The Monster Within - Book 1

Chapter 45

As I sit in the cold, derelict cage, able to smell the body odour coming off my neighbour, I watch as the sun sets, knowing Apollo will come for me. I feel his resolve and determination through our bond. I will not lose hope like the withered old man near me has.

Suddenly the door to the room swings open, pulling me from my thoughts as the hunter enters, marching over to the cage next to me, taking the man out.

'Times up dog.' He says as he grabs the man by the collar.

'Shift.' I shout at him, knowing he's an Alpha in his own right with the same ability as me.

But he doesn't. There's no fight left in the old man as he's dragged out of the room, his legs flailing around behind him.

Then the hunter comes back again after several minutes, walking up to my cage. He stops before he can touch the bars as he just stands outside of it glaring down at me.

'Your names Rigel? Right?' I ask, trying to make him see me as human. 'Please Rigel, you don't want to do this.' I plead through the bars.

He starts to pace up and down the room, with his arms behind his back as if he's a warden of a prison and I'm a criminal.

'That old boy's been dead for a long time, it's just nobodies told him yet. But you... you've got a bit of fight still in you. Maybe we should do something about that?' He says, gripping the bars as he presses his face against the metal.

'People will be looking for me.'

'I'm counting on it.'

'Just let me go. I won't tell anyone where you are.'

'There's no getting out of this one darling. I know what you are and what your sort do. Your kind need to be eradicated for the greater good. You see, when vermin are left to their own devices they grow out of control. But that's what I'm here for. To exterminate. So you and your precious Alpha and even that...' He says, pointing to my stomach. '... You're all going to die, very soon.'

I feel a pit in my stomach as he says the words I've been dreading. I knew what this was and how it would end, but until the words were spoken by my captor there was little hope that maybe it wouldn't have to be this way. In the place of my faded hope, anger springs. The need to protect what's mine takes over whatever calm I have left in me as I look at Rigel with my teeth bared as a warning to him.

'When I'm free I will kill you.' I threaten him with a snarl.

'Ohh, I like em feisty. Maybe I will keep you around for a little while after I've killed your boyfriend. I mean, you can't keep the mutt, but I'm sure I'd find a use for you.' He says, rubbing one of the metal bars suggestively.

'I'd rather die.' I growl at him.

'I'll let you reconsider my offer while you listen to the screams of that old timer. Maybe a bit of perspective is what you need, little lady.'

I don't respond as I feel my blood boil. I consider shifting just to show my determination to live and the strength I possess, but when I try to bring my wolf to the surface she refuses to show.

'What's wrong, darling? Does the little doggy not want to come out and play?'

'What... What have you done to me?'

'Nothing really. I just put a little something extra in my tranq to keep you mutts in check. Guess you've still got a little in ya system.' He laughs at me.

Rigel walks out of the room, leaving me by myself. I feel so deflated. I feel everything being taken away from me. I cant do anything to help myself. I can only hope that help is on the way. I look out the small little window, sending a silent prayer to Apollo, hoping he's coming for me and that he's close.

After a moment passes I start to hear the whimpers of the man as Rigel starts to torture him. The sounds start out small, but after an hour the screams intensify to a point where I can't bare it anymore. I cover my ears with my hands and let out my own screams as I try to drown out the noise of the old man.

'Stop.' I scream over and over as I rock myself in the corner of my cell.

Then there's a loud bang from outside my window as if someone has left off a bomb. My ears ring from the unexpected explosion which also catches Rigel off guard. The screaming stops after that as the hunter runs through a door, slamming it behind him.

I try to listen out for anything, but I can't hear much beyond the old man suffering in the room next to mine as he cries.

Then the door opens again. I hear a mumble as if two people are talking in hush tones before the door to my room slams open, showing a face I didn't expect to see.

'Archer?'

'Cas.' he whispers, running up to the cage as he tries to shake the door free.

'The key is on the hook behind you. On the wall there.' I point.

'We need to get out of here quick. Apollo's outside distracting the hunter.' He says as he rushes to the door, unlocking it.

He swings the door open and grabs my wrist as he pulls me to the exit. We leave the room with the cages and I pause as we rush into the next room with the old man strapped to the chair, blood pooling underneath him as he bleeds from numerous cuts. Some of the cuts have healed, some have scabbed over, but the real deep ones still run as blood trickles all over his body. Something even our fast healing hasn't been able to help him with.

'Cassandra, we don't have time for this.'

'Cassandra?' The old man calls as if it's a question.

He looks up to me, stretching his hand out to me as far as it will go.

'Do you know him?' Archer asks.

'No.' I reply as I start to turn away from him.

'Cassandra, please. Don't leave me. I'm your... I'm your father' the old man calls, stopping me in my tracks.

'What?' I utter as I turn around to look at him.

'Help me... please.'

I look at him. The person who's tied to a chair. The person who tied the own noose around his neck when he made a deal with the devil.

'Cassandra, what do you want to do?' Archer asks. 

Despite the sickness I feel when I look at the old man I cant just leave him here to die. I have so many questions I want to ask. Questions only he'll know the answers to.

'Cut him loose.'

Archer runs over and cuts the ropes restraining the man. As soon as one of his hands its free he reaches over and starts pulling at the restraints desperate for freedom.

The second all three of us are able to run, we do.