Three
1184 Words
TRIGGER WARNING: IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH OR MUSOPHOBIA (fear of rats/mice), THIS CHAPTER MAY NOT BE FOR YOU!
Frankie:
I lost track of each passing sun. I could not see it rising or falling, but I could feel how the sun rising warmed the earth I was encased in and how the setting sun brought a chill to the same dirt.
“On your knees, Orphan.” the kinder guard had returned—the one who stopped his power-hungry friend from giving me more than my fourteen lashes.
“You know my name,” I spoke through the pain in my throat—the pain of no water and uncontrollable sobbing. Something about the night made me sad, made me weep for the freedom of life and light. I knew my birthday was coming. I was sure of that much. But, I wasn't sure when, or when, my last day of this wretched hell would end.
“Francesca,” he almost whispered, knowing what he had just spoken could cause him to end up here, like me, a prisoner of Pinnala.
“Your sentence is set to be carried out this evening. The moment the sun touches the mountains, you will be dragged before the pack and…” he paused.
“My head will be severed in the name of an alpha heir too weak to fight off an orphan.” I finished his sentence, forcing myself to find the strength to look him in the eye.
He never spoke. He only stepped forward.
“I have to place this mask over your head.” his tender touch still made pain race through me.
“Your wounds are infected,” he growled.
“Does it matter?” I asked, knowing that my sentencing would end any flesh wound, any physical ailment.
“This should have never happened,” he muttered as he pulled the last clasp of the mask shut.
I couldn't speak for the leather mask covering my face. But I nodded, agreeing with him.
“I have to bind your wrists at your back now.” I nodded again, knowing this was my last and final punishment before I would walk through Pinnala while the pack roared and threw things at me.
I would lay on my stomach with my wrists bound, losing air because of the mask.
When the cuffs were released from my wrists and ankles, the pain that ripped through me made me limp, face down on the floor I would be forced to lie on for the rest of the day.
“I’m sorry, Francesca.” the guard spoke softly as he tied off my wrists and left me there, leaving me to try to catch my breath as the pain began to fade.
Sleep took me. The infection, the pain, and the sadness were just too much. In the evening, I was awakened by the warmth cascading over my skin. I could almost smell wood burning. My mind quickly became alert at the thought of something burning. But instead of finding fire, I found mice.
They were hurrying along, looking at me in the shadows. I could see their beady eyes looking at me; I could almost see their little mouths drooling at the stench of my blood and infected flesh.
My stomach growled. The hunger I hadn't been able to feel until now ravaged me. The thoughts racing in my mind made me gag. My already empty stomach ached as the thought of ripping those mice to shreds to satisfy my hunger made me sick. But that hunger overrode that sickness. I dug my cheek into the stone flooring, thinking that if I could get my mask up over my mouth, I could get one bite… just one bite.
As I worked tirelessly to loosen the leather mask, a sharp pinch at my arm made me realize why the rats had come in the first place. It wasn't to sniff and scurry around in my dry blood. No… they had come for the same reason I was rooting my face along a stone floor… hunger.
Quickly, one mouse turned into five, and as I rolled and kicked, they seemed to be coming from everywhere.
Bites along the gashes from the razor-chained whip made me scream into the darkness of the cells. I felt them beneath me as I rolled and whipped my body wildly in an attempt to get them off me.
After what felt like an eternity, my body went slack. The lack of energy, the infection, not having my wolf—it was all too much in this weakened state. So, I lay there, forced to feel each small bite they took until the burning on my skin shifted into the burning inside. The feeling burned as viciously and wildly as before, sending each rat and mouse squealing into the dark.
Small sounds, as vivid as the burning beneath my skin, burst through my blurred vision.
“Spirits of old, hear me, please!
Unleash our power, set us free.
By earth, fire, wind, and sea, awaken the magic that dwells in me.”
The chant played repeatedly like a lullaby; only the words weren't putting me to sleep. They were ripping me apart, and for the first time since I was locked away down here, I screamed; I roared.
By the light of the moon in the shadows of night, let what lies dormant now take flight.
From the depths of our soul, rise and ignite,
unleash the strength hidden from sight
The burning caused me to scream until I lost my voice, and even as guards surrounded me, yelling about how I had gone feral, I still couldn't make my exhausted body move as the realization that I was still only seventeen struck them.
“A child without her shifter can not go feral. She's being eaten alive.” the guard who had been kind to me was the first to take me by the arm and yanked me from the grip of the mice that I could no longer feel eating me.
“Spirits of old, hear me, please!
Unleash our power, set us free.
By earth, fire, wind, and sea, awaken the magic that dwells in me.”
The incantations rattled my brain, making hearing the chaos around me harder.
I was on my feet, but we weren't going anywhere. I was just standing there, being held up by two guards.
“What the hell is happening?” I heard one of them rumble from somewhere in front of me. Yet, in my state, I couldn't comprehend what they meant. I could only hear the flood of words in my mind.
“From the depths of this darkness, let the magic rise, unveil the secrets hidden from their eyes.”
As the call of my mind died away, their shock and fear rang true. I was still tied, still bound by rope, but I knew by their following words whatever they were seeing could not have been good.
“Somebody get the alpha. Get him down here quick!”
- Writer
