100 reasons to love our lives

Revenge and Revenge

Will

Edmund's scowl seemed to stare through my soul.

I tried to melt the axe from his hands without melting his hands off too; but that was more or less impossible. These young men staring at me were definitely a downside of my captivity; but at least I didn't have to feel foolish to talk to them because they indeed had been humans before.

After some time of wandering around alone in that cellar of doom, I had had plenty of time to acclimate myself with all of these poor souls. They still seemed to follow every of my step, but I didn't feel endangered by them anymore. Well, except for the rose guy; Jacob. That dude creeped me out until today, because he seemed genuinely happy about being turned into stone.

Celine didn't leave me unattended for long, but I had focused on Edmund's axe for long enough now. With the tool I used - my glowing hot hands - I could melt the stone out of its owner's hands. The weapon seemed big and heavy; and it seemed like it could break people's neck.
Because that was what I would do to her. I had tried to escape plenty of times; and she always caught me. She wouldn't catch me if she were dead.

And didn't she deserve it? These fourteen men, at least thirteen of them clearly killed against their will, all looked healthy and young enough to live a fulfilled life, and she had taken that away from them. She would definitely keep doing it if nobody stopped her.

Nico was outside; his efforts to break in hadn't gone unnoticed by Celine. Hopefully, he would distract her a while longer!
”Sorry, Edmund“, I apologized as I stole the weapon from the big guy. ”But you won't mind that anymore.“

Then, I turned off the soft light streaming from my body. With the heavy axe in my hands, I hid right behind the hallway. The stone cooled off fastly and I could keep my weapon close to my body to minimize the effort of wearing it.

The cellar now shook. Did he make it? Did he break in? I tightened the grip around the stone and listened closer. I would hear fighting, and I clearly would be able to tell Celine's and Nico's steps apart. But there was nothing after the building shook. And then, I felt a fresh breathe of air, saw the little rays of light as the door opened and closed.

Celine's steps.

She whistled a little melody, sounding pleased with herself. What did she do to my boyfriend? That was her mood when she destroyed something; I knew that from the times after she had feigned her sympathies for beating me up.
Nobody hurt Nico! Not when I could stop that.

My heartbeat was too loud, but my body was flexible and strong with anger. As I saw her foot, just a black shadow in the pitch black of the cellar, I charged forward.
The blade hit her shoulder. Celine screamed and jumped back, but I couldn't stop anymore - I kept hitting her, on her neck, her head, her stomach. She fell to the ground like a bag of potatoes, motionless, her head twisted in a very unhealthy direction, shattered at the forehead, and her right shoulder a little too far away from her body.

Tears streamed down my cheeks. ”I didn't want it to end that way.“, I told Celine's corpse. ”I'm sorry.“
But the sane part of my brain told me: Run! Get out of here!
I knelt down next to Celine and searched for the keys to the stairdoor. As I found them, I turned and ran, Edmund's axe still in my hand.

The daylight blinded me.
It was surprisingly cold in that house, and I got reminded that I was shirtless. Fastly, I stripped a jacket and a pair of slippers on. She was dead, wasn't she? Then why did I feel so... chased?
It was probably anxiety. I had to get out as soon as possible.

The door was locked, but I had Celine's keys. My hands were trembling; I needed three tries to finally open it.
There it was. Freedom.
I wiped the tears off my face and charged outside, over the lawn on the-
Before I could reach the street, I ran against something invisible.
A border? A forcefield?

That couldn't be! I desperately tried to contain my breath, tried to not panic. Then I slowly went forward, making contact with whatever it was.
It definitely felt like a forcefield. But it was just mist, right? I could easily go around the shield; it was surely just an illusion.

But even as I tried further, I could still feel it buzzing against the jacket I wore, still couldn't set a foot on the street.
I screamed out all my frustration: Freedom was so close! Just one step further!
Even though I knew it didn't help, I charged at the magic wall with Edmund's axe. The stone shattered in my hands, leaving me with only the handle.

How could I get out of my prison? There had to be a door, a key! Did Celine have something in her keychain? I searched through them, tried all these weird objects hanging in the iron ring.
It didn't work. Nothing worked!

But my sun tattoo was bright and yellow; Nico was still alive. He knew I was in here. I just had to wait and he would get me out.
With all the self control I had left, I forced down my tears.

”What do you think you're doing?“, a harsh voice now said.
Oh no, oh no, oh no. That couldn't be.
But I turned around to face her, her bones and skull intact, her eyes twinkling full of life and hate.
”Stay away from me!“, I shouted, but Celine got closer. I stepped away from her, sideways as I still couldn't enter the street.

How was she alive?! Did I hit her wrong? Had she been pretending to he dead? But how could she live when I clearly broke her neck?!
”You can't get out“, she said. ”You will never get out. I am trying to be your friend, William, but you don't make it easy.“

”I don't want to be your friend!“, I shouted angrily, clinging to the bit of weapon I had left. ”I want to get out of here! I don't want to live with you! You're a monster!“
The panic forced the words out of my throat. Somewhere back in my mind, I knew I had to stop, I had to save the situation; but I kept throwing my insults at her. She started to run towards me and finally, I could shut up, dodging her as she tried to grab me.

”It's really sad that we part like this!“, Celine panted, now landing a hit against my side.
I tried to hit her guts with the axe handle in my hands, but she ripped the weapon away and instead hit my own gut. ”You really are a pathetic fighter“, she scoffed as I stumbled back, trying to reach her face, trying to somehow stand up in this fight.

But I froze as suddenly, her skin seemed to shiver like a peacock shaking his feathers. The blonde hair turned into thick, beige snakes; the round face got hairy and long tusks burst out of her-
I looked away fastly, concentrated on the shadows of her instead and ran, again over the lawn, hiding behind the little cottage.

But she landed right before me; golden bat wings behind her. ”Don't worry, sweetheart“, she cooed. ”You won't turn to stone if you look at me.“
I tried to run again, but her long claws buried themselves in my arm. ”It's my touch“, her soft voice added.

Way too fastly, the numbness got me. Like crashing bulbs my nerve endings shattered; dissolved into nothing. That painless pain spread in a few seconds, from my arm to my fingernails, but also from my arm to my chest to the rest of my body. My heart beat one last time before it froze, before the blood in my body froze. Something in my ears imploded as the stone reached them, and a white lighting flashed through my eyes before it got replaced by nothing.

I couldn't even scream. My body urged to move, to hit something, anything; but it didn't work, it wouldn't work. My soul floated in a colorless, soundless, motionless nothing. The silence, the blindness - I could feel nothing, not even air on my skin or my feet on the ground.

And here I was, alone, trapped in a stone body, feeling nothing but panic. I was dead, but I wouldn't reach the underworld, because I was tied to my body, saved forever with only one hopeless pleading in my mind...

Nico, come and save me!

~~~

It hurt me to write that chapter, and you can officially throw me in purgatory now. But don't lose hope - four more chapters in this book... Also, I will update daily again because I feel extremely motivated to finish this story now. Even though I am the creator of this story, I do not feel happy about our poor Will suffering :(

But, if I was at least good at showing the horror, let me know. Vote up my chapter (really it won't hurt you if you do), leave a comment (you don't have to be nice this time) and - stay tuned for more...

~Sunflower