#ashfallen

It hurts to breathe.

Everytime her chest expands to take a breath, the arrow inside her sternum impedes the action. She feels a collapsation and then, a burning ache across her chest. Her limbs begin to grow cold, with only the very ooze of her blood warming the outside of her chest. She feels her vitality leaking out of her in slow crimson droplets. 

It wasn’t supposed to end this way, she still had so much to accomplish in life, and yet, the gods thought otherwise of her fate. Artemis took her draw, and through Cinder shot the arrow that would end her before her very legacy even began. 

The gladiator is drowning now, her armor too heavy for her to rise above the depths. Blood rises up the throat and leaves her lips through its corners. Coughs speckled with blood leaves her throat in choking sounds. It hurts and her eyes begin to water at her own mortality. 

“Will... you... stay?” It took everything to get those words out. 

The slow beating of her heart lulls her to a state of near unconsciousness. It is as Cinder stated, she has lost too much blood and now the reaper stands before her in the form of Cinder Fall. She is not frightened, but she is lonely, and has been lonely her whole life. It is her wish to not die as she lived. She wants companionship in her last moments, even if it’s the person who shall deliver her into purgatory.

Pyrrha feels the traces of a touch on her chin, and subtly, her chin is tilted upwards because her body’s too heavy. With such caress she feels kindness in its gentleness.