Chapter 37: Chapter Thirty-Seven

The cell smelt dank and dusty, something foul making her nostrils flare, as she stared at past her curled over a dirty cot, shivering against the cold, tears tracking down her cheeks.

She had no idea what was happening or why she was there in the first place.

Who had brought her there?

Past her was bleeding. From where? Saffron had no idea.

She watched as the scene changed, past her rising to her feet and beginning to pace the length of the cell, her clothes free of blood and face free of tears.

Why?

Present Saffron was just as confused as when she had found herself in the white hallway.

She watched as past her froze in place, staring at the man who now stood outside her cell door, his face contorted into a sneer.

Past Saffron stumbled against her feet as she aimed for the safety of her cot, tears falling down her cheeks, her gaze locked on the gun that hung by the side of his slacks.

She watched as he strode towards past her, his fist connecting with her stomach and making her double over.

Blows rained on her body, and present Saffron watched on the sidelines as past her whimpered and begged for mercy.

“Who sent you to my pack?” the Alpha snarled at her, spittle flying out of his lips, enraged veins throbbing against his temple as he grabbed her by the hair and hauled her up to her feet.

“No one,” past her cried out in pain and terror.

“Okay, I’ve seen enough,” present Saffron croaked out, raising her head upwards and praying for some sort of intervention.

“Please!” she cried out as the memory played out behind her, the sounds of flesh meeting flesh a background noise that rattled her whole body.

“Wake up!” she screamed, slapping her cheeks to ensure that she was dreaming and nothing more. Although pain exploded across her cheeks due to the intensity of the slap, nothing about her situation had changed. She still remained standing while the gruesome scene played ahead.

Suddenly, she got pulled out of the cell, her feet landing against the floor of the white hallway with a loud smack that revibrated across her body.

Before she could get her bearings, she heard the click of a door opening, making her stumble backwards as she tried to get as far away from the doors as was physically possible, having had enough of the trip down memory lane.

As she watched, the doorknobs began to turn on their own as if being controlled by an unseen force. Unimaginable terror gripped Saffron, her insides twisting as all the doors opened at once with a loud bang.

‘Run!’ the voice inside her head commanded, urging her to stop staring and get a move ahead.

But before she could get her limbs to start working, she got pulled into another door, down another memory she was most definitely not ready to confront yet.

**

Saffron let out a gasp of surprise, fear gripping her in a stronghold, as she tethered between the cliff’s edge, her hands flailing aimlessly through the air, only seconds away from meeting a gruesome ending at the bottom of the cliff.

She had no idea why she was there. But what mattered the most to her was finding a way to get herself away from the edge and to safety before she could figure out what memory this was and what she was about to encounter next.

‘Breathe,' the voice inside her head tried to pacify her, infusing her with a calmness she wasn’t supposed to be feeling when she was just seconds away from a certain death.

‘Easy for you to say!’ she thought back at it. ‘You aren’t the one who is about to die.’

‘You aren’t dying Saffron,' the voice whispered back. ‘At least not today. This is just a memory. You cannot die in a memory.’

‘I can’t?’ she queried, her brows furrowing in confusion.

‘No, you cannot,' the voice confirmed. ‘I can prove it to you too.’

Before Saffron could ask the voice what it meant, she suddenly found herself incapable of controlling her body.

Her hands stopped flailing and her feet began to move, taking her closer to the cliff’s edge. But before she could scream at whoever was controlling her body to stop, she found herself free-falling through the air, her body weightless and air whooshing through her ears.

Down and down she went for what seemed like an eternity, her scream of frustration lost against the crashing of the waves, until finally, she hit the dark waters below, and everything went black.

When she came to again, she was lying on top of the cliff, far away from the edge. But when she looked again, she found past her by the edge of the cliff where she had just been moments ago, facing off against a huge wolf, her dress torn, bloodied, and caked with filth.

Her neck seemed to be at an odd angle, and judging by the blood surrounding her body, Saffron knew that she shouldn’t have been alive.

But as it stood, she was now hale and healthy, as evidenced by her ability to view the memory as she was doing right now.

She stared back and forth between the wolf and past her, wondering what was going to happen next, and how exactly she had found herself in that situation, or how she had gotten herself out of that situation.

This memory seemed to be different from the one before. Saffron could see the scene play out, but she had no idea what was being said.

She watched as the wolf lunged for her, and by some stroke of luck, past her rolled out of the way, the wolf zooming past her and falling down the cliff.

But past her hadn’t rolled out in time, as the wolf snagged at her feet, taking her with it.

The memory warped once again, and Saffron found herself rolling around in the ocean, while Ryder Oscura walked away with past her towards sanctuary.