Chapter 4
I make my way under the flowing heat, the warm water pouring down my face and purifying me of the sickly smell and chunks of rotten liquid, one I now recognize as spoiled chocolate milk.
I had peeled off my soaked and ruined uniform the moment I reached my room and found the sticky substance stuck to my neck and chest.
I stand below the gentle spray, a small sting on my face with the water's contact reminds me of the boy from earlier, and the small cut there.
Who was he? Why hadn’t I ever seen him before, especially if everyone was so terrified of him?
Was I that immersed in my own miserable thoughts that I didn’t see anyone else?
I slide my hands down my face and hair, trying to wash away any remaining residue and all the annoyance from this morning with it.
A sharp pain slices through my shoulder with the motion.
I rub a hand along my shoulder and down my arm, my fingertips sliding gently across the soft and smooth skin there, as a strange feeling bubbles up from deep inside me.
There were really no scars anymore.
No evidence or proof that I had suffered for more than half a decade in what could only be described as hell on earth.
Without the shackles on me, I could heal, but with it, it could take days to heal wounds or bigger cuts, with broken or fractured bones never mending properly.
It was also why I was so severely scarred. Why every part of my body held hideous scars and disfigured lines of skin from my neck to my toes.
I hated how I looked, trying and failing to cover as much of myself as I could.
Each scar would remind me of what the Facility had done and what they were taking from me. That even if by some miracle I got out of there, I would always be reminded of my torment by my own body…that I could never escape what had happened.
My eyes wander down my arms and chest toward my legs and feet, as a small warm trickle falls down my cheeks and joins the flow of water to the drain.
They were gone.
My skin was soft, young and unblemished. Unmarked or tainted by years of torment and pain.
A small shaky breath leaves my lips.
I was really free…and my body was now no longer a reminder or something I had to turn away from.
I slowly reach for the soap and try to scrub all the emotions of the day and the past away, taking a peaceful moment for myself.
After a few minutes, I drag myself from the shower and dry off. And just as I make my way out of the bathroom, I glance in the mirror, noticing a strange shaped bruise on my right hip, and another forming on my left.
I brush my finger across the small darkened skin on my right, noticing the colour quickly turning to a deep black shade, almost as if the shape was being tattooed on my skin. It becomes darker and darker, with the one on my left hip taking on the same hue.
The shapes begin to take on form, almost creating a long line before twisting into an elongated backward ‘s’ shape. It’s slightly thicker on one end and bleeds into a thinner tip at the other, with two small sharp curves also slowly appearing there.
I stroke the skin once the mark has finished forming on both of my hips.
They certainly weren't bruises, and I could sense something about the marks. A strange familiarity or deja vu feeling washes over me as I stare at them, but I can't ever recall seeing something like them in this life or my previous one. So why were they appearing now?
Could they have some connection as to why I was still alive, or why I was brought back almost a decade into my past?
What did the shapes mean, and why did they appear on my hips?
My brows scrunch together, too many questions flitting through my mind as I stare at the marks on my skin. Where would I even begin to look to find what they were or what they meant?
It's not like I could just go around flashing my hips, asking other students or teachers if they knew what it was.
No. Something in me tells me that's the exact thing I shouldn't do.
For some reason, I felt that these tattoos or marks or whatever they were, might be something bigger.
I think they might be a small thread connecting to the reason why I’m here now.
And magic able to surpass the bounds of nature and balance was not something I should be discussing around here, especially in a place filled only with enemies and unknowns.
Whatever they were, I didn't feel anything bad coming from them.
Honestly they looked kind of cool, but it was probably best to keep them covered and from prying eyes.
I’m pulled from my wandering thoughts as a bell rings in the distance. I walk out of the bathroom and toward the dresser and throw on some fresh clothes. A white tee and grey sweats. I grab a brush from the drawer, my fingers not enough to tame these long locks.
A small bracelet falls from the drawer as I take the brush out.
I bend to pick it up, taking the small silver and black metal chain in my hands, as a familiar cold shiver runs down my spine.
My eyes narrow at the small chain, a letter ‘M’ charm falling from its black and silver loops.
It had been a gift from Seria, one she had given me the first week we met. She had said she had a matching ‘S’ one, and that she wanted us to share something as sisters.
From then on, I used to wear it everyday, but now the small chain holds a more strange cognition than just a memory or memento of my younger years.
Something niggles at the back of my mind, an eerie familiarity from the cold metal. Another shiver runs through me, placing goosebumps up my arm as something whispers in my ears telling me to throw it away.
I twist the bracelet in my hand, wondering why I had such a strong aversion to a charm I’d worn everyday before I was taken by the Facility.
And that's when it hits me.
I drop the small chain to the floor, as a tremor works its way through me.
How did I not realise straight away?
The same cold feeling that would run from my wrists and into my bones. The same black and silver thin metal that encased my wrists everyday in that hellhole.
The shackles, the thick metal cuff. The Facility.
I shakily take the bracelet up from the floor and inspect it more carefully. There was no doubt.
They may be smaller and designed differently, but there's no way I’d mistake it for something else.
I wouldn’t forget the cold, bone chilling feeling they left me with. The same feeling I have now holding this bracelet. Although slightly smaller in effect.
A shaky breath leaves my lips as I twist around, searching the room as if someone from the Facility would jump out at me any minute.
I shake my head.
No, they weren’t here. It wasn’t possible.
This was Wensridge Academy, one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions in the supernatural world.
But then how was this here?
I grip the metal chain, the ‘M’ letter digging into my skin and reminding me of the small letter charm.
A charm I was given as a gift… by Seria.
But why did she have this? How did she get it? Did she even know what this was? How could she have something like this and why did she give it to me? Or was it all some coincidence–
No…It couldn’t be.
If there's anything I’ve learnt about Seria, it's that you can't trust anything she shows you. There's a vindictive malice behind those eyes.
Forget a wolf, she's a snake in sheep's clothing.
One who would slowly poison you bit by bit so she could watch you writhe and suffer slowly before her, all while smiling and feigning innocence.
Was this the reason why I had become so physically weak?
I never had power or any magical aptitude when I was younger but it was only when I was fourteen or fifteen that my body became so fragile.
It left me unable to even participate in some of the classes due to my weakened state.
I was also sick a fair bit and it made it easy for the assholes in this school to keep coming back, knowing I wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight.
Had she known? Was she the reason why I didn't have the strength all these years that later grew in the Facility when my shackles were off?
A dark chuckle leaves my lips.
I always thought that it was because of the Facility. That maybe they brought out my abilities. I never even questioned why I didn't have the strength I did there in my academy years.
My grip tightens on the bracelet before I fling it into the drawer. My breath comes out in short spurts, as rage begins to fester and boil inside me.
How? Why? Just why?! Why did she hate me so much? What did I ever do to deserve such manipulation and betrayal?
How could she hate me, when she took everything from me and I still loved her?!
She had everything I ever wanted; our fathers love, our bloodlines, powerful magic abilities, the admiration of everyone who met her, and the love and affection of the four boys who I used to call friends.
I had clinged to her believing in the fake affection she showed me.
I thought she was the only one who truly loved me when everyone else had turned away from me.
She would tell me that even without any magic she loved me, that we would always be sisters and that she would always be on my side.
Was that it?
Was this all a punishment for being so stupid, for voluntarily stepping into her vicious web, blinded by the only affection I was being shown.
Did I bring this on myself?
Was it my fault all this happened–
No, I couldn’t go there, I couldn’t think like that.
The younger me was lonely and starved for affection, the only love taken by Seria after she came, along with everything else. I craved a bond, a connection, a love of any kind from anyone.
Unfortunately the people that usually give such things unconditionally did not exist in my life. And that wasn’t my fault, it was theirs.
Now, long gone has the desire for their affection dried up in me.
I’m no longer blind. It just took six years in Hell and death to truly open my eyes, but I’ll never close them again.
The only darkness I’ll see is the one I willingly walk toward.
I push an old shirt over the bracelet and close the drawer.
How Seria got something like that, and what connection she had to the Facility, I’d have to carefully look into both soon.
I had been buried for too long under years of lies and insecurities, but I was no longer that little girl, and it was time to show that.
I head to the bathroom and take scissors from the small cabinet below the sink. I look in the mirror and begin snipping away.
The ignorant and cynical students and teachers here, my old childhood friends, Seria’s pawns and the witch herself, along with The Facility. I would make them regret ever looking my way.
Bit by bit I’ll take my revenge, and show them they should never have fucked with me.
A few snips later, I look into the mirror.
My wavy rose gold hair falls just above my shoulders, a brighter look reflected in the blue eyes gazing back at me, and a lighter feel to my body than I’ve ever felt before.
There were no cages, or shackles or guards here…not yet.
In this life, I had time to train and with that ‘bracelet’ gone, my body should slowly be able to build its strength and heal again.
I look down at my thin arms and soft hands.
I would need to train, and build my strength, and my abilities would soon follow.
I was quick to adjust, or so I learnt in the Facility, quickly adapting to any fight and creature they pit me against. They would bring in bigger and stronger beasts each time, to see how long I could last, and how bloody I could become.
If it weren’t for those stupid shackles, my weakened body and the Facility keeping me in a constant survival state, I would have ripped through every guard and creature there. Nothing would have kept me caged.
I make my way out of the bathroom and toward the window, the sky slowly beginning to dim and welcoming the early night.
I look toward the forest treeline.
I’d need a quiet and secluded place, where no one would go and I could train unseen.
My gaze narrows at the slowly darkening forest.
There was no better place than a restricted forest, right?
I go to my wardrobe and pull out a large grey hoodie and old trainers, and place them on the bed.
I’d wait until dark and then begin. The cover of night would keep prying eyes away while I train.
Little by little I would build it all back again and then some, and when I do…I’ll make them all slowly suffer.