It takes me several long moments to fully re-anchor myself in the dank reality of our pit-cell after being so viscerally subsumed by my vengeful bloodlust. I suck in a series of ragged breaths, focusing on Ava's slight weight pressed against me and the whisper-soft caresses of her fingers trailing along my ravaged features.
"Easy now, easy..." she continues murmuring in that same fragile yet grounding rasp. "Don't let the anger swallow you whole, Rose. You have to stay tethered here with me, alright?"
I give a jerky nod, still blinking rapidly as I struggle to dispel the lingering crimson miasmas whorling through my mind's eye. What seemed like mere indulgent fantasies of brutal, cathartic vengeance only moments ago had quickly spiraled into something far darker and more primal - the kin
