Chapter 445: Dark Place

Third-person POV

Electra sat at the edge of her bed, her elbows resting on her knees as her gaze stayed fixed on nothing in particular. The room was quiet, but her mind was anything but. Thoughts kept moving around in her head without settling, each one pushing against the other like they were all trying to be heard at once, yet none of them made enough sense for her to hold onto.

The name "Solara" echoed louder than the rest, along with everything she had been told about her mother, about her death, about the fact that her very existence had been the reason for it. It was a lot to take in, and for someone who prided herself on being in control of everything, especially her own emotions, the confusion she felt now, amongst everything else, was something she didn't know how to deal with.

She leaned back slightly, letting out a quiet breath as she tried to organize her thoughts in a way that wouldn't make her feel like she was drowning in them. What exactly was she supposed to do with the information she had just gotten? Knowing who her mother was didn't change anything. Knowing how she died didn't change anything either, and yet, for some reason, it felt like it did. It felt like something had shifted inside her, something she couldn't quite put into words, and that alone was enough to frustrate her even more.

She hated not understanding what was going on with herself, and right now, she understood nothing.

Just as she was about to push herself to think harder, to force her thoughts into some kind of order, a knock on the door broke the silence in her room. The sound was loud enough to pull her out of her head immediately, and she let out a small sigh, dragging a hand through her messy hair as she stood up from the bed. She didn't bother asking who it was. She didn't care enough to. Whoever it was could either come in or leave, and she wasn't in the mood to entertain anyone anyway.

She walked over to the door slowly, her steps leaving faint, dried marks behind her, and as soon as she pulled the door open, her eyes landed on the three figures standing outside. Irina stood in front, her expression sharp and observant as always, Penelope stood slightly behind her with a look that shifted between concern and confusion, and Roxana… Roxana stood off to the side, her arms crossed as she looked like she would rather be anywhere else but there.

Electra's brows lifted slightly, not hiding her surprise at the sight of all three of them together, especially Roxana. For a brief second, she said nothing, simply stepping aside and leaving the door open as an unspoken invitation for them to come in. She didn't have the energy to question it right away.

Irina was the first to step inside, her eyes scanning Electra from head to toe before she even fully crossed the doorway. "You look like shit," she said without hesitation, her tone blunt as always. "Did you get any sleep at all, or did you just decide to stay up and ruin yourself completely?"

Electra didn't respond immediately. She just closed the door behind them and walked further into the room, not even bothering to defend herself. The moment the others stepped in fully, their attention shifted from her to the state of the room, and it didn't take long before they noticed what she had clearly ignored.

The floor.

There were faint but noticeable bloody footprints trailing from the bathroom to the middle of the room, and once Penelope's eyes followed that trail, they quickly dropped to Electra's feet. The moment she saw the dried blood and the small cuts that still hadn't fully healed, her expression changed completely.

"What the fuck?" Penelope blurted out, her voice louder than before as she stepped closer, her eyes wide with shock. "Why are you bleeding? Did you hurt yourself? What even happened here?"

At the same time, Irina had already started moving toward the bathroom, her gaze sharp as she followed the trail without saying a word. She pushed the door open, and the moment she saw the inside, her entire expression shifted into something much more serious. Glass shards were scattered all over the floor, mixed with dried blood that made it clear that whatever had happened, it hadn't been small or accidental.

She stood there for a moment, taking it in, before turning around and walking back into the room. Her eyes immediately found Electra again, and this time, there was no trace of casual tone in her voice when she spoke.

"What the hell happened to you?" Irina asked, her brows furrowed as she gestured toward the bathroom. "Why is there glass all over your floor, and why are you walking around like you don't even feel the fact that you're bleeding?"

Electra let out a slow sigh, her shoulders dropping slightly as she ran a hand through her hair again. "I'm really not in the mood to answer questions right now," she said, her voice low but firm. "My head is already hurting enough without having to explain things I don't even feel like explaining."

There was a brief silence after that, the kind that carried tension with it, but it didn't last long before Roxana, who had been quiet the entire time, finally spoke up. Her voice was calm, but there was something in it that made it clear she was paying more attention than she was letting on.

"Did you fight with someone?" Roxana asked, her eyes narrowing slightly as she studied Electra's face. "Because the Electra I know only ends up like this when she's had a serious argument with someone… or something."

Electra scoffed at that, the sound sharp and dismissive as she turned her head slightly to look at her. "You're the first people I've seen this morning," she replied, her tone dry. "So unless I somehow argued with myself, I don't think that's it."

Her gaze lingered on Roxana for a second longer before her brows furrowed slightly, as if something just clicked in her mind. "Actually," she added, her tone shifting just a bit, "what are you even doing here? I thought you made it very clear that you don't like this version of me that doesn't remember anything."

Roxana rolled her eyes immediately, clearly unimpressed by the question, but she didn't get the chance to respond before Irina spoke instead.

"I brought her," Irina said simply, crossing her arms as she looked at Electra. "Because whether you like it or not, we all need to talk, and she's part of that, but before we get into anything, you need to either tell us what's going on with you or, at the very least, clean yourself up because this…" She gestured vaguely at Electra's entire state. "is not something we're just going to ignore."

Penelope nodded quickly in agreement, still looking at Electra like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "She's right," she added, her voice softer but still firm. "You're bleeding, Electra. Like, actually bleeding, and you're just standing here acting like it's nothing."

Electra looked down at her feet for a moment, as if only now remembering that the cuts were there, before letting out another sigh. "It is nothing," she muttered, though her voice lacked its usual confidence.

Irina didn't look convinced. "No, it's not," she replied immediately. "You don't get to decide that when you're leaving a trail of blood behind you like you just walked out of a crime scene."

That made Electra let out a small, humorless chuckle, though there was no real amusement behind it. She walked past them slowly, heading back toward the bed before sitting down again, her posture slightly slouched in a way that wasn't normal for her.

"You're all being dramatic," she said, though even she didn't sound fully convinced by her own words. "It's just glass, and I stepped on it. It's not a big deal."

"Why was there glass in the first place?" Irina asked immediately, not letting it go.

Electra didn't answer right away. She just stared ahead again, her expression hard to read as the silence stretched for a few seconds. When she finally spoke, her voice was quieter than before.

"I broke the mirror," she said simply.

"Why?" Penelope asked, her voice softer now, more careful.

Electra hesitated, just for a moment, before letting out another slow breath. "Because I was tired of seeing something I didn't want to see," she replied, her tone vague but serious enough to carry meaning.

Irina's eyes narrowed slightly, clearly trying to understand what she meant, but before she could press further, Electra leaned back slightly and closed her eyes for a brief moment.

"I said I'm not in the mood for questions," she added, her voice firm again, though there was something under it that hadn't been there before. "So either drop it… or give me a minute to at least clean this up so you don't have to keep staring at it."