Chains of Fate

2

Aria

Early in the morning, I was let out to wander the Alphas room, a rarity in this house. But as the Kings Beta was due to arrive this morning and there were a few extra forms to file, I was allowed this luxury. Consequently, my faint scent still laced the paper from my mistake last night but was barely noticeable unless someone was looking for a rogue.

Eventually, the hours passed and all that was left were the Alpha and Betas signatures of which the Alpha should be up any minute to sign. Then, as per usual Alpha Kain came and picked up the files and rewarded me with a broken arm for "finishing late," as he justified it, even though it was turned in on the agreed-upon time.

The Alpha yanked me by my broken arm, intensifying the feeling of shrapnel digging into the joint giving the illusion that hot blood was pooling into the shoulder joint, burning the flesh that resided there. He leads me to my cage, securely locking the door behind him I was returned to the sanctuary of the darkness. Through the slit in the wall, I could see Kain preparing for the Beta's arrival to not give away the secrets that lied within the walls.

Alpha Kain prepared his dress suit and matching shoes, carefully spraying himself with his cologne. A perfect sight of a man preparing for important visitors, I dreaded it. Because as the smell of melting silver burned my nose the ever-present memories burned into my brain. I watched Kain stir the ever-present pot ever so casually as he straightened his tie, Humming a jaunty tune as he prepared me for company. As the silver came to cool as to not burn a hole into my skin, he opened the wall back up to present me with my punishment.

Every time a visitor came to the pack grounds I was forced seal my lips shut with silver. It was a way to remind me to keep my mouth shut. Destroying my screams and sounds from the downstairs halls and the world.

He tilted my head up slightly as I sealed my lips, the routine engraved in my mind as it was in my flesh. The burning semi-liquid was drizzled on my mouth, suffocating my senses as I relied on my nose for oxygen. I felt as if I was being burned alive as if I was breathing razor blades and crying glass as my pain went unnoticed and in uncared for. I allowed myself to slip away into the pain as the smell of silver and melted cries consumed me.

-

I dreamt of silver maidens and forgotten souls. The memories of my arrival here are fresh as the day itself. I was young and I had just been sold yet again to another man. He eyed me like I was the most exquisite object in the world, his eyes gleaned with lust and power. When I arrived at his pack, I was not allowed to be seen, but this didn't surprise me as many men didn't want people to know about their doings.

I was shown to his room and was introduced to my new home, the silver cage, and the hollow walls. Told to be nothing more than a phantom, wandering forgotten inside other's memories.

Then I met her, the beautiful girl whose face I see in the dark corners of these rooms, whose screams echo inside my skull as I lay where she laid weeks before.

I could remember it all.

She was tied to a table, tears coated her face, as the blood coated her chest. The stench of silver thickens in the air. I remember pouring the metal on her body, enclosing her forever in this silver coffin. I can hear her final screams as she looked me in the eyes. Kains sadistic laughter as he watched me kill his former prisoner. Her final words were whispered harshly as the silver choked her, 'Fuck you Kain.'

Not once did she blame me, or look at me with scorn. Soon I discovered why.

One of the panels in the walls was not like the rest, the pine framing of the interior walls hid one oak plank. Upon removing this I had found many letters hidden in the small compartment. I found that one of the very first girls had stolen some paper and a pen from the Alpha.

Here in these pages held the only ties these girls had to the world. Where they remained tethered to this land. I read their stories and listened to their pain. Each of these girls had written their forgiveness of the next. Forgiveness of their final punishment and the first of theirs. The girl I had encased in silver, whose face or forever frozen in a state of pain, has forgiven me. The one whose place I had taken in the world. A mirror of her former, as I am hers.

Her name was Lila.

Her name is not only remembered on paper but engraved in silver below her grave. A final mocking of her life. Every prisoner of this house had gone through the same fate as Lila, their graves lined the corridors of this floor. Each statue named and presented in some kind of sick trophy case. A museum of pain and death.

I wrote my first letter at 19.

Although I was alone, surrounded by silver ghosts. I felt like I had a family like we had constant conversations and banter, but this life only existed within paper and ink. Whilst my life consisted of scars and blood.

Eventually, I had escaped my sanctuary of broken dreams, to awake with the ever-present pain. The silver burning through the layers of flesh. I couldn't heal from silver, the only way was to remove the metal then let the skin repair itself.

I grasped the silver coating lips and began to pull, I could feel the flesh-ripping alongside the metal. Chip by chip I removed skin and silver. The line between them lost as they had welded together as if it was a second skin. Along with the line between sanity and insanity, life and death.

The grains of silver fell from my body like grains of sand through an hourglass, the flesh ripping as the minutes ticked down to zero.

Till finally, the Beta had left with my work, to present to the King Alpha with the lives of those who matter. While those like mine and Lilas remained undocumented and hidden, unknown to anyone but ourselves.

Perhaps that's why I care so much about the details of this pack's paperwork. So that no one goes unnoticed and uncared for, that everyone has the same opportunities regardless of status, age or misfortune.

So that others can live out my life, or at least so that I can live through theirs. So that when I'm nothing more than a pained face, frozen on display, I can die knowing that I made a difference, no matter how small to someone.