THE REJECTED BETA
"I watched from the treeline through the glass. The guard, took it directly into the residential wing. Ten minutes later, I heard the scream. Then the silence. The kind of silence that happens right before a storm breaks."
I smiled, a cold, slow pull of my lips. I could imagine it perfectly.
Marie, trembling over the parchment, realised that her sanctuary was nothing more than a glasshouse. She had always been soft where it mattered most. She had a heart that bled for the help, for the weak, for the people who didn't even know her name. I had spent years using that heart as a handle to pull her back into line.
"And Astance?" I prompted.