Snow drifted slowly from the darkened sky, each flake catching in the silver glow of the moonlight and sparkling like shards of scattered diamonds.
An eerie silence blanketed the forest, heavy and thick, broken only by the distant crack of ice and the occasional rustle of bare branches swaying in the wind.
That silence was suddenly shattered by a desperate, anguished cry.
"Aahhhh!"
A woman lay sprawled on the frozen earth, her body half-covered by the snow.
She clutched her belly as blood poured from her, staining the ground beneath her a deep, chilling red. Her breaths came in shallow, panicked gasps as she struggled in vain to push herself up.
Her silver hair glowed eerily in the moonlight, stark against the dark, wet patches staining her gown. She knew she wouldn't survive the night; the warmth of life was slipping away, and her strength had dwindled to a frail, flickering ember.
The will to live had abandoned her long ago, leaving only a cold acceptance. But… her children. Her dear children.
Her heart ached with an agony more powerful than any physical pain as she thought of her eldest child—her son. She didn't even know if he was safe or alive, his fate as uncertain as her own.
Her mind wavered, the relentless, gnawing question piercing her heart: Where are you, my son? Would he even know what had happened to her?
And now her youngest child, the one still cradled within her, was slipping away as well—never to take a first breath, never to see the light of day.
It was too much. Both her children were slipping from her grasp, torn away by the cruelty of others.
They were innocent, both of them, undeserving of this suffering.
Why did her eldest, strong and full of promise, have to live in such a merciless world? And why did her unborn child, so pure and unknowing, have to die without a chance to live?
Her life had been defined by betrayal and despair, a series of harsh twists and painful endings. They had wronged her, had pushed her to this terrible fate—and now, even her children would bear the weight of their cruelty.
She placed a trembling hand on her belly, her heart breaking as she felt the life that had once been there, now fading.
"Just wait a little longer, my sweet one… Mother will be with you soon." Her voice was soft, a bittersweet lullaby for the life she couldn't save, a quiet plea for her lost child to wait for her on the other side.
Gritting her teeth, she dragged her broken body forward, inch by inch, toward a figure lying still in the snow just a few feet away.
Each movement sent waves of searing pain ripping through her body, her insides torn and bleeding. Her lower body burned with an unbearable agony, and her chest wounds made each breath a struggle.
Numb from the cold, her fingers scraped against the icy ground as she pushed on, her face turning a sickly shade of blue in the frigid air.
Her tears were the only warmth she felt, trickling down her cheeks and freezing halfway as they fell, the sole trace of heat in this heartless night.
How had it come to this? Her life had been a constant struggle, filled with hatred, bitterness, and relentless betrayal.
Time after time, she'd been abandoned, used, and cast aside as though she were nothing more than an inconvenience. She'd grown numb to it all, no longer feeling the sting of rejection or the ache of loneliness.
And tonight was meant to be the end of it all—the end of her pain, her bitterness, her suffering. Soon, she would be free from these burdens, free from the hollow ache of her heart.
With a final, shaky breath, she reached the man lying on the ground. Her hand trembled as she slipped a small glass vial from her sleeve.
She uncorked it, struggling to hold steady, and carefully poured the contents into the man's mouth, ensuring he swallowed every drop.
As the last of the liquid vanished, a fierce wave of pain surged through her, leaving her body trembling, her vision blurring with the intensity.
"Kuhh…" She coughed, a thick trail of blood spilling from her lips as she struggled to draw in another breath.
In the distance, the pounding of hooves echoed across the frozen ground, growing louder with each passing second.
She glanced up, her blurred vision catching the sight of torches approaching—a sea of torchlight advancing like a wave of fire on the horizon. The enemies were closing in. But it didn't matter. Soon, she would be gone.
She took one last, lingering glance at the man beside her, the one she had given her final gift.
"Today, I repaid everything you did for me," she murmured, her voice barely a whisper, weak and strained through the pain. "If there's a next life… I hope you don't…" But the words trailed off as her strength finally faded, and she slipped into the stillness of eternal rest.
As her final breath left her, her hand fell near the man's—and his fingers, ever so slightly, trembled as they touched hers.