Page 124 of In Between Darkness
“See, if you don’t comply… Nala here will die, and so will all the other Moons you tried so hard to save.” Miss Worthington’s smug smile returns like she wasn’t just afraid for her life a minute ago.
The orb still waits in my palm like loaded ammunition. But the soldiers discard Nala to the floor as if she is just a bag of bones and draw back their arrows at her.
“NOOOO!” I cry out. “You can have my blood… just don’t hurt her.” I surrender, feeling defeated.
“Asha, no.” Ryder’s eyes glaze with worry as he tries to fight the firm grip of the soldiers.
“What fucking choice do I have?” I reply, looking around at the sea of destruction we are drowning in.
“But they want me to kill you.” His voice breaks and shatters into a million pieces, and I can see the desperation in his eyes, but if the serum works, Ryder will live, and so will Nala. It’s a no-brainer.
“At least you’ll both survive.” I freely retreat onto the chair I was once held prisoner in.
“There’s a good girl,” Darryn patronises me as the soldiers reclaim their places behind me.
“If I do this, you let them all go?” I ask, staring at Nala’s vulnerable body on the floor.
“Every single one of them… for you and your boyfriend.” Darryn smiles. This trade may be sadistic, but at least I am the only casualty.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I ask before they start taking my blood.
“You don’t… but I could just blow her brains out right now.” He signals to the guards, and they aim their arrows at Nala again.
“NO! I’ll do it, just please leave her alone,” I admit defeat and surrender my veins to them.
“Take her out of here,” he orders, pointing at Nala as she lay unaware on the cold floor.
A handful of the soldiers drag Nala away and out of the room.
“Charlie, you can take over from here,” Darryn instructs, and he nods his head soldierly, as he and Miss Worthington follow Nala out of the room. Probably to go and watch the show behind that window. Two soldiers still stand arming the door, and Charlie leans against the wall, raising a tormenting brow my way.
The soldiers’ hands hold me still as they pierce my skin with the needle. I wince as the stinging sensation eats away at my arm. Its sharp point clings to my flesh, embedded deep in my vein. A bag hangs high above me, filling quickly with my blood, Influenced by Miss Worthington before she left. I stare at the crimson fluid as it travels through the tube, defeated. Nothing is coming to save me now.
They’re two bags down and I’m feeling woozy. My vision is becoming blurred, and everything within it is distorted. I look for Ryder and, in my state, see three of him.
“How much more are you going to take? You’re going to kill her.” Ryder’s voice rings in my ears, and my head drops in defeat.
“A few more bags should be enough to create our army, but don’t worry, we won’t take your kill from you.” Charlie chuckles at the last bit, and Ryder lunges for him even though the hold on him is too strong.
“It’s cute, really, how much you care for her… It’ll be a shame when you tear her limb from limb.”
Ryder lunges again, but this time strong enough to break from the soldiers’ hold. Charlie stumbles back as Ryder pulls at the chains, snapping them in two and breaking free. Shadows seep out from his being and disperse into hawks swarming around the soldiers and Charlie, pecking and scratching at them relentlessly. Ryder emerges from the shadows, gripping chains in his hands, swinging them around like a weapon, so fast they make cutting noises through the air as they slice his opponents up. More soldiers charge into the room, but every attack they make, Ryder counters until there is no one left, and blood drips from every part of him, clinging to his frame like glue. He pants as he makes his way over to me, unclipping the blood bag and sliding the needle out from my arm.
“Come on, we’ve got to go!”
His words don’t register in my brain properly, but I try to make it to my feet as best as I can. He holds me up, and we make it to the door, stepping over the torn-up bodies and pools of blood on the floor before he turns to me.
“Why have we stopped?” I ask him, confused as a disturbing smile laces his bloodstained face.
An uneasy feeling twists my gut and turns me white.
“Because we never moved.” The voice came from Ryder, but it was Charlie’s. His face distorts, and a cruel laughter fills the room. Ryder morphs into Charlie. It was him the whole time.
“Asha, he is getting in your head,” Ryder says from the soldiers’ grasp across the room, which is now completely clean and no longer stained in a sickly red liquid.
“You make this so easy.” Charlie grips my cheeks and laughs maniacally again. “I’ll miss this when you become his chew toy.”
I am too tired to react and too weak. I don’t know how much blood they have taken now, but I am sure I won’t last another bag.
