Page 57 of Deadly Don's Savage Vows

But I can hear a baby crying. Somewhere deep inside my mind I feel like I am the one who is supposed to hold him - to comfort him.

I groan, trying to force my eyes open, but they won’t move. My entire body does not seem to belong to me.

I try to move my hands, my fingers, my toes - nothing is responding to me.

Then a heavy weight settles over me and I feel my mind slipping away again. I fight it. With all my heart I fight because I can hear that baby - and I just want to get to him.

But I lose the battle and I’m dragged back into the nightmares and dreamscapes of memories, monsters, and things I can’t explain.

There is a man looming over me. He is larger than life, holding a branding iron. He grins and his teeth drip with venom as he waves the iron rod in front of my face. It’s so hot its glowing red. It won’t just brand me it will burns straight through my skin and melt it away.

I try to scream as he lowers it towards my face, but no sound comes out.

I try to move but my body is locked in place.

Just before the branding iron touches my face I turn my head away and then I’m in a field. It stretches far in every direction. There is nothing but tall, dead grass. I reach out and it’s so brittle it crumbles when my fingers touch it.

“Hello?” I call out in the gray sky, but no one answers me.

I turn around to look back, trying to figure out how I got here.

In the far distance is a man.

His silhouette is black against the white-gray sky.

“Hello?” I shout again. My voice drifts on the breeze, but it seems to go nowhere.

I hear the man laugh and recognize the evil in his tone.

“Marcus?” I whisper in fear.

He runs towards me, and I turn to escape, but in the last second I see he has my son, gripped in one hand, dangling at his side.

I scream and instead of running away I run towards him.

I run and run but I get no closer - until I fall into a dark hole and the ground swallows me up.

“Bella.” I hear a familiar voice. A gentle voice. Someone I recognise, but I don’t.

His voice is soothing, calm and warm.

Then the shreds of fabric that make up my mind rip that away from me and I’m sitting in a hotel room, Marcus is laughing as he hits me, again and again.

The wedding dress I’m wearing is covered in blood.

I scream, but still no sound comes out. Why can’t I scream? Why won’t someone help me?

I lift my arm to block his blows, but my arm won’t move. He hits me and I fly backwards -

The car I’m in is driving too fast. Taking corners as though they’re trying to roll us. My body jolts left and right, but someone is holding me.

I can’t open my eyes and my head wants to explode. The pain is unbearable.

I want to cry but I can’t do that either.

Where am I?

What is going on?

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