Two Worlds Apart

XVIII

Penelope panted from where she laid on the stone table, her bare back covered in glossy golden blood. "You wanna talk now?" the guard asked, holding the whip higher above her with a wide grin. Penelope was shaking, clenching her fists as she managed to keep tears from staining her cheeks, but she didn't say anything.

Another loud, sickening c***k sounded through the dark, dank room, followed by Penelope's scream.

"Ugh, when are they gonna bring us food?" Terrance whined from where he sat in the corner of the large cell, tugging on his black curls.

Valerie's mouth curved upward slightly, but the smile faded before it had ever formed when she caught sight of Camilla.

The beautiful angel hadn't said a word since they'd arrived. She'd only stared blankly at the opposite wall, warm brown eyes vacant and dull. Normally, this would not be so startling, but Valerie had never seen Camilla without a sparkle in her gaze. Never.

Leo seemed just as concerned. He hadn't left his twin's side since arriving at the Hall and seemed to be the only prisoner that Camilla would bother to acknowledge.

However, one of the demons also seemed to be curious about her. The dark-haired one, with striking blue eyes and a rather intimidating demeanor. He watched Camilla with a sharp gaze, Valerie noticed, and seemed to be interested in her rather odd behavior. Valerie clenched her jaw.

Leo didn't seem to like this either, because he turned to the demon with a snarl. "Take your filthy gaze away from my sister," he growled, wrapping an arm around Camilla's shoulder protectively.

Camilla didn't react.

The demon only shot Leo a death glare, making to step toward him when one of the girls gipped his arm. She had glossy black hair and deep, olive skin. Gemma. "Aries," she murmured. "Let it go." Aries only shot Leo one more glance before stalking toward the blue-haired demon, Asha.

Leo turned his attention back to Camilla, and as the others resumed their time-passing activities, he tapped her cheek and she turned her dull gaze to him. "Cami, you're gonna be okay. You aren't alone. You have me, and the rest of the Queensguard," Leo whispered, stroking her hair. "This isn't the red chamber. You're okay. You won't be hurt that way here."

Camilla seemed to register the words because her blank expression turned into one of love and understanding. She wrapped her arms around Leo's neck, pressing her face into his shoulder. "Thank you, Leo," she whispered. Leo didn't respond and only hugged her tightly, thankful that she had at least spoken.

Terrance watched with a soft smile. Thank the Queen she's moving again.

The dark-skinned angel was the only other person who knew about Camilla's life as a child, besides her brother, of course. He knew the moment the guards had opened their cell door for the first time that Camilla would be a wreck. But he also knew that objecting or trying to reason with the guards would end in his head and possibly Camilla's hanging from the ceiling.

Leo and Camilla's parents were possibly some of the worst in the business. They were sick and twisted and cruel and only to Camilla. While her twin was praised for even his smallest achievements, Camilla was beaten and bruised for her smallest failures. Their mother was worse than their father; she had a rather nasty habit of constant gaslighting and manipulation that had Camilla questioning her entire existence some nights.

And then, of course, there was the red chamber.

It was their mother's idea. When she deemed it appropriate, the woman would send Camilla into a rather medium-sized room, almost completely dark, with plush furniture and fuzzy rugs, and even a nook in the wall to sit in; almost as if to relax. And everything, everything in that cursed room was red. Deep, luxurious red so similar to the blood of humankind that Camilla could almost see it dripping down the walls, seeping through the couch cushions, bubbling from in-between the floorboards.

Camilla would be locked in that room for hours, days, even weeks at some points. And every thirty minutes, she would bleed. Sometimes it was arrows shot from holes in the walls. Sometimes it was an ax swinging from a hidden place in the ceiling. Most often, however, it was a knife. It would float from its place on the wall and slice her up like a maid might slice onions. And there was no way for her to heal properly from those wounds, so Camilla could only wrap them in torn scraps from her clothes and hope for the best. She couldn't even use her magic to defend herself; her mother's spells prevented that.

And once Camilla was released, she would go to her room and try to heal until she was sent back into the chamber again. Leo would go see her, but he was f*******n from helping her or he'd be, in his mother's words "chopped into bits and served for supper."

Neither twin had any doubt in those words.

Soon after the silence in the cell began to get unbearably loud, the barred door opened and Penelope was thrown in, covered in blood as she stumbled into the cell and collapsed onto the ground.

Terrance lunged for her immediately, with Valerie right behind him. Together, they sat her up and Terrance held her steady while Valerie inspected her back, which was exposed thanks to the rips the guards put in her clothes.

Camilla stared at her friend but didn't move. Her limbs were locked.

She thought that Penelope looked a lot like she did, so many years ago.

The demons didn't move either. They simply watched with wide eyes as Terrance tore up his shirt, creating makeshift bandages for Valerie and Charles to wrap around Penelope's deep wounds. Leo kept her propped up, telling her that it was okay, that she was going to heal, and that she was safe now.

But as Terrance began to wipe the blood off of Penelope's back, the blonde angel released a heartbreaking cry. She arched backward, shouting at the pain in her back. Her wounds began to bleed faster as color leeched from her skin. "She's losing too much blood," Valerie hissed. "Get more cloth."

Charles nodded, grabbing his and Leo's shirts, and tossing them to Terrance, who began to tear them into long strips.

But something had shifted in Camilla. When she heard her friend's hopeless cry, something had snapped. That tether that tied her to her memories, keeping her mind a slave, was cut loose. Camilla lunged toward her friend while reaching into that deep well of power inside her. Of course, there were wards throughout the dungeon to keep prisoners from using their magic, but Camilla didn't care. Not as she watched her friend, bleeding out on the stone floor, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Camilla closed her eyes, reaching down into her very core, and tugged on her power. She wove around the nets and cages keeping it so far down and pulled as hard as she could, but her power couldn't budge. The wards were too powerful.

Try, a voice in Camilla's head whispered. Try, to save Penelope. Do not doom her to rot in this cell until the life drains from her body.

Camilla gritted her teeth, tugging and clawing and pulling-

Something snapped. The wards; nets, keeping her power contained, snapped, and Camilla's magic came roaring to the surface. She threw her hands forward, toward Penelope, and a river of pure, cleansing water rushed from her palms. It ran over Penelope's back, wiping the blood away and dipping into her wounds; to clean them out, Camilla hoped. It washed all over Penelope, not just her back. It rid her pale hair of long-dried blood and wiped away the tears that had stained her cheeks.

And when Camilla collapsed against the wall, exhausted from opening the wards, the water faded away like dew in the sun, leaving Penelope clean and dry as opened her eyes, blinking slowly. "Camilla?" Penelope whispered, trying to focus her eyes on the slumped figure against the wall.

No one said anything. They were still too stunned by what had just happened to bother.

Penelope's back was red and raw, but the bleeding had stopped. The wounds were no longer open and gushing blood. How? was the question that echoed in everyone's heads as they stared at Penelope. At Camilla.

But apparently, Asha recovered faster than the rest. She took a step toward Penelope, leaving about four feet of distance between them. "Close your eyes, Penelope. Camilla is fine. You need to rest."

Perhaps it was the blood loss, or the soothing tone in the demon's voice, but Penelope's eyelids fluttered closed and within minutes, her steady breathing echoed throughout the large cell.

Camilla stayed unmoving.