the more I focused on it.

It was my adoptive father, Elias.

At first, I thought it was another hallucination. A trick of a dying brain desperate for comfort. But he stood there, just beyond the flickering light.

My breath hitched painfully.

He looked younger somehow. His presence felt peaceful, though his expression was filled with worry.

“Ravenna,” his voice came in clearly. I wondered if it was truly my mind playing tricks on me.

I tried to speak to tell him I wanted to make him proud, to explain I didn't take his care for granted and I appreciated every moment we spent together but only a broken sob left my lips.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered instead. “I wasn’t enough.”

He stepped closer.

“You were always enough,” he said quietly.

Tears slipped freely now, though I barely felt them.

“You did love me?” I needed to hear it. Even if it wasn't real.

“I did,” he answered. “I do. And you are deserving of love, Ravenna. More than you ever believed.”

The words sank deep, somewhere beneath the pain, beneath the fear. For a moment, the ache in my body dulled.

He reached out, his fingers cupping my cheeks. It felt warm at first, then my mind went blank.

I didn't know where we would go when we died but seeing myself at the feet of someone wasn't what I expected.

“How could you betray me?” It took a moment to understand I was the one saying those words.

But this wasn't my body or memories.

The room looked familiar.

Concrete walls. A single overhead bulb. A metal chair.

Just like the one Lilith had tied me to.

My stomach twisted, except it wasn’t my stomach. It was him.

My gaze lifted to the face of the man who towered over me… Damien.

He held a knife, his hand covered in blood. His face was close now, but I couldn’t see it clearly. It was blurred, like my mind refused to focus.

The body I was in reached out weakly and that's when I saw the tattoo.

A detailed viper tattoo wrapped around his forearm, a single word inked beneath it in italics.

I knew that tattoo.

But I couldn't trace where.

As the final breath left his lungs, I heard his voice again, but this time it wasn’t spoken aloud.

It echoed inside his head.

“If only I get a second chance, I would make them pay for this pain.”

Everything went black again.

The next second I was back.

Back in the warehouse.

Back in my dying body.

The pain returned instantly, crashing over me like a wave. My stomach burned. My chest felt hollow. My limbs were numb.

I couldn’t move.

Had that been real?

Or was my brain breaking down before death?

I didn’t understand what I had just seen.

But one thing was clear.

Damien and Lilith were monsters that needed to be stopped.

If I had a second chance.

The thought formed slowly.

If I had another chance at life.

I wouldn’t be naive.

I wouldn’t trust so blindly.

I would make them pay!

A sudden force tore through me.

It ripped through my chest and down my spine, like lightning had struck inside my body. My lungs seized. My heart jolted violently.

I couldn’t breathe and my eyelids became heavy and gave in to the darkness.

***

“…Ravenna?”

Someone was shaking me.

“Ravenna!”

My eyes snapped open, bright lights forcing me to blink rapidly.

In front of me Damien was on one knee, a box in his hand.

I blinked wondering what this was.

“Will you be my girlfriend?” He voiced and suddenly everything came back to me.

The flowers, the dinner, the promise ring and that black tux.

This was two years ago…

Two years before I was murdered.