The Solstice Daughters

chapter 6

TRIAL 1

    day four

THE winter breeze rattled Willa's bones in ways that overcame the chill from fear of not knowing where she was heading and whether it was towards certain death or mercy. The dampness of the frozen air smelt rottenly sweet, a reminder that she was walking through no ordinary habitat. The surrounding views made it easier to get lost in one's mind and senses, a brilliant distraction from the real problem at hand for Willa.

Shrub and fallen leaves below their feet crunched warningly, almost as if to say 'you are on foreign land that doesn't welcome you'. But Willa knew she wasn't welcome on this land. What led her to believe this she wasn't sure of but the gripping feeling of her intestines twisting tightly came as a reminder that she wasn't taking a daily stroll under the label of freedom.

Trees leaned over her, giving the impression that she was being listened to as she made her way through a maze led by seven strangers who had yet to reveal their intentions.

Willa should have begged, she should have gotten on her knees and clawed at Sisla's ankles to let her stay, to save her, to help her figure out the mystery that was her identity and lost memory. But she knew placing her trust in the hands of a strange girl who lived in a bar near rampant sirens, who would trade a crumb to burry their teeth in her, was not the wisest option.

In truth, she was deprived of logical options. She bared no weapons, nothing that could potentially harm anyone in order to escape her captors. Her knowledge of the lands and the creatures that inhabited them were scarce to none. Assessing the way she had been treated by these boys previously, the plausibility that she was headed towards torture and unbearable agony before death was starting to disintegrate. Despite Pan's occasional attempt at physically disadvantaging her, not a single hand made violent contact with her skin, which in retrospect said a lot more than the average person would realize.

In fact, Pan had gone as far as to protect her from the collapsing tree in front of Bearclaw. It meant that they didn't want her dead nor injured. Not to mention the kindness Sisla, who was obviously a companion to them, had shown Willa.

"We've reached the midway marker." One of the boys vocalized, shaking her out of her dazed thoughts. She wanted to so badly wrap her bony arms over her body, shielding it from the tundras of the island but they remained firmly pressed against each other between the roughness of scratchy rope.

A piece of material was suddenly placed over her eyes, blackening the once haunting view of the eery nature. She urged to spit explicit language from between her ignorant and peeling lips but it would only cause her further trouble. Willingness; it was the game she planned to devour until she was the one whose hands held the deciding dice.

She was clueless to the time or the day and, quite obviously, no one else believed it was important for her to be aware of. Hours of sore feet and bruised wrists soon turned into hours of tense silence and scraped ankles. Willa kept her mouth shut, a difficult task to do when it was in her nature to implore sarcasm as a form of coping.

"We're here." Pan said. He was close, so much so that his warm breath wrapped around the hollows of her ear. She stiffened, fists clenching behind her. "Take off the blindfold." She said lowly. She listened to the way his breaths increased, lips uncomfortably close to her skin. His calloused hands flew out to dig razored nails into her arms, thrusting her back into his chest. Willa winced at the stinging sensation while her backbones bounced off of his chest. "I don't take orders from whiny little teenage girls."

The urge to whip her foot backwards into his nether regions was becoming increasingly more enticing but staying quiet seemed to be the most viable option, so she squeezed her lips together and dug her own edged nails into the skin.