Once Love, Now Destruction

“Alistair,” Nicole greeted through tight lips.

Alistair took a deep breath, his nose scrunching up like he smelled something bad, “You fed her.”

“No I didn’t,” Nicole denied smoothly.

“I can smell her blood, Nicole,” he hissed at her. “She might be your little ‘replacement’ but you broke the rules. And you know the punishment.”

“Don’t do it,” Nicole seethed.

“When are you going to learn?” he scoffed humorlessly. “You don’t own the slaves. My parents don’t own them. And Christian doesn’t own them. I do. So stop treating them like they matter,” he jerked my arm painfully, so that I standing next to him.

“I recall there was one little human girl that mattered to more to you than anything else, even your own life,” Nicole told him emotionlessly.

“I swear, if you ever speak of her again, I’ll rip your pretty little head off,” Alistair warned, he bared his teeth at her.

She didn’t seem fazed.

“Oh,” his pale blue eyes widened as a thought struck him, “look what I found in the dog’s cell.”

He pulled something shiny from his front pocket. The ring.

Nicole clenched her jaw.

“You want the ring on her,” Alistair taunted, “I’ll get the ring on her.”

And he pulled me away, but not before I saw Nicole mouth ‘I’m so sorry’.

That made my heart clench in fear and sent my teeth on edge.

His nails dug into the long red sleeve of the uniform, practically ripping through the seams, probably leaving more bruises. It didn’t matter – I was used to it. Used to the pain.

He led me down the narrowed corridors, and they got darker and darker. I could see the hallway that led to the cells. He walked so fast, it was hard to keep up, I tripped, a lot.

He jerked open the door, almost breaking it off its hinges. And slammed it shut, it rattled the cold stone walls surrounding us. From what I could see there was only a small portion of the slaves in their cells. They looked at me, sympathy coating their faces like last night.

“Listen up,” Alistair called out venomously, and smirked when he saw the humans backing away into the corners of their cells. “Now, some of you wish to defy me, and for those who do, will be punished severely. The crimes you commit range through trying to kill one of my guests,” his hard eyes roamed the cells, “and stealing my food,” he glared at me.

“Now, this little… whore thought that she could steal something of mine, and eat my food,” he tugged on my arm, and pulled me over to one cell, it had a lit torch next to it.

I frowned, I didn’t take anything…

“Now,” he took the torch from out of its holder, and put the silver ring on my right ring finger, “she must be punished.”

I didn’t even have time to think, all I saw was a blur of red and orange whip towards me, and my hand was thrust into the heart of the flame.

My first reaction was to pull my hand back, but as I resisted his grip tightened on my wrist. And then I heard a sickening crack, which was quickly followed by screams of agony that erupted from my throat.

And then unfamiliar images fogged my thoughts as the pain registered, all of those images were of a man.

He had dark hair, which was almost as black as his eyes. He had scars imbedded deep in his olive toned skin, and he stared at me like I was something less than him – which I probably was. His eyes were like black pools of ink, soulless and when he looked at me I could sense the overpowering hate that was radiating off of him.

And the words flew of my lips in panicked shrieks, “DON’T HURT THEM! PLEASE! DON’T DO THIS!” I couldn’t hold the words back; I didn’t even know why I said it. I just wanted the burning to stop.

Alistair seemed to get what he wanted and pulled my hand out of the fire. He placed the torch back in its holder. My hand was throbbing, and the pain would not stop, no matter how much I begged it too. I looked at my ruined hand. My normally pale skin was cracked open in places and was bleeding profusely. Black blotches were stained onto my flesh permanently, and red fanned out from the black. My wrist felt like it was still hovering over the fire but I couldn’t feel the right half of my hand, especially where my ring finger was.

Suddenly the words, ‘You want the ring on her, I’ll get the ring on her.’ Suddenly made sense.

The silver ring was now molded onto my finger, and would most stay there for the rest of my existence.

Strangled sobs escaped my mouth, tearing through my chest. I fell to the debris covered ground; I cradled my hand holding it to my chest, attempting to suppress the agonizing pain. Alistair just stood there; his face was blank as he stared down at me with hard eyes.

He sighed irritated after a minute, and picked me up by my uniform’s sleeve, “I suggest you warn your friends,” he hissed at the slaves as dragged me over my cell. And just threw me onto the dirt covered floor, slamming the door steel door shut, he didn’t bother locking me in the chains.

My screams were muffled as I dug my face into the dirt. I knew the people in the surrounding cells could hear me, even though the silence around me was deafening. I managed to roll back over on my back, without moving my right arm. I stared up at the darkened ceiling; tears clouded my vision, until something moved past me.

It was the wolf I met yesterday. His head was bowed and he was so close that I could feel his hot breath brush against my face in a caress. And there was something deep in his blue eyes as he looked at my hand, something I wouldn’t have expected.

Empathy.

(Alistair P.O.V.)

I kept my eyes on the floor as I walked past the cells of the filthy mortals. I couldn’t get the way she looked at me when I burned her. Her eyes held no anger, no hate for me when I did that to her. And that made me hate her and myself even more. But what she said confused me.

She said, ‘don’t hurt them,’ not ‘me’ but ‘them’. Why would she say that?

I felt terrible as I heard her small whimpers that echoed throughout the hallway. And I felt more like I burned my beautiful Michelle, than that… bitch. I shut the wooden door and made my way down the corridors, wanting to seek the familiar shelter of my room.

But of course Nicole had to make a point.

She was sitting at the base of the stairs, blocking my way. She started up at me, her teeth dug into her bottom lip, and her tiny fists were clenched, like she was trying not to rip my head off.

“Are you happy now?” she hissed at me, her dark green eyes flared in pure hatred.

“Very much so,” I half lied through my teeth.

She closed her eyes, shaking her head at me, “You have no idea what you just did.”

“I burned her, because she broke the rules,” I explained, leaning against the banister.

“Christian just called. He’s at her house right now; she wanted to give her father money, since she now has to stay here the rest of her life, and she wanted him to bring back one of her plants. He could smell her blood all over that apartment,” she explained, looking down at the carpet.

“So?”

Her eyes snapped up, glaring at me, “She was abused, Alistair.”

“And why is that my problem?” I rolled my eyes.

“She’s already been scarred, why hurt her even more?”

“She’s mine now,” I started, “I control her, Nicole. I get to control what she wears, what and when she eats, and where she works. And how she gets punished.”

“She didn’t do anything wrong, it was my fault. I gave her the ring, I fed her, and I brought her here. And you gave her a third degree burn, and if she gets an infection and dies from it, it will be on both of our heads for the rest of our lives,” she sighed.

“And she will keep getting punished for your mistakes, so I suggest you stop making them, now move,” I tried to move past her, but she wouldn’t budge. I growled, ”Please?”

She got up, but didn’t let me pass her, “She’s a lot like Michelle you know. She’s smart and she’s really nice, if you just got to know her…. She likes plants a lot too.”

“I don’t care,” I managed to shove past her, but she spoke before I could take a step.

“Abigail and Brandon wanted to talk to you,” she told me blankly and I heard her quite footfalls as she bounded towards the library.

I sighed, running my hand through my hair.

What did they want now?