Regret?
1094 Words
Chapter 3
Three days…
That was all it took to break me, drag me into the deepest pits of hell.
After arriving at Erebus Veil, there was no welcoming words or tours, only cold instructions and hard reality.
The luxury front of the organization hid dirty and darker secrets. The day I came, they lead me through a secret underground passage.
A golf cart was parked on the side of the passage. Men in black lead us in the golf cart, slowly driving away.
The golf cart creeked eerily. The ride was long and silent, it felt like we rode in it for hours. We probably did because the time we finally arrived the sky was dark.
Upon leaving the tunnel, it felt like I transmigrated. The scene before me was different and oddly amusing.
It was like we returned to the old ice ages. Compared to the summer in the city, this place was like Antarctica!!
I was lead to one of the old cottage, this was the place I would be staying in! I glanced at Mr Xavier Nightshade from the shabby run-down cottage window.
I had a feeling it would be a while before I saw him again. His cold and tall back disappeared into the raging snow storm.
***
Time crawled by slowly…
Life in Erebus Veil became a routine. Being dragged out of bed before the sun had risen, cold meals, fights and death.
Today, the men in black dragged me out of the cottage. They dragged all the trainees to the frozen lake deep in frozen forest.
The whip crackled like lightning in the cold winter air. I struggled to maintain my position. A dull ache shot through my feet, it was cramping up from the cold.
One leg raised above the knee and the other standing on cold ice. Beside me, the others held their positions without shaking.
A shadowing silhouette circled us without making a noise. Apart from the occasional sound of his whip, silence stretched on.
The sharp noise of his whip echoed continuously. The breathing of the girl beside me became irregular. With just a glance I could see her whole body trembling.
With a loud thud! She fell on the ice. Everyone held their breath. The silence cut sharper than before..
A piercing scream tore from her throat. Her sharp screams became louder and agonized. No one looked but it didn’t mean we didn’t hear the sounds.Her piercing scream became muffled then non-existent.
Two men dressed in black dragged her through the freezing ice. Her once responsive eyes were still, unmoving like she was gone. She probably was.
“Dismissed”
His voice cut the silence like blades. We practically fled from the frozen lake to our small living cottage.
I ran. I didn’t stop till my door was slammed shut. My body slid down the door lifelessly. I clutch the coin hidden in my pocket tightly.
His voice rang like a cursed bell in my head.
“It’s too late to regret it”
I should have known from the way he said it.
From the day I arrived here, the intense training began. We were taught by men in black and were forced to adhere to their every order.
The numbers of trainees kept dropping rapidly. In the first day we were thirty girls and one week later we were down to twenty three.
I have been living on ice ever since . In the first week, seven girls were brutally killed. One was betrayed by her best friend and tried to argue but was eventually killed for being foolish and trusting people.
After that incident, I stopped talking to people. I realized that if I wanted to survive, I had to play it smart. I stopped socializing and mostly stayed indoors.
From my small window I watched the girls play with each other. I never came out, just observed. I noticed the girl in the other cottage doing the same thing. They called her little Lily.
Most people bullied her and took her own ration of food but she never complained. In her calm eyes, I always felt she was more complex than she seemed.
Most of the time I would practice indoors. Night eventually comes and that’s when the terrifying part begins.
In the evening, we go to the hall to collect our night rations. We stand in a straight line with clean trays waiting for the men in black to share our rations.
After the thirteenth girl, the food finishes. Luckily, I was the seventh girl and Lily was the fifth girl. Loud screams could be heard throughout the hall.
The ten girls that didn’t get food started causing chaos. They started rebelling. The man in black stood still like the scene in front of him was purely fictional.
A girl got so angry that she didn’t think twice before rushing towards the guy. The man in black didn’t move. Instead he grabbed her hand, twisting it slowly till her bones breaking became audible in the noisy hall.
He didn’t stop there. He continued twisting every bone he could find in her body. Only the sound of her scream and bones filled the hall. When he was done, he let her lifeless body drop to the ground.
Dead silence rang in the hall. No one dared to move forward. He remained still, waiting for the person who would dare approach him.
I exited the hall with my heart in my throat . The other girls ran out too. Their faces were ghostly pale. They looked deeply traumatized.
The walk back to the cottage was eerily silent. Only light footsteps echoed in the silence. No one spoke and I believe it was mutual understanding.
It wasn’t that we were scared into silence. It was that everyone was scared that their own voices could put them in trouble.
The path to redemption was harder than I thought. I took his offer without hesitation. I willingly walked into a death trap without regretting it. If this was the path that would lead me to redemption,I would willingly walk the path..
No regrets…
No regrets right?
My legs walked on instinct but my mind was somewhere else. The door clicking shut brought partial relief.
I ate my cold meal in silence. I subconsciously clutch the coin in my pocket. It was still there. I let out a sigh of relief. I plopped on to the bed,letting sleep slowly take me deeper into its abyss.
“Bang!”
My cottage door slammed open….
- Writer
