No.25's POV
"I told you to kill me when you had the chance… You should have listened."
She tightened her grip around the wooden staff.
The pain was deeper than any wound I had ever received, but that wasn't what frightened me. There was something else hurting me, something buried deeper than flesh and bone.
I blinked and looked down at my chest before slowly raising my eyes toward her. Her face remained hidden beneath the hood, leaving me unable to read the expression behind it.
I couldn't understand why she had suddenly done this, or what had driven her to plunge that staff into my chest.
But there was one thing I knew for certain.
The hand holding the staff was trembling.
Not violently. It was subtle, almost imperceptible, but I could feel every tiny tremor travelling through the wood and into my chest.
It was the trembling of someone trying desperately to convince themselves that what they were doing was necessary.
Not the trembling of someone who wanted to kill.
