A Story of Blood and Thorns

Chapter 19

Sabien advances on me. He pushes the cart, laden with various devices, to the left of me. Exchanging his knife for a clamp, he grins.

"Sabien?" I ask. My voice cracks, rising an octave. This man is not my brother. "What are you doing?"

He winks at me. "Getting you to talk." Taking a deep breath as if to relax, he rolls his head. Veins bulge out of his neck. "Since you won't tell me the truth, I'll have to pry it out of you the hard way."

I struggle against my bonds. He laughs, amused at my attempts to free myself.

"That's not going to work," he remarks. A fervent light comes into his eyes. "It just makes this all the more enjoyable."

Clamping down on one of my thorns, he asks, "Why'd you come back? Because of the prophecy?"

What prophecy? I feel the thorn beginning to be pulled out. The pain is a tickle, nothing serious. But as he pulls harder, the pain grows.

"I came back because I wanted to."

"Liar."

He pulls the thorn. I hiss, fighting back the tears that come to my eyes. Something warm trickles down my cheek.

He wipes it away, chuckling. His gloved fingers come away stained with blood. I thrash, trying to bite him. He merely dodges out of the way. An insane smile creeps up onto his face.

This man is not my brother.

"Tell me about the prophecy. How do you know about it?"

"Why are you doing this? Why now?" I plead with him as he chooses another thorn. This time, on my forehead.

He presses a finger to my lips. "Hush. This is my job. I wasn't allowed to do this earlier, but now I can have all the fun I want." Leaning in, he whispers, "And nobody can stop me."

I take advantage of his closeness and lunge. My teeth close around his ear. He grunts. I don't see his hand come up to smack me into the face. The shock of it snaps my face to the right, taking his ear with me. He screams. I spit out a piece of his ear onto the floor, disgusted.

"You bitch," he snarls. His face changes then, from calm and collected to a madman's. Holding his hand to his ear now missing half of it, he swaps the clamp for a knife. I swallow at the sight of the sharp blade.

He presses the tip to my chest, digging it in hard enough to pierce the skin. Blood wells from the spot. Dragging the knife across my collarbone to my arm, he begins to laugh. The maniacal sound sends chills racing up my body.

This is not my brother.

"Let's see what you look like under the surface." His voice shatters through my defenses, rumbling, trembling, dangerous. Borderline hysterical.

I scream as he makes the first cut.

After he's finished, I lay limp on the table. Pain blinds me, making the walls around me swim. Sabien grins through my haziness.

"I'll be back," he says. He doesn't bother bandaging my arm before leaving. Down the hall, I hear a grunt. Sabien shouts, "What are you doing?" Then something thuds. I try to lift my head to see what's happening, but I catch sight of my arm and collapse. There's so much blood.

A man enters, clad in all black. His skin is also black, same as the horns and wings protruding from him. If I look away, he can be part of the shadows.

I watch him enter, not sure if he's real or imagined. His fingers dance over the binds, in clasping them.

"I'm here to save you," he says, his voice as deep as a thunderstorm. Electricity crackles behind each word. "Can you stand?"