Slap
The sound cracked through the room like a whip.
Selena's head snapped violently to the side as pain exploded across her face. The force behind the blow was brutal so strong that her skin burned instantly, fingers imprinting themselves clearly against her cheek. A thin line of blood welled where the skin had broken, trickling slowly downward. Her face flushed an angry red, heat radiating from the impact.
Yet Selena didn't cry out.
She didn't lift her head nor look back.
She simply stood there, tears spilling silently from her eyes, accepting the strike without resistance as if she believed she deserved every ounce of it.
Nova's hand trembled as she lowered it.
"I never imagined you could do something like this," Nova said, her voice shaking, raw with fury. "Never."
Her chest rose and fell unevenly, breath sharp, unsteady. Rage, grief, guilt every emotion she had tried to suppress came crashing together, twisting inside her until she could barely tell one from another.
