Angel Monarch

Chapter 73: Waking Up in a Nightmare

In a dark room lay a woman on her bed. She couldn't sleep again. It seemed she will never have a good nights sleep ever. The constant nightmares stopped her, but no nightmare was as bad as the reality.

It has been 2 months since the rescue mission, when everything went to shit. Losing Sera was a horrendous blow to the whole group. Yeah, the rescue was an ultimate success, they managed to free 1300 people and only lost about 250.

But the happiness didn't last long, soon enough chaos insued. Without Sera, people became aimless, they had no real leader. Faith, Hellfire, Lucy and the others tried to keep them together, but they weren't enough.

The Bunker is in multiple groups now and there is no one to pull them back together. Well, there is one person, but she could hardly make herself get out of bed.

Losing Sera hit the group hard, the loss of their Queen was something they weren't prepared for. But it hit Bea the hardest, her mind was in shambles. She couldn't even think straight, the grief was just too overwhelming.

In the first two weeks she tried everything, but she couldn't even find the place where Sera was kept. She caught soldiers, Evolved, anyone who might know. She tortured them until they screamed, but none answered her questions.

In the end she went into her room and never left it. Faith made sure that she ate, but that was it.

She opened her Watch and tried to look at Sera's status, but there was nothing. They destroyed her Watch. The first time Bea saw the missing window, she ran out of The Bunker and came back two days later, covered from head to toe in monster blood.

Her soul was fully saturated after the Battle of Hold, but that didn't stop her from killing more creatures. She got a lot of items since then, but gave away all of it to others. She only needed her sword.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, she didn't even look at it. There was only one person who would come here.

Faith opened the door and walked in. There was a tray in her hand with food on it. She put it down and took the one from yesterday. She lingered in the door looking at Bea, after some debating she said.

"You know, Queen Seraphine wouldn't want you to just lay there and do nothing. Her people are fighting each other in her own house. And you as her lover just letting it happen." Faith's words were harsh but true.

"Get out." Was all Bea said, she didn't even look at Faith.

With a sigh Faith said. "I wanted to save her, but Nightmare would've killed us all! You have to start live with the truth, she is gone and we can't save her."

"Get out." Bea didn't raise her voice, it was just emotionless.

Faith moved out the door and said one word before shutting it. "Coward."

'Coward. Yes... yes I am...'

With a sigh she got up and began eating. Her thoughts were becoming clearer.

'Coward. Yes, I am. But what can I do... I can't even save the person I love...'

The food was disappearing quickly from her plate, seems like she was hungrier than she thought.

'Coward. Yes, I am. But why? Shouldn't I keep trying? Maybe I can still save her, there must be something I haven't thought of.'

She finished her meal and was now sitting in total stillness.

'Coward. No... Not anymore... I won't give up!'

Suddenly she jumped to her feet and walked into the bathroom. She stopped in front of the mirror, her face was gaunt from sleepless nights.

"I am not a coward. I know what to do. But first lets bring this shithole back under control."

Bea took a shower and made herself presentable, then with a dignity of a leader she left her room the first time in weeks.

-In the conference room-

Lucy was in a heated conversation with Hellfire about how to proceed. They just couldn't seem to keep the place together.

Faith was trying her hardest to find a solution, but simply couldn't. She was a Devout Shadow without anyone to follow. Shadows can't exist without the objects casting them.

Even worse she knew who could solve their problem, but she was just hiding in her room, trying to not think of their own reality.

Faith wanted nothing more than to go and save Sera, but that was just simply impossible until their own house is in chaos.

"Lucy, listen to me. If we accept their reasoning we are no better than Nightmare. We can't compromise with anarchists!"

"No you listen to me! We can't go on much longer like this, are food stores are already diminishing faster then we anticipated! We need peace in The Bunker, so we can establish hunting parties!"

This back and forth had been going on for multiple days now. The food would last them about a week with the current consumption.

It wouldn't be a big issue, if they were one group with one leader. But currently there was 4 groups in The Bunker and the worst of them, the so called anarchists lived in the water treatment plant. They keep it hostage, making threats of destroying it if the other groups don't bow down to them.

'They just want to reestablish slavery, but with them as slavers!'

Faith really wanted to hunt and kill all of them, but the others forbade her.

'If Bea would come back, this would be solved in no time. She was a great leader...'

Her thoughts suddenly stopped as Bea walked into the room. Everyone was shocked and all the conversations stopped.

Bea looked around the room then sat down in her chair, next Sera's empty one. Then she smiled and said.

"So who's going to brief me about The Bunker's situation?"

The people were still stunned so Faith spoke first.

"Are you back or this is just another game for you?"

Bea furrowed her brows in anger, but soon got her emotions under control.

"Yes, I'm back. Now lets get to work, we have a lot to do!"