Lost in Alpha's eyes

3 - Hell isn't lurking too far

I froze at those words. What did he mean? Did I hear right? The pain in my legs wasn't helping me to stay focused and concentrate. My wrists were getting roughed and burnt by the coarse rope. Cold sweat started breaking down in big amounts on my forehead.

    "What is with my parents?" I asked in a low voice while looking down, trying to breathe out the pain. The walls were starting to feel closer than they were before. The dim light in this dank room was making me even dizzier than I already was from all the things that happened.

    "They are..." He put his hands on my backrest, leaning closer to me. I didn't look up. I could feel his body stretching above me in amusement and maliciousness. He was taking his time to answer. My body was now covered in cold sweat, my stomach was on a rollercoaster and all my insides squeezed. I was breathing shallowly and fast. Couldn't keep my mind thinking straight. He leaned even closer to my ear and his whisper echoed in me as it would in a deep cave: "Gone."

    I yanked my gaze up, eyes wide open. It felt like a sharp knife was stabbed into me. Everything came apart. He let go of the chair and walked a few steps back, amusingly looking at my face before he gripped it tight in his cold ashy hand again. He squeezed my jaw tight, just a bit more and he would break it.

    "Now... We got things straight. So it's your time to answer. Where is the key?" He pulled my jaw up with cold calmness, to look at him straight in the eyes. They were not the eyes of a human. They were the eyes of a sadistic monster.

    "What key?" I mumbled, trying to speak through his tight grip on my jaw. Every word I spoke hurt like hell. He snorted while letting go of my jaw. My head fell down with the sudden loosening of his grip.

    "What key, what key..." He kept repeating to himself. Each time he said it, he sounded more annoyed than before.

    "THE key. The key that your family has been keeping for generations! The missing key of the Jedidiah."

    "Who is Jedidiah? What key?" I looked at him, the pain I was feeling slowly fading away. Or I was getting used to it. He held his forehead in his left hand full of golden rings. No ring on his hand looked like it was made from silver.

    "Solomon." He let out the word with a big sigh.

    "Can't you buy it in a bookstore? It's a really famous book." Suddenly, he took the twig and lashed it through my arms and upper body. I screamed in pain again. Tears were rolling down my eyes once again as my body was reminded of the recent wounds with the new pain sharply traveling all over me.

    "It's a lost part. Without it, nothing makes the right sense. So tell me... Where is the lost key?" He was standing there, with the twig in his hands, impatiently playing with it.

____________________

Who knows how much time had passed ever since I was brought to the room. I was left alone on the chair, exhausted but not allowed to sleep. They kept splashing cold water on me whenever they thought I was drifting away. My lips were dry, cracked. My skin had scratches, cuts, and many bruises on it. It was hard to breathe. He kicked my belly a couple of times so hard that I got yanked a few meters back on the chair. My wet cold hair was heavy as water was dripping from it on my face.

    There was no one in the room, it was calm. I wasn't moving. Every tiny movement I did was hurting like hell. No, I am sure it was more painful than the torture one would get in hell. Every inhale and exhale was excruciatingly burning.

    The door slowly creaked. There was no one. It just creaked on its own. I looked up with my left eye, as my right one was completely bruised and swollen.

    "Am I hallucinating already?" I whispered to myself with a sarcastic amusement. It was no doubt I had to be losing my mind.

    A dog appeared. No... It wasn't a dog. I tried to focus on what was coming towards me. It smelled like a deep forest, like forest moss. Earthy, comforting... Very soft fur lightly brushed on my arm as my hands were let loose together with my body. I wasn't tied to the chair anymore. I could hardly see what it was. It came close to me, tucked its head under my armpit, and made me stand up. I leaned on it as it was helping me limp through the stairs and the whole building. Everything was quiet and there was no one around.

    The night breeze was cold, yet so soothing. I could swear the night sky without clouds had to be beautiful, filled with many bright stars as the moon was supposed to be gone today. But my vision was quite clouded, and I had to focus on walking. Every step sent thousands and thousands of signals to my brain that my body didn’t want to move. The pain was so unbearable that I had to keep clenching my teeth to put one leg in front of the other.

    We quietly walked through the grounds towards the closest forest entrance. The big wolf helped me walk over the first few tree roots and branches as he then disappeared in the far distance.

    I was left alone in the dark woods, hearing the shouting voices from the manor behind me. The whole forest was dark, I couldn’t see more than one or two steps forward. Huge trees were standing tall and their roots were in my way. There was no path to take. My whole body wanted to just give up, sit down, and not move at all. Heck, it didn’t want to even breathe as the pain was so sharp each time I took a breath. But I had to get as far away as I could. I was not going to be dragged back to that cellar.