Consequences

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

She awoke to every nerve on fire, to a pain that seemed to overtake her very self and drowned out her existence until only the agony remained. Charlotte screamed. Raw, primal, and unrestrained.

It was only as the pain subsided, leaving her with the grotesque after tingle of the electricity coursing through her that the rebel regained enough sense of self to wonder if she should be ashamed of the sound that had left her, and just as quickly decided that she wasn't. She wasn't supposed to be alive, after all. She was already dead. All that was left was a shell clinging to life because it hadn't the good sense to realize that its purpose was never going to be fulfilled, that while it wasn't an utter and complete failure, the hard stop had come far too short of the intended destination.

As much as she'd given up, cashed in all debts and chits, and gone for broke - she'd survived when all she had wanted was a gruesome end. Which means Charlotte Tur'enne was somehow, despite everything, still very much herself. And yet... Not if her fiery gaze that slowly focused on the women who had demanded her consciousness was anything to go by.

"Wretch?" She croaked out from chapped lips and bloodied teeth. "That's all you got? For your brother's killer?"

The stifled laugh turned into a cough far too quickly. "Kriff... That's sad."