Rats
1298 Words
Marisol
I was momentarily stunned. For a fleeting second, I wanted to settle with the fact that my hearing was impaired. That she made a mistake.
But when Claudia turned, the dark cloud that rolled through her eyes— a glint of malice— and that imperceptible smirk that tugged at the corner of her mouth made me realize one thing.
I had fallen into a trap, and Claudia wasn’t who I thought she was.
At that moment, it felt as if the walls were closing in on me as the air vanished from my lungs, and this suffocating feeling gripped me. With trembling fingers, I gripped my dress, staring at Claudia in nothing but disbelief.
My breath came in ragged gasps as tears filled my eyes, and worse, the lack of remorse in her eyes shattered my heart further.
How could she?
When she exchanged fleeting glances with Jolene, it hit me that the two of them were probably acquaintances, and Claudia was planted in my life to do one thing.
To ruin and ruin me completely.
I pointed at Jolene, my fingers trembling. I needed my phone. Now.
Just at that moment, my eyes clashed with those of Julian’s, whose eyes blazed with fury as he muttered through gritted teeth. “How dare you!”
My heart sank.
It was not like I expected much from him, but how could he believe this?
I darted my eyes around the entire place, trying to search for the maid who was carrying my purse as my chest tightened further and further. The rising rumors and the fact that no one knew sign language drove me insane.
As I swung my head back to Julian’s direction, his fingers caught my throat, eliciting a gasp from my mouth. Tears pressed at the back of my eyelids, and I choked over and over again as his sharp fingers slowly pierced into my skin.
“You don’t deserve to be Luna after all the atrocities that you have committed…” He muttered through clenched teeth.
That was the moment Elora, her mum, and all the other maids took the opportunity to talk about how I had been mistreating them since Julian was away. A blatant lie. I was the victim.
With the accusations growing, something hit me.
It was all planned work.
They were doing this to remove me from the position of Luna and have Jolene take over.
It felt like my soul was slipping away. Just as death slithered to me, Julian’s fingers left my neck, and before I could wrap my head around things, his hand struck me hard across the face.
A slap that completely blurred my vision and made everything go pitch black for a second.
Julian yelled. “Guards!”
In the next minute, the heavy sound of footsteps filled the entire room as the guards surrounded me while Julian barked. “Lock her in the darkest part of the dungeon. She must not be given food and water for this act of treason.”
“Marisol will be sentenced to Death!”
And that was how my life ended. Maybe not yet.
It was now my third day in the dungeon, and I was void of strength. My throat was dry. My stomach ached as tears brimmed my eyes, streaming down my face, and the baseless accusations, the betrayal from Claudia still had me in disbelief.
It was all too much for me.
As I lay on the ground, curled in a fetal position, the silent squeaking of rats triggered all the senses in my head, and that foul stench from them assaulted my nostrils.
I was too weak to move and just as I felt one scurrying towards me as my blood spiked, the door to the dungeon opened, and the large rats scurried back into their hole.
Two guards stood at the entrance, one of them opening a scroll while reading out loud. “Marisol, here is the verdict. After thorough deliberation, Alpha Julian and the werewolf court have decided that you are guilty.”
“You are guilty of murder, treason, and maltreatment of the people. You will be executed this afternoon, you shall be set on the stake and burned alive.”
For the umpteenth time, I died over and over again.
My heart leaped into my throat, and a flurry of emotions crashed over me as tears cascaded down my cheeks. The guards dragged me from the dungeon to the top of the mountains, where my execution would take place.
Stones were hurled at me. Eggs were thrown at me— by the same people that I served.
They had called me a curse who had brought nothing but calamity ever since I came into their pack. Rumors had also spread around that to bring peace and stability back into the pack, I needed to die.
This was absurd. Pure evil.
My body ached, blood trailing down my face as I was now tied to a stake with ropes tied around my body, and dried leaves soaked with inflammable oil surrounded my legs.
As my head swayed gently to the sides, my fear intensified as everyone stared at me with scrutinizing eyes filled with hatred.
Just in the distance was Julian and that witch, Jolene. She leaned on his chest, curled against his embrace while he held an umbrella over their heads as his eyes pierced through my face. .
I moved my lips, mouthing. “I Hate You. You Will Regret This”
He read my lips, a smirk creeping at the corner of his mouth, and all of a sudden, I shuddered when he barked at the priest who was performing rituals to the deaf moon goddess. “Set her on fire.”
“Y-Yes…” The priest stuttered as he lit the matchbox, my heart thumping hard against my chest as more tears streamed down my face.
The clouds darkened, thunder rumbling through the sky as the priest closed his eyes and threw the fire into the leaves.
I screamed as the fire spread around quickly, and with every second, it felt like my body would soon catch on fire. My whole body was drenched with sweat as the heat licked through my skin.
This was completely horrifying.
I prayed for the rain, but it didn’t fall. I prayed for the wind, but it didn’t come. Just the continuous thunder!
I closed my eyes, screaming and waiting for the fire when…
All of a sudden, the whistling sound of arrows piercing through the air made my eyes fly open. The priest who stood before me had an arrow shot straight into his heart, and in the blink of an eye, he collapsed.
My eyes flared wide in shock as more men collapsed to the ground.
The sky opened, heavy rainfall pouring from the sky, totally putting out the fire, and the next thing that followed was the sound of gunshots that shot through the air.
The next minute, huge black werewolves appeared from the thick bushes, tearing everyone apart before they could shift into their wolf forms.
Necks were twisted, limbs were broken, and worse, a man dressed in a black coat took predatory strides towards me, and even though my vision was blurred because of the rain and tears, he looked extremely familiar.
So familiar in a way that made blood rush into my ears.
I could feel my soul slipping away, giving in to the weakness that pierced through the depth of my bones. Just as I was starting to give into the darkness, I couldn’t help but decipher that he looked like the man who had sworn to kill me.
He looked just like my first love, Caelum. The man whom I had ruined.
- Writer
