Apathy by L.K. Reid
Skylar
Drip-drop.
Drip-drop.
Drip-drop.
Water kept sprinkling to the floor as I slowly opened my eyes, fighting the throbbing pain in my head.
The first thing I saw was the ceiling, illuminated by lights carefully placed in each corner on four sides. Shadows played over the painting high above me, touching faces of angels holding swords, fighting against the men in black cloaks emerging from darkness.
Where the fuck am I?
I first moved my toes, quickly realizing that I wasn’t wearing my boots anymore, then my fingers, slowly drawing my arms around my body and lifting myself up. The pain sliced through my temples again, and I winced as I tried to take in my surroundings.
There were no windows, no other furniture except for the bed I was lying on. I dragged my hand over the soft blanket placed beneath my body, but when I looked down, I was no longer wearing the clothes I had on earlier. A white, silky dress hugged my body,
What the fuck happened to me?
The memories were just there, at the edge of my mind, but I couldn’t reach them. Slippery, hiding away from me, they didn’t want to be touched. I closed my eyes and tried harder, until I grabbed one of them, pulling it back to me.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, opening my eyes, when it all started coming back.
The forest.
The hooded figures.
Lauren.
Lauren was one of them.
I turned to the side and dropped my legs to the ground, my toes curling from the cold surface.
They drugged me. That was the only possible explanation. I couldn’t recall anything that happened after I saw Lauren’s face, but I didn’t have to.
She betrayed me. A girl I knew my entire life betrayed me. A girl that used to be my best friend.
Those women, or whatever they were, wore the same cloak like he did during that night. The color was different, but the design was almost the same.
I stood up abruptly, only to fall back down on the bed, my legs giving up on me, shaking, weak.
What did they give me?
I ran my hand over the silky dress they dressed me in and shuddered from the thoughts running through my mind.
What if they were going to kill me now?
What if the stories I read about Winworth were true?
What if, what if, what…
A door I hadn’t seen before suddenly opened, and a woman in a red cloak entered, her face fully visible to me now. The mask was gone, but I had no idea who she was.
“Where am I?” I asked before she could fully enter the room. I pushed myself all the way to the headboard. “Why am I here?”
My blood ran cold when she lifted her head, revealing the same scar I had on my arm, engraved on her forehead.
“Oh my God.” What the fuck was this place? “Please, let me go. I didn’t do anything.”
But she said nothing while she stood at the entrance observing me. Her dark brown eyes held no trace of life in them. The paleness of her skin only told me that she didn’t go out all that much, but I couldn’t see anything else.
There were no emotions playing on her face. I wasn’t hurt, that much I knew, but that wasn’t a guarantee that they wouldn’t hurt me now that they had me here.
I wondered if the rest of our friends looked for us. I wondered if they thought that Lauren was in danger just how I was.
I wondered where I went wrong for her to be a part of this—whatever the fuck this was.
“What’s your name?” I tried a different tactic, keeping my voice steady, while she walked toward me slowly, as if she was afraid to approach me.
“Can you tell m—”
“Leah!” somebody roared from the doorway. A voice I knew too well. A voice that belonged to my friend.
I moved myself to the side, having a clear sight of the doorway, the pain from Lauren’s betrayal intensifying with every passing second.
“Kane?” Disbelief laced my words, barely above a whisper, barely audible. “What are you doing here?”
Tall and regal, this was the Kane I used to know. His dark hair was slicked back, his eyes brighter than ever, and as he walked inside the room, he took one look at the girl, Leah, and pointed toward the door as if she was a dog.
“Leave us.”
She complied almost immediately, but she didn’t run. No. In the same way she entered the room, she also silently moved backward, bending her head down.
“Kane? What the fuck is going on?”
I wanted him to tell me that this was just a joke they were playing on me. I wanted him to tell me that the rest of our friends waited outside this room, ready to continue the party. But when he finally looked at me, I knew that all my wishes wouldn’t be fulfilled.
“I wanted to tell you about all this, but I couldn’t. They told me I couldn’t tell you, at least not yet.”
“Who?” I moved closer to the bottom part of the bed, closer to him. “Please, tell me. What did you want to tell me?”
He exhaled softly and looked up at the ceiling. “For centuries, our families held this town in their iron fists, ruling from the shadows, dictating who did what and who married who.”
I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“You found a book, Sky. I think you understand more than you think you do.”
The book?
Oh God.
“It was you,” I exhaled. “You left that note in my locker.”
He nodded rapidly and took a seat close to me. “I wanted you to know, but I couldn’t tell you everything by myself. So, I planted a book that could give you some answers.”
“I-is this…”
“The cult they mention in the book?” A sorrowful smile grazed his beautiful face. “Yes, this is the Black Dahlia. And you are the bride, Sky.”
My right eyebrow lifted, and I still waited for him to start laughing, to start joking around. But his face grew serious instead. “You are the one he wants,” he whispered. “But before the ceremony starts, I need you to know something.”
“You mean, besides the fact that you guys kidnapped me, or that you’re mentioning something about brides and ceremonies. There’s something else I need to know?”
He winced at the tone of my voice and dragged one hand over his face. “You’re gonna hate me, but you need to know before you get out of this room.”
“I need to know what?” I yelled.
“You are not a Blackwood.”
What?
What did he just say?
“That’s ridiculous.” I scoffed. “Of course, I am.”
“No, you’re not, darling. Your mother was a Red Maiden, just like those girls in the forest that got you here.”
“A Red Maiden?”
The sound of something breaking on the floor came from outside of the room, and his head turned toward the source, immediately tensing.
“We don’t have enough time now.” He suddenly turned to me. “But I’ll tell you everything you need to know later.”
“But—” I protested as he stood up.
“Just remember, you are not really a Blackwood. Not that it matters now, but still. It might make this night a little bit easier for you.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Kane?” I asked and stood up after him, slowly regaining my strength.
“Who am I if I’m not a Blackwood?”
“I don’t know, Sky. I know that your mother was killed when you were barely four years old, but that’s all I know so far.” He moved away from me and started heading toward the door. “Just remember.” He stopped. “Don’t fight him.”
“Who?” I asked, but he was already moving away from the room. “Kane!” I ran toward him, only to be intercepted by four ladies in red cloaks. “Get out of my fucking way.” I tried sidestepping them but there was no use. Four of them together were much stronger than me, and in less than a minute, they held my arms on each side, and started leading me through the narrow hallways, illuminated only by the candlelight, flickering over the walls.
We took a swift turn to the left side, entering a completely different hallway.
A hallway whose walls were lined with thousands of skulls, spanning from the ground all the way to the ceiling.
I knew where we were, or at least I knew the stories.
Winworth’s catacombs.
I tried pushing against them, but whoever they were, they weren’t budging. Unlike the girl that entered my room, these four still wore their masks, their hair hidden beneath the hoods of red cloaks.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, hoping I would get an answer, but it never came.
Their fingers dug into the skin of my bare arms, and I was certain that bruises would appear sooner rather than later.
Unless you end up dead, my consciousness reared its ugly head. Maybe they’ll kill you like all those girls before you.
Oh, fuck off.
We soon entered a wide chamber shaped in a circle, where candles lined the floor, showing the path toward the door leading into another room. I heard them then, the voices chanting inside.
Latin I couldn’t understand. Voices I didn’t recognize.
“No, no, no, no.” I thrashed against them, pulling them from one side to the other. I saw stairs on the right side, and if I could just reach them… If I could just run to them… But my body locked down, preventing me from moving any further, when he came into view.
Sinister, unmoving, the golden mask that haunted my dreams and my days. With that black cloak hiding his body, he stood at the entrance, staring at me.
All four of them went down on their knees as soon as they noticed him, while I stood there paralyzed, looking back at him.
Just like before, just like in my house, he didn’t say a word, but instead turned around and walked inside, leaving me behind with the four unknown women.
As soon as he disappeared inside, they stood up and started pushing me forward.
I didn’t fight them anymore. I didn’t try to run toward the stairs even though they were close, so fucking close as we approached the tall door, with swirls decorating the wall around it.
I didn’t try to scream as we entered the room, as I came face-to-face with a dozen others, all of them wearing black masks and dark gray cloaks. They all stared back at me, dissecting me, swallowing me from head to toe.
On the right side, the ones with black masks and gray cloaks stood, while on the left side, twelve figures in red cloaks kneeled, their faces turned to the ground. As I took my first tentative step, then another one, the gray ones went down on their knees, and the chorus of voices echoed in the room.
“Sanguinem Sacrificium. Sanctum Sacrificium.”
My eyes strayed to the middle of the room, to the wide set of shoulders and the altar behind him with the chalice on top of it.
“Sanguinem Sacrificium. Sanctum Sacrificium.”
He took the chalice and moved it in front of him, hiding it from my sight.
“Vita Tua. Vita Meae.”
He lifted his hands and looked up, but I didn’t know if he chanted with them. My captors pushed me forward when I stopped in my tracks.
“Tuo Amore. Sanguinem Meum.”
He lifted the chalice as the last person finished the incantation.
“The Union,” they all stood up as one, “is about to start.”
One more step, then two, and finally three, and I was just inches away from the monster haunting me. From the monster who turned my life upside down.
He turned around, and for the first time, I could see his eyes.
Blue as an ocean.
Blue as the clear skies above Winworth on those rare sunny days.
Blue.
Blue.
Blue.
No!
It can’t be.
The four holding me stepped back, blending in with the rest of the crowd, but I couldn’t move my eyes away from him.
He came closer, his hand wrapping around my cheek, softly, carefully, as if he was worried I was going to disappear.
“Who are you?” I asked, my voice raspy. If this was the night I was going to die, I wanted to know who killed me. I wanted to know if my assumptions were correct, and I prayed they weren’t.
“Please,” I begged when he didn’t move. “I have the right to know.”
His hand dropped from my face, and he took a step back.
The mask was the first thing that fell, followed by the hood, revealing the hair I knew all too well.
Those steel-blue eyes looked at me. No remorse, no apologies; there was nothing there I used to love. And I loved him, at least I used to.
My heart broke at the same time as my tears fell over my cheeks, and his eyebrows furrowed seeing me like this.
He was my savior. My everything. And now… He was the monster.
“Oh God,” I exclaimed, shock and pain mixing in my body. His usual calm and kind face was nowhere to be seen, replaced by sinister lines and the poison hiding behind those eyes.
He came closer and took my hands in his, as if it was just another day. As if I didn’t just realize that the real monster was never too far away. He was closer than I could ever possibly imagine.
“Happy birthday, Little One.” He pressed his lips to my forehead. “Welcome to our Union.”
An involuntary sob escaped from me, and I closed my eyes as he trapped my hands between the two of us. With one hand, he dragged the hair away from my face, while the other one lifted my head, holding my chin.
“Give me those pretty eyes.” He smiled while I wanted to die.
“Dylan?”
To be continued