We reach the entrance of a small room after a short while, having walked slowly but surely. It seems to be in the heart of the headquarters, several flights of stairs underground. It's a little scary, knowing that with every step I take, I'm getting closer to becoming a whole new person.
It's hard to imagine what I'll be like when it's over. Will my personality change back to what it was before I met him...him? Will I keep everything but my memories?
Griffin continues to try to explain the process of the ritual, but I'm distracted by the curious drawings dancing on the walls of this hallway. There are no other doors except for the one at the very end, which is rather strange. The door itself is huge, decorated with similar patterns around the edges. The whole layout of the headquarters confuses me. It's kind of like an upside down castle, with one plain floor above ground and many other beautiful floors below.
We enter t
I feel nothing. I am nothing.The voices build up inside me until they are overwhelming, beating like the incessant echo of a drum. There is no value to my soul. I should just die now and let God condemn me forever.I can feel the heat rush to my face as these words run through my mind, the redness swallowing my cheeks. There is no clarity in these words, no reason of any kind. I doubt I could ever explain these logical fallacies.All I know is that these thoughts cannot be true. There is nothing words can do to bring me down. The nastiness must stop now. No weakness will be accepted.A sound erupts to my right and a battle begins immediately.My eyes open and the harsh vision rebukes me like the side of a sharp sword. Immediately, I jump to my feet as focus returns, trying to examine my potential opponent. Surely he knows he won't be able to catch me
"She refuses to accept me as her mate," Xavier explains to another annoyingly beautiful man with slanted eyes, "she's completely different than before.""Well, I mean, they performed the Sharuken ritual on her," her companion replies... Yi, I think her name is."The old witch never finished! I think." He protests rather feebly."Honestly, I don't understand why you had to tie her up. Surely she's not so stupid to think she can escape us, weird amnesia problem or not."You don't understand, Yi. She's acting like a crazy person."I doubt it. More than likely, you're the one acting like a crazy person."Oh yeah? Well, you'll talk to her then," Xavier bellows with a note of frustration."I think I will."The slender werewolf stands up and walks toward me, smiling wildly. I feel the urge to punch him in the face, but I can
Without another word, I walk away, heading into the deep forest. I still hear voices behind me, and when I pass through a few trees, I stop."She's almost exactly as she was before I rescued her in the forest," Xavier's voice echoes, "even though she remembers most of what happened afterwards.""I wouldn't give up hope with her just yet," Yi replies, and then a heavy silence fills the air. I listen for another second, but nothing happens. I've heard enough anyway, I guess.Running further into the forest, I find a large tree not far from the clearing. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a small dark shadow leaning against the tree.A Shifter.I try to figure out what the creature is doing and why it is there. The coldness embraces me, and the dark feelings that usually arise after such an encounter are greatly minimized. For some reason, I am not afraid.I don
I made sure to sleep near the trees, as far away from the others as possible without being considered suspicious. Xavier fell first, then Danae's eyes closed quickly, then Yi started snoring like a freight train. Ah, how I love loud snoring.I wait a few minutes, lying on my back and looking straight up at the sky. Not a star is up there, only real black, the same black that covers this whole landscape. I haven't seen real natural light from the sky since we got here.There is always a haze, a thick fog that spreads across the sky and the forest. It doesn't seem like this place ever gets rain or any kind of irregular weather. If this is the same place as my dream, it will always look like this. Which would be explainable, if this place is in fact the land of the dead.I never imagined that hell would be quite like this. I always thought of a world of fire, endless smoke, and screams of terror, and this world seems anti-c
I stare at the body beside me, wondering what I should do.The red-haired man looks like a gangly puppet; bent, broken and lifeless. His breathing has almost completely stopped and his face is a strange shade of purple. How do you revive a dead man? Should I leave him and try to escape?For some reason, I can't put it aside. I walk over, looking at his bloody head and body. It looks like his head hit the side of that well pretty hard. At least I think we fell into the well.He looks familiar to me, as do the other strange werewolves I've seen since I landed in this strange place. There's something about him I can't quite place.I raise my hand to his shoulders and head, twisting his body to rest on my bruised legs. Examining his face and hair carefully, I notice a gigantic gash running down the back of his skull. It doesn't seem to be healing like a normal werewolf wound would. In fact, none of my br
For the first time, it rains.It pounds the stone walls, swirling around the spires and turrets. It caresses the clear windows, dripping from each stone like blood. It must be the wrath of God, coming to us in liquid terror... a symbol of worse things to come.He turns away, overwhelmed by the endless sight of rivers flowing from above, washing the earth with coin. Never before has he experienced such fear, shaking his soul with overwhelming intensity. The old one is overthrown, the regime is coming to an end. But it is difficult for him to grasp - the "end".The end exists only in relation to the beginning, the omega to the alpha, and there is no beginning here. There is only the "is," the simple state of being that extends beyond what the eye can see. No one knows when it began; it was just-was, and is, and always will be.The continuous roar of the darkening clouds as they hurry to take the earth
"Oh! Oh, nothing. It's just... did you feel that? I feel the walls building as fast as they fell; the shaking begins, the nerves jump. How did I fall apart so easily?"Feel what?" He looks at me, then at the sky. His eyes are dark, frightening, with his face darkened by a kind of depression. "I think there might be a little rain shower on our way."It hurts."No, no," I mumble, "well, yes. Rain. But that's not what I'm talking about."It's pounding in my head, my sanity."Mona, please tell me.""It's the...the voices! Don't tell me you can't hear them. I try to cover my ears, but it bursts out anyway, scaring me with its ferocity. "It's so loud.""It's just us here," Griffin tries to calm me down, "there are no voices except yours and mine."My vision blurs, but I can vaguely make out spheres of light bouncing around
This can't keep happening to me. My emotions are seriously out of whack.I don't know how many times I've accepted my death over the past few months and kind of lived to see the next day. The first few times I just thought it was lucky. Okay, I'm saved, what a miracle.But the reality is, I quickly realized, that this stupid idiot is seriously the best guardian angel ever. His timing is also impeccable. He couldn't find us five minutes ago when we were barely swimming in our prison, when we weren't laughing and crying like idiots. No, he has to rush out on his white horse when I'm getting ready to meet Satan. Or God. Or both."It was nice of you to come," I mutter under my breath, feeling more than a little bitter at both the moment of his appearance and the emotions bursting through me."It's nice, isn't it?" Xavier's voice echoes, and I turn my expressionless head toward the water that is rising fu