Chapter 377: Emily, Please Forgive Me

April buried her face into the curve of Emily’s neck, heedless of the thick crimson staining her skin and hair. She was a woman who had finally found her family, only to have her torn away in the most monstrous, calculated way possible.

The piercing wail of approaching sirens cut through the heavy evening air. Within minutes, red and blue lights flashed violently against the sand.

Police vehicles and an ambulance screeched to a halt along the boardwalk, and armed officers alongside medics rushed down the beach toward the bloody scene.

"Ma’am! Step away from the victim! Let the paramedics work!" an officer shouted as the medical team hurried forward with a gurney.

"Don’t touch her!" April shrieked, her hollow eyes snapping wide, flashing with a sudden, wild desperation.

When a medic reached out to take Emily’s shoulder, April lashed out, shoving him backward into the sand.

"GET AWAY FROM HER! DON’T TOUCH MY SISTER!" she screamed, her voice echoing over the crashing waves like a wounded animal protecting its young.

"April, wait—" Nat stepped forward, his hands raised, his dark eyes filled with absolute, helpless agony as he tried to reach her. "You have to let us—"

"NO!"

Sensing the overwhelming threat of the crowd, the flashing lights, and the hands reaching to tear Emily away from her, April’s mind snapped into pure, primal survival. She didn’t want the police. She didn’t want the medics. She didn’t want the world.

She just wanted to hide.

With a single, silent command, the spatial dimension opened beneath them. A faint, shimmering ripple distorted the air around April and Emily’s body—and in the blink of an eye, both of them vanished into thin air right before the horrified eyes of the police, the medics, and her men.

She had finally used the door. But to think the first time she would, would be in such a situation where she felt the entire world was caving in on her.

Inside the boundless, quiet sanctuary of her spatial dimension, the frantic noise of the outside world ceased entirely. There were no sirens, no flashing lights, no blood-soaked sand—only the soft, endless expanse of her safe haven.

April collapsed onto the cool ground, still clutching Emily tightly to her chest.

She curled her body around her sister’s cooling frame, pressing her forehead against Emily’s pale, unmoving cheek, and wept. She cried so loudly until her throat burned, until her lungs thrashed for air, her broken apologies echoing endlessly into the silent void.

"I’m sorry... Emily, please forgive me... please..."

Outside on the blood-stained beach, absolute chaos erupted the moment April and Emily’s body vanished into thin air.

The police officers drew their sidearms, shouting in sheer confusion as they backed away from the empty patch of sand. Tourists screamed, cameras flashed, and paramedics stood frozen, staring blankly at the empty space where two identical women had been kneeling just a second ago.

"Where did she go?! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" an officer yelled, raising his radio with a trembling hand.

"Shut up," Nat growled, his voice a low, terrifying rasp that carried enough raw violence to instantly silence the panicked officers.

Nat took two steps forward, staring down at the blood-soaked sand where April’s knees had rested moments before. His hands shook violently, his jaw clenched so hard the muscles in his face stood out like iron cords.

Without warning, he turned and slammed his fist full-force into the reinforced concrete pillar of the boardwalk pavilion.

CRACK.

The concrete shattered under the impact, webbed fractures spidering outward as blood welled from Nat’s torn knuckles. He didn’t even flinch.

"Dammit!" Nat roared, his chest heaving as he turned back to the others, his eyes wild and bloodshot. "Find her! I don’t care if you have to tear this entire damn coastline apart, FIND HER!"

"Collins, calm down!" Xavier snapped, though his heart was beating wildly as he tried to maintain a grip on his calm demeanor. "Lashing out at the air won’t bring her back!"

"She’s not on this earth, Nat," Oliver said softly, his raspy voice cutting through the panic with chilling, clinical certainty.

Every head snapped toward the doctor. Oliver stood completely still, his wire-rimmed glasses slightly askew, his dark eyes fixed on the empty sand. The white cuffs of his shirt were still stained with Emily’s blood.

"What do you mean she’s not on this earth?!" Alexander demanded, his voice cracking as tears streamed unchecked down his young face. "She was right here! She couldn’t have just—"

"Her spatial dimension," Oliver interrupted quietly, taking off his glasses to wipe them with a trembling hand. "She retreated into her dimension. I have studied it enough to identify the ripples just by looking at it. Just as the surface distorted when she was retreating items into the dimension, she and Emily had the same ripple." He tilted his glasses up. "I would assume she retreated there because it is the only place in existence where she feels entirely safe right now... and the only place where no one can touch her or her sister."

A suffocating, heavy silence fell over the group.

"Then how do we get her out?!" Nat demanded, grabbing Oliver by the front of his blood-stained shirt, pulling him close. "You’re the smart one, Doctor! How do we break in?!"

"We can’t," Oliver replied flatly, making no move to push Nat away. "It is a pocket reality governed entirely by her mind. There is no physical doorway. There are no coordinates to track. Unless April chooses to open that door from the inside... she is entirely untouchable."

Nat slowly let go of Oliver’s shirt, stumbling back a step as the agonizing reality set in.

"So what you’re saying..." Alexander whispered, his voice trembling with sheer horror, "...is that while she is in there, completely broken, crying over her sister’s body... we just have to sit back and do nothing?"

"We do not sit back," a cold, gravelly voice interjected from behind them.

Samuel stepped forward out of the shadow of the boardwalk. His dark eyes burned with an absolute, terrifying malice that made even Nat pause.

"Miss April is taking the time she needs to process an unimaginable trauma," Samuel murmured, his voice dropping into a register so dark it sent a shiver straight down Alexander’s spine. "Our duty is not to stand here wringing our hands like helpless children."

Samuel turned his head, looking toward the far end of the crowded boardwalk where Liora had disappeared into the fleeing crowd moments ago.

"The threat must be eliminated," Samuel stated with absolute, unyielding precision. "When Miss April steps out of that dimension, she must not be forced to waste a single breath hunting down the trash that broke her heart. We will hunt Liora down. We will bring her back alive... and we will present her to Miss April on her knees."

Nat’s face hardened, a cruel, vicious smirk breaking through his grief as his eyes ignited with pure black-market vengeance. "For once, Steward... I completely agree with you."