Chapter 481: Episode 479: She’s gone crazy.

Roxy stepped off the curb and right into the path of the giant truck.

She kept her green eyes shut tight. She could hear the huge engine roaring like a hungry monster. The loud horn blasted so hard that it made her ears ring and her teeth shake. She could feel the heavy wind pushing against her face.

This is it, she thought. This is the big shock. In just one second, everything will go dark, and then I will wake up in my real home. I will open my eyes and see my babies again.

She let out a long breath and waited for the crash.

But the crash never came.

Instead of the heavy metal truck hitting her, something else slammed into her side. It was incredibly fast. Two strong arms wrapped tightly around her waist. She was lifted right off her feet. It felt like she was flying through the air, but it happened in the blink of an eye.

They hit the hard, gray concrete together. Roxy felt the rough ground scrape against her arms and her bare legs. They rolled over and over on the dirty street, tumbling away from the danger.

Right behind them, the giant truck zoomed past. It was so close that the strong wind from the tires whipped Roxy’s dark hair around her face. The driver slammed on the brakes, making a terrible, loud screeching sound that smelled like burning rubber.

Roxy and the person holding her finally stopped rolling. They were lying in the middle of the road, just a few inches away from the sidewalk.

Roxy was dizzy. Her head was spinning, and her elbows stung from hitting the hard ground. But before she could even open her eyes, she felt the person holding her pull her even closer. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

It was Syris.

The Swamp King was hugging her so hard that she could barely breathe. He had his face buried in her neck. He was holding onto her like she was the only thing keeping him from falling off the edge of the world.

Syris was always the calm one. He never panicked. He never yelled. He always looked perfect and cool, no matter what bad things were happening.

But right now, Syris was completely falling apart. His whole body was shaking violently. He was trembling so hard that his teeth were actually chattering. His nice, expensive clothes were torn and covered in street dirt, but he didn’t care at all.

"Roxy," Syris gasped. His voice didn’t sound smooth and fancy anymore. It sounded broken and full of pure terror. "Oh, thank the heavens. I have you. I have you."

All around them, the busy street suddenly stopped. Cars slammed on their brakes. People walking on the sidewalk dropped their shopping bags and ran over.

"Oh my goodness!" a lady screamed, covering her mouth with her hands.

"Are you okay?" a man yelled, running up to them. "That truck almost hit you! Call an ambulance!"

Roxy slowly opened her eyes.

She saw the bright, ugly streetlights of the human city. She smelled the stinky car exhaust. She saw the tall glass buildings trapping her in a world she did not want to be in.

She was still here.

The plan had failed. The big shock didn’t happen because Syris had pulled her away. She was completely stuck on Earth, and her babies were still an entire universe away.

A hot, heavy wave of anger boiled up inside her tummy. It wasn’t just a little bit of anger. It was a giant, exploding volcano of mad feelings. She was so heartbroken and so tired of being kept away from her family.

Syris pulled back just a tiny bit to look at her face. His green eyes were red. He reached up a shaky hand to gently touch her cheek, just to make sure she was really alive and safe.

"You are safe now," Syris whispered, trying to catch his breath. "I won’t let anything hurt you."

Instead of thanking him for saving her life, Roxy felt her anger take over.

She put both of her hands on his chest and pushed him back. She used all of her strength. She pushed him so hard that he fell backward onto the rough street.

Syris looked at her with wide, confused eyes. He didn’t understand why she was fighting him. He had just saved her.

Roxy sat up on her knees. Her chest was moving up and down very fast. She was breathing so hard she felt like she might pass out. She looked at Syris sitting on the ground. She didn’t care that he was crying. She didn’t care that he had just risked his own life to pull her out of the way of the truck.

All she cared about was that he had ruined her only way out.

She lifted her right hand up high in the air.

Roxy slapped him. She slapped him straight across the face as hard as she possibly could.

The sound of the slap was so loud that the people standing around them actually gasped and took a step back. It echoed in the noisy street.

Syris’s head snapped to the side. A bright red handprint instantly bloomed on his pale cheek. He stayed perfectly still, completely shocked. He didn’t move to touch his face. He just slowly turned his head back to look at her. His eyes were wide with hurt and total confusion.

"Roxy?" he whispered, his voice shaking even more now.

"Always thwarting my chances to return!" Roxy screamed at the very top of her lungs.

She didn’t hold anything back. She let out all the frustration, all the sadness, and all the awful pain that had been crushing her chest for months. She screamed so loud it hurt her throat.

"I just want to go home!" Roxy yelled, crying hot, angry tears that streamed down her dirty face. "I just want to see my babies! Why won’t you let me go?! You always ruin everything!"

Syris stared at her. The words hit him much harder than the slap. He finally realized she hadn’t just tripped and fallen into the road. She had stepped out there on purpose. She had wanted the truck to hit her.

Before Syris could even recover from the awful shock of her words and the stinging slap on his face, Roxy was already moving again.

She scrambled to her feet. Her bare toes slipped a little on the dirty concrete, but she quickly found her balance. She looked around wildly. The truck didn’t work. The plan was ruined. She needed another way, right now, before the other men caught up and dragged her back to that fancy room.

She looked past the crowd of people. Just a little way down the road, there was a big highway overpass. It was a tall bridge where cars drove over another deep road far below.

It was a very, very big drop.

Roxy didn’t even think about it. Her brain was completely broken by sadness and panic. She just wanted the pain to stop. She just wanted to find a door back to her children, no matter how much it hurt to open it.

She turned away from Syris and made a wild dash toward the bridge.

She ran as fast as her bare feet could carry her. She pushed past a lady holding a purse. She bumped into a man in a business suit. She didn’t say excuse me. She just kept her eyes locked on the edge of the tall bridge.

Syris was still sitting on the ground, holding his red cheek, too stunned to move for a split second. The crowd of normal city people watched the beautiful woman with no shoes running toward the dangerous drop.

A man in a blue jacket pointed at her as she ran toward the edge.

"Someone hold her, she’s gone crazy!"