Bound By Desire

Chapter 9: Rescue

Rosalia’s POV:

I feel the moment Master Asher releases me as some of the anguish infusing my body fades, causing me to sigh with relief. That relief is short-lived, however, when he once again grabs me by the hair and throws me out of the large wooden doors that lead to this torture chamber.

Curling up to protect myself involuntarily, I feel my back hit the ground and I roll along the floor, feeling a few of my cuts reopen and smear blood on the ground. When I reach the opposite wall, I hear my head come into contact with a sickening crack and I moan, one hand clamped to my still bleeding neck, the other trying to help me find some semblance of balance. It’s no good. I’m too weak. Hearing a set of footsteps behind me, I moan again and curl further into myself, shying away from the figure. They, however, have a different idea as they gently turn my head so I can see them through slitted eyes, my vision too blurry to make out any features.

“Please.. no more. I can’t take any more.” I can hear my voice, slurring from the pain still attacking me every time I move. “Please.. Stop. It hurts..” I try to keep my eyes open, sensing they’re speaking to me, but it’s too hard. I blink twice slowly before feeling my eyes start to drift shut.

I gotta say if this is what death feels like, I don't know why people are afraid. It's nice. Easy. Comforting. “Please.. just– let me.. die.” I sigh and don’t fight to keep my eyes open. I hear the other person talking to me but I can’t make out the words, merely smiling and resigning myself to fate as I curl up in a ball and feel the blessed darkness of unconsciousness beckon me.

Finally. Peace.

Hunter’s POV:

Walking outside in the gardens, I come to the old set of curling iron stairs that lead to a secret area that, to my knowledge, only I know exists. I had just said goodbye to Eris at the palace gates, still seeing her flame-red hair in the distance as she is slowly swallowed up by the night. Shaking my head, I find myself smiling as I climb the stairs and open a door leading to the room.

It’s large and airy, nice for when the palace seems to become too stuffy to handle. I collapse onto one of the chairs in the corner and look at the small garden area out on the terrace attached. Dark red-gold roses bloom amongst night lilies and other exotic flowers that create the perfect atmosphere to leave the palace behind. I’m still smiling as I look up at the moon, admiring the way the luminous light manages to bring life and colour to the rather drab palace grounds. Absent-mindedly, I pick up a book but before I can read a word, a sound cuts the silence. A scream.

Normally I would just try to brush it off. After all, hearing a slave scream was a common occurrence in the palace, considering my father was insane, my mother cruel and my three older brothers sadistic, manipulative and immoral. My sisters weren’t much better, being cold, vicious and cruel. If anything, I was considered immoral as I refused to keep slaves or partake in my family’s depravity. However, this scream seemed to cut more than just the silence. It seemed to cut through me and force me to act. So before I knew it, I was up and walking to find the source of the sound.

Another scream sounds, seemingly bouncing off the walls and reflecting back towards me. I pick up my pace, hurriedly searching. Theorising that one of my family was responsible, I ran to each person’s living quarters and listened for the sound. My parents’ was empty. So was Selene’s. And Morana’s. Raphael was out. Malachai’s was silent. That left only one person. Ash. Each time I arrive and find it empty, another scream shoots through the palace as if to mock me. Hurrying faster. I went to the stairs and run along the corridor in time to see my brother's door open and for a dark blur to come streaking out before the door is promptly shut again. The silence returns.

I watch the figure carefully from a distance. She rolls along the floor and the sound of her head hitting the bare stone wall echoes around me. My god. It sounds like an explosion going off. Scanning the floor behind her, I notice thick smears of blood and, for some reason, it makes me mad. Shaking my head to myself, I walk over to where she was lying curled in a ball. Sensing her current condition, I shrug off my jacket and wrap it around her, not minding the bloodstains. As I wrap it around her, I see her eyes opening a slit, clearly all she can manage. “Who are you?” I ask softly, hoping she can hear me. No answer. “Hello?” I keep my voice soft and she blinks slowly a few times. “What’s your name?” Again no answer.

Glancing down at her, I use my free hand to tip her chin up to look at me. Her eyes are a muddy swirl of color, dulled by pain. I’m gentle with her but she shies away before speaking. “Please.. no more. I can’t take any more.” Her voice is slurred and I feel a pang of sympathy for this girl. She lies rigidly on the floor but still winces from the slight pressure of moving. “Please.. Stop. It hurts..” Her eyes flutter shut halfway and I notice her trying to force her eyes open.

“What’s your name?” My voice is gentle but I don’t think she can hear me properly as she doesn’t respond or give much of an indication that she heard me other than blinking again. “Who are you?” She blinks twice and I see her eyes flutter shut. She sighs and for a minute I’m relieved, thinking her pain is going until I pick up the stuttering of her heart and an unknown terror grips me. Shaking her softly, she opens her eyes halfway and sighs again, curling into herself so her head turns away from me but I can still hear her next words and they frighten me.

“Please.. just– let me.. die.” She breathes out as her eyes drift shut once more.

That sentence terrifies me just as much as her fading heartbeat and I feel myself panic. I turn her slowly onto her back and smooth her dark hair away from her eyes. Rosalia. I swallow down my panic and shake her softly again.

“Rosalia, Rosa, please. Open your eyes.” Nothing. “ROSE!” Silence. I keep shouting, trying to keep her with me as her heart stutters and fades for a moment. I hold my breath until the slow, irregular beats once again fill the silence. I keep screaming at her, panic driving me to keep talking to her, but I can tell she doesn’t understand my words. Instead, she merely smiles, her expression seeming to light up my heart with a brightness I hadn’t felt in years. Hope. She’s still alive.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I move my hands enough to feel her curl into a ball in my arms. I pick her up gently, mindful of her condition, and walk back to my living area, calling Eris as I go. She picks up almost instantly.

“Hunter? What’s wrong?” She sounds out of breath and I guess she ran most of the way from the palace to reach witch territory. “Hunter?” I hear her voice again and shake myself mentally.

“I need you. I need your help. Now.” Cradling my phone to my ear, I glance down at Rosalia. She looks strangely peaceful but her breathing was too slow to be regular and I could hear the fading beat of her heart. “Please, Eris.”

“Now?” I can hear the panic in my best friend’s voice and I nod before remembering she couldn’t see me.

“Please. It’s important.” Silence. “Eris, please, you know I wouldn’t ask unless it was important.” I hear her give a resigned sigh.

“Okay. I’ll be there in five. Ten minutes tops, think you can hang on until then?” I glance down at Rosalia and assess her for a moment.

“Yeah, but please hurry.” Eris makes an inaudible noise.

“On my way now.” She hangs up. I hurry out of the corridors and down a small passage to where I had been sitting before. Reaching the small room, I lay her down on one of the couches near a window. She sighs again as I swap my jacket for a thick blanket. When I’ve made her as comfy as possible, I sit on one of the chairs opposite and watch her out of the corner of my eye while I wait for Eris. For a few moments, she’s calm, but the longer I watch, the more I notice the small twitches she does in her sleep, almost involuntarily. Her breathing hitches and I move to ask if she’s okay when she starts talking.

“No. No. Please. No, please. Don’t– don’t h-hurt him. I-I’ll… I’ll do anything but please. Please don’t hurt him.” She gives a short harsh sob, her whole body shaking. “No.. no.. no.” She keeps repeating the same word and I feel another pang of pain shoot through me. Poor girl. I wish I could help but–

“HUNTER! NO!” Rosalia’s anguished scream tears through the room, leaving a rippling silence behind. I frown in confusion at her. We’ve never met, so why’s she dreaming of me? I’m about to shrug it off when she starts sobbing, her voice muffled as she tosses and turns restlessly. “No, no.. you– you can’t be dead. Please wake up. Look at me. Hunter, look at me. HUNTER, LOOK AT ME! Please. PLEASE! HUNTER! COME BACK TO ME! PLEASE! COME BACK! ” She screams again, her anguish cutting through the silence of the room. “YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T! HOW–” She cuts herself off, trapped in whatever nightmare was assaulting her. I sit tense until she speaks again, this time in a low voice. “What did you do to him? WHAT DID YOU DO!” She screeches the last part. This time in anger instead of grief. Hearing the calm anger behind her voice makes me shiver, glad not to be on the receiving end.

Silence settles again and the longer it stretches the more convinced I am that the nightmares have gone. Picking my book up off the floor, I flip aimlessly through it, my mind still racing from what she screamed in her nightmare. My eyes fastened on the sleeping girl opposite me. She lies still for a few minutes before I hear her softly crying. Another bad dream. She’s silent again and I start to breathe a sigh of relief when she starts screaming for the second time.