I don’t know exactly when I fell asleep, most likely sometime in the middle of all my crying, but when a loud clanging stirs me awake, I feel slightly well-rested. However, when I raise my body off the hard floor and sit up, I am sore at every single joint and on every single muscle. In that moment, the events that led me to where I am now come rushing back to me and my heart sinks once again. I did not gain my freedom after Alden’s feast like he had promised me. I am still a prisoner and unfortunately, I have been put in worse conditions. While I had been placed in a room before, now, I am in a dungeon which looks like something out of a horror movie. And just hours ago, I had woken up on a soft bed with sheets and fluffy pillows, I now have to place my head on stone and bruise my body against these floors. A lone tear falls from my eyes.Knox, Herb and Teon appear in front of the bars of the cell where I am being kept. I can barely make out their expressions in the darkness but I ho
“Come over here and sit,” he says. I cannot say that his voice does not do something to me still.I clear my throat. “I would rather stand here, thank you very much,” I say.“I will not speak to you from across the room, Cathy,” he says.Maybe it is because he says my name which is in itself a rare feat or the unusually milder tone with which his words come out of his mouth but I immediately lift my head and look in his direction properly. There is something about him today that is not as menacing as the monster who threw me in the dungeon violently. He is like the one I met in the dining hall before I asked him about Celia. He seems a little more relaxed and less prone to anger. Still, it was the same him who switched up on me suddenly and did all that he did; rescind on his promise to give me my freedom and threw me in a prison from the dark ages, so, I know to tread carefully around him. I walk slowly towards the seat on the opposite side of his desk with my eyes darting across the
To say that I am shocked to my core would be the understatement of the year. In fact, I do not think that there is a word in the English Language that captures how I feel exactly. Perhaps if I spoke French or Chinese or any one of the more expressive languages, I would find a word that perfectly explains this feeling. It is a deadly combination of excitement and dread. It feels as though I desperately want this to go on while but also desperately want it to end.If I’m being honest with myself, the ‘dread’ part of my feeling makes absolute sense. After all, Alden is a monster who is actively keeping me here against my will. It makes perfect sense that I am afraid. Add that to the words he is saying, telling me explicitly that he intends to breed me to produce his young, and that there isn’t much that I can do about it. I would be a fool not to be afraid. What does not make sense, therefore, is the simultaneous excitement that I feel. How is it that these same words and actions that ca
Although I now have an answer as to why exactly he is keeping me here; he has chosen me as some kind of mate, I am grossly unsatisfied with the situation. The manner in which he makes it clear that it is beyond my control makes me uncomfortable. I want to be able to make my own choices. I want to stay only because I want to. And knowing that that will be impossible on Alden’s terms means that there is only one thing I have to do. I have to find a way to escape this place. I don’t bother myself with undressing or sitting anywhere. Not when a million and one thoughts about how to break out of this prison rush through my mind. Most of the scenarios I come up with are scenes from horror and thriller movies flashing through my mind in quick succession. This does not surprise me much as I have never been in a situation like this where I had to plot my own escape from prison. Besides, they don’t exactly teach ‘How to Break Out of Prison 101’ where I went to college.Usually, in moments like
As we walk down the hallway, I take note of all the doors I have been through so far. There’s the one that leads to Alden’s study. I imagine that he is there right now, writing or reading something, his smell and presence thick in the air like fumes. There’s the other door that leads to the dining hall which I am sure I will soon go through again to eat while Alden watches me. And then, there’s the uncanny one that leads to the dungeon, behind which lies only darkness, fear and loneliness.I realize that I have seen and know so little of this place. There are about fifteen other doors leading to rooms or possibly other areas that I have yet to be led through. Surely, one of these other doors has to lead outside this place. In a perfect situation, all I would have to do is open each door and try it out until I find the one that I am looking for. But as I have been shown multiple times already, this is not a perfect situation and nothing is being done according to my terms or wishes. T
I dip my right foot in the water, starting with the big toe. The water is the same exact warm it was the last time I was here. How exactly these people keep the water at a steady temperature is beyond me. I have so many questions that I fear may remain unanswered. I submerge the rest of my body in the water and turn to face the servants. Knox’s right-hand falls to his side at my swift turn. Was he touching himself watching me? I smile at him and then I look away. “I haven’t seen the sun in days,” I say as the three servants start to make their way into the pool. Knox fetches the soap while the other two position themselves on either side of me. “That cannot be normal. Humans need the sun or we get depressed. What do you think, Knox?”At the mention of his name, Knox stumbles and the jar of soap he has in his hand falls back to the edge of the pool. Thankfully, the jar has a very tight lid so nothing spills. If Herb and Teon notice the awkwardness of our interaction or the effect that
The dress Herb and Teon bring to me has a similar style to the one I just took off except that it is in yellow. Yellow has been my favorite color since I was a child so seeing it puts a little smile on my face and I say a little thanks to the universe for small mercies. Once again, I am unable to fasten the lace of the dress completely by myself. This makes me a little worried because Alden will have to do it for me and I know how weak I become when he is that close to me. Still, I am determined to not let anything derail my newfound determination to get myself out of here. My plan is simple and easy. I will go to this dinner with Alden and eat enough to give myself strength but not too much that I feel full. I will behave as nicely as I can and maybe even engage Alden in conversation. It will be a ploy to convince him that I am liking this place and am on board with his breeding plan so that he does not suspect a thing and maybe even lets his guard down concerning keeping me secured.
“Sit,” he says. “This meal is yours.”I sit in the exact same spot I sat in the last time and take a quick glance at all the food spread on the table. “I made sure that they prepared more of the things you liked from the last time and less of those you did not touch,” he says as I begin to put some food on my plate. “I also added a few new things so that we may properly determine your taste.”“What?” is the only thing that manages to escape my lips. Is Alden really changing the food he serves me based on my preferences? What is this monster doing when even my own ex-boyfriend could not have bothered to try to learn what I liked while we were going out? I remember once, right before our third anniversary, he decided that he was going to make me dinner, which in itself, was a surprise and gift enough because Brad never did anything for someone else. Unfortunately, the evening took a downward turn when I realized that he’d made something with fish when I’d told him so many times before