Once Love, Now Destruction

(Nicole’s P.O.V.)
I stayed with her the rest of the night. She didn’t sleep at all, though her eyes were closed and her breathing returned back to its normal pace, I could still hear her faint whimpers. I had to leave before, but checked on her hand before I left, it was getting worse by the minute.

“Bye, Elizabeth,” I murmured as I closed the door, making sure it was locked before I walked down the hallway, not making eye contact with any of the slaves as they flinched away from me.

I was almost to the door when I breathed in a familiar scent. Christian.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him not breaking my stride towards the door.

“Looking for you,” he frowned. “Where’s Alistair?”

“Who knows, who cares,” I waved the question off. “We’ll talk later about the trip.”

He sighed as we walked through the threshold, and I walked up the stairs and towards Amy’s room.

I knocked on the door, knowing that she was already inside. She opened the door, and smiled at me, “Hello Nicole.”

“Amy, we need your help,” I bit my bottom lip, “I know it’s your day off, but it’s important.”

“What is it?” her eyes survived both me and Christian, trying to figure out what was wrong.

“Alistair had a little… fun torturing Elizabeth last night. And he’s choosing what her job is today, and you know how he is,” I fiddled with my fingers as I spoke, “And I was hoping that you could help her, and make sure she won’t get hurt anymore than she already has.”

“I’d be more than happy to,” she smiled softly; her light green eyes stared at Christian, “How was your trip?”

“Interesting,” his mouth was set into a tight line. “Definitely interesting.”

Amy’s lips turned down slightly, “I better get going, and you may not want to bother Alistair today.”

“What’s up his ass now?” I groaned my fingers rapped against the wall impatiently.

“I can’t tell you,” she sighed, pulling her long hair into a ponytail, “but it’s not good.”

“Great,” I rolled my eyes. A pissed off Alistair meant another human would die today. “Keep Elizabeth away from him.”

“I will,” she gestured towards the door. “Lead the way.”

We walked along the large corridor and down the stairwell until we reached the cell door, I could taste Alistair’s scent on my tongue. Damn.

He was struggling with the rusted lock and eventually broke it off. The

“Leave,” he growled.

“No,” Christian crossed his arms across his chest, “You’re not killing her, I don’t know or care what kind of shit you got yourself into, but you’re not going to harm Elizabeth Ford.”

That just seemed to make him angrier.

“Look A,” I started, running my hand through my hair my fingers getting caught in some tangles, but I couldn’t care less. “You know who is going to change back into a you know what, and I really don’t want him talking to her. We are going to look after her, she won’t get into any trouble, and we won’t help her or her hand. Just let us by, please.”

He gave us one last warning look and stormed by us hissing, “She is to clean the first floor, you will not feed her, and you will tell me is she does something other than cleaning tell me,” and he left not sparing us another glance.

“Thank you,” I sighed opening the door, and the dog started growling. “Oh, shut up,” I snapped rolling my eyes. “Elizabeth?”

I heard her small whimper over in the far corner, behind the dog.

“Move,” I ordered the mutt, but he didn’t he even had the nerve to snarl and snap at me. “Christian.”

I saw him give a hard yank to the bulky chains causing the collar to dig deeper into his neck. I heard him let out a low whine and he slunk away from us, narrowing his blue eyes.

“That’s better,” I clicked my tongue off the roof of my mouth before I bent down to Elizabeth’s shaking form. “Come on,” I sighed helping her up and let her lean against my side as I helped her out the door and down the hallway.

“Let me,” Christian offered and took her carrying her in his arms as he examined her damaged hand. “I’ve never seen him to something like this before.”

“I know,” I bit my bottom lip as I looked at her.

Her eyes were glazed over and unmoving as she stared down at the ground below her, her eyes were only hallway open with dark circles forming under her eyes. Her face was so pale and her skin had a slight sheen to it. Her jaw was slack making her mouth have a ‘O’ shape. She would flinch at every sound around her and she would start shaking violently if the noise was loud enough. If she wasn’t moving I would have thought that she was dead.

“I’m so sorry,” I told her, gently undoing the tangles in her long hair as we walked up the stairwell.

She said nothing just continued to stare at the floor.

But then a familiar nasal voice made its presence known, “Well, well, well what do we have here?”

I cursed under my breath as I stared at the figure blocking the doorway. Why the hell was it here?

“What do you want Cynda?” I hissed at her, venom leaking into my mouth.

“Oh just exploring my castle,” she said off handedly but a smirked at Christian running her tongue along her bottom lip. “Now Christian have you really degraded yourself as much to carry around a slave? You’re better than that Chris.”

“Shut up you bitch,” I snapped narrowing my eyes at her. “What do you mean ‘your castle’?”

“Alistair didn’t tell you?” she frowned at me like I was a child trying to understand what she was saying. “I’m marrying him.”

I felt my face turn into a tight scowl, “Let me guess, this was your father’s idea.”

She examined her fake nails, “Mhm. Now who is this little… slave?” she clicked her tongue examining Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s dead green eyes found their way to Cynda and the bitch took a step back hissing at her.

“Her name is Elizabeth Ford,” Amy told her as she came up the stairs.

Cynda adjusted herself so she was glaring down at Elizabeth who turned away from her, shaking again burring herself deeper into Christian’s arms.

“How long has she been here?” Cynda barked out at Amy.

“Three days,” she answered her, her jaw clenching slightly, she was biting her tongue.

Cynda flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder huffing as she did so, “Very well then,” and she left, her heels clicking against the marble loudly.

“I feel so bad for Alistair now,” Christian stated as we walked down the corridor.

I scoffed, “I don’t, he’s getting what he deserves.”

“You don’t believe that,” Amy shook her head at me. “You know it’s not his fault why he acts like this.”

“He tortures the humans for his own enjoyment, I don’t like that much either but I don’t hurt them. We grieved, and we’re moving on the best we can. He’s not,” I explained sourly.

“If you’re moving on then why did you bring Elizabeth here?” she asked looking pointedly at Elizabeth and then back to me.

“She’s my sister and no one has found a body yet. I can still look for her, I owe her that much,” I chewed on my bottom lip, sucking in a lungful of air.

“You what I think gets him the most?” Christian said after a moment, adjusting Elizabeth so she looked more comfortable. “We can leave whenever we want, and go anywhere to find here. He can’t, he’s stuck and he himself for that.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, sighing, “The curse, I know. But he needs to understand that we can search for her, he hasn’t told us where to go or looked at any pictures or backgrounds of any of the other girls.”

“He thinks she’s dead,” Amy adjusted her skirts. “Like we all do.”

“We don’t,” I objected angrily. “I know she’s still out there.”

Amy brushed her bangs out of her eyes and took Elizabeth from Christian, “Alright then, I can take her from here.”

“Be careful with her hand,” I warned her as Christian tugged me away from them unwillingly.

“I will,” she called back as she easily stepped down the stairs and I managed to keep Christian at bay until I could no longer see them anymore.

“Come on Nikki,” he groaned. “She’ll be fine.”

“I don’t think she will,” I muttered and let him drag me into the library. “What are we doing?”

“What I found in Oregon, stupid,” he answered flicking my ear lightly causing my hair to fall in my face.

I pushed him away from me, sticking my tongue out childishly, “What else did you get besides her plant and the tape?”

“Her adoption records.”