"Min," I managed, my voice barely a whisper. Her eyes were narrowed slits of pure animosity.
"Aida," she said, her tone dripping with venom. "I had hoped you would have the decency to disappear after using my credits, I expected you to hold your end of the deal. But you bottom-dark rat didn't, instead you lured him away from the dinner party, making a fool of me." she waves a hand and a hologram screen show Yu and I kissing on the rooftop.
I open my mouth to tell her that it was a mistake, That I am going. But before I could respond, she snaps her fingers together, and Jinx steps from behind the guards, I hadn't notice her. In her hand she holds a small, smooth, silvery, oblong-shaped box, no larger than my palm, and it pulsed with a faint, internal light that was almost imperceptible. I stared at her in shock, gone was the friend I know, and in her place stands a cold stranger.
"You'll be astounded at how money can buy anything. Even friendship. She was working for me the whole time. Guess you should have left her at Madam Krea's in the Bottom-dark. But you saved her, had you stayed longer , you wouldn't be here."
"Jinx. Why?" I sniffle, glaring at Min. I sniffle and dash tears away.
Min waves a hand, and two of her guards grab hold of my arms and start tying me to my chair. Rough ropes were produced as if from nowhere, and in moments, I was bound tightly to my wooden chair, my wrists and ankles secured with painful precision. The rough fibers bit into my skin.
"I'm sorry Aida, guess I'm not as selfless as you, I can't say no when offered a beautiful apartment on the first level. I will repay you in my next life, but in this I'm so sorry. You don't know how it was growing up with no one except Madam Krea, you were lucky, you had Yu." Jinx says setting the small device on my humble coffee table. A cold dread washed over me, a sickening realization dawning in my mind.
"What is that?" I asked, my voice trembling. Min's lips curled into a cruel smile. "A little… going-away present. Silent, efficient. By the time anyone realizes what has happened, you will be nothing more than dust, irrelevant dust. That is the beauty of this device, it will set shields as it detonates so no one gets to hear it go off. Beautiful isn't it."
Terror, raw and visceral, gripped me. A bomb.
Min simply watched, her expression devoid of any emotion save for a cold satisfaction. Min rose gracefully from the armchair, her gaze never leaving mine.
"You thought you could have him, didn't you?" she said, her voice low and dangerous. "You, a nobody, daring to steal what is rightfully mine."
Her words were like shards of ice, piercing the terror that held me captive. I wanted to scream, to fight, but the bonds held me fast, and the knowledge of the silent, deadly device ticking away on my table paralyzed me with fear. She took a step closer, her eyes filled with a chilling hatred. "Consider this your final lesson, Aida. Some things are simply not meant to be. They'll be no reincarnation for you, I will make sure of it."she drawls out. Then, without another word, she turned and walked towards the door, her guards flanking her like silent sentinels.
The heavy wooden door creaked shut behind them, leaving me alone in the suffocating silence of my apartment, the faint pulse of the silvery the only sound. My eyes darted to the table, fixated on the deadly device. The faint light within it seemed to grow stronger, pulsing with an increasing urgency. My breath hitched in my throat. The air felt thick, charged with an unseen energy. I could feel a pressure building, a silent countdown to oblivion. I wonder what oblivion will be like.
Panic clawed at my throat, a silent scream trapped within my chest. I strained against the ropes, the rough fibers digging deeper into my skin, but it was futile. I was trapped, helpless, facing a silent, invisible death. Then, a familiar warmth bloomed against my chest. My fingers, bound tightly, couldn't reach it, but I could feel the smooth, cool surface of the jade pendant I always wore nestled beneath my gown.
It had been something from my parents, something I had never taken off. Suddenly, the warmth intensified, growing into a searing heat. The pendant began to glow, a soft, emerald light emanating from beneath my clothes. The pulsing of the obsidian sphere on the table seemed to falter, its faint light flickering erratically. The emerald light from my necklace intensified, bathing the small apartment in an otherworldly glow.
The air around me crackled with energy, a force pulling at me, tugging at my very being. A strange sensation washed over me, a feeling of being stretched, pulled apart, and molded back together and then nothing. A chasm yawns beneath me and the chair tips into it, my last sight is that of the silent pulse bomb on the table pulsing one last time, its internal light flaring radiantly before an energy flare out turning everything into dust.
The ropes come off, and I clutch my aching heart, as this foreign unknown chasm takes me away from everything I cherish and know.