Chapter 63 Let me go

Chapter 63 Let me go
Callista.

“LET ME GO!” I scream at the top of my lungs, desperate to rectify this mistake. “PLEASE, LET ME GO! I’M NOT A HUMAN. I’M A WEREWOLF!!!”

I've made a mistake. A huge one at that. I cannot curse my own stupidity enough. I’d thought that trying to convince them that I wasn’t a supernatural was the right course of action, but I’d been so very wrong. It was the worst course of action I could’ve taken.

I mean, how on Earth was I supposed to know that bears were screwed wrong in their heads? Who does human sacrifice to commemorate a genocide? You use flowers and candles for that shit. Not blood!

Why does this keep happening to me? I came to the human world to get rid of the supernatural bullshit. I was happy last night, sharing a shelter with Jenny and knowing that the humans only saw me as one of them. I was free. I could breathe without worry, and that had been the case ever since I came out, regardless of my homelessness.

I have been expecting something to happen. How can I not, given the life I led?

But this? I could not have predicted this happening.

Once again, I’m chained to a wall in a cramped dark cell, dressed in a flowing, white dress. They’d put it on me when I’d been unconscious, and I try not to think about how violating that was because frankly, I feel like I'm truly going insane.

At first, when they chased me through the city, I’d thought they were some sort of supernatural human traffickers. Or organ harvesters working in the black market. That would’ve made a little bit more sense than this. Why did they choose me specifically for a human sacrifice? I wasn’t even human. Their whole ritual would be for naught if they chose me.

But when I'd tried to tell that to the Alpha, he’d started to laugh, saying that I was just trying to save my skin.

“If you’re a werewolf, transform,” He’d told me, “Right now. If you do it, I’ll let you go. We got no use for wolves in these parts.”

But that’s the catch, isn’t it? I’m not a full werewolf, I can’t transform.

When I'd told him that, he’d said, “But you’re 18, aren’t you? You should be able to transform by now.”

What answer did I have for that? To tell them that I was a stealer?

That would only make things worse. Even bears hated wolf stealers.

My throat is hoarse from screaming, and I feel like there’s no way to escape all this. The bars of the cell are lined with silver, and I’d made the mistake of touching them before, without knowing. Now, I had burn wounds on my palms, and they hurt.

“I’m not human!” I scream, “I’m really not! I don’t have the sight, I’m a fucking werewolf!”

No one answers me back. I think they'd just locked me up in the cell, which I am pretty sure is underground with no light whatsoever, and just left me here.

Seriously, there is no light. I’m sitting in all-encompassing darkness.

Seconds turn to minutes and hours. In the darkness, time stands still. I scream until I feel blood on my tongue. I can’t even swallow without feeling pain.

I am a human sacrifice, left in the dark to live my last moments.

I don’t know if I can survive this.

I suddenly regret escaping. Had I taken my chances there, maybe I could’ve changed Theon’s mind. Maybe I could’ve had a free life where no one used me for being the stealer. Or maybe I could’ve hidden in the castle, hoping they forgot about me, because Theon seemed to be keen enough to do so.

Had I not escaped, I’d definitely not be sitting in a jet-black cell crying my heart out. I loathe myself for regretting escaping, but all these feelings in my head are confusing. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel, and that means I feel everything that is negative.

Mostly panic, anger, and fear.

I don’t know how much time goes on. My joints become numb from staying in one position, and I lay down on the cool floor. I can’t scream anymore; my throat is too raw.

I feel hungry and tired, I’m so very thirsty. But I don’t get anything.

I fall into a fitful sleep and wake up suddenly. Faces from my past morph into each other in my nightmares, showing me various forms of pain and agony.

Just like that, my mind starts to play tricks on me.

I hear voices around me, whispers that mouth terrible things in my ears. Spots of light dance in the darkness, forming scenes from my childhood, my youth; and my past. But they are all malevolent. They all want to harm me, but I can’t get away from them. I’m rooted to a spot, in the pitch black, as mutated shadows from my past surround me.

“We never wanted you,” a faceless couple, my parents say as they leave me in the forest with hungry bears just waiting to pounce on me. They emanate disapproval, and if I could see their faces, I’m certain they’d be sneering at me.

“Why’d you leave?” Haden asks as he stabs me with a kitchen knife, all calm and concerned as if he hasn’t got my blood all over me, like I’m not screaming at him to stop. He’s my only friend in the pack, he shouldn’t be killing me. “Elias’ going to die because of you.”

“You’ll never be my mate,” Theon, the Alpha King, the man who is supposed to love, cherish, and protect me growls. His long, elegant fingers wrap around my neck, punishing, strong, and cut off my airway. I can’t breathe, my lungs burn, and spit dribbles down my chin, but he does not let go. Instead, he shows me his teeth, looking like the personification of vengeance. “You’re just a damned stealer.”

“Poor Callista,” My dead sister tsks, “Poor, stupid Callista.” With that, she pushes me off the tower where I used to live in.

“MURDERER!” Screams my former mother as she hacks off my limbs, her eyes red from rage “You’ll never get to the afterlife!”

“Stop,” I whimper, clutching my head in my hands, “Please stop.”

But they don’t stop.

One by one they murder me, torturing me with anything they can. I scream and I scream, I beg for mercy, I try to get away, but I am bound by invisible chains. Their blades pierce my muscles over and over again, their insults increasing in volume with every damn time. And my blood, a shocking scarlet against the black that surrounds me, soaks my whole being and envelopes my vision.

I can’t escape this. No matter how much I try, I can’t escape them.

So, I succumb.

After what feels like infinity, I can hear footsteps coming down to me. I crack my eyes open just a smidge to see something light up the cell, and a gloved Edwin opens the cell door.

“Stop…” I whisper, near tears wetting my crusty eyes, still trapped with the phantoms and shadows, “Stop…”

I hug myself more, curling into a ball. Nothing is safe, nowhere is safe.

“She’s broken,” Edwin states to his companion, all smug in his triumph. “How long did it take?”

“Took some time, though. She’s stronger than most,” His companion replies, “Besides, she’s not entirely gone. She can still speak. Only started losing her mind just moments ago.”

“What a pity.” Edwin’s voice does sound pitiful.

When they talk, it’s like I’m listening from underwater. Their voices are garbled.

Haden’s face morphs next to them, “You left me by myself,” The phantom whispers, and unsheathes a sword, “Now pay the price.”

The visions aren’t over yet.

“Please…” I wheeze, “Please….stop….”

“She’s just the way we need her to be. The chamber works every time.” I hear a clink and the weight around my ankles lessens. I’m lifted from the ground in bridal style. It’s a mockery of the care that the action holds with any other person than this one. My head tilts back, and my eyes blur. I can’t comprehend the world.

“It’s time, Sharon,” Edwin crows. “To pay for the crimes of your ancestors.”