Chapter Nineteen


I felt light and free, weightless, floating on a timeless ocean, surrounded by hues of night and shadows.

“...you are not human, Heather. You have been lying to yourself. Thinking you can survive this way, lead a ‘normal life’ when you were born to be so much more...” His words echoed in my mind once more, taunting me from a faraway distance.

Heat rippled through the darkness, washing over me. Forbidden and sweet, wrapping around me like a delicate thread which seemed to tighten with each second that passed. The thread pierced deep inside me, tying itself to my very core, like a tether.

Pounding in the darknessa steady beat all around me, a beat I knew should be inside of me, but it wasn’t and yet, the thrum was closing in, and with each hit came a wave of bliss that rolled over me, through me. The thread got stronger, tighter, changing from a delicate strand of silk to a link of iron chain, unbreakable and binding. The pounding got worse. Stronger, heavier, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to hide or run towards the crazed tempo... Then the pain tore in as forbidden and pleasurable heat turned into fire, fierce and branding, blazing from my very core outward.

A scream lodged in my throat. Oxygen burned like the flesh on my bones. Blistering agony consumed my body, which I was becoming more and more aware of as the darkness got lighter. I felt as though I was being pulled in half, pulled into a million pieces, stretching and stretching, knowing that any moment now, I would snap. I would break.

A voice, soothing and familiar yet filled with urgency, spoke to me, the words too faint and lost behind the sound of wails and yowls.

Don’t fight the pain. Embrace it. Make it yours.”

So much concern and understanding laced his words, but there hung a fear behind them, a guilt.

My eyes flew open as pain paralyzed me. My bones contorted. Snapping. Crunching. I could do nothing but listen to his voice; take short sharp breaths and let my body bend and break over and over, until the fight had left me.

The pain subsided.

I looked down through watery eyes. My body was covered in blood. My skin was stretched across my frame so tightly, it was splitting like tissue paper. Fresh blood oozed from each crack, each wound.

“Fate is a cruel mistress, and if you decide to play with her, you better be prepared to sacrifice everything, lass. Balance must be maintained.” My grandmother’s voice broke through my mind, her tone vicious and full of warning. “Sacrifice leads to success. You must be successful. It has to be you.

Pain seized me again. My heart banged in the confines of my ribcage, nausea a whirlpool in my gut. Drums thumped in my temples, the persistent beat made worse by the noises... So many noises and voices, my eardrums would surely explode.

“It always had to be you,” my grandmother growled.

The scream ripped from me as I broke in half.

 

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