My heart thumped wildly as control of my body returned. I pulled at my arms, unable to move them even an inch. I thrashed, trying to shake the mist from me, but it wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t breathe as pain shot through me. My skin burned, feeling as if it had blistered and cracked. I couldn’t even scream. I became frantic, desperate to free myself. The seconds ticked by, stacking and building as the agony reached the very core of my being.
He lifted his head from the bars and pushed away, beginning to pace the length of the cage.
A fire started in my lungs and spread as the corners of my vision darkened and blurred. I couldn’t feel the eather in me. It had been snuffed out, extinguished. I couldn’tbreathe. Panic sank its claws in, turning my blood to slush.
“How much longer can you hold out?” he said, his voice a whisper against my trembling skin as he once more stopped in front of me. “Let me in.”
My eyes fluttered as the pointless writhing and flailing slowed. Gods, I was…I was dying. I could feel it. Could sense my life slipping away from me.
“You don’t remember, do you?” His perfect features twisted with agony. “I can help you remember.”
A sharp pain suddenly pierced my head. Images filled it, flashes of the night the Craven had swarmed the inn. I could smell the smoke and the blood in the air, could feel her grip slipping away from my hand, could taste the terror as she was swallowed. Could hear my screams as teeth tore into my skin.
“I can take away all that fear.”
It vanished with his words as pain spiked, replaced by a deep sense of restlessness as I moved silently through the halls underWayfair, the veil hiding my scars. I was alone as I drifted like I imagined lovesick spirits did, afraid to pass on. I was so…
“I can make it so you’re never lonely again.”
With each passing heartbeat, the pain became pressure in my skull. I was in a room with dark mahogany paneling, my palms flat against a desktop, the white gown pooled at my hips. I could feel the aching clench of my jaw as I stood perfectly still, even though I felt their stares, even as I felt the smooth, cold tip of a cane gliding over the skin of my back.
“I can erase the shame.”
The pressure expanded as I screamed, hands covered in blood as I begged—pleadedwith—him to open his eyes. To not leave me.
“I can make sure you never feel such loss again.”
My head felt like it would explode as I found myself on my back, staring into golden eyes. Rage tore through me as he smirked down at me, those beautiful lips that had worshipped my skin—my scars—speaking blood-soaked lies. My heart cracked and then broke as the betrayal cut deep.
“You will never feel such heartache again.”
He vanished from above me as the first stone hit me, tearing open my skin where I stood under the sun—all my fears becoming realized. I would never be accepted. Would never be seen for who I was.
“I will always see you.”
More images came at me. The pain of a bolt tearing through my flesh. The agony of red-tinted hunger and being unable to stop the swing of a blade so cruelly taking another life from me. Sitting by her side, fearing she’d never open her eyes again, that I would lose yet another person close to me. The crimson-cushioned box delivered to me, and the terror and fury that followed. Scarlet streaking soft, white fur. All the lies. The harshtruths and fear that I would turn out just likeher. Bitter. Destructive.
It was all so much.
Too much.
And it didn’t stop. All the painful moments of my life kept coming in startling clarity. Gods, it was unbearable. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t relive those moments. And, gods, I knew there were more. More heartbreak. More loss. Even harsher truths. Worse times.
I didn’t want to go through it again.
I was weak.
Thatwas the harsh truth. Everything would be so much better. So mucheasierif I’d just give in.
The pressure retreated as my surroundings pieced themselves back together. My cheeks were damp as I saw him reach through the bars.
The mist around me trembled, and his head tilted. “I’ve always seen you.”
He…he had.
He tipped his head to the other side and dragged it across a bar. “Don’t you want that? To stop struggling? Free yourself of the pain? The panic? The fear? I can make it stop. Take it all away. Everything will be so much better. So mucheasier.”
I…wanted that. An end. Silence. My lips curved up. Peace.
