Chapter Thirty-Nine
Ifound myself within a room, and all of the walls were dark grey cement.
I shivered, my breath laced with forgetting.
What has happened to me? Where am I? There was one light bulb in the room, hanging from the ceiling, and it flickered on and off, barely illuminating the space.
I blinked slowly while taking in my surroundings, and I tried to remember what last happened to me and where I was.
I sat up, and I looked about, scanning it for details in order to clear my foggy brain.
I sat upon a black cot with black sheets and a black pillow.
There was nothing else inside the room. I placed my feet on the cold, rough ground, and I winced instantly and looked at the bottom of my feet.
There were some cuts there, and I remembered running across rocks to get to Cade’s car.
I was still wearing my faded jeans and my red shirt, which I had put on right before Cade had picked me up.
The door in the corner of the room looked like it was made from metal, and it had one small window.
I walked over, carefully, my feet twisted, walking more on their sides, wobbling across the cement floor, which was uneven in places.
All my limbs ached; everything, inside and out, hurt.
I reached the door and looked out the window. When I touched the metal door, my arm seized with a sharp pain. I looked down at it to see a black bandage there, wrapped around it, and I remembered the tracker Cade had removed from me. Beyond the small window, there was nothing; it was pitch black.
As I made my way back to the cot, I went over in my mind what had just happened.
I was in Cade’s house. I got the midnight crystal while he was kissing me.
I made a run for it; he caught me, and then he dug out my tracker, and now, I am in this room.
I bit my lip and tried to stop the swelling fear from taking away my breath.
I lay back down and tried to count, to recite a song, something to calm myself down.
This is not happening. Shad was dying, and I was stuck in that room.
I didn’t even get to say goodbye. The tears fell; then, sobs and screams racked my body.
As I cried, I punched the black pillow over and over again, imagining it to be Cade’s black, soulless eyes.
“Ah, there is that temper that I so adore.”
I froze in my attempts to murder the pillow. Cade entered with a tray of some kind. “I know that you said you were not hungry last night, but I think you should eat now. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and we have a long journey ahead.”
“Where are you taking me?” I said, ignoring the plate of food he placed at the end of my bed.
“Well, to Terra, of course, Emma, and you will be my queen, the Queen of Embra, among other things,” he smirked, and I got up, moving closer to him, trying to hide the pain that I felt in my feet.
“I will never go with you; I would kill myself first.”
He smirked at me like he was a lion, and I was a mouse, like I was merely cute and had no chance against him.
I hated it.
“I highly doubt that.” Then he left, shutting the door behind him hard.
I hated myself for believing, even for a few seconds, that there might have been some good in that man; there was none.
I shoved the food off of the bed and heard a loud clatter as it spilt onto the floor.
I pushed my face down into the pillow and willed myself to die.
I begged the Ancients to remove me from that place, because I was done.
I had done all that I could, all that I knew.
I couldn't save Shad. He was probably dead, and there I was, unable to even give him one last kiss goodbye, touch his warm hand, or even feel the electricity between us one last time.
I screamed into the pillow over and over again, pulling at my hair and writhing in torment, but nothing helped.
I would go insane in that prison, and if I did, that would be the only chance that Cade had of keeping me and making me his.
I would only be his if I went completely insane.
Maybe he was smarter than I ever gave him credit for—keeping me in there until I had lost my mind? That had to be his plan.
It was the fifth time that Cade had come in with a tray of food, when I finally decided to eat a piece of bread. I did not know how long I had been in there, but the growling of my stomach and the headache wasn’t helping me cope with my situation.
The dreams were the worst. I had so many nightmares about what Cade might do to me, of what he could do with me if I lost myself completely and gave into the madness.
Ash’s visions popped into my head, too, but instead of some random battle, I watched as Cade killed me, then as he killed everyone I loved.
As much as I wanted to go completely insane and save myself from the pain that I was feeling, I couldn't do it.
I could never let him win. I found it hard to think, or even breathe, in that room, and I was only allowed out once a day to use the restroom.
I guess it was a good thing that he only fed me once a day.
When I went to the bathroom one day, someone came into my cell and cleaned the splatters of food on the wall and the floor from when Cade tried to feed me.
Upon my return, I sank back into the bed after eating the bread.
I was more drowsy than I should have been.
I lay my head down on the black pillow, with a half empty stomach, a completely empty soul, and a cold and broken heart.
I shivered until blackness took me to my dreams. I hoped they would take me to Shad and far away from that prison cell–as far away from Cade as was possible.