Somewhere in nowhere
895 Words
Chapter 5
ELIANA
Arin pulled the glove from his right hand and set it on a dark table.
Then he walked toward me.
I tried to run—to scream—anything that might get me out of there.
Useless.
He looked at me the way one studies an animal before slaughter.
“You never fail to prove how foolish you are,” he said calmly. “Look around you. You’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“What is this place?” I demanded.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a pocket watch, and tossed it to me.
“You have four minutes to start talking.”
The air here was wrong.
Cold. Still. Dead.
Like my silver flames.
“Where are we?” I pressed.
He rolled his eyes, already bored.
“We’re in a looped space,” he said. “Think of it as… the middle of time. It’s just us, the darkness, and whatever my mind allows.”
My stomach tightened.
If this was outside time…
Mother would be worried.
Arin smiled.
And suddenly—
My wrists and ankles snapped into place, bound to the chair.
“Now you’re thinking correctly,” he said softly. “Time does move differently here. And only I can let you out. I control everything. If you refuse to speak…” he tilted his head slightly, “your mother may never see you again.”
“Then why not force it out of me?” I shot back. “You can search minds, can’t you?”
His expression darkened.
“That,” he said, “is the problem.”
He stepped closer.
“Your magic is… old. Older than anything I’ve encountered. I can’t get through.”
A pause.
“So you’re going to do the talking.”
“And if I don’t?”
The tingle in my veins stirred.
Then—
Pain.
Sharp. Violent. Immediate.
It felt like my mind was being torn apart and forced back together.
I screamed.
“Make it stop!”
But it only worsened.
Something inside my head was scraping—forcing—breaking.
Blood slipped from my nose. From my eyes.
I thrashed against the restraints, but they only tightened, biting into my skin.
“Please—stop—”
Nothing.
The pain swallowed everything.
“I am a nobleman,” Arin’s voice cut through, calm and distant. “And you are a lady. I will not touch you.”
Another wave of agony hit.
“But I will not stop until those walls break.”
I gasped, choking on the pain.
“The mind is like a library,” he continued. “Each memory archived, carefully stored. But yours…” he tilted his head slightly, “is inaccessible.”
Something tore deeper.
“Your magic is too old for my power to reach. So the only way in…” he murmured, almost thoughtfully, “is to break it.”
His fingers brushed my cheek, gently tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
Like he wasn’t destroying me.
I bared my teeth. “I will end you—”
The pain surged.
Louder. Sharper.
I couldn’t hear anything anymore—only the screaming inside my head.
Blood ran from my eyes, my nose, my ears.
This wasn’t pain.
This was something worse.
Something that made pain feel merciful.
I looked at him—really looked.
At the devil standing in front of me.
The faint smirk on his lips made something dark twist in my chest.
Mother was right.
The pressure built, pushing me toward unconsciousness—
But I didn’t black out.
I couldn’t.
With a snap of his fingers—
It stopped.
Silence.
I collapsed against the chair, gasping.
Arin summoned a chair mid-air and sat, crossing one leg over the other.
Calm. Composed.
Like nothing had happened.
“I assume you’re ready to talk now,” he said lightly.
I lifted my head, blood slipping into my mouth. Metallic.
“And why would I do that?”
If he found out the truth—about me, about Mother—it would destroy everything.
I would rather die.
His expression didn’t change.
“I’m sure you care deeply for your mother,” he said. “And her son.”
My stomach dropped.
“If you refuse to answer me,” he continued, “I will ensure they are both dead before dawn.”
I searched his face for hesitation.
There was none.
He wouldn’t.
He couldn’t.
Killing Lys would disrupt the balance of power in Bor.
I let out a weak laugh, tilting my head back.
Blood slid down my throat.
I spat it at him.
“You can’t kill Lys,” I said hoarsely. “He’s the heir to Whitlbel. You’d disrupt the balance of power.”
He looked at me like I had just told the most ridiculous joke.
A quiet huff escaped him.
“You are even more foolish than I thought,” he said. “If you believe your brother will be heir.”
Everything in me went still.
What?
“No,” he added, hearing my thoughts. “It seems your life has been… a lie.”
He leaned back slightly, amused.
“Welcome to history class, Eliana.”
A soft chuckle.
And then—
His voice echoed inside my head.
It seems we’re going to have plenty of fun.
- Writer
