Kill The Luna

54

The freezing stone of the altar bit into my bare skin, a constant, throbbing reminder of my failure as I lay perfectly still in the pitch-black chamber. So, this was really it. After all the frantic running, all the agonizing pain, all the humiliating falls, and all the desperate fights I had put up across the country, this hidden, bloody cave would finally be the place where my story ended.

There was absolutely no running away this time. The heavy iron chains around my wrists and ankles made sure of that. If this exact nightmare had happened to me about two months ago, I wouldn't have been very sad about losing my life. Back then, I had nothing left to live for anyway. But now, everything felt completely different. A stubborn, quiet spark deep inside my chest simply didn't want to give up just yet. I wanted to live, to breathe the fresh air, and to fight back against the monsters controlling my destiny.

*If I really can't get out of this alive,* I thought, a bitter lump forming in my throat, *I just hope with everything in my soul that I will find Ella waiting for me in the afterlife.*

The thought of her sweet face brought a fresh wave of moisture to my eyes. Raising my chained wrists as far as the metal links allowed, I roughly wiped the hot tears from my cheeks with the back of my sleeve. I lay my head back down on the cold stone, getting completely lost in a dark, spinning circle of thoughts until my exhausted mind finally gave out, and I drifted into a deep, heavy sleep.

My consciousness floated away into an endless, empty void where the pain in my muscles couldn't reach me. I was deep in the middle of a restless dream when a strange, annoying pressure began digging into my shoulder. A rough hand was aggressively tapping my body, dragging me backward out of the darkness of sleep.

I slowly blinked my heavy eyelids open, groaning as the harsh beam of a flashlight illuminated the stone ceiling. Standing directly over the altar was one of Elda's large, muscular guards. He held a plain ceramic plate in his thick fingers, pushing it directly toward my chest until the edge of the dish scraped against my jacket. His face remained completely expressionless, his eyes dull and hollow as he muttered a single, robotic command. "Eat."

I shifted my neck, looking down at the meal he had brought me. It was just a simple, unappealing bowl of white rice topped with a small portion of watery vegetable stew. It wasn't completely rotten or disgusting, but it certainly wasn't a good, appetizing meal either—just basic prison food meant to keep a body functioning. A wave of intense irritation washed over me. I let out a loud, disgusted hiss, turning my face completely away from him as I shut my eyes, trying to force myself back to sleep.

But the guard didn't move an inch. The rough hand descended again, tapping my shoulder with a persistent, heavy force. "Eat," he repeated, his tone entirely flat and unchanging.

This time, a hot surge of fury snapped my eyes open. I glared up at his large frame, my voice dropping into a sharp, angry snarl that echoed off the damp cavern walls. "I am not eating a single bite of that garbage, and I don't want to see your face! Take that plate and get the hell out of here!"

I twisted my body to the side, pressing my shoulder against the stone table to ignore him completely. But the moment I settled down, his thick fingers began tapping my arm yet again. His movements were incredibly rigid and unnatural, completely lacking any human emotion or warmth. It felt exactly like he was an artificial robot being controlled by a master, or a puppet being manipulated by a remote control from afar. He was completely deaf to my anger.

He leveled his dull eyes at me, his mouth opening to repeat the same exact word. "Eat."

A fierce rage exploded in my brain, and I gnashed my teeth together until my jaw throbbed with pain. Before he could even realize what I was doing, I yanked my right hand upward, stretching the metal links of the chain to their absolute limit. I snatched the ceramic plate from his grip and flipped it forward with all the strength I had left, pouring the sticky white rice and watery vegetable stew directly into his open face. I made absolutely sure that a heavy clump of the warm food splattered straight into his eyes.

The guard didn't scream, and he didn't launch forward to strike me in revenge. He simply stood up completely straight, his face remaining entirely blank as the sauce dripped down his nose and cheeks. Without uttering a single word of complaint, he calmly knelt down on his knees and began picking up the spilled grains of rice from the dirt floor, packing the ruined food back onto the dish.

He quietly turned on his heel and marched out of the chamber, his footsteps fading into the shadows. The moment he left the light, I shifted my gaze toward the entrance of the cave, and my heart instantly skipped a beat. Elda was standing right there in the dark pathway, her arms crossed over her chest as she watched me with a deeply disappointed expression.

She glided slowly toward the stone altar, her boots making no sound on the gravel as she stopped beside my head. "You really didn't have to be that incredibly harsh on him, Fedora," she murmured, a soft, chiding sigh escaping her lips as she shook her head. "I explicitly told him earlier to be extra gentle and patient with you while delivering your meal. That is the only reason he didn't instantly retaliate against you for throwing that food."

"Oh, just shut up!" I snapped back, my chest heaving with pure hatred as I glared into her eyes. My voice shook with a sudden wave of furious laughter. "Stop all of this ridiculous preaching about treating me gently! How can you stand there and talk about kindness when you are the exact monster who has me chained up like an animal on a ritual table?"

Elda’s calm demeanor slowly began to shift, the fake warmth draining from her features as a serious, calculating look took over her face. "The truth is, Fedora, I genuinely wanted to train you the proper way," she explained coldly, her eyes scanning my bruised arms. "I wanted to help you make your body stronger so you could learn to control the ancient curse in your blood. But when I fought you in the garden yesterday, I realized a very disappointing truth. You are simply far too weak of a vessel. You could never train hard enough to become strong. Even if you actually managed to build up some real strength, it would take months of brutal, agonizing work that we simply do not have time for."

She stepped closer, her shadow falling completely over my face as she reached out. She took my right hand in her palms, her expression twisting into a look of deep, unsettling pity. "So, I have officially decided to do what is absolutely necessary for the greater good," she whispered, her eyes staring into mine with a chilling earnestness. "Forgive me for this, please."

My brow furrowed in pure confusion, my heart hammering violently against my ribs. "What are you—"

Just before the terrifying words could fully form in my brain, Elda’s hand darted down to her waist. With a swift, fluid motion, she slid a small, silver hunting knife out of a leather sheath at her side. The sharp, polished blade caught the dim flashlight beam, glinting dangerously in the shadows.

Before I could even scream or pull my hand away, she brought the weapon crashing down with a brutal, heavy force. The razor-sharp steel sliced cleanly through the center of my palm, driving deep into the soft flesh and pinning my hand flat against the ancient wood of the table like she was driving a nail into a wooden board.

A piercing, blood-curdling shriek of pure agony tore from my throat, the white-hot pain blinding my vision as my body thrashed violently against the rusted iron chains. I watched in total horror as a thick stream of my dark red blood began to pour rapidly from the wound, draining through a hidden groove in the table and splashing heavily into a large stone bowl placed directly underneath the altar.