To make matters worse, she couldn’t drive well at all. The heavy backpack was still strapped tightly to her back, wedging her awkwardly between it and the wheel. Every time she tried to turn the wheel sharply, the small space restricted her arms. She looked like a clumsy turtle trying to pilot a rocket ship, panting and sweating as she desperately tried to maintain control of the speeding vehicle.
Zyra drove straight into a crowded main road, honking loudly. Cars were rare, but half-life beasts transporting people were not. Her presence on the road caused chaos, plunging the orderly atmosphere into screams of panic. But she didn’t dare to stop for any reason.
She drove blindly, turning down random roads as she didn’t know the outskirts very well. Soon, the streetlights faded away. The paved road turned into rough dirt, but she continued to drive like a maniac, and soon, Zyra realized with horror that the road could not go any further.
She slammed on the brakes. The car skidded violently, kicking up a massive cloud of dust, stopping just inches away from a sheer drop.
If she dared to drive any further, she would be falling straight off the edge. Down below was an endless pit of total darkness, made even more terrifying because the sun was about to set.
Zyra scrambled out of the car, her legs shaking like jelly. She pulled her case from the passenger side and stood at the edge, desperately looking around as if searching for anywhere left to run. But there was nothing. She was stuck between two choices: return to the wolves she had just fled from or jump off the edge and take her chances with gravity.
An absurd, dark thought popped into her head. Maybe if I jump, I’ll get reborn again, but ten years earlier this time! I can fix my whole life from the very start!
She let out a dry, sarcastic laugh at her own ridiculousness. "Right. Because double reincarnation is totally a normal thing that happens." Even the first one was a miracle. How many miracles did she have left?
She had not even come to a decision yet when her pursuers arrived, the bright light of the motorcycle almost blinding her. The Thunder hawk screeched, as dominantly as it could. Lita was the first to step on the ground, her eyes bloodshot and swollen, looking completely unhinged.
"What did you do to Hans?!" Lita screamed, her voice cracking with pure venom. "You slut! What did you do?!"
Zyra sneered. Even now, her foster sister could not hide the jealousy in her eyes and voice. She wondered how she had not seen it in her last life.
Michael, Shane, and Clifford stepped into the light, staring at her like a pack of starving wolves. Their faces were grim.
"You fucking bitch, you ordered that tiny snake to do it, right?" Clifford probed, his voice trembling slightly with a mix of anger and fear. "You killed him. He’s dead, Zyra! Dead!"
Zyra froze. Her mind went completely blank. Dead? Hans is dead?! Her useless snake had killed Hans! How?
Michael let out a cruel, mocking laugh, pointing at her. "Look at her, she’s terrified. You’re a murderer now, Zyra! You’re a criminal! There’s no guild, no family, and no law that will save you from the executioner’s block!"
Zyra blinked, her breath catching in her throat. The heavens were playing a cruel joke on her. The future as she knew it was already changing completely! In her past life, Lita had happily married Hans and lived a life of luxury while Zyra suffered. But now, Hans was a corpse and she was in ten times deeper trouble than before.
There was no way Hans family would ever spare her. He was the golden boy of the new generation in their clan. His loss was a big one for them.
Zyra’s lips lifted. Oh well, he had tried to rape her, so good riddance. Much as she had made some new enemies, an old one was gone. It was a sweet victory. That victory would taste even better if these four died as well.
They looked at her like trapped prey. Even Lita, who used to just be a petty, annoying sister, looked out for blood now. She wanted Zyra dead.
"What are you all waiting for?" Lita snarled at the men, her face twisted in rage. "Get her! Grab her and break her legs so she can’t run! We are taking her back to pay for killing my Hans."
Zyra snorted. "Your Hans! And you called me a slut. How long were you lusting after him Lita? Tsk, tsk, you and your mother are one and the same. She tried to go after my father and you tried to go after my fiance. I guess that rotten apple did not fall so far from the rotten tree after all."
Lita screamed in rage.
Zyra took small steps back, her heels getting dangerously close to the crumbling dirt at the edge of the pit.
Clifford noticed and sneered, stopping a few feet away. "She is distracting us, ignore her." He crossed his arms on his chest. "Go ahead Zyra, look behind you, I bet that you do not know what is there. I am a hunter I do know. If you dare to jump, you’ll land straight into the Wild Lands down below. Do you know what’s down there? Monsters. Beasts. Cannibals. Maybe even Somnivores. They’ll eat you alive."
Shane stepped forward, extending a hand with a fake, chilling softness. "And that’s only if you survive the fall, which you won’t. Come here, Zyra. Be a good girl and come to me. If you cooperate, I will put in a good word for you."
"Yeah, we might even help you be granted a merciful death." Clifford added
Zyra looked at Shane’s hand, then looked at the disgusting, eager glints in the eyes of her other ex-fiancés. She imagined what they would do to her if she let them capture her. They would abuse her, torment her, ruin her completely, and then throw her to the clan courts to be executed.
She looked back down at the dark, endless abyss. Between suffering at the hands of these vile humans or taking her chances with the fall... she chose the fall.
Suddenly, the terror vanished from her heart. A creepy, serene smile formed on her lips, catching them all off guard.
"To come to you?" Zyra whispered, taking a large, definitive step backward into the empty air. "I would rather die."
Before anyone could lung forward to grab her, she let herself tip over the edge.
The wind instantly roared in her ears, ripping her hair away from her face. The very last thing she saw before the darkness swallowed her whole was the four of them standing at the cliff edge, their faces shrinking rapidly, looking down at her in absolute shock as she went lower, and lower, and lower into the deep darkness.