Pastel Colored Sadness

CHAPTER 10 Star Patrons

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Chapter 10

Star Patrons

⤌ ♠ ⤍

My body ached from bite marks and bruises that perfectly matched Remer's fingers and all sorts of other aches I never imagined having before. There was something different with me, though. I noticed the pain, but I didn't care. It was some sign that I was still alive, and I hated that. Pure and simple.

I let the sheet fall from my naked and abused body, walking over to the sink for something to drink, like I remember always doing before. The mirror showed my bandaged eye, the line of fabric hidden in my blond hair, now cut shorter where the injury had cut into my scalp. It felt itchy, but not as bad as my arm with the new metal bone.

I wanted it to stop. But when Remer came back, he seemed to be about to tear my head off. I didn't understand. I was just scratching my arm.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" he demanded, pulling my hand away. It was covered in blood. It glittered in the light, almost like it was made of rubies, or like it was strawberry syrup. Mother loved it on her ice cream-- "Look at me!" Remer demanded.

I did, seeing his eyes flash red with thirst. I brushed my fingers beneath his eye, comparing the color. It was almost a perfect match. Remer shivered, pulling back as if I'd slapped him.

"I don't understand! What happened?" Remer asked. I remembered that my eye itched and started to scratch it too, but Remer pinned me to the wall. I lifted my head, revealing my neck. Remer couldn't stop himself as he bit the warmest part of my throat. The pain from his lips sucking my blood from me, I remember, had been enough I had screamed, that I'd cared. Now I just marveled at how I no longer seemed to care besides the fact that it meant that I was alive. I didn't like it for sure, but I no longer seemed to be able to measure the pain. It felt no different than the itch in my arm and my eye.

Remer's hands drifted down my chest and suddenly I remembered the pain the last time Remer had drank from me. I whimpered, pushing his arms away from me. Remer flinched back and I took the opportunity to cover my head on my knees. "Finally... a reaction," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"I don't know how much you can understand anymore, but I'll be sending Jacob off with your ashes soon. I'll be stripping you of your magical powers today so that the bond you have is severed, and he'll believe me. It'll be painful, and I need you in your best health. You're going to listen to me," Remer demanded, looking at the empty chains on the wall. He easily pried my weak arms from my head, then locked them into the shackles. He took the ruined bandages from my arm, bringing a new roll and numbing cream. I watched as he restitched my skin, remembering how it made me sick before.

Was there something wrong with me? Was that why Remer chained me like this?

He bent over me, putting on a pair of pants and adjusting my meger sheet around my body. He avoided looking at the injuries from his previous pleasure, I noted. Did he think I was hideous now? Was that why he did this to me? Because he hated me? I still didn't know why he was doing this to me, but now it was merely something for me to ponder on, not the obsession that it had been before.

I found myself liking the changes to me. It left me undesirable, though. Was that a good thing or was it a bad thing? I didn't know. I had a feeling that I couldn't totally trust my choices right now.

I felt my eyes grow heavy and let myself fall asleep. There wasn't much else to do in this dark cell besides listening to the noises that the others here made. I fell into a strange dream, where everything around me both affected me and couldn't be affected by me. It was a strange place, filled with nothing but red sand for miles. To my right was a statue of someone with more hair than body, holding a bird as if trying to encourage it to fly, and to my left was a small girl with short hair holding onto the broken body of a small fawn, tears running down her face. I turned around and nearly screamed at the strange person watching me.