Labyrinth: Into the Malignant Book 2

One Week Later

                  

One Week Later

I woke to my own nightmares. Although I never remembered the horrible images that played through my head, I knew their purpose was to cause lasting fear. The similar fear stricken gasp echoed in the cell beside me and I moved to the wall. My hand extended from the bars and I let it rest there until a soft touch came. It was almost so slight that I would not have been able to feel it, but over the time we knew each other, I grew accustomed to it.

Neither of us spoke of our names or where we came from even though I knew little to nothing of my own past. We only were accustomed to each other for comfort because we had one thing in common the other women couldn't say. We were both very different. Our lives before this consisted of breathing above the water. She spoke of a far place for her home giving no specific details, names, or ideas for where she might have once resided, but her tone was distant like her memories were very sheltered.

The first time I ever saw her, she was trying to hide herself in the open. I didn't understand how she could hide herself with her long beautiful wings and graceful tail. Her elegant scales trailed up her slim body and illuminated her multicolored eyes. The most odd was her natural hair that was two different colors. I had never- or I thought I had never seen that before. She was quite beautiful in a unique and foreign way. I feared most for her in the ceremony that was just a few hours away.

Each day we were forced from our cells to a beautiful room with silk curtains draped along the walls and over each other on the floors. There we were forced to dance. There was nothing intimate about the dance, for it was a long complex dance full of graceful movement of the hips that came naturally from the movement of our tails in the water. We moved our hips side to side in many of the moves that consisted mostly of slow spins, flowing arm movements and intricate steps. If it were my choice, we would be doing the dance of a fight with actual weapons.

Each night when the foreign girl and I were locked securely within the rocky walls of our cells, we were awoken by nightmares supplied by the stories we heard in the day from the mouth of the wicked woman who spoke of her many encounters of torture and tales of fear. The biggest emotion built up in these cold walls was fear. Fear was your comfort and your normal. It was so normal that only the touch of another, no matter how light or small the gesture was, hurts until the feeling of caring painfully skins the fear from your flesh. Even the warmth of comfort from another was not enough the force the hesitation from our pores.

When we would have our nightmares, we would reach our arms out of the cells and let our presence comfort the other. I was unsure if it was actual care for the other or just a selfish desire for our own comfort, but it satisfied our fear nonetheless. Our hands would remain in the respectable embrace until morning and the wicked woman greeted us once more and our nightmares were no longer held back by our minds, but allowed to run free with others we could not control. Unfortunately for us today, that comfort didn't last but only an hour before the voice of fear woke our exhausted bodies. Today was the day. It was time to celebrate imprisonment.

Unknown

I stood in front of the men's cells. Men of all ages and all emotional states rested in momentary peace that I was forced to break. I walked along each cells opening the few who were to participate in the ceremony today. Past ceremonies always came to mind. I agreed little with the leader of my kind, but going against would be certain death.

I hands slammed on the bars of the men who will participate in the ceremony today and other guards would open and bind the men. There was a man who I had ever once felt sympathy for, but that was a long time prior. I witnessed his other practically get killed. He was a broken and angry man after that. If it weren't for seeing his raw emotion that day, I would have killed him the day he tried to fight me. I passed the man's cell and returned once all the men were accounted for and being lead out of the room.

"I've got this one" I called to the man who was waiting with the binds. He hesitantly passed the binds to me and I opened the cell.

The man stood with his back to me and his strong arms crossed in front of him. He was by far the largest man in the cells even though the average man of my kind is naturally smaller than most other creatures. He was a fighter and enjoyed showing it. On his first day, he killed a man who tried to intimidate him. If he wanted to, he could have been the most intimidating and imposing male here, but he chose the keep to himself and attack only when attacked, but after that first incident, no one dare go near him. It took so long to get him ready for the choosing because of his stubborn refusal to agree without trying to kill our men and the only reason he isn't killed on the spot is due to his strength and potential. His time of being graced stubborn has ended so that if he doesn't choose this time, he will be killed. I bound the man's arms and pulled him out of his cell.

Many of the males were anxious for this day. Not only were they getting out of their mandatory service to our kind, but they were also getting a wife. This ceremony was to have the two genders show their superiority to separate them from their own gender. The females go fist in watching the men show their strengths in strength and fighting. The women fight after the men to show their strength and ability to fight. When the both are finished, the two genders have an idea of their ideals.

They return to their prep rooms and change for the swim. All the males and females are set free to mingle in the open waters. This time is used to show off their tails to the other and speak to one another for the first time. This is where prochoice usually occurs. There have to be guards under the water to protect the different participants from violence or lust.

After the two genders swim, they return to their different rooms to dress for the dancing ceremony. There is a choosing room where the two genders impress each other with a respective dance before allowing the two genders to dance together. The two people must agree to each other before the choice is made. Once the two agree, they approach the council to record their lifelong decision of a mate before they receive a cave location for their new home and allowance to the actual celebration where the couples dance and celebrate before their lives begin the next day.

We walked with the men to the room to prepare for their long day before the official choosing. Many people lined the caves tunnel to watch the men walk by one last time as singles. Some of the women lustfully gazed upon the men in jealousy of the choosing for they were too young. The paired couples looked with small smirks on their faces to the men either in knowing of their future life or the sarcastic look of the struggle of being paired. Whatever the case with others were, I felt a sympathy with them because this ceremony felt oh so very off.

This has not been edited yet. I admit, I got lazy. I didn't explain her week. If you want me to, I will go back and write about her time there. The next chapter will be up within the day! Prepare for the choosing ceremony because its going to be one heck of a splash! ;)

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Who are the people Elliana and the Unknown man are talking about?

-JCross