Page 10 of Tainted Serenity

“We’re off to an unfortunate start, aren’t we?” He says, looking at me with a smile hinting on his lips, but it is far from a kind one.

Instead, it’s wide and exaggerated, with the corners of his mouth curled up in a sinister move, causing shivers through me.

The guard now stands at the doorway while the man approaches me, looking down at me like an adult reprimanding a disobedient child. I don’t answer him; instead, I stare at him with my lips pressed shut.

“Grey.”

My eyes widen at the fact that he knows my name, and my pulse quickens.

“I have heard so much about you from Emilio Ricci.”

He says it with an amused smile, and I cock an eyebrow at him.

“Only good things, I hope.”

My words are draped with sarcasm that I try to hold back, but honestly? Fuck that.

The cackle coming from his cracked lips is so random and out of place that it leaves me stunned for a second.

“You are funny, Mr. Madden.”

At that, I roll my eyes, finding him weird as fuck. Who even is this guy?

I cannot help but notice the way his back is hunched, as if unable to maintain a straight posture. Age is really wearing off him.

I fix him with an unyielding gaze, annoyed at this man who keeps me in here without fucking explaining why. The worst part of it all is that I still cannot stand, trapped not only by my body’s incapacity to rise but also by the looming presence coming from the guard. I don’t want to be tased again.

With the speed of the light, the man’s mood changes as he fixes me back with stern eyes.

“I am Arthur Grimhill.” His voice feels like a cold bucket of water as he speaks. “We will have so much time getting to know each other.”

It sounds like a low rumble emanating deep from his chest; his voice is deep, menacing, and full of malice. There’s something familiar about his last name that I can’t put a finger on.

“Being betrayed by your own brother can’t feel too good, right?”

He fucking laughs in my face as he says this, and the surge of rage and adrenaline I experience is enough to make me muster the energy to crawl forward. In a torrent of pent-up frustration, I grab hold of him before dragging him down. My fists rain down on him, punching his face repeatedly to let the frustration seep from my soul.

“You pathetic little shit. Not even your brother loved you enough to stay.”

Blood rushes out of his nose, coating his expensive suit, and not even the sight of it makes me satisfied this time. Not when his words hit me like a punch in my stomach, stealing the oxygen from my lungs as I close my eyes, thinking back to my traitorous brother.

“I will break you so bad, you will wish you never even existed. This is the life you are currently living. The life that was designed for you the moment you stepped through the doors of Dankworth Institute and you got through your initiation.”

He’s struggling to talk as I continue to hit him, yet his words ring loud and clear inside my head, poisoning me with the facts of the truth. It’s only when I’m on my tenth strike against him that I see him nod, and the guard behind me drags me away.

The fucker let me hit him, all in a game of manipulation to make me think I had the advantage, but truth be told, I did, even if he tries to act like I didn’t. I am thrown against the wall across the room, my head hitting the wall as an intense, throbbing headache takes over.

“Tie him up.”

My eyes widen as the guard steps closer. The fear rises inside me, gnawing at my stomach with a cold, unrelenting sensation. At first, his features are obscured by the shadows in the dark, musty basement, and a sense of unease settles over me like a heavy blanket. But then I see the menacing object in his hand as he moves closer. The sound of rattling chains echoes through the otherwise empty room, a harsh, grating noise that seems to scrape against my ears. A sound that speaks of imprisonment and confinement, of darkness and despair, of lonely nights and pain, which only heightens my apprehension.

I try to crawl backward, but the wall is in the way and I wish it could suck me up and hide me for all eternity. The guard comes closer, and my heart pounds faster with each step. He ties me up with the chains as if I’m not struggling with all that I have, bringing my arms behind my back as the chains press against my skin, restricting my ability to move. I try to kick him, but it’s as if he is utterly unfazed.

I’m tied to myself with rattling chains, left unable to move as both Arthur and the guard leave me alone in the oppressive darkness.

An unwanted sense of abandonment engulfs me, yet it’s a familiar torture inside my chaotic mind. The darkness around me taunts me, reflecting the collapsing ravine of my inner turmoil. An unrelenting whirlwind of anger, desperation, and fear swirls within me and threatens to consume me entirely as I try to breathe through it all, having no idea why I’m feeling like this.

It’s as if my turmoil rains over the room, creating a heavy fog.

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