"Wait," I said, holding up my hand and interrupting the conversation between Vlad and Nicholas. "You are the one that tore Elena apart, limb by limb? Who violated her in the worst ways? That was you?"
Vlad sneered at me like I was nothing more than a child who had stumbled upon a conversation between adults. "Yes," he said concisely. "And I would like to say that I would do it again in a heartbeat, but that is simply not the case. The punishment is simply not worth it. If I could go back in time to that night, I would have snuck into your tent and done all those things to you. The best part is that the only Nicholas would have been heartbroken, and your mother wouldn't have cared in the least."
Nicholas looked at the man who was once his best friend, his face completely void of emotion. "That is the way you repent for what you did that night? By saying that, you did it to the wrong woman?"
"Well, Natalia… the little Hope was still a child at the time, so I wouldn't go as far as to call her a woman, but yes, that is about right," nodded Vlad. The vampires in the room were starting to get restless, their eyes darting back and forth between their Head and Nicholas.
I didn't know a single person who reveled in the curse, who thought it was the best thing to ever happen to them. If word got out that it was a direct result of Vlad's actions, then it was going to be open season on the vampires.
Might be worth it.
'He has been judged,' came the voice inside of me. 'He has been deemed unworthy of a second chance. Kill him."
Don't have to tell me twice.
"You have been judged," I said, repeating the words out loud. "You have been deemed unworthy of a second chance. You will be punished for your sins."
I ducked back into the world of the webs and found the blood-red thread that signified Vladmir's thread of life. The rot on it had no end and no beginning, flowing through the strand from the moment of his birth to this very second. It infected every last being that called House Vampyre home to the point where it was impossible to separate the rot from their actual fates.
"You cannot kill him!" shouted my monster, quickly joining me in the world within the world. She reached for the gold sheers in my hand, only for hers to pass through them like she was a ghost.
"What is going on?" she demanded, trying and failing yet again to reach for the sheers. "I don't understand. I am Moirai, I am the fates! I decide the birth, journey, and death of all living things! The world moves to my command! Those sheers are made from me, for me!"
"That was who you were once, a very long time ago," said the new voice. I watched as a new figure strolled towards us, completely unimpeded by the webs blocking her way. She looked exactly like me, but at the same time, she was not.
"You," snarled Moirai, looking at the woman. "What are you doing here?"
"I am where I belong, which is more than can be said for you. You have seen it yourself. Your sheers no longer work for you. The path that you are on has become tainted. You must choose a different path or be judged for your future actions," said the woman, her long, white dress billowing around her as if caught in a breeze only she could feel.
"He is not to die," Moirai said again, this time turning to look at me. "The entire balance of life will be thrown off, and the world, as you know it, will collapse. Is that the path you want to take?"
I paused for a second, weighing her words. I was never ambitious and never really wanted more than the little life I had carved out for myself. Happy and content.
I didn't want to upset the balance or rock any boats, and I definitely did not want the world as I knew it to collapse.
Would killing Vlad really be worth whatever horrendous possibilities awaited me in the future?
Absolutely.
I smiled at Moirai and reached through her like she wasn't even there, cutting the thread of the one she wanted to save so desperately.
She let out a shrill scream before disappearing from view, leaving me and the other being alone.
"You did good," said the monster in front of me. She shook a little, and two massive white wings emerged from her back. "The future is always unknown, even to a being like Moirai. There are no certainties because every time you make a decision, even a small one, it ripples down, affecting countless others. Life is what you make of it, so go enjoy the life you want to live. Moirai should be gone for a little while, but even she has a thread somewhere in this web. Remember that."
"Who are you?" I asked, a lump forming in my throat at the idea that she was not going to stay.
The woman, the angel, chuckled. "I am no one important," she said, gently taking my hand in hers. "Only one of many. But if you remember only one thing about today, remember this: never judge a person on who they were in the past. Judge only on who they will be in the future. The past can never change, no matter how much someone might want it to. But how they walk their path to the future will tell you more about them than the past ever could."
"I understand," I said with a nod. "And I will try."
"And that is all I can ask of you. You have grown into a woman that I am very proud of. Remember that." With those parting words, the angel in front of me disappeared. I felt a stabbing pain in my heart at her departure, but I could only hope that I would see her again in the future.
For now, I needed to go back to the real world and deal with the mess that I had caused.
-----
"Did you feel that?" asked a hushed voice.
"I did. What does that mean?" came the reply, just as quietly as if the two were terrified at the idea of calling attention to themselves.
"The Destroyer has come!"
"The Destroyer? The Eater of Worlds? Why?"
"I don't know. But the ripples can be felt all the way up here. We must warn him. He needs to know!"
"But what can we do?"
Silence met that question as the first voice tried to think of a solution. "I have no idea."