Vanquished

Chapter One

There was sound everywhere. It invaded the tight stone cell like water, pouring down from the ceiling and washing over everything in its path, winding its way around Rose until she felt, as she often did, shipwrecked in her own breathless reality. Like a hand beneath her chin, the sharp clamor of approaching footsteps drew so tight around her that the hand, now slipping down her flesh, was choking her. She fought it but it was after her, every thunderous step echoing like a threat, sending her to her knees.

Rose clawed at her head. She ripped at her soaking wet hair, still cool from the shower. She clamped her fingers down over her ears, and though nothing but the soft thumping of her own heartbeat surpassed her fingers, internally pulsating, Rose knew the sound was still there, still existent, still waiting for her.

They were coming for her. But the supposed rescue party was running towards their own graves. The hunters were moving toward their find, searching the caverns high and low for the beast that brought ruin to the land, not knowing it existed within their next prized discovery. For if they did, they would do well to turn back.

Rose trembled on the floor, covering her eyes with her fingers while still pressing her thumbs over her ears, until, when she removed her frigid touch, she found the world in a blurred delirium. The ground swirled up and clawed for the ceiling, molding into the walls that bound her so tight, but not tight enough. The door resembled a gaping mouth, the marks clawed into its surface from her own bloodied nails running together, appearing like empty words, withering into nothing and dying in the shadows of a toothless grin.

Rose held her hands above her head but it did little to assuage the world from crushing her, nor did it stop the sky from falling. The ground rumbled beneath her flesh with the scattered echoes of artillery, reverberating up into her bones until Rose felt herself ready to shatter into a million separate pieces there on the floor.

The rattle of her chains was the only sound that brought Rose an ounce of sanity; the only sound that held her together. But even that, she feared, wouldn't be strong enough to keep her detained. She dropped her head, her wet hair falling in dark streaks around her faded vision, and when she looked up once more, staring through her mop of hair like the bars of a cage, Rose found the door of her cell being unlocked. The button on the keypad suddenly went from red to green. A buzzer sounded, shocking Rose into hysterics; heavy sobs raked her throat and tears ran down her cheeks from her straining gaze.

Nothing would save them now. Nothing would be able to stop the monster that lurked inside. Perhaps that was the plan from the beginning, to forsake everything for the one thing beautiful and terrible enough to destroy it all. If they couldn't have her, no one could. It was that simple.

Rose lowered her hands. She was now a loaded gun. A volcano ready to erupt.

Nothing would stand in her way.