Torn Page 0,2

in a steady slow stream. Through gritted teeth I uttered, "Don't act like you're not you. I saw you possess him. You're trying to use him against me." I glanced up into his eyes and swallowed hard. The expression on Collin's face almost made me believe that he wasn't Kreturus, and that he sincerely had no idea what happened. But the poison slowly spreading through my body wouldn't let me forget who he really was. There was no way that demon wasn't in him. I knew what I saw.

"I swear to God, Ivy - this isn't what you think," his voice was faint. A shallow breath left his body as he rammed his fingers through his hair. "It's not what you think." His voice trembled. Tears streaked his face as he looked down at the ground. Hopelessness engulfed him.

My head was spinning with feverish pain. Was it possible that I was wrong? Was it possible that this was really Collin? The pain on his face - the look of terror in his eyes was real. Maybe it was Collin. I blinked hard trying to focus. Wooziness made it difficult to think, but I had to know.

"Prove it," I whispered. My eye lids were growing heavy. The sapphire serum burned its way through most of my body. There wasn't an inch of me that wasn't scorched from within. Some areas of my skin started smoking in thin blue wafts. I didn't have much time left. "Prove you're Collin and only Collin."

He glanced up at me. "There are no words that will convince you of that. You saw something...I don't know what, but it terrified you into thinking this was the only way to prevent the prophecy." Pain that I couldn't imagine had devoured my body in a matter of minutes, and I saw every speck of that pain reflected in Collin's eyes.

Clearing my throat, I said, "Kreturus is inside of you. Or he is you. I don't know which." The room was spinning. Kreturus did go into Collin, but I expected him to be different somehow and he wasn't. It bothered me, but I couldn't understand why. Perhaps it was the venom rotting my brain. A weak sliver of a voice slid from my lips, "It doesn't matter now."

Tears were streaming down his face, and his blue eyes were burning bright. He bit his lips as if he didn't know what to say. My eyelids drooped, but I couldn't take my eyes from his. Finally, he said, "I know you don't want me to touch you. I know you're afraid. But I can help you. I can slow the poison. Ivy, I have to..." with that he reached for me. His fingers pressed against my chest and I screamed.

His hands felt like lead, increasing the agony I already felt. I don't know if it was a physical reaction to Kreturus or if the additional pain was from the wound, but his touch intensified the agony. His hands pressed on my bloodied chest, as he uttered words that I couldn't understand. Whatever he was saying, it wasn't English. I didn't recognize it at all. More foreign words fell from him lips, as his fingers traced the wound across my chest.

What did he say? Was he really trying to heal me? Could he do that? I didn't know, but I did know that I had to get away. I'd made my decision - this wasn't Collin. It was Kreturus. And I couldn't risk whatever the demon was planning to do. It was unbearable watching him looking at me the way Collin used to. It was the same expression he wore so many times, but intensified - the sorrow behind his eyes, the determination of his shoulders, and the confidence on his lips. He seemed so lost and frightened. It made me feel like I was the air that he needed to breathe and I had to be close to sooth him. But, there was no soothing him now. There was no nice way to end this.

My body was too weak to fight my way out of his grasp. He was determined to heal me and I was determined to stop him. There was only one way to do it. If I acted quickly, I could effonate to the one place where no one would follow me. It was the one place I knew for certain that I could die alone.

I fixated on the place in my mind, fighting back the fatigue that