This is just the Beginning

“This is just the beginning of my revenge, your Grace,” The formality of his address to me sounds like an insult to my ears after I almost destroyed my vocal chord from the screamings I did while I push away the box from me and curled at one of the corners of my cell, crying. I cannot feel my face anymore. I have been crying for almost an hour now since they brought me here and I am starting to feel numb and empty. I embraced myself feeling so cold and weak after all the mental torture that Aster gave me.

Without looking, I heard the cell open and I knew it was the guard who took the box again, and then the metal bars clanged when they locked it. I peeked at them and saw that Aster was still there talking to the blonde guy he called Emyr as if he was giving instructions. The guard who was holding the box nodded its head to both of them and disappeared towards the exit of this stinking, cold dungeon.

I cannot let them do this to me! I am tired of always being the weakling!

With trembling knees, I leaned against the wall and dried my tears with the back of my hands. It was so hard to focus when my mind and body were already drained with fear and exhaustion but I did my best to stand and Aster and the blonde guy caught what I was doing.

With all the courage I mustered in myself, I still managed to look him in the eyes while I took slow breaths, trying to steady myself after the horrible thing they did to my father. Aster stared back at me and my inner wolf just howled in grief while I saw the expression in his eyes soften for a second before he turned his back on me.

“Yes, my father is an evil man. But that doesn’t mean I am as well! I will prove to each of you I am not like my father because I have suffered enough to choose not to be like him!” I yelled at him and the conviction in my voice made Aster glance back at me with hesitation in his eyes. 

Emyr, the blonde guy beside him, looked at the expression on his face and he waited for what Aster would do next. But to my disappointment, Aster turned his face away from me and gestured for the guards to watch closely on my cell.

“Watch her twenty-four-seven,” Aster ordered the guards in front of my cell. My back just slipped from the wall and I sat on the floor, grieving for my father.

***

I cannot tell how many hours have passed since Aster tortured me. I just lay on the cold floor, staring blankly at the darkness while hearing the sharp noise of the rats running up and down the stairs of the dungeon. 

I don't know if I was dreaming but I heard the metal bars of my cell open slowly and the first thing I thought was maybe Aster had finally thought of releasing me. But even before I could move to reason out with him again, a sharp blow in my gut made my eyes widen and I flew against the wall. My eyes got blurred from the unexpected pain. When I raised my face to look who kicked me, it was an angry woman blabbering nonsensical words that I cannot comprehend anymore. But I caught a few words yelling at me, blaming me about her husband who was killed by my father.

The pain was just so overwhelming I almost fainted.

She kicked me several times until she got satisfied with her revenge and left my cell cursing my bloodline. I cannot do anything but cry and groan in pain as I pull myself into a corner,  trying to endure the pain in my stomach. 

What terrifies me more was it did not end with that lady. A few minutes later a man entered my cell, about his forties, and pulled me by my hair. He grabbed me by my jaw and made me look into his raging eyes telling me that he lost his only son while defending their Clan. He slapped me so many times I cannot feel my face anymore. He let go of me when my right cheek was torn and already bleeding and cursed for me to rot in this cell.

Another one came, a lady about my age. She screamed at me to give her father back to her who died in that battle while she tore my clothes apart, wanting me to lay naked in shame. But she was not successful because she was not strong enough to tear the fabric so she just kicked me while I was on the ground.

Days passed and that went on and on. The tortures, the curses, the angry screams. At daylight, they made me go to a place where several scary servants splash water on me like I am some sort of animal that they have to bathe. There are times when I feel like I don’t want to eat at all because why do I have to? I am just going to die here anyway.

The bruises and wounds heal but the random people that torture me give me another batch to suffer. Every day they come and beat the hell out of me as if I could bring their dead back by kicking me nonstop all day. There came a point when I stopped blocking their kicks and punches. I am just so numb and empty I want to die already.

Why is he doing this? I wish Aster would just make it easy for me and kill me right away just like what he did to my father. I wonder if he also put my father’s head on a pike and displayed it in the middle of the City Square for everyone to see. That they now have to bow down to a new Alpha Emperor, a conqueror raised from ashes, and finally, had his revenge.

I just feel so exhausted and weak I cannot feel my body anymore. 

Between the small slit of my swelling eyes, I saw a dazzling yellow light and heard the clanging noise of the metal bars. Someone is opening the cage...