A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 114: Coward (2)

"Stop ignoring me, Serena." Liz spat out, suddenly appearing before her in its small bird form. "I know you are hearing what I’m saying."

Serena finally faced the system and muttered, "And yet you can’t take a hint to drop things. Can you not see that I’m busy here?"

"What? Burying those feelings and hiding away from it all under the guise of doing something else." Liz snapped, dropped to the ground in front of Serena and shifting into a snake. "This is why you’re a coward! You can’t deal with your emotions and rather hide from them."

"You don’t know anything..." Serena narrowed her eyes, annoyance beginning to creep in.

"Hah! That’s what you think." Liz hissed, its forked tongue flickering out. "But you and I are more similar than you think. I know you’d rather cover your eyes and ears and pretend like nothing happened. Like you don’t feel anything."

Her heart was beginning to race, her breath hitching at the words for a second. But she quickly took deep breaths, trying to block the words. And the heavy truth they held.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about." Serena murmured. "Now if you’re not going to be helpful, stay out of my way. I’m a little busy with something if you haven’t noticed."

"Tsk! There you go again." Liz chuckled sarcastically. "Just like I said."

"Drop it Liz. I don’t want to hear it." Serena warned. "You’re not my therapist, so don’t like it."

"You’re right I’m not... But that doesn’t mean I won’t speak my mind." Liz retorted. "You’re so used to pushing everyone away that you can’t handle someone calling out your nonsense. Something that you need to have done. Otherwise, this cycle will never end."

The cracks Serena was trying to mend inside her were widening with every word, agreeing with Liz’s every word. She clenched her fists until she drew blood, hoping the pain would distract her.

Tear her away from the wave building up in her and threatening to tear everything apart. Threatening to expose what lay deep within her.

Liz seemed to realize it was getting somewhere as it continued, "Why can’t you acknowledge what’s buried within you? Why let it fester so much? We both know it’ll only end in more regrets. A wish that you had done something sooner."

"Enough!" Serena screamed before adding in a smaller voice, "Please..."

If she let it out, she knew she would break. It had already festered too much for her to bear and all she could do now was bury it deeper. If she let it out...

She would lose her mind, unable to face herself.

"Serena... You’re not a monster." Liz suddenly said in a softer tone, laying its head on her in an attempt to comfort her.

"You don’t know that..." Serena spat out, anger bursting through her. "You haven’t seen the things I’ve done. What I was willing to do to survive."

Liz didn’t understand that she had willingly killed many. Destroyed families. Used and betrayed others. All in the name of surviving. Perhaps it was why she felt so much hatred towards Mark. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Not just because he was meant to be her lover, the one person she could trust completely. No. It was because the universe finally gave her a taste of her own medicine.

Made her understand what she had done to others. And for that, she was a monster deserving of hell.

"Maybe you’re right that I don’t understand everything." Liz mused. "But I do know that you’re not some heartless monster. Otherwise would you even be going through this torment? Be regretting your actions? A heartless monster would never do that.

"They’d continue to torment others, use them as they need and toss them away with they’re useless without a second thought. That’s not how you’re acting as much as you’re like to label yourself a heartless monster. No, You’re a coward that can’t face what they’ve done."

Serena wasn’t sure how to respond to such words. But she knew Liz was only saying them to make her feel better. If Liz knew what she had done, they wouldn’t even be talking now.

Liz would run away like everyone else. Look at her with disgust.

Mark’s face as he revealed the truth to her moments before she died suddenly flashed before her eyes. She wondered how long he felt that way, how he was able to hold back his disgust for her.

She was barely able to do that and yet he’d managed to do it for so long.

"Serena, I’m not sure what exactly’s going on in that head of yours, but one thing I can say for sure is that you need to pull it out of the sand." Liz continued. "You need to face the wrongs you’ve committed and perhaps in this life do penance for the sins you committed in the past."

"Penance?" Serena furrowed her eyebrows.

"You help one person for every person you wronged in your past life." Liz explained. "Not because it’ll benefit you in any way, but because it’s the right thing to do. Perhaps then your soul can be more at ease."

Serena could see where Liz was going with this and while she wanted to agree that it was probably a good thing to do, there was one problem with it.

"I don’t know right from wrong any more." Serena murmured. "How can I help others when I barely know if I’m helping or not?"

"Well, I guess we’ll have to figure that out along the way." Liz responded. "Perhaps that is how we’ll pay for the crimes we committed in our past life."

"Perhaps..." Serena mused. "But what crimes have you committed?"

Liz gazed at her with sad eyes before it finally answered, "I was a pushover who allowed others to bully the ones I was meant to protect. All so I wouldn’t get hurt."

And it was with those words that Serena finally understood whose soul was used.

The original owner.