Chapter 13
No Other Way
The creaks form from the howling winds pushing against the outside of the prison above me. They seem to be getting louder as the strong promise of a storm sweeps in. I’m chained, beaten, and broken. I can’t breathe as the rods protruding from my body drip my blood and the blood they’ve used to halfway heal me. The whispers from around the corner let me know I’m not alone… I never am.
This place is purgatory, and hell is drooling, ready for me to fall headfirst into its pit. I’m so weak. I’ve fought so hard to stay alive because I know he won’t live without me. He won’t breathe another breath if he finds me destroyed… dead.
“Speak bitch. Open your fucking mouth and tell us how to provoke your mother fucking savage!”
The screaming man’s voice is a mere dull thudding against my ears. I almost laugh at him. I can barely even notice when he’s speaking anymore. His incessant yelling, verbal abuse, and physical torture no longer strike fear in me.
Then a whisper of a voice draws my attention when the yelling seems to disappear all together.
“How long has she been bleeding?”
“A few hours. We’ve poured the blood down her throat numerous times, but she keeps spitting it back out before we can stop her. I think her gifts are getting stronger despite our attempts to subdue her.”
“Crank up the juice on the rods. See how strong she is once those volts of energy light her up.”
I recognize that voice. It’s Ty. I have to tell everyone… warn them. I look for Hale, but he’s not here. I’m alone with my tormenters. How can I tell him if he’s not here?
A new face returns to my dank, windowless, cold cell and turns the dial on the box on the wall.
“This is going to hurt. You might want to scream,” he menaces without a speck of remorse even trying to hide.
The convulsing shock rattles through me, ripping me from the inside out. I scream for mercy, but he just snickers, completely unfazed by my tears running like a flowing river of expelled pain. I try to shake free, but I can’t. The chains rattle as the electricity surges over me and runs against them until it finds the stone wall behind me.
I need him. He has to save me so I can save him.
“Hale!”
“Araya, I’m here,” the man I love screams while shaking me from the horrid nightmare.
I gasp, and I see the rips on my skin that shouldn’t be there. It looks just like the gashes left behind by the overrunning electricity that blew out through my skin. Blood runs over me, and suddenly a bag of alien blood sets in front of me.
“Drink this, baby,” he coos so softly, while wrapping his arms around me.
I sob lightly while snuggling into his warm body. He kisses my forehead while stroking back the stray pieces of my hair I was using to hide the tears running down my cheeks. I sip the cold blood while trying to steady my trembling hands. The wounds on my body begin closing up, leaving only their red stain on the white sheets to prove they were there.
“What was it about, baby?” he asks so softly.
“I heard his voice this time. I heard Ty,” I choke out. “He was there. I never saw him, but I heard him. I should have known it was him. We would have known so much sooner.”
“Shh,” he soothes. “Baby, you can’t do this to yourself. We’re going to beat him. We’re going to kick his ass, get married - for real this time- and we’re going to raise our child. This will soon be a bad memory. Nothing he’ll do will affect us ever again.”
I nod softly, not fully releasing the mounds of guilt I deserve to feel.
“Here. Lie back down,” he says while motioning to the bed still wet from the blood I lost.
He sighs out before continuing with, “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen you suffer a physical reaction to the dreams. Have you ever done it before… with Brazen?”
I shake my head, my eyes still concentrating on my skin’s lie as it shows me its perfectly sealed wounds - no marks left behind, the true scars hiding far beneath the surface.
“Not with Brazen there, but a few times when he was on detail. It’s been a while since it was that vivid.”
I feel him flinch, and then his hold tightens on me. I breathe in a fresh breath of air, begging it to free me from the suffocating force still bearing down on my throat, and then I close my eyes as I pretend to rest.
“Sleep, baby.”
