Raina ran as fast as she could with no real direction in mind. Somewhere at the edges of her awareness, she could hear Dominic calling out to her but she continued to run. Up the winding staircase, she practically flew with an almost maniacal energy. Nothing would come between her and the sudden, desperate need for escape. Memories of Leo’s face floated before her open eyes as well as behind her closed lids; no amount of will would banish them. His last gruesome expression, marked by betrayal and duplicity, taunted her mercilessly.
Leo had been miserable and mean and undeniably painful to be around, but he had been a part of her; he had been her family. The overwhelming grief over his loss and the unforgivable guilt for her role in it threatened to drop her to the ground. To prevent herself from falling into the wailing and inconsolable mess that beckoned her, Raina sought an empty spot where silence and solitude might offer respite from the pain. She had to make sense of what had happened and to find a way to come to terms with its harsh reality; Leo was dead and she had killed him.
Eyes closed throughout most of her maddened rush, she squeezed them tightly to prevent fresh tears from falling. She continued to race upwards, wildly, until her weakening equilibrium and the resultant dizziness forced her to an abrupt stop. The only instinct still working was the one that demanded that she numb out every last remnant of human emotion, which threatened despair.
A tear fell from her eye and she stopped to wipe it away with one hand as she tightened her grip on the banister with the other. Leo’s emergence in her life had twice turned her into a killer. Through Dominic, she had ended his life as a human and because of Dominic, she had ended his existence altogether. She looked down at her hands and had to strain her eyes through the darkness. She knew her night vision was possible but it took concentration and she was in too dark of a place to focus.
Blood still dripped from her fingers and, as she slowly ascended the staircase, Raina eyed the red line that she had trailed up the banister. Once at the top, she took a right and ducked into a dark bedroom halfway down the hallway, leaving a red handprint on the door casing behind her.
She looked into the huge round antique mirror that hung on the wall. Its frame was made from black wrought iron and there were steel black roses clinging to the ivy that wove itself through it. It seemed to have more purpose than just an offer of a reflection and as she neared it, she felt a magnetic draw that pulled her to its glass and beckoned her to come see herself. The closer she got, the more she felt hope that her image would magically appear and she would be able to look at herself once again.
Raina knew the desire to see herself was perceived by the others as shallow but she knew it wasn’t born from vanity. It had been a symbol of humanity that she hadn’t realized until she had lost it. Raina wanted to see her face again because she knew if she did, it would mean she’d been restored to the human God had created for her.
Praying that her wish would be granted without further death, Raina finally stopped before the mirror and stood very still. No tear-stained face looked back and no bloody reflection told the secret of her sin. She would never be able to see the pain