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[ E D I T E D ]

♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 26//: A single tear to grieve ♕✿~♕✿~

As darkness enveloped everyone, screams erupted from everywhere, making my ears ring and my heart race.

I couldn't see anything in front of me, and I feel myself get blindly pushed around by the party goers running away in fear. The suddenly tense atmosphere makes me shake slightly as I try to run away as well, not caring where I'm going just as long as it was away from this ball room.

Suddenly, the lights weakly flicker back on, and though a second ago I was wishing to see, I immediately take that wish back.

Out of shock, I stop running and come to a slow stop. My breaths become shorter as my eyes roam around quickly, taking in the splatters of the silver blood, the broken champagne glasses on the floor, and the 4 bodies lying unmoving on the floor.

I see Kaley Welle screaming and crying over the body of a man. I realize with horror that the man is wearing the green and gold colors of House Welle. Kaley knows this man. He's her family. Brother? Uncle? Cousin? These thoughts rush through me as I choke back a sob.

A weeping woman crashes into me, not looking forward through her grief. I trip on the hem of my dress and fall down on the ground of this death room. I land face to face with a sickeningly familiar face: Fiona's father. I saw him only a couple of days ago, alive and angry while yelling at me. Now, his black eyes which strikes fear in many is deathly empty. A bullet wound is on his head, the wound leaking silver blood. He died immediately.

I hear a high pitched scream and pity the person crying over another loved one, but realize the sound is coming from me as I realize I am facing a dead man. I clumsily push myself up but slip on the silver blood I am surrounded in. I feel a sharp pain from my hand and look on in ghastly disgust as red blood seeps from the glass cut from my hand, mixing with the silver blood to create something darker.

"Madison!" I feel myself get hauled up by someone, but I can't look away from Fiona's father. I let the person drag me away from the blood shed as guards rush up to the alcove, shouting that the rebels are up there.

I see the person drag me to a set of stairs leading down to a metal door. I mindlessly move my legs down the steps and see a man in a sentinel outfit. He's one of the king's personal guards. I see this guard flick his hand, and the metal door in front of me gapes open, showing me that it leads to something like a safe room.

He's a magnetron. I just saw his relative dead. I can only think these things as the person leads me into the room and towards a stiff bed. I plop down on it, staring at a group of the Chosen huddled in the center of the room, trying to convince a crying Chosen that everything will be ok. I recognize the weeping girl as Kaley. She weeps for her dead family member.

"Madison? Madison?" The voice calls out to me again. It sounds faint, like I can ignore it, but I tear my eyes away from Kaley and face the voice.

I'm met by the sight of grey eyes. Ahren. He's holding me at arm's length, his brows furrowed in concern and the corners of his lip pulled down in a frown. I see his mouth move, but his words don't reach my ears.

I see him beckon to someone, and I recognize the face of Nick as he stares at me sadly and kneels in front of me. He grabs my hand, and I feel a familiar rush as Nick heals me, erasing the scars and scabs accrued over the years. But he can only heal me physically; he can never heal the pain I feel after witnessing everything that I have just witnessed.

"Madison?" Ahren's voice is soft now as he looks at me. I take in a shaky breath as I try to speak, but my mouth and throat are so dry.

"A-ahren." I say his name weakly as a single tear escapes from me. A tear to grieve for the dead. A tear to grieve for Kaley. A tear to grieve for the weeping woman. A tear to grieve for the child who was crying and telling the dead body on the floor to wake up.

A tear to grieve for the loss of my innocence.

Ahren lets out an exhale. "Thank goodness," he murmurs as he pulls me into a hug. It's tight, desperate, and makes me feel shocked. Slowly, I let my arms wrap around his neck as he continues to cradle me, telling me that everything will be fine.

After a couple of minutes, or hours, or possibly seconds, Ahren lets me go and stares at me, unblinking. I stare back at him, taking in his appearance. He no longer has the air of playfulness he had only a couple of minutes ago up in the ballroom. His black hair is disheveled, and his mask lays messily on his face.

I start as I feel Ahren's hand touch my cheek ever so gently. "Are you ok, Madison? Why did you come to the ball?" Ahren asks me, but then shakes his head. "Never mind, you don't need to answer that."

I stay still as Ahren reaches behind me and pulls off the mask that hides my face. He lays the mask on the covers of the bed, and I notice that silver blood taints the once beautiful mask.

I grimace as I look at the mask, deciding to look away quickly. I look down at myself to see blood, both red and silver, on my dress that my maids worked so hard on. My hands are covered in the liquid as well. I try to keep down the bile rising in my throat, and do so barely.

"Madison!" The wail of this voice makes me look up and jump from the bed. I see Rose and Addaline make their way towards me. Rose stops and stares as Nick quickly gets up from where he was sitting on the floor. The two suddenly rush towards each other and fall in a heap on the floor, hugging and crying. I see Nick whisper words into Rose's ears, caressing her hair ever so gently.

Addaline reaches me and quickly gives me a hug. We let go of each other, and Addaline grabs my hands in worry as she faces me.

"Madison, I'm glad you're okay. I won't question why you're here, but I'm glad you are. At least we can wait out this attack together," Addaline tells me, and I notice her voice waver a bit.

I nod my head in agreement. "Addaline, you aren't hurt are you?" I ask her. She shakes her head at me.

Ahren clears his throat from where he stands by the end of the bed. "Madison, I have to go and get these damn rebels." His eyes darken as he says the word rebels. "I'm not going to let them escape." He looks at Addaline. "Please keep her safe, Lady Addaline."

Addalines nods her head. "Of course, Your Highness" Ahren gives a curt nod and turns to leave, beckoning to a couple of Sentinels stationed around the room to follow him. I watch as they all leave the room.

Rose and Nick disentangle themselves from each other, and Rose approaches me with tear-filled eyes. She and I hug each other tightly before we let go of each other, and Rose comes to sit with me and Addaline.

"I'm glad you're all okay. I don't know what I would do if one of you guys d-d-died." Rose struggles to say the last word, and I see Fiona's father when Rose mentions death.

"I just...Was that the Scarlet Guard?" I ask in confusion. I've never heard of the Scarlet Guard attacking a royal ball.

Addaline seems sure as she shakes her head. "No, the Scarlet Guard only attacks empty buildings. Their goal is not to hurt innocents without reason."

I gulp as an idea of who this might have been comes to mind. "The Rogue Dawn," I find myself whisper.

Addaline and Rose furrow their eyebrows at me. "I'm sorry?" Rose asks questioningly.

I look up at them, my eyes widening a bit. "The Rogue Dawn. They're....another rebel group. The king hasn't mentioned them ever, but they send videos to the royal family. Of them....killing." I shudder as I say this. "Their goal is to kill all Silvers and have Reds rule over. But, to suddenly make an appearance at a ball like this..." I trail off. It did make sense to attack when there were so many important Silvers attending this ball. I think back to Theron. I hope he's all right. My mind rushes back to the 4 bodies I had seen lying on the floor. There were two males, one female, and a child. I shudder involuntarily as I think of them.

"Well, whoever it was, I'm sure will get caught. The Silvers definitely won't allow this to pass," Addaline says. Rose and I nod our head in agreement, but I can't find it in me to care if these people get caught. It made me feel bad, but I could only think that we should take our time to properly grieve for the dead. Then, we could do investigations to find these people. Justice would be served.

But Silvers don't think like that. They will want immediate revenge for their dead brothers and sisters.

I furrow my eyebrows as I realize one person missing. "Where's Tara?"

The looks of regret and sadness on Addaline's and Rose's faces make me let out a sob. No. No, this couldn't have happened. She's too young. But I get all the confirmation I need when Addaline makes eye contact with me.

I bury my head in my hands as I think back to the body of the woman I saw. She was wearing a pink dress. Just like Tara. But why? Why was she shot?

None of this made any sense, especially in my state of grief. Tara was gone. Killed for perhaps no reason except for being Silver. Fiona lost her father today. Even though we were never on good terms, I still felt sympathy for Fiona. Her father wouldn't return to her tonight. The other man and the child: people who love them have lost them tonight.

I hold back more sobs. Tonight was supposed to be fun, extravagant, and entertaining. Not deadly, a night for tears.

Rose and Addaline have their own tears streaking down their face. But they try to hold them back. We wordlessly agree that we all need a hug, and we stay on the bed in a group hug, trying to convince ourselves this is not the world we live in.

Soon after, I feel the pull of sleep beckon me. I let it take over my body, and darkness takes over my vision as I fall asleep in the hands of my best friends and the sounds of grief and misery.

~♚♡♚♡~

I'm shaken awake, and my eyes flutter open. I hear no more tears from the Chosen girls, but instead rustling. I push myself up on the bed and out of the grasps of Rose and Addaline, and see that the Chosen girls have tried to settle to sleep on the cots of the safe room.

I see the outline of Ahren standing over my bed. He has bits of dried blood on his legionnaire outfit and he looks tired and angry at the same time.

"Madison. I've just come back with the other guards after searching for the rebels." I wait for him to tell me if he has captured them, but he moves on. "My father is going to make an announcement to the other Silvers in the ballroom. He'd like all of the Chosen girls to be there," Ahren informs me.

I nod, having no energy to disobey the king's order, and stand on shaky legs. Ahren looks like he's about to move on to go wake up the other girls, but then he stops. He suddenly engulfs me in a hug, and I blink, surprised, before holding him in a hug as well.

"I'm just so glad you're okay, Madison," he whispers so softly that I almost miss it. He quickly lets me go and walks to the cot next to mine, waking up another girl.

I look at him for a moment before turning around to wake up Addaline and Rose. As they wake up, I whisper ever so softly:

"I'm glad you're okay too, Ahren."

♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~

Happy Thanksgiving week you guys

For me, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I was originally planning to update AFTER Thanksgiving, but decided to update as my thank-you to you guys. I just want to say I'm so thankful for all you readers who are reading my book and commenting/voting. You all make my day when I see you guys vote, comment, or just read my book. I can't thank you enough.

This chapter was originally supposed to go on a bit longer, but that sentence Madison says just seemed like a perfect way to end the chapter so I decided to do just that.

I'm honestly a bit speechless because The Choosing is so close to 3k reads! I can't believe this book got that much reads and I'm just so thankful to you guys. Also, The Choosing is #129 in General Fiction! I know that may not seem like such a big deal to some of you guys, but it just makes me happy that The Choosing has a rank :)

IMPORTANT:

Also, if you haven't noticed, I changed the cover. Since this is going to be a series (if you didn't know before, now you do), I wanted the covers of each book to look similar. I also added pictures of some of the main characters! So now there are pictures of Madison, Alexis, Rose, Addaline, Ahren, etc. You can find these pictures starting from Chapter 3 of this book.

Anyways, have a great Thanksgiving and week everyone!

Glass_Sword