Ravenwings (Imaged + Completed) [1st in Trilogy]

Part III: Chapter 42

As Woodman announced I'd be forced to clean Raven's blood from their dungeon 'so they could re-stain the walls when he returned,' I had to look away from the food as I swallowed down the vomit that rose to my throat, my heart pounding.

Craig burst out laughing at the notion. "I gotta see this. She hasn't even seen the place, she won't be able to do a thing but cry the stains off!" At the cruel joke, Percy started laughing too.

"Silence, Craig," Hunter hushed. "I have faith in her. After all, if she wishes to earn her meals, she should hope she has the ability." He turned to me and glared me down, "That is, unless she wants to stay down there and starve until her birdie comes to join her."

My throat went dry. My bottom lip trembled.

My confidence withered under his gaze. I'm pretty sure I died inside, right there, for like the millionth time in the last few days.

He was threatening me. If I didn't clean it and clean it well, he'd let me starve in their prison. I was not his problem. He didn't care if I lived or died. It was all always just a game. A game of cat-and-mouse...or cat-and-bird.

He wanted me to scrub Raven's blood off the floor...

"I'll watch too," Percy said decisively, a cruel smirk on his face. 

"Dinner and a show," Ben agreed.

"I wish it spotless," Woodman said flatly, "And you're not coming back out that door until it shines like new. If you are finished before dinner, you have done it wrong; so eat up."

So I'd be working through dinner. And into the evening. With no protection against them if they come to hurt me. And I'll be conveniently trapped in their little torture chamber.

I definitely couldn't bring myself to eat anything after that. I forced myself to take a few bites just knowing I'd be really hungry later, and would probably have a mental breakdown in the basement and be left to starve...so I knew I'd regret not eating...but I just couldn't do it. I may as well have been forcing myself to eat dirt.

Once again I felt numb. Powerless. Alone. Someone just killed my heart and squashed it like a bug, leaving an echoing void, dripping tears like a drops in an empty cave. A tear escaped me, and I tried to quickly wipe it away before most of them could notice, but it wasn't as subtle as I'd hoped it would be.

"And the show begins," Ben said, peering at me while he chewed, unblinking.