Life After Death

Chapter 22

Vivian's pov

Together, we slept through the whole night. And it did help to soothe the aches, the cuts not so much, and as for the chunk of skin missing on my arm, well the bandage didn't do much for that, but it had stopped bleeding eventually.

It was the opening of the door that woke us both up again, but it was a different person who entered. This time, it was a girl. Their brunet hair in a ponytail, and a smirk across their face.

"Wake up kids, you got me today."

We just sat, staring. Not sure what to make of it.

"What, do you want a whole introduction? Well, I'm Hermione, and putting two and two together, I'm guessing you're Vivian, and you're Nathaniel," she said, pointing at the both of us as she spoke.

"The only Hermione I want to see is the wizard kind," I scoffed.

"Oh, didn't you hear? She's now a Lurker too. They got into Hogwarts and all," she laughed, "Don't worry, you're not being beat no more, at least, not for the moment."

"Then what?"

She didn't respond as she came closer, another women beside her, both were equipped with what seemed to just be more blindfolds. We were getting out of the room.

"You can't win against people with nothing to lose," I cried, trying to wrestle my way away from her.

"And what happens when you end up losing these other people?"

"Why are you doing this?" Nathaniel now intervened, not answering the question.

"If you don't terrify people a little bit, then what's the point?"

That was the end of any speaking we all did, including her. They just got straight onto dragging us out of there. The ache in my knees, and the sting of the cuts and bruises as we were forced to walk quicker than we would have liked, was frustrating. Particularly since we couldn't see ahead of us, we were constantly worried as to where we were going and if we were going to be pushed into anything.

Apparently, the Reapers were very determined at not letting anyone know anything about their location. Precaution as to if any one of us happened to escape, and I doubted we were the only prisoners here.

Gradually, the steps began to sound different, it was no longer a force on concrete, instead, they sounded lighter, and began to echo more than before. Not only had the floor changed, but we clearly were no longer being hauled down a corridor anymore.

When we came to a halt and were pushed to our knees, and the blindfolds were loosened and fell to the floor, Axel and Jace were revealed to us. Kneeling in front of us, exactly how we were before them. But the most shocking part, was that we had been left alone.

"Oh my God," Axel cried, "Ya'll are alive."

Had we had the energy, and less wounds and aches, we would have all bundled into a hug, but it only took one look at each other to do otherwise.

Jace had bags under his eyes, not exactly a stranger to being too alert to sleep, but mainly, it was the injuries that stood out the most. Both were littered with cuts just alike to us, but there's seemed more graphic. Axel was missing two fingers, both his ring and middle, and Jace's left hand had multiple patches of burns and multi-coloured bruises.

I hadn't taken a moment to consider how we looked, but as their eyes inspected us, I realised we also didn't look like a pretty picture.

My wrist was shrouded in dried blood, the singular layer of bandage I'd been given as part of the deal hadn't done much good as a barrier, and my palms too were coated in the red substance. I couldn't see it for certain, but I could feel and assume I had bruising on my jawline and neck from where he had handled me. Despite from the same bruises and small slices that'd been cut into us, Nathaniel didn't look physically like much was wrong, aside from the black eye he had received, but that was mainly due to the fact I'd popped his hanging arm back into place, making it look normal once again.