Chapter 153: A broken promise

I remember the day that the world had grown dark with sorrow. One moment, I was huddled alone in a cold, empty hallway of my prison, and the next, Selene stormed into my cell like a storm. I had barely recovered from my own terror when her form stood there, an  embodiment of cruelty and evil.

It happened so fast. A vicious kick struck against my ribs, the force pushing the air from my body. I wheezed, the searing pain blazing within me. Before I had even drawn a breath, her fists again unleashing a frantic drumroll. Punch after punch, each crunching down with deadly precision. I was numb inside every nerve, my eyes grew cloudy, and my head screamed silently in agony.

I struggled against the ropes that held me; every motion a supplicating one for liberty. Selene's eyes blazed with hungry sadism as she danced around me, her voice a sneering low one. "Beg, Althea," she spat, the words thick with venom. "Beg for mercy, beg to see you broken."

I gritted my teeth and fought not to scream. I would not grant her the satisfaction of hearing me plead. Behind the pain mask, I gritted my resolve, clinging to a silent vow that I would not let her see me cower. I bit my tongue, my eyes fixed firmly on the unyielding figure looming over me, even as every kick, every blow, tried to shatter my will.

The punches continued, relentless and systematic. My power was ebbing away from me, my senses dulled as Selene's assault grew more ferocious. My arms waved wildly, and my body trembled under the hammering. My brain could hold but one solitary thought: I would not beg. I would not allow her to see me break.

Time was irrelevant in that brutality. It felt like hours passed as Selene enjoyed her pleasure in each anguished cry that threatened to erupt. I felt each blow as a shard of ice piercing into my marrow, my eyes narrowing until all that I could perceive was the bitter, unrelenting quality of my pain. I fought internally, summoning every last ounce of determination, my mind clinging desperately to memories of love and hope, even as my body began to falter.

Her lips curled once more into a cold, triumphant smile as she released my hair. “You think you’re so tough ,” she whispered, her tone almost tender in its malice. “I will break your bones along with your spirit.”

Her words, the final bitter edict, made me tremble on the brink of despair.

And then, in the oppressive quiet that followed, the corridor door creaked open once more. There was a shock of dreadful change in the atmosphere, an invasion that sent a shudder of horror through my very blood. I strained to call upon every last ounce of remaining strength, every last remnant of spirit, but my battered body appeared to be dissolving into nothingness.

My mind teetered on the edge of oblivion as blackness swept around me. Selene's cruel words continued to reverberate in my mind, a caustic mantra of anticipated violence and revelations that I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I was isolated in the chilling grasp of desolation, all of my perceptions dulled by the pain and deceit of the assault. My head was a confused jumble of recollections, delusions, and naked terror.

And then, in the quiet, I heard it, a faraway, rhythmic thudding, as if feet slowly making their way down the darkened corridor. My heart leapt, even more tentative hope rising up in me for the chance of Grayson at last being near. But as the footsteps approached, with them came not the thrill of rescue, but the weight of further unforeseen repercussions.

The massive wooden entrance at the end groaned when it was pushed open. The faint light of the passage streamed in and illuminated a form that moved with leaden evil. My heart thrummed within my head as an attempt was made to call upon whatever remnant of courage remained, as pain still tore through my frame.

And then, as if to close my destiny with merciless finality, Selene's voice broke into the suffocating quiet again. She grinned with a poisonous smile and pulled my hair away from my face, forcing me to meet her gaze for the very last time in my life. "It appears your mate just showed up," she sneered, the poison in her tone making me queasy in my stomach. "And the best part? He came alone." And in that moment, relief and horror flashed up, Grayson was here, I said to myself, hope in the midst of total despair. But the succeeding words shattered the hope into fragments: "He came alone." The words echoed through my mind like a funeral bell, tidings so bad I couldn't breathe. The fact that Grayson, my anchor, my unbeatable protector, had come alone sent shivers through me that were as paralyzing as pain from every single one of the punches I had taken.

I stared at Selene, eyes blurred with pain and shock, as the world around me narrowed down to one terrible, irretrievable truth. Why should Grayson be left behind? What did she say? Something terrible had to have occurred to him. My heart pounded with a jumble of conflicting emotions, hope and desperation, love and terror.

In that last, gut-twisting instant, as the shadows of the hallway darkened and the distant boom of footsteps thundered closer blended with the laughter of Selene's mocking ring, I was aware of my very essence suspended on the edge of being shattered. My brain screamed out for explanations, Grayson, why? What has become of you?, but my voice was trapped behind the paralyzing wave of terror and agony.

And then, everything was engulfed by darkness, leaving me with only the cold, harsh echo of Selene's last words: "He came all alone."

My vision turned dark, and all I could do was remain there, frail, shattered, and with doubt, and I was certain that the fate of my heart teetering on the edge in a state of vulnerable equilibrium, and even the ultimate fate of all that I loved, was hanging suspended, ready to be determined.