Lore [2/???] (Patreon)

His gaze is blank as he stares at her.

His gaze is blank as he stares at her.

Florence feels the all-too-familiar hate curling in her belly, the rancid twist that occurred the second he turned Silas against her.

"He'll never forgive you," Jeong says. He doesn't sound like he's begging - simply stating a fact.

Florence glances behind Jeong, sensing о⃥н̸ с̸а⃥м̸ more than seeing Him. He's out there somewhere, waiting in the pines.

"Silas is dead to us," Florence replies. "He was lost the moment you took him to that train station. No - the moment you two conspired against me."

Jeong rolls his eyes - so that's where Silas picked up the habit. "I sent him to college; that isn't conspiring. Besides," he continues, not even glancing behind him when the undergrowth shifts, branches cracking. "I didn't mean Silas won't forgive you."

Florence's eyes narrow.

"Your golden son won't forgive you," Jeong grins.

Florence flinches at the very real fact that Xavier would never allow this…

If he knew.

The creeping vines slithering from the woods encircle Jeong's ankles. Florence watches them, unmoved. "Any last words, Jeong Cheon?"

Jeong grins a dark, hateful thing. "Oh, Florence. I can't wait to see you again, stuck in these woods with me. With all of your victims."

And then the woods pull Jeong into their dark depths, the vines snapping him to the ground and dragging him away.

His laughter cuts off after an abrupt smack of flesh on wood.

Florence swallows and watches the foggy depths, waiting.

But nothing happens. No sound breaks the unnatural quiet.

With forced calm, Florence Deerly turns her back to the trees and returns to the campus.