Pain has a memory
It doesn't forget. It waits. It lingers in the corners of your bones, behind your eyes, tucked in your heartbeat. And when it comes back, it doesn't knock
The days after the council's warning should have been quiet. Safe. They weren't.
They were worse.
I ran.
I didn't plan it. Didn't pack a bag. Just bolted in the night, barefoot and breathless, into the woods that bordered the town.
Ashwood pulsed behind me like a dark heart. I didn't look back.
I didn't care where I was going. Only that it was away.
The moon was pale and full, watching me like an eye. I made it to the old highway_deserted, cracked, silent.
And then the mist appeared
Cassian
He didn't speak, just stepped out of the fog like he'd always belong there.
I froze. My breath caught
He looked at me. Shirt half unbuttoned, shadows curling around his feet, and his eyes.....
Dead red
"Leaving again?" he asked
I turned to run
He was in front of me before I took a turn
"You don't learn, do you?"
"Get away from me!"
He smiled - tight, furious
Then he grabbed me by my hair and slammed me against a tree
"Do you like being punished?" he hissed
"Is that why you keep running?"
I clawed at his hands. Kicked at his knees.
"Your mine"he growled. "I let you walk around pretending your free. But this is the last time".
He sank his fang into my throat. Deep. Violent.
I screamed
Blood poured down my chest
His grip on me tightened as he drank, ignoring my cries and my fist beating against him.
"Stop!" I gasped. "Your killing me..."
But he didn't
When he finally pulled away, I collapsed
He knelt beside me wiping the blood from his lips
"You smell like fear and betrayal" he said. It's intoxicating"
I spit blood at him
He wiped it off his face with a dark chuckle
"You're not going anywhere."
He yanked a blade from his coat
I screamed and tried to crawl back.
But he didn't stab me
He sliced his thumb. Then forces it against my bite wound
The blood burned.
"I mark you now, permanently." he whispered. "A bond you'll never sever"
Then he vanished.
I lay in the dirt for what felt like hours until the scent of pine and fire hit me.
Elias
His boots crunch beside me. I didn't move
"You ran" he said flatly
I stay silent
"You ran sophie"
I rolled onto my side and glared at him."What did you expect."
He crouched down and touched the still bleeding wound.
"He did this?"
"No," I snapped. "I fell on a rose bush"
Wrong answer.
Elias's eyes shifted -gold and burning
He yanked me up, tossed me over his shoulder
"Put me down!"
He didn't
He carried me back to the house, threw me onto the couch
"You don't get to leave," he growled "Not from me. Not from him"
"Am not a property."
He grabbed my chin "Then stop acting like a stray"
I slapped him
He back handed me.
Stars burst in my vision
He yanked me up by the shirt "You want to play games? You'll lose."
He dragged me back into the woods.
"This is where you ran,right?" he snarled
"Then this is where you'll bleed"
He pushes me against a tree, claws at my arms
I screamed
Blood welled up. Hot. Sharp.
He didn't drink, just watched
Watched me bleed. Watched me cry
"You made me do this,"he said
"No," I spat. "You chose to do this."
His face twisted in fury. He threw me to the ground and straddled me.
"Say your mine."
"Never"... I spat
He growled. Grabbed my wrists. Bit me_this time the side of my thighs
I cried. Kicked
He held tighter
"Say it"
"No!"
He growled and stood pacing, trembling
"You make me insane," he muttered. "You don't understand what you are"
I pulled myself up, blood trickling from everywhere.
He stared at me, guilt and madness battling on his face.
Then he said"You're not just a prey, Sophie. You're the key"
I blinked"What?"
But he turned and vanished into the trees.
I dragged myself home, bruised, torn, bleeding.
Eva was there
She cried when she saw me
"We have to get you out" she said "They'll kill you
I didn't respond
Because part of me already know the truth.
I wasn't a girl anymore.
I was a possession
A key
A curse
And they weren't done with me yet.