Chapter Three - Mass hysteria
1142 Words
My lungs ached as I struggled to breathe, the floor paced beneath me as a knee pressed into my spine and forced me forward. My ankles buckled from under me as I fell to the ground, my knees collided into the smooth sandstone with my dress tearing at the seams. My thighs spread from under me as a slit formed along the delicate fabric and ran up to my hips.
“How can something like this be our sister,” a voice chided from disgust.
“She’s not bad looking once she’s cleaned up,” another voice snickered.
“She’s too attractive, its unnatural,” he spat.
“Shut up and pull her forward!” the voice argued as hands ran through my thick silver hair and snapped my neck back.
“Agh!” I cried out as he released my bound hands.
“Come forth, my child,” a deep voice bellowed out.
No! I wanted to scream as the hands that bound my hair released me, forcing me weight forward with my hands catching my fall.
I pulled my legs in from under me and centred my balance before standing before who called out to me. I released a staggered breath as I swayed on my feet and repositioned my weight so I wouldn’t fall, a snicker filled the room as unfamiliar eyes watched as I struggled without assistance. Their laughs made my throat tighten as I reached to my face and pulled on the cloth that blinded me. I held my breath and until my lungs began to burn from desperation as I tugged the material down my face and let it fall to my neck.
It burns, I thought as the light blinded my partially open eyes.
“What a brave thing you are,” the voice chided out bemused.
“You said you would leave me to die,” I murmured in a restrained voice as I glanced up at the man.
Titus stood before me with greying hair and a winding unkempt beard, he reeked of death as he whipped away the blood that stained his hands. His age was endless as he stared down at me with crystalline blue eyes that resembled my own, he was ruthless in his age with a twisted grip on reality. He surrounded himself with sons born from borrowed wombs, their mothers stripped from the earth shortly after their babes were torn from their arms.
“It’s time for a blessing, Lai,” he chided as he rose from his seat and closed the distance between us.
I bit back my words as the nickname sickened me to the core.
Titus smirked, amused, as he gathered my hair and pressed the silken strands to his lips and kissed the ends.
“You’re as beautiful as your mother was,” he murmured, feigning sorrow.
He withdrew his hand after a moment, my hair fell to my waist and circled on the ground beneath me. His words were haunting as I imagined the woman who birthed me, her face was a blur, with whispers of her memory locked away within my mind.
He bellowed a deep laugh as he examined my blank expression, as if his words were meant to stir a chord within me. I’d long since forgotten how to cry, with the tears I’d once spent buried within the earth he held me in.
“Titus,” I muttered as he sat in his self-made throne.
“It is time for my blessing, daughter,” Titus chided as he stretched out a hand for me to take.
“My body is not yours to possess,” I muttered as I avoided his gaze.
“That’s not defiance I hear, is it?” Titus laughed.
“Atlas, bring her forward,” Titus ordered.
A boyish figure reluctantly stepped forward, his eyes were drawn to me as he stared at me, expressionless. His silver hair caught the sun and hung over his blue gem-like eyes that held a hint of sadness. I instantly recognized him, he was someone I’d known my entire life, who protected me and ensured Titus nor anyone else erased my existence from this world. He was Aziza’s closest friend, someone who helped guide my mother in her final days. Atlas tilted his head and nodded at me knowingly as he held my gaze.
“He’s coming,” Atlas’s voice echoed in my mind.
Who? I wanted to ask as the earth shook from under me.
Screams carried through the air as dust clouded my vision, the plaster walls cracked as dark figures burst through the crumbling structure.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Titus demanded as he rose from his seat.
A knowing smirk spread to my lips as I closed my eyes and allowed my body to fall forward as a wall exploded with fire spreading throughout the room.
“Alaïa!” Atlas called out as he lunged forward to catch my fall.
His words were drawn out as figures flooded the room.
Chaos descended from around us as a dark form leapt through the crumbling wall and tore his nails into the floor leaving behind massive claw marks into the chiselled stone. The beast sneered with blood dripping from his canines as he examined the frenzied crowd as he sought his next prey, a snarl escaped his muzzle as he focused on Titus who stood impatiently before his golden throne. Titus motioned forward and shouted for his panicked underlings to restrain the wild beast and yet his words were cut short as the beast leapt forward and captured his throat in his jaws.
“Run!” voices shouted as his followers tore through the room in an erratic state.
“Alaïa, we can’t stay here!” Atlas’s voice rang out as he pressed into me and held my waist.
Who is he? I wondered bewildered as I watched the wolf tear Titus’s head from his body and threw it to the ground in a maddened rage.
“Alaïa!” Atlas pleaded as he helped me to my feet.
“Am I dead?” I asked bewildered as my father’s blood dripped from the beast’s muzzle.
“Not yet,” Atlas murmured nervously as he directed me away from the scene.
Titus is dead, I thought bewildered.
The roof crumbled from above us with dust clouding the air and suffocating my lungs, the darkness was all too familiar as I clung to Atlas and urged my feet to press forward until we’d escaped the mass frenzy. My silver hair tumbled forward as I finally glanced up and examined the destruction that befell the land I was born into, my breath caught in my throat as flames engulfed homes with smoke clouding my vision.
“Alaïa!” Atlas shouted out as an explosion thrust us forward.
- Writer
