embers and claws

Chapter Five

As I walked along the paths- its turns and dead ends not foreign to my feet. Determination, the very adrenaline that pumped into my bloodstream and arrow to the heart of the evil soul that resides in my mind. If he really did have one.

At first, he thought it was some sort of trick I was using to make him fall in line, something to keep him in check.

He was never oblivious to my emotions, he just chooses to ignore them. He was not new to my anguish, my pain, then my resolution shouldn't be a stranger to him.

He had tried to stop me in the same ways he was used to.

A command, torture, punishment and the least been coaxing seeing that his actions did nothing to me.

Stop

He commanded. His voice the same hombre it usually carried. Low, deliberate and unbothered. It was as though I was meant to follow his command. He the ruler, and I conditioned to be his subject. But today was different.

He still hadn't discovered that he had pushed me way past my breaking point. I was at the ledge, and one of my legs dangled dangerously.

He sighed softly, like I was a child throwing tantrums. As though what was happening to my body, my lack of control over my body and the situation I find myself was not worth losing sleep over.

I knew that my fear brought him thrill, the fast beating of my heart was like the sole purpose he had.

This moment, I was past the point of the fear I had for him, no, my heart was not palpating and my breaths are not coming in pants.

I was tired, yet I had never been so energized.

He was blind to my complains, my trepidations. Now, I had lost all of my senses to his fear.

The wolfsbane.

Father had confiscated a bottle of the contraband from some young wolves who didn't know what was good for them. Maybe they had been like me at some point- hopeless and filled with distress.

I remember seeing him hide it in one the bottom drawers in his room. I hope he has forgotten he left it there.

Contrary to the anguish in me, I pulled the door to our home open softly, unwilling to draw any attention to me. My destination being Dad's room.

He must have sensed it- his nightmare becoming reality.

Stop this, this instant.

He commanded, his voice tightening a little. A tad forceful.

His desperation a mystery not worth solving. He sounded doubtful, as if trying to assure himself that I lacked the nerve to do it.

Something shifted in his emotions, barely noticable,but it was there. I don't know how I've been able to read him.

His punishment came shortly after, a sharp pain that radiated slowly from my chest. It was numbing, soul reaping- one that could have snatched my soul away had I been human. No amount of bracing could have braced me for its impact.

The copper taste of blood filled my mouth as I bit down on my tongue to keep in the pain. A reddish salivary drawled down the side of my mouth and I paid it no mind.

I would love to see whose determination was greater, his or mine.

He could cause me all kinds of pain, but he would not touch his child. He would not go anywhere near my stomach.

How important was the thing in my stomach. Would we not find out.

A low sarcastic snort left my lips.

My legs didn't stop, in fact, his actions seemed to have fuel my resolution. This child, this unwanted presence in my mind has to leave.

My strides became longer and my steps quicker while my mind worked on where dad could have kept the keys to those drawers

I dare you

I kicked Dad's door open. Although locked, the door almost flew out of its hinges. My hands trembled slightly not out of fear but of anticipation.

I could feel my family trying to get to me. They had noticed my absence. It would be a little hard to keep both of them off along with the one in my mind.

I pulled the bottom drawers, hoping they were not locked, alas they were open and there it was- a silver container with outer iron lining. It was the only thing that could keep the wolfsbane from burning out the container- silver, the same thing that increases its potency while the iron prevents the silver from burning us.

I was carrying a contraband that my father forgot to keep well.

I swallowed heavily as if thirsty for the deadly liquid I held.

No, Nataia no. No!

The force of his words enough to make me stumble.

This was the first time he said my name. His voice tinge with something foreign to my ears, an accent he had never used before. A language he had never spoken before but I understood. Soft, noble and unhurried even as I tasted his desperation in my mouth.

A single word "no" held such power- enough to make me freeze.

The muscles of my limbs became stiff, weakened and the joint unfoldable. My legs became too heavy to carry and my hands an appendage that refuses to take to its host command.

If this was not happening, I would not have known that he had this much power over me.

And I wondered how I could hold so much fear for something I had never seen.

My eyes sharpened. I understand now. It was only if the command got to me would it be effective.

I muster my energy and directed it towards building a virtual wall between us. A wall I hope would keep him out of my life forever. As the wall materialized, his voice became distant just as the stiffness and weakness in my muscles receded gradually.

His voice a desperate protest to keep me in his grasp.

Please

His plead, although foreign failed to tug at my heartstring. This was his own doing, his retribution.

I was not listening. He and his unrealistic child needed to be obliterated.

Without another thought, I poured the fluid down my throat.

I poured a generous amount regardless of how much it burned.

It burned like a lava trailing from my mouth down my throat. It was unlike anything I had felt before, not even adrenaline could keep the burn at bay.

The path it took peeled raw, the container dropped and my hands were quick to find my throat- grasping it as if it would provide some relief.

The burn spread through my stomach, and I lurched forward before sliding down the floor of the walldrobe.

My intestines twisted, I threw my head back and my lips parted to draw in air. Thick line of sweat laced my body and my golden hair matted to my forehead.

The tremor came from the inside, I could feel my inside pulsate as they fought against the deadly fluid but failed miserably. The burn of the wolfsbane cooked my inside soft and tear them- making them collapse onto one another.

There was something I was waiting for.

A loud growl resonated from my mind, I could have sworn it echoed out of my mind and reverberated against the walls of the room that aren't so empty.

His cries of pain and loss brought me momentary reprieve.

Yes, let's share each other's pain.

I don't know, I wasn't sure if my mind vibrated as if something wanted to push itself out. My mind must have become inhabitable thanks to his vices- it was now dark that even I can't tell what it was capable of thinking.

I hope it constrict him to the point of strangulation.

A low hombre of laugh foreign to my ears left my lips- vindictive.

Something warm rose from my stomach up my throat and coat my mouth. A mixture of copper and sour taste. It spilled and dropped down the side of my lips.

Then it should not be far behind, I needed to brace myself.

I waited for what seemed like eternity, but it never came. Not the feeling of something been retched from my inside that I had been anticipating.

Large muscular arms wrapped around me trying to rail me in. The voice of the owner a distance thing.

No, no, this could not be happening.

My hands patted my stomach underneath the constraints of the strong arms, and somehow I knew it was still there.

The voice of the person beside me was soft, comforting contrary to what I was feeling.

A loud wail sear from my throat, not even the burn or the melting skin of my throat that had been stripped raw could stop it.

At first, I didn't think it belonged to me. It sounded foreign, like it was my cacophonic emotions coming together to find a middle ground.

I had lost something I didn't lose.

I stared straight as tears poured, my mind unwilling to comprehend the lost battle. Energy drained and I collapsed into the arms anchoring me.

My mind emptied out as though the presence that had just been there moment ago was nothing but phantom.

A myth I had conjured to lull kids into nightmare.

He hadn't faded, no, he vanished.

My body jerked and I allow my body fall into the embrace of the involuntary movements that rack my body stiff.

That moment I forgot about the pain that was so high I became unfeeling.

What was happening to me.

As if to answer my question, I heard the familiar voice of my brother whispered in despair "she's convulsing"

"Make some room, Dad. She might break a bone with that grip",

I don't know how long it took, I slumped onto the floor like puddle of viscous fluid- the exhaustion both mental and physical.

A tear glided down my temple.

Something rang in my mind.

All of the pain had been for nothing.

Warm quick arms pulled me into their embrace and their owner ordered for a physician.