closing walls
1239 Words
Kaitlyn
Darkness feels different this time.
It isn’t just the absence of light—it’s something heavier. Something pressing in from all sides. Like the shadows are whispering, curling in around my ribs, crawling into the cracks of my mind.
My clogged thoughts begin to loosen. Flooding me with memories. Too many. Too fast. I’m overwhelmed. I try to grab just one—Yuna’s voice, Jax’s eyes, the glowing mark—but they slip through my fingers like water.
When I wake, I’m lying on something soft.
My back aches like I fell from somewhere high. My arm pulses in sharp beats of pain. And my throat—my throat feels like I screamed underwater, like salt and silence scraped the inside of me raw.
I blink hard.
This isn’t my dorm.
The air is colder, thinner. The walls around me are stone. Cold. Sterile. Not welcoming. Like a side chamber in the academy’s medical wing, but stripped of comfort.
Dim lighting buzzes above. Faint. Flickering.
But the smell—
Antiseptic.
Lavender.
And… Jax.
He’s here.
He’s sitting in a chair near the door, elbows on his knees, arms folded, eyes locked on me like I might vanish again.
There’s a storm in those eyes. Still. Quiet. Deadly.
For a moment, neither of us speaks.
Then: “You’re awake.”
His voice cuts through the fog.
I nod slowly. Every muscle feels bruised.
“You passed out,” he says, tone neutral but strained. “In the hallway. The Captain found us. Took you here.”
Then softer,lower, more human, more broken.
“I didn’t know what to do...”
Right.
The mark.
The burning.
I can still feel it under my skin. Like the words were branded into me with fire and magic and something older than either of us could name.
Jax stares at me.
Not angrily.
Not even hurt.
Just… waiting.
Like he’s giving me time. Like he’s balancing on the edge of something sharp.
I swallow hard. My voice comes out hoarse. “You saw it?”
He nods once. “I saw everything.”
My stomach twists.
“And?” I ask.
A long pause.
Then: “You lied to me.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I whisper.
“There’s always a choice.”
His voice isn’t cruel. Just tired. Quiet. Like the weight of that sentence costs him something.
I look away. Shame flares hot behind my eyes. “I was scared.”
“I know.”
I blink back the sting. “Do you… hate me now?”
Jax stands slowly, deliberate and calm, like a predator deciding whether to fight or flee. He moves toward me and crouches by the bed so we’re eye level.
“I don’t hate you, Kaitlyn.”
The sound of my real name on his tongue nearly undoes me.
“I just want to know what else you’re hiding.”
I take a shaky breath. “Too much.”
“Then start with something.”
I stare into his eyes.
And this time… I do.
~~~~
“My parents… where I come from… Let’s just say Shadow Moon is ruled by power. … power. Wrapped in the pretty words of pack politics.
But it didn’t start with Shadow Moon. That’s just where it all unraveled.
They made me think it was normal—the cellar, the punishments, the way they twisted my mind. They made me believe it was love.
Until the magic started to wear off.
I realized I wasn’t theirs. Not really. I was something else. Something they stole.
They knew. They knew I was waking up. So they made me forget. Created a life. A sweet lie. I was a normal girl with insecurities and piano lessons.
But it was fake.
The truth is… I was a weapon. I poisoned, stabbed, manipulated—all under their command. I didn’t ask questions. Not even when they made me hurt people. I couldn’t.
I thought Yuna was my only friend, but now… now I don’t even know if she was real or another piece in their plan.
I never told anyone. I couldn’t risk it. Not until now.
Because they’ve found me again.”
~~~~
Jax’s expression darkens.
“They’re using blood magic?” he asks, voice low.
I nod. “Yes. That mark on my arm? It’s how they track me. How they summon me. And… they have Yuna. Or they’re using her to bait me. I don’t know what’s real anymore.”
Jax’s jaw clenches. “Blood magic is forbidden. Ancient. Dangerous.”
“They don’t care,” I whisper. “They think they’re above the law. They think I belong to them.”
He starts pacing.
“The things you’re describing—this isn’t just abuse. It’s warfare. Ritualistic. Psychological. Who are they?”
“My so-called family? They’re monsters. Dressed in silk and masks.”
He stops and looks at me. His voice is rough. “And you were going to fight them alone?”
“I was trying to protect you,” I say. “All of you.”
His eyes blaze. “You don’t get to decide that.”
“I—”
“No,” he cuts in. “I don’t care if you’re Kaitlyn or Kai or a shapeshifting hellbeast—if they come for you, they’ll go through me first.”
Tears sting behind my eyes. “Jax…”
“You don’t get to shut me out anymore.”
And just like that, the wall I built cracks. A piece of it breaks, just enough for hope to get through.
But then—
The door bursts open.
Captain Renna strides in, flanked by two guards. Her usually calm face is pale, her expression grim.
“We’ve just received word,” she says.
My breath catches.
“From where?”
“Yuna’s pack,” she replies. “They were attacked.”
The world goes still.
“No survivors found yet,” she continues. “Scouts are still searching.”
That doesn’t sound right.
I bolt upright. My body screams in protest, but I don’t care. “No. That’s wrong.”
They never leave bodies. Never leave evidence. Never fail.
This wasn’t an attack.
A trap.
My legs give out. weak from standing. Jax catches me before I hit the floor.
“It’s a trap,” I say through clenched teeth.
He nods slowly. “I know. But you’re still going, aren’t you?”
I meet his eyes. “I have to.”
“Then we do it together. No more sneaking. No more lies.”
I nod, breath shaky. “Then let’s go.”
As the guards turn to leave, Renna pauses.
“There’s something else,” she says.
I freeze. “What?”
Her eyes narrow. “We found scent traces under a concealment spell. Multiple creatures. None native to this region. All of them masked.”
My heart drops.
Renna lowers her voice. “Do you know anything about that?”
I shake my head. “Not exactly. But I… I know I’m not the only one they’ve taken. I heard whispers. Sometimes I caught glimpses. But the others were sold—gone—before I ever saw their faces.”
A long silence.
Then I say the words I’ve been dreading since the moment I woke up:
“They’re building something. And I think I was just the first piece.”
- Writer
