Black Rose Of The Ashes

Chapter 3 New Chapter

Days turned into weeks. The weeks felt like they were moving really slowly inside the small cabin hidden in the deep mountains covered in trees. Time did not mean much to Seraphina anymore. She knew that time was passing because of the way the light came into cabin through the shutters. She saw that it changed from a grey hue in the morning to a warmer shade in the afternoon. She also felt a lot of pain in her body, which was slowly turning into a manageable soreness.

Seraphina spent most of her time lying on the bed in the cabin. She would look at the ceiling or out the window where the trees stood tall and quiet . She did not talk much. She did not move around much unless she had to. Every time she closed her eyes, she thought about the things that happened to her. She thought about Damian and his cold smile. She thought about Lilith and mean things she had said. She felt guilty because she had helped the people who had hurt her and her family. She felt like she did not deserve to be alive or to be happy.

She had stopped hurting herself physically. That was only because her body was too exhausted. She had many wounds on her body, and they were all healing slowly. She looked at her hands. She thought about how her hands changed. She used to have hands with well-kept nails and smooth palm. Now she saw hands that had been injured.

One day, Seraphina sat up in bed. It was hard for her to do this because of her body was still hurting. She did not want to lie down anymore. She wrapped a blanket around herself and looked at the man. He was standing by the window, cleaning a knife. She saw that he had many scar on his arms. She wondered what his life been like and what had happened to him.

She asked him a question. "Why?" Her voice was quiet and unclear.

The man did not stop what he was doing. He just kept cleaning the knife. "Why what?" He asked.

She thought for a moment. Then she said, "Why did you save me? Why are you still taking care of me? I do not have anything to give you. I am not worth anything."

The man finally looked at her. His eyes were serious, and they looked deep into hers. She felt like he could see everything she was thinking. He walked over to her but did not get close too . He leaned against a wall beam and crossed his arms.

"You think you should be dead," he said "You think you do not deserve to be alive because of what happened to you. You think you made mistakes and do not deserve to be forgiven."

"You are fool," the man said. "You survived something that should have killed you. You are still alive. And you are wasting it by feeling sorry for yourself."

She was surprised. No one had ever talked to her like that before. But he was right. She had survived something that should have taken her life. She was still alive. She could do something with it.

"You know what they did to you," he continued. "You know who they are. You can use that knowledge to make them pay for what they did."

She thought about this. She thought about Damian and Lilith. She thought about how they had hurt her and her family. She felt something inside her that she that she had not felt in a long time. She felt angry. She felt strong. She knew what she could do something to make things right.

She remembered what Damian had done to her family's company, using her trust to make changes that harmed her family. She deme how Lilith had always suggested business ideas, whispering them in her ear. They had seemed harmless at the time, but now they look like a traps.

"I am tired," she said, her voice shaking because she was weak . It was shaking because she was growing angry." "I am tired of being hurt while they laugh. I am tired of being foolish. I am tired of lying here while they use my name and my family's legacy for their own gain, and I will take everything what truly mine."

She lifted her head. Her eyes, once soft and warm, were now dark and sharp, shinning with a new light. She saw hands that had outsmarted people who wanted to hurt her family's business. She had been smart and alert before. She had just forgotten, because she had to chosen to love and trust instead of being sharp.

She looked back at the man. She felt grateful, "You are right. Being alive is not a punishment but it was a blessing. I will use every breath I have to make them experience what they did to me, but I will make it more worse."

She grabbed the edge of the bed and stood up. Her legs were trembling. She was in pain, but she did not sit back down. She stood tall even though she was weak and hurt. Her fingers touched the scar on her arm a reminder of what they had done to her and her eyes flashed with promise

"I will come back and take what's mine and I will destroy everything."

But for the first time since she fell, she not willing to create same mistake.