I massage the sides of my temples and shut my eyes. “Because I didn’t finish seeing the vision, at least that’s what I think happened. Nicholas forced me to take us back before I saw the whole damn thing play out.” A screams echoes from close by and I shudder, opening my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I say, crossing my arms over my stomach.
“Sorry for what?”
“For messing this up.”
He shakes his head and rotates to his side, supporting his elbow against the mattress and resting his head against his hand. “You didn’t mess this up, Gemma. You were simply taking a risk to try to do something that was right and things didn’t work out.”
“Because I screwed up and didn’t plan things well enough.”
“Sometimes things are kind of out of our hands.”
I turn to my side and face him, my arm tucked under my head. Our faces are mere inches away and it’s comforting knowing he’s close. “But I do it so often and I’ve just barely started actually living my life,” I say. “Imagine how bad my screw up list is going to be in like five years… if I get that far.”
“You will,” he insists, tucking strands of my hair behind my ear. “And you’ll get better—things will get better. I promise.” Once he gets my hair out of the way, he strokes my cheeks with his fingers until I feel like I’m going to doze off.
“What will she do to us?” I murmur tucking my hands under my head.
His fingers briefly stop moving. “I’m not sure.” He’s lying. I can tell by the unevenness in his voice and the way the current of the electricity speeds up.
“Just tell me.” I yawn, forcing my eyes to stay open. “I need to know what I’m in store for.”
“You really want to know?” His fingers delicately caress my cheek in soft, consistent patterns. I nod, letting his touch calm me. “Unbearable pain,” he says.
I feel strangled, hands wrapping around my neck, suffocating me. Pain? What kind of pain? “Oh.”
It gets quiet. Water drips on the mattress and us. Alex keeps touching my face; my chin, my lips, my jawline, as if he’s worried he’ll never touch me again. I start wondering what death is like, too. Whether it’s better than getting tortured. Better than feeling unbearable pain. Better than feeling the burden of my mistakes.
“Look,” Alex says unexpectedly, rolling on top of me, his warm body flawlessly settling over mine. “No matter what happens, you try to hold on, okay? Turn it off.”
“Turn it off?” I open my eyes to find him passionately staring down at me.
“Yeah, just like you used to,” he whispers and tenderly kisses my lips. “Just turn off anything you’re feeling. They thrive on fear and the less they get from you the weaker they’ll get.” He kisses me again and again until I can barely breathe or think straight. Maybe that’s what he’s trying to do. Distract me from my worry. Or maybe he just loves kissing me.
“And what about you?” I say between his breathless kisses. “What will you do?”
He pauses, offering me a sad smile. “You remember all those times I was around you and I was a douche?”
I roll my eyes. “How could I forget? I hated you because you were an ass, but the damn electricity made it impossible to actually hate you for real.”
His smile turns to a real one. “That entire time I hated doing that to you. In fact, I swear to God it killed me, but I did it because I had to.” He slants closer to me, so we strategically touch in all the right places. “I can control what I feel, Gemma. It’s what I’ve been taught to do. The only exception to this is you.”
“Then how can anyone know what you’re really feeling?” I question, gripping his lean arms. “If you’re shutting it off and saying contradicting things.”
He considers what I said then leans down and covers his lips over mine. He kisses me until I’m desperately gasping for air, until my heart’s pumping blood at an unhealthy rate.
“Do you feel that?” he whispers against my lips. “Do you feel how I make you feel inside?”
I blink dazedly through emotions of yearning, elation, and contentment. “Yeah.”
“Well that’s exactly how you make me feel inside.” He looks me in the eyes and I can almost see my reflection in his overly large pupils.
He could be lying, but he might not be. Maybe I do make him feel the same as I do inside. Maybe he’s just as confused as me. Maybe he’s erratic on the inside, unstable. Perhaps it’s the hardest thing in the world not to be close to me. I choose to believe that he’s being genuinely honest because it’d be the perfect ending to my sad story. The one where the guy falls in love with the girl and the girl falls equally in love with the guy. The flaw to this story, however, is that at the moment, there’s no prickle on the back of my neck confirming I’ve felt love before, so in the end it’s only a story.
Nothing more.
Chapter 28
“You know it’s going to happen,” Stephan says, propping a hand on each side of my head.
Alex is gone and I don’t know where he is. He left me. No he wouldn’t do that.
“You’ve already felt the evil and you’re going to change,” Stephan says, his black eyes glinting wickedly.
I try to sit up, but I’m glued to the mattress by an unseen force, my arms kinked to the side and my legs stuck together like melting wax. “I’m not evil! I’m good! I know I am!”
“You about beat Nicholas to death,” he reminds. “How does it feel to have blood on your hands?”
“Terrible,” I say, but the red and black triangle singes onto my upper arm, revealing the lie. I can smell the scent of burning flesh and feel the good in me dissolving “I hated every second of it.”
He leans back and sits down on the mattress, “Now we know that’s a lie. You loved it and we both know it.”
I shake my head, denying what lies deep inside me; darkness, a shadow opposing the good. “No, I didn’t.”
He grins as he elevates his hand and a razor-sharp knife appears in it. “If that’s true, then I guess I have no use for you.” He moves to swing the knife down.
I scream as it dives for my heart. As it plummets closer, I shut my eyes and picture the blue beach house while I channel my Foreseer power. As the blade grazes my skin, almost splitting my heart open, I blink myself away from this place.
***
My eyelids spring open. “Holy shit!” I gasp. “I know how to get us out of here.”
Alex is lying on his side, watching me with his arm draped across my stomach. “How?” he asks and we both sit up on the bed. “Gemma, what are you talking about?”
I catch my breath, wiping the sweat from my forehead. “I can use my power to get us out of here.”
He shakes his head, looking lost. “But you don’t have a crystal ball.”
“But I’ve gone into visions without them before.”
“Yeah, but those are visions, not present time.”
“I know that,” I say, sitting up. “But I can try. It pretty much works the same way. I just need to feel enough emotion and try to remember things… memories seem to get it going pretty well.”
He opens his mouth to protest as he sits up. “I don’t—” His eyes dodge do the door and he quickly stands to his feet, grabbing my hand and pulling me behind him.
A Water Fey watches us from the open doorway, interweaving through the ceiling vines as it heads toward us. It stops when it’s about to reach the bed and seconds later the Queen appears behind it. She’s changed into a black, mermaid-shaped dress that has red roses growing on vines, which trim the bottom half. Her frosty hair has been braided up on the top of her head and is woven with black ribbons and her lips are tinted purple.
“It’s time,” she says and snaps her fingers. “Both of you, follow me.”
Alex and I trade a look and then we follow the Queen out of the cell. We quietly walk just behind her as she struts down the tunnel lined with jail doors. Water Fey enclose us, floating in curving paths. I consider shutting my eyes and seeing i
f I can really pull it off—take us out of this place in the blink of an eye—but I can’t just yet, not until I find my mom. As I glance over at Alex, however, guilt begins to rot in my stomach. I drag him into this mess and look where it gets him. Now what’s going to happen to us? Will we get tortured until we go insane?
All thoughts of what’s right and wrong leave my mind when we reach the end of the tunnel. As I take in the square space only one thought remains inside my mind.
Fear.
It’s worse than I’d expected. Water Faeries are everywhere along with what look like ordinary humans, but I’m guessing not all of them are. Each one of the humans is strapped to a wooden plank perched on a steel stand. They’re being tortured in different ways, some with knives inserted into their arms, others getting their bodies stretched with ropes attached to a large wooden wheel. Some have Water Fey hovering over them and it looks like they’re trying to kiss them, but I think they might be doing something worse.
“Don’t look at them,” Alex whispers in my ear and I jump, startled. “Focus on turning it off.”
I try my best, but it’s hard to block out the sounds…the cries…the anguish and suffering. It’s pretty much impossible and I end up being overwhelmed by it.
The Queen leads us to a back room that has dirt walls and a stone floor. The ceiling arches up toward what looks like a skylight, but the glass is frosted so I can’t see what’s on the other side. A single wooden chair that has straps attached to the arms and legs is perched in the center of the room.
The Queen shuts the door and then turns to face us. “Tell me, Gemma. What are you most afraid of in this world?”
Love. I blink at my mind’s declaration. “I don’t know,” I say, shifting my weight uneasily.
“You don’t know?” She taps her lips and a toothless grin spreads across her face. “Well, I think it’s time we found out. Don’t you agree?" She raises her arms in the air and claps her hands together. “Think about it. Finally discovering the one thing that will make you lose your sanity. Isn’t it exciting?”
Two Water Faeries zoom up behind me and wrap their boney fingers around my arms. Alex grabs my hand and holds onto me as tightly as he can, attempting to pull me away from them.
“Let me go first,” he says, tugging on my arm. He reaches up and tries to punch one of the Water Fey.
It swerves out of his reach, opens its mouth, and screams so loudly the room rattles and dirt crumbles from the walls.
The Queen shakes her head as she ambles around the chair, tracing her finger along the back. “I have a feeling that forcing you to watch her get tortured is going to provide a very great amount of fear in you.”
Two more Water Faeries come flying up behind us and wrap their fingers around Alex’s arms. He tries to shove them off, but Water Fey are impressively strong for such boney creatures.
The Water Faeries drag me over to the chair, separating Alex and I from each other. I sink into their hold, and challenged their strength against my dead weight as I plant the heels of my shoes into the ground. But it’s a worthless effort.
Once we reach the chair, they shove me down into it and the Queen stands behind me as she snakes an arm around my neck. The Fey secure my legs and wrists to the chair with the straps before the Queen leans over my shoulder, putting her lips near my ear.
“Fear is the most powerful emotion,” she whispers, her foul breath startling icy against my cheek. “And the most painful.”
That’s where she’s wrong. Fear is just fear in my eyes and I’ve experienced it many times. There are so many more emotions that can be so much more painful; sadness, anger, caring for someone that in return can split your heart open and stomp on it.
“Now, which way to go here?” the Queen dithers as she struts around the chair and stands in front of me. “Oh, I know.” She sticks out her hand and one of the Water Fey swoops down from the ceiling and drops a sapphire in her hand. “Since you guys were so kind to bring it back to me, I’ll let you be the first person I use it on again.” She slams her hands down on the armrests and hunches her back as she leans down into my face. “What do you say, Gemma. Shall we torture your soul?”
Laughter slips though my lips. “Torture my soul,” I say, inching closer so our foreheads almost touch. “Been there. Done that.”
She snarls and forcefully shakes the chair, letting me feel her wrath. “Are you mocking me? Me? The Queen of the Underworld?”
No. I’m just trying to stay calm, but the irony of what she’s going to do is kind of amusing.
“Have you lost your sanity already?” she snaps, the tight grip of her fingers rupturing the wooden armrest of the chair. “Are you worthless?”
“Maybe,” I say dryly.
She gapes at me, but then all shock and rage erase from her expression as she holds the sapphire up in front of my face. “How about I take that smirk off your face?”
I try to turn off anything that I’m feeling as the sapphire begins to shimmer and vibrantly glow, but then an image of Alex lying in a pool of his own blood beside the lake presses into my head and fear starts to surface. I shove it down, yet then I see my mom rotting away in this awful place. The Queen’s laughter echoes inside my head as I see myself in a room alone, secluded, and detached. Then it shifts to a different room, one where I’m with Alex and he tells me he loves me and I can’t say it back.
Fear floods through me as I see myself killing Nicholas, slitting his throat, and liking it. I see the mark on my arm. I see myself standing by Stephan and the Death Walkers. It’s too much and I let out a scream wanting to rip my heart out of my chest so I don’t have to feel the pain anymore.
The Queen laughs as I scream again when I picture myself burning into ash. The speed of the images only quickens the more time goes by, flipping at such a swift rate they start to muddle together.
Then suddenly it stops; the noise in my head and the ache in my heart. When I open my eyes, the Queen and the sapphire have dropped to the floor.
Seconds later, the Water Fey also drop to the floor in piles that encompass the Queen’s slackened body. Time freezes for a moment as Alex and I take in what happened.
We both stare at the heaps of boney bodies and then Alex rushes toward me.
“What the hell happened?” I ask as he crouches down and unlatches the straps around my ankles.
“I have no idea,” he says.
I glance down at my locket. “Did this do it?”
He eyes the violet-stoned pedant. “I’m not sure… It could be… or it might have something to do with you… with your soul.” He slips the last buckle loose from my wrist and then pulls me to my feet.
“Because it’s broken,” I state, massaging my aching chest with my hand. “Maybe it broke her, too.”
He looks at me with remorse. “Let’s get out of here before they wake up.”
I nod and we run past the bodies of the Fey and out the door. The Water Fey in the torture chamber are out cold, too, slumped all over the floor and the tables; even on the humans who are awake and instantly beg us to free them.
“Come on, little girl,” one guy with blonde, shaggy hair and sullen eyes purrs from his restraints. “Just undo the straps, okay? I promise I don’t bite.”
“Gemma.” The sound of Alex’s voice brings me back to reality as he tugs on my arm. “Let’s go. Remember they’re here for a reason.”
We hurry away from the guy and I sprint to keep up with Alex as he dashes into the tunnel. The vines above our heads are charred and aren’t re-growing, bits and pieces are all over the ground, floating in the mud puddles.
“We have to try and find water,” Alex says as we race past the cell doors. “They have to get into the lake somehow and, if we can find out how, then maybe we can swim up through it.”
“I can’t swim, though,” I say, my shoes splashing in the puddles.
“I’ll help you,” he replies, curving us to the right. We round a sharp corner and more doors appear.
“Wait,” I skid to a stop, tugging on his arm, forcing him to stop. “We have to find my mom first.”
He shakes his head, looking at me sympathetically, but there’s stubbornness in him as well. “We have to go,” he says. “We don’t know how long they’ll be out.”
“I’m not going without her.” I refuse to budge, digging my shoes into the dirt and holding my ground. Alex shakes his head and I quickly add, “Alex, it’s my mom.”
He wavers, his expression softening, and then he grudgingly nods. “All right, but as soon as I hear any sign that they’re waking up, we’re leaving without her. Got it?”
“Thank you.” I stand on my tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek.
We hastily start to unlatch doors and check inside the cells. Most of them are empty. A few have humans in them, most are sickly looking, scrawny and underweight. A few of them scream at us the instant we open the door while others look comatose.
I’m growing frustrated with each dead-end, wondering where else the Queen would keep my mom. However, then I open the last door on the right side and my frustration turns to anxiousness. My heart drops to my stomach as the door swings open all the way.
Inside the tiny cell is a woman, her back hunched over as she sits on the edge of the bed. She’s wearing ratty, torn pants and a shirt. Her brown hair is braided behind her head and her blue irises are fixed on the cement floor in front of her bare feet.
“Mom,” I whisper from the doorway. The word feels strange coming out of my mouth, like it doesn’t belong there.
She blinks up at me, and then looks back down at the ground.
“Jocelyn.” Alex inches around me and enters the cell. “Are you alright?”
My mother only blinks her eyes, refusing to look up or speak. Tears burn in my eyes as pain and the feeling of being unwanted flood me, but I suck them back. Summoning courage I didn’t know I had in me, I step into the room and up to the bed then kneel down in front of her.
“Mom,” I say, lowering my face into her line of vision. “It’s Gemma…your daughter.”
She glances at my violet eyes, curiosity and confusion emitting from her own. Then something flickers in her expression and, suddenly, she’s really looking at me instead of through me. She leaps to her feet and starts to hug me, but then quickly retracts and wraps her arms around herself.
Shattered Promises 02 - Fractured Souls Page 21
