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Eight Years Ago
day 50 since capture
Though they weren’t as strictly monitored as humans or werewolves, vampires had to abide by a set of rules just like everyone else, and they would face consequences should they cause trouble. In fact, each race had a unique form of punishment, but the worst one had to be the solitary imprisonment suffered by servants.
Contrary to what Shiloh was led to believe, humans received plenty of water during their punishment. Food, however, was a different story, as humans were fed just enough to keep them from starving to death. The most humiliating part was the lack of bathroom access in the dungeons, forcing prisoners to rely on a tiny latrine in the ground instead.
Shiloh would have called it a lazy form of torture—if not for the visitors.
It started almost immediately after Walter threw her in a cell. She’d been silently crying the whole way down, but as soon as she saw how pitch black the inside of her cell was and smelled the damp mold no doubt growing on the walls, panic suddenly burst out of her. The inside was damp and nearly pitch dark, the stillness only broken by her frantic banging on the door.
“Wait, please, don’t leave me in here alone. I’m sorry! I won’t steal again, I swear!”
The door banged closed after Walter, and Shiloh froze. The stillness that followed was almost too loud, making her heart beat at a frantic pace. For a moment, all she could hear was the sound of her own labored sobs.
Then, she felt movement from behind, and she spun around with her arms held up in front of her chest. Her heart was hammering so hard, she could practically hear it, along with the ringing in her ears, drowning out the silence.
“Who’s there?” Her voice trembled as she spoke. “Sh-show yourself.”
No one answered, but she waited with bated breath, certain that she wasn’t alone.
She opened her mouth a fraction, getting ready to form the words with which she would once again plead for her life. All that she managed to get out was a tiny gasp, and then a whoosh of air swept her away.
Shiloh didn’t even have time to blink as she was suddenly flung to the ground. Something small but heavy landed on top of her body, at the same time that a sharp stab pierced her in the shoulder.
And then the real pain hit, so fast that she didn’t immediately scream.
Her body caught fire, and her head started getting crushed under pressure so immense, it was a wonder her skull didn’t crack. Shrieking would have only made the pressure worse, but it was all she could do, thrashing desperately as she tried to push against the source of her agony, to roll her body to the side so she could douse the fire, to just get away by any means necessary.
But it was all pointless. The weight holding her down was too heavy.
And then it stopped almost as quickly as it had started. Shiloh blacked out for a moment, the aftereffects of the pain leaving her paralyzed.
“More,” a voice hissed. “More!”
“Breathe.”
“More! Want!”
“I said, breathe. Calm yourself.”
The voices let out garbled noises, and Shiloh vaguely made out sounds of a scuffle, but she was unable to move or let out any noise of her own.
“I... I don’t...”
“That’s it. Steady. Use your words.”
Shiloh’s lids were open in slits, but it was too dark to see anything. She wanted to turn toward the voices—or was it away from them? She didn’t know. She couldn’t think right now. Couldn’t move a muscle.
Everything hurt.
She was tired—so, so tired. Some part of her fought to stay aware, but mostly, she longed for some respite, to go numb and feel nothing at all anymore.
“Walter,” a small voice said. “I-I want... more, please.”
“That’s enough for now.”
“But I’m still thirsty!”
“You heard Master Benjamin. You don’t get another turn until you start listening to your teacher.”
“No fair! You have to tell Father, it wasn’t my fault; Albie started it. Why does he get special treatment just because he’s an elite?”
“He doesn’t, not for this; you’re both on timeout. Now come along, the others are waiting.”
“Is Albie going next?”
“No, he’s too young. It’s the grownups’ turn now.”
Somewhere, a door clicked open and closed, and then Shiloh was alone. The second she realized that, her mind succumbed to the urge to shut down. When she woke up, a different vampire was feeding on her, and the whole thing started again.
Torture.
Blacking out.
Agonizing period of awareness.
More torture.
On and on it went, seemingly in an endless cycle. After the first few couple of visitors, Shiloh’s mind was in a constant battle to stay conscious and fight back, or succumb to the sweet release of oblivion. The moments when she was awake and could think past the pain and terror were fleeting, but when they did come around, she was able to piece some things together.
At some point, she remembered that, back up on the estate grounds, humans were normally allowed a couple hours of rest after a feeding. In the dungeons, however, they were fed on more frequently, and in shorter bursts so they wouldn’t die of blood loss. They were also given minimal time to recuperate and were more prone to illness.
Eventually, Shiloh realized that a healthy human must have been a far better source for feeding, while a sick or weakened human had bitter-tasting blood. In her post-torture haze, it took a while to notice how every single one of her visitors came in already disgruntled or repulsed mood, as if feeding on her was the last thing they wanted.
That was when she understood how punishment worked.
When Master Benjamin was displeased with one of the servants, he sent them to the dungeons. And when he was displeased with one of his offspring, he sent them to drink from the weakened humans he’d had imprisoned. If he was feeling generous, he also had the vampires make sure the human ate and drank enough water to keep them alive. This became evident when one of Shiloh’s visitors noticed that she hadn’t touched her food since her sentence started. Whoever it was had propped her up and force-fed her water and cold soup.
But being punished obviously upset the vampires, so they took their anger out on the human they were drinking from. And that, Shiloh quickly found out, was her real punishment. Because not only could vampires access the thoughts and memories of the person they were feeding from, they could also mess with their head.
As soon as the vampires discovered her biggest fear, they began to use it against her. All of her resistance died in the face of their horrifying mind games.
The first one made her live through various car accidents where she was the driver. Sometimes, vehicles of all shapes and sizes collided against hers, even climbing over her at one point and crushing her under their weight. Other times, she drove off the edge of a cliff and crashed at the bottom. And all the while, she felt the force of the impact as though it were truly happening.
The horror only escalated from there, with the vampires building their own scenarios that hadn’t occurred to Shiloh but which were equally terrifying.
Being locked alone in Grace’s van for hours in the empty darkness.
Giant monsters grabbing her car like a toy and shaking it around, with her inside.
Sitting in a train going off-track and splattering against the side of a mountain.
Driving into the ocean and getting crushed by the pressure at the bottom.
Being a passenger on a plane that fell off course and exploded on the ground with a loud bang!
Getting run over by monster trucks, crushed flat by heavy machinery, or shredded like grated cheese—and worst of all, no one could ever see or hear her begging for help.
It never ended.
No matter how much she wanted to, Shiloh was helpless to fight against the telepathic torture. Her mental capacity wasn’t that strong to begin with, but she also grew physically weaker after each visit, as more and more of her blood got drained.
It took her a while to resurface from the stupor of her nightmare and back to the present, once the vampire had taken their fill. Whoever it was force-fed her some stale food and a lot of water, then left.
As if that wasn’t enough, not all the vampires used the same fear against her. Some played on her longing for her old life, giving her a brief moment of reprieve as they pulled memories of her father and brother—even her mother a couple of times. But they quickly snatched her hopes away by twisting the memory in the cruelest ways imaginable.
Sometimes, her family transformed into the monsters she feared and turned against her. Other times, they scorned her for various old insecurities. In one torture-vision, her family forgot her very existence and went on happily without her in their life.
All sense of time deserted her with each new visitor, until she forgot how long she had been there and for what reason.
It could have been weeks, days, or mere hours when a change finally occurred.
Shiloh had been slipping in and out of consciousness since her latest torture session, but she woke up when she heard the click of the door unlocking. She had grown used to the sound, which was always accompanied by a foreboding sense of dread at what her body and mind both knew was coming.
Unable to move, Shiloh could barely discern a halo of red hair surrounding her latest visitor. Dimly, she heard them sigh in a frustrated sort of way.
“Of course it’s you,” Grace complained. “Fitting. Fine, let’s get this over with.”
Shiloh wanted to cry. Scream. Beg for mercy. Anything.
But she couldn’t find her voice. She could barely even move.
Soon enough, Grace sunk her teeth into the side of Shiloh’s heavily bruised and badly healing neck. This time, instead of reliving Shiloh’s worst fears, both girls were propelled into her existing memories.
It started with the day they met, when Grace had lured Shiloh away from the club where she was partying and convinced her to join a different group, only for the vampire to drug her and transport her to the estate instead.
‘Ugh, are you still not over that?’ Grace’s voice suddenly reverberated in Shiloh’s mind, as clearly as if she was speaking out loud.
The memory shimmered out of focus and was replaced by another.
They were still at the estate, but now they were in the servants’ dining hall having breakfast. Shiloh was sitting sideways with a frown, trying to get Shauna to eat, without much success. The latter had just returned from her time in the dungeons. She was jittery and kept jumping at every sound and touch around her, so Shiloh was trying to be as gentle and reassuring as she could.
‘Too far,’ Grace’s voice spoke again.
Once again, the memory shimmered out of focus, and Shiloh found herself standing in the hall with Shauna. She saw Shauna grow animated and shove a tray into Shiloh’s hands. Then, Shiloh watched herself hurry out the door toward the stables.
‘Now we’re getting somewhere,’ Grace’s eager voice resounded.
The moment Shiloh saw Drake’s face in her own memory, she was shocked into alertness.
Up until then, she hadn’t been cognizant enough of what was happening to even attempt to resist Grace. But now, she suddenly remembered that she’d been protecting him when Master ordered her to be sent to the dungeons. She couldn’t let Grace see that and relay the information, so she acted instinctively and pushed against the vampire’s presence in her mind.
Just as Shiloh in the memory began to whack Drake over the head with the tray, the scene changed again without warning.
Suddenly, they were standing out in the fields at night, where Grace was sparring with Walter. Their fight suggested that he greatly outmatched her, but Grace was giving it her all, throwing punches so fast that Shiloh couldn’t keep up with their superhuman speed. Still, she understood that the older vampire was provoking Grace, throwing words at her like insults.
Runt.
Red.
Weak.
Human.
Grace grew angrier with every word until she finally snapped. With a swift leap, she was on Walter’s torso, her eyes ringed in brilliant red and fangs bared as she tried to clamp them over his neck. With a flick of his arms, he threw her off him and onto her back. Then he towered over her, staring down at her with impassive disappointment.
Out of nowhere, a flash of pain hit Shiloh squarely in the back, like her spine was snapping in half. Simultaneously, the memory came to an abrupt end and was replaced by total darkness. Shiloh screamed in agony, both in her mind and out loud, only to belatedly realize that it was a trick and that nothing was actually broken.
‘You little bitch!’ Grace’s voice screeched in her mind. ‘Think you can take a stroll in my mind? You?!’
The pain hit again, but this time Shiloh was better prepared for the illusion and didn’t scream as loudly. All the while, Grace’s fangs were still sunk in her neck, but the pain from there had grown numb long before the redhead even showed up.
After a moment, the torture receded, and Grace spoke again, sounding bitter but also defensive. ‘Now, take us back. What were you doing the day you skipped dinner?’
The darkness shimmered again, and Shiloh found herself back at the stables with Adam.
“Are boys and girls not allowed to, uh, mingle?” memory-Shiloh was asking memory-Adam.
‘Hmm, hello,’ Grace hummed with interest. ‘What’s going on here?’
The effort of fighting off mental assault had taken a toll. Shiloh didn’t have it in her to try again. Somehow, she could also sense Grace’s strange curiosity and fascination with Adam, but she didn’t react to it. All she could do as the memory replayed was to helplessly watch, waiting with resigned dismay for the moment when the vampire would realize Drake’s involvement.
Oddly enough, that moment never came. Drake’s name never came up out loud, but Grace didn’t seem to pick on Shiloh’s longing for him.
‘Aw, was little Shiloh hoping to get out of here with a bun in the oven?’ the vampire taunted, and there was a surprising twinge in her tone.
With a start, Shiloh realized that while Grace could watch the memory from Shiloh’s perspective, she couldn’t hear the thoughts that were going through her mind at the time.
Perhaps vampires could only use their powers in one way at once.
Or maybe Grace’s powers hadn’t yet evolved to their fullest potential, as she was still a teenager. Either way, Shiloh had a chance to keep Drake safe.
While Grace was watching the conversation with Adam unfold, Shiloh tried to recall if she had mentioned Drake by name. She didn’t think so, but then again, her mind wasn’t in the best shape at the moment. At the very least, she was certain there were bits of her conversation with Devon where they talked about his brother.
Devon, Shiloh remembered with a start, just as he appeared in the memory.
‘Hmm, is that your lover boy?’ Grace wondered eagerly, knowing she was on the verge of a big discovery. ‘Bit young, isn’t he?’
‘Please, don’t,’ Shiloh desperately begged, but the vampire didn’t seem to hear those thoughts either.
Grace was quiet as she watched Devon hand a confused Shiloh the sandwich and gruffly instruct her not to go to dinner.
By some miracle, Grace decided to end the memory there, without seeing the moment when Shiloh and Devon talked about Drake. Her lips detached from Shiloh’s neck, but her fangs didn’t retract back into her jaw, scraping Shiloh’s skin hard enough to enlarge her wound.
The redhead spat out a mouthful of blood. “Ugh, gross. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back.”
Alone in her cell once again, Shiloh struggled to find her bearings, but the room was spinning too fast. She felt sick both in the literal and the metaphorical sense.
Did she just give Devon away? Was he going to be punished now, too?
As she lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness, she longed for oblivion once again, and to no longer feel this horrible mix of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion.
Her final thought as she succumbed to unconsciousness was that now she understood Shauna’s urge to please Master after her sentence. If she survived, she would do anything to avoid going through this horror ever again.
