It's dark.
'Where am I?' Leilah thought for a moment, trying to piece the blurred bits of memories together.
When she finally realized what happened, her shoulders sagged as she tried to absorb the reality. 'Oh, right... I died.'
The moment Leila saw the guy Liese was fond of, she knew he was bad news. His appearance down to his very personality was too good to be true.
Almost as if it was staged.
But still, she failed. The one person left that she truly cared about, Liese was so close to her, and yet she failed to protect her, again.
'Wait a minute. If I can still think doesn't that mean I'm still not dead?
If that's the case, I need to go find Liese.'
Leila urged her body to move.
However, her efforts were futile as she was greeted with no limbs to flail, no body to twist, nor a mouth to speak.
She was---just there. A glowing wisp of light floating in the darkness.
'I guess I really am dead.' Leila laughed bitterly, trying whatever she had at the moment to find where she was or whatever was happening at the moment. 'Is this hell?'
It must be. There's no way she was going to end up in heaven after all those things she had done. Though she was legally permitted to murder bad people in the dark on behalf of the government, she enjoyed it. Leila knew that a crazy-ass psycho like her deserves a place like hell.
'Where did it go wrong exactly?'
The only thing she ever wanted was the strength to protect the people she loved and live happily together with her sister.
'That guy.' Leila pondered, perfectly reminiscing her last moments. 'He said I was the fool for trusting the wrong people. And that he pitied me, for I was only ever a puppet for them.'
What does that mean? Who's 'them'?
It only took one moment before realization dawned on her, and Leila didn't expect the truth to hit hard.
'Oh my god.'
An hour before whatever's inside that metal suitcase he brought with him blow up, Leila had taken off with it at full speed in a motorboat.
She drove as far as the engine could make, before tossing it in the middle of the ocean.
She knew she saw that suitcase somewhere, but Leila had realized it too late. The fucking thing was carrying the same logo from that terrorist case with the Prime Minister that she had handed to the government as evidence from her previous mission.
That guy. His words. His actions. The suitcase.
All of it was a setup.
The government had always wanted to kill them, survivors, for the abilities they had. Leila and the others had posed a great threat since even the best of scientists had failed in recreating the serum.
They have been unstoppable with their inhuman bodies that deflected most injuries. Their impressive regenerative capabilities had saved them from death's door in times they've lost count.
Whenever they would lose bits of body parts, even if it's their whole lower body, they would immediately regrow it as if time rewinds itself in the process.
They had proven themselves indestructible that those jackasses must've thought that a nuclear weapon yielding five kilotons would do the trick.
Leila wanted to scream, 'Idiots! Don't they realize they could've killed every person in the vicinity of that beach if that were to happen? Even if they were desperate, they're the government! And these people were the ones who placed them in those seats, and they proclaim they serve for the good of the people?'
BULLSHIT!
Leila felt like a joke. She should've listened to the others when they told her not to trust anyone after everything that happened to them---but she couldn't help it. Even she was confused about why she kept feeling that way.
'I guess this is my retribution.' She thought, trying to rub her cold arms with her imaginary hands for warmth. 'Still, hell sure is freezing.'
Truth to be told, Leila had expected to be thrown into a pool of scorching hot lava and be forever tortured through eternal incineration like in those movies, but it looked like it wasn't the thing.
Leila floated helplessly in the dark, desperately missing Lieselotte's warmth.
...That came out wrong.
And just as the thought entered her mind, Leila's surroundings suddenly became warmer.
The sensation took her by surprise that she suddenly opened her eyes.
She saw a short scene. A drop in the water, then its ripples on the surface.
After that, the exact place where the drop fell bloomed the most beautiful rose, Leila had ever seen.
Its petals were made of light and dark red stained glass, and its stem and leaves were all made of green crystals.
Then the scene cleared, and sunlight blinded her eyes. Leila blinked several times to let her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness.
The thick, musty stench of roses and dry soil tickled her nose. She blinked once more, her blurry vision became clearer, and her eyes widened as took in the sight.
From the looks of it, this place was a glassed greenhouse garden, but now, black crystals filled the entire ground.
On the walls hung black vines, the roof of the greenhouse was cracked and destroyed. Leila followed a beam of sunlight with her eyes and saw a dead sleeping willow in the center of it all.
Connecting the two lands, was a bridge made of incomplete rotten wood boards. At the end of it lies a huge hole surrounding a patch of dry land where the dead sleeping willow was planted.
It was once a deep lake, and now bones filled it, making the place reek of rotting meat and decayed fish.
The whole scene was so dreary and miserable. Like gazing into a monochrome abstract painting with no sense of direction or purpose.
Leila squeezed her eyes shut. How is it that she would always find herself be drawn to these kinds of images? It's almost as if God was mocking her by shoving mirrored messed up life like of that black and white mess one wouldn't even call art.
It's funny that she couldn't even retaliate, given that the person she wanted to blame was something invisible---something people didn't exactly know where or how He came to life. A superstitious all-powerful deity whom people worshipped but didn't give a shit.
Though part of it was her fault, rather than facing her miserable world with miserable emotions, she chose not to blame anyone or anything. Whatever happened to her was something inevitable, her destiny was bound to it.
It was shitty reasoning, but it was the most logical explanation.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to loathe what does not exist. God may be real or just a made-up story, however, one thing definitely changed.
He just created himself a stubborn enemy.
Leila's eyes trembled with fury, "Since it has come to this, I'd rather hate you forever, even in my next lives. I would be someone who would betray you much worse than my bullshit ancestors, someone who would rival you more than the devil himself. I swear to you, my dear God, I would be the one who would kill you."
Just as the last word left her lips, the earth underneath her shuddered. The sudden movement jolting her slightly subdued senses awake and now on full alert.
Leila felt a great invisible force pulling her existence backward as if she was being vacuumed. As she was thrown, Leila noticed the dreary image of the greenhouse glass garden also being sucked in, her eyelids drooped.
Just as her unconsciousness slipped away, she heard a faint laughter at the distance, followed by the words, "Then, it's a deal."