Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
A chill gripped me, followed by intense fear. Physical violence I could handle, but this was different. Someone was trying to do me harm by wheedling their way into my mind, and it was the creepiest shit I’d ever experienced. It felt like spiders were crawling all over my skin. I could feel whoever it was running their psychotic fingers over my brain and prying their way inside.
My attention returned to the rope, and I fought the impulse to pick it up and carry it out to the courtyard. It was early enough that no one would be out there yet. Whoever was doing it to me had selected the perfect time to strike.
It will be such sweet relief to no longer exist, a voice spoke in my head, and I wanted to scream for it to get out. Who was doing it? Where were they? If I could find them, maybe I could knock them out and put an end to the mental warfare.
Darya, take the rope, the voice urged, and my attention went to it again, but that time I noticed something curious. It didn’t look like the kind of rope you purchased in a store. The fibres were too natural like they’d been woven from a plant. A memory flashed in my mind of Lara leading me through Sarasin’s greenhouse. She’d motioned to a hemp plant and said it was her favourite. At the time, I’d thought nothing of it, but I knew hemp had many uses, and its fibres could certainly be strong enough to make rope.
My stomach dropped as realisation dawned. Was Lara the serial killer? Lara?
Was she the one mentally influencing all those prisoners to kill themselves? It made no sense. Lara was one of the only kind people I’d met in the prison, but then, I’d felt that hollowness when our fingers touched yesterday. Obviously, the nice lady act was just that, an act, a brilliant cover for the monster underneath.
I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on fighting off her influence. It was difficult because she seemed to have such a firm grip on my mind. I didn’t even realise I’d lost the battle until I found myself leaving my cell with the rope in my hand. I didn’t want to do it, but she had complete control of me, and I was marching toward the courtyard without any power to stop.
I’d always considered elven powers to be benevolent, the kind of powers used to help people spiritually. Now, I knew those powers could also be used for evil, and Lara had been using hers to satisfy her urge to kill without lifting a finger.
I entered the courtyard, my feet being propelled by a force that wasn’t my own, and that was when I saw her. Lara stood in the far corner of the empty space, expressionless as she forced me to walk toward the tree. I sensed her elation, her satisfaction and triumph to orchestrate and watch another kill.
I fought against every step, but she was stronger, her grip on my mind like claws digging in. I hated her. She would end my life, and for what? Nothing. I had so much left to do, so much left to achieve. I saw my future flash before my eyes, not the one I imagined with Peter, but the one Sarasin had shown me with Vasilios. The son we were supposed to have. At that moment, my heart broke for that future because I would never experience it. I’d been determined to walk a different path, but now that my future was being torn away, I mourned for it. I wanted to hold on like never before.
I was climbing the tree, preparing to tie the rope around one of the thicker branches, when I heard a noise. Someone else was there. At the entrance to the courtyard stood Marcel. The elderly warlock was frozen in place, taking in the sight of me about to tie the rope to the tree. Then his eyes went to Lara. His appearance distracted her long enough for her to lose her hold over me. Marcel was staring and pointing at her.
“It’s you! All this time, I thought it was the guards, but it was you! You’re the one!” he exclaimed, and her expression transformed into fury. She advanced on him, infuriated to have her perfect crime interrupted. It allowed me to leap down from the tree. I ran toward Lara, catching up to her just before she reached Marcel. I threw the rope around her neck and yanked her backward.
She gasped and struggled for breath, clawing at the rope as it cut into her skin. I was lost in rage, a red haze over my vision as I throttled her with the rope.
“Please, stop,” she rasped, but the beast within me had taken over. I was no longer myself. I was a monster who was enraged that she’d tried to kill me. She’d been prepared to end my life just to satisfy some twisted urge.