Chapter 30 #2
My heart begins to pound, because everyone knows this. It’s something covered in every fucking designation class in school. It’s why people don’t enter into bonds willy-nilly. Scent matches are a completely different situation though.
They’re not something that happens every fucking day, after all.
“Is that a threat?” I ask. “If you’re going to kill me anyway, I may not fight to live as hard as you want me to.”
I’d swear that Jake’s lips twitch slightly in amusement, but it’s too minute to be sure as he glances at his new boss.
“I don’t have to kill you,” Madam Clara says with a smirk. “It’s not my fault that you’ll wish you were dead.”
“Out you go,” Jake mutters, unlocking the door and opening it wide. “Don’t touch the sides of the cage.”
That’s the only warning I get before he yanks me out of the cage by my legs. The other goon grabs my arms as they lift me together, leaving me to swing between them. I take Madam Clara’s warning to heart, forcing myself to stay quiet and keep breathing.
Exerting energy right now isn’t smart.
The walls are smooth, gray and conform with the epoxy floors and the steel walls as they walk through the hallways until they stop and turn into a room.
“Good luck,” Jake mutters, and then I’m tossed into a pool of water. I didn’t even see that fucker when we walked in, but it is fucking freezing.
Bell?!
I tell Winter to stay quiet, and that I love her. I can’t lie, so I refuse to say more as my body is pulled down under the water. I don’t even have time to splash before being sucked down. There’s some kind of undertow in this pool, so I kick and pull at the water with my cupped hands to escape it.
Time feels as if it has no meaning as I struggle, until I’m suddenly free. Gasping, I shake my wet hair out of my face until Avery appears in my field of vision as I blink the water away. She has a boombox, of all fucking things, on the floor and a long handled spear with a wicked end in her hand.
“I need to bleed you,” she says with a wicked grin. “Let’s make you feel like you’re going to die so I can break those bonds, shall I? I have a theory I want to play with. If I break your bonds, will I also break your stepsister’s? Soul bonds are so much fun!”
I could scream at her, or even ask her how she knows that, but I press my lips tightly together while I watch her.
I won’t even waste the energy to call her a cuntcicle.
No, I need every ounce of energy for what she’s going to do.
Quickly glancing around, I see that the pool is lower than the deck she’s on, and the walls surrounding the pool are deceptively smooth, so I can’t get out easily.
Either Madam Clara lied and really does want to kill me, or this is an insane game. Avery has helped the biggest bitch in the world up her game. Forcing large breaths into my lungs without hyperventilating is the biggest flex I have at the moment.
That, and not drowning. Even that’s not a brag, because Avery looks as if she intends to poke holes in me like Swiss fucking cheese.
“I can see you’re understanding now,” she says, giggling. “Let the games begin!”
Turning the music on to intense Screamo, she grabs the pole and launches herself forward to stab me.
Using the pool’s force downward to my advantage, I stop treading water and pull my arms and legs toward me.
I also take a deep breath just before my head disappears under the surface of the water as she attempts to stab me.
Once I’m underwater, I allow myself to get pulled downward until I have to begin fighting the current. I have no idea what I’d find in the direction of the current, but I’d prefer not to die by letting myself get pulled down until I run out of air.
I also refuse to leave Cassidy and Winter behind. I stay under the water for as long as possible before fighting my way to the surface. This pool is obviously created for torture, because it’s small enough that Avery can reach me from all sides of the pool.
Gasping for breath as I explode to the surface, I scream as she stabs me in the shoulder with a grin. The music continues to play at maximum volume, and I barely hear her next words.
“It’s like Whack-a-Mole, but with an omega!” she crows. “Maybe men aren’t so bad. Again!”
This bitch is fucking crazy.
As she pulls the spear free, I inhale a deep breath before allowing myself to get sucked under again.
I already know how this is going to go, but this is all I can do. It appears that I’m cursed to commit acts of insanity, simply because this crazy twat wants to bleed me.
I know Winter feels like she’s drowning without understanding why. I think it might be worse if she knew what’s actually happening to me, so I remind her over and over that it's not real and she’s okay.
Winter in turn sings You Don’t Own Me by Leslie Gore, over and over in my mind to remind me that no matter what’s done to me…
I belong to my goddamned self.
Despite what’s to come, what’s done to me, or the four holes that Avery puts into my body over the next half hour.
No one can take me away from me.