Hermes | Book 1

: 31 :

Nobody
can save you
but you.

Chapter 31

Cold; it was so, so cold. It was biting her hard enough to draw blood.

She wouldn't lose consciousness, there was something in that thing they gave her which kept her conscious to feel every single thing to the most minute detail.

Her body was sore, and hunger gnawed at her bones like a cannibal.

Her head was pounding, but strangely they were empty of every thought. Try as she might, she couldn't remember who she was or where exactly she was.

The room was pitch black, taking away her sight.

A whimper escaped from her parched threat, scratchy and needy. Something in her retaliated violently at that sound, stopping herself from repeating that sound again. The feeling seemed foreign to her-at that moment, everything other than pain seemed that way-and she stopped tightening herself into a ball.

A fleeting thought passed through her mind and she desperately tried to hold onto it, but it burned so hot-so, so hot- that she released it with a cry.

They (who were they?) were emptying her mind. They (who?who?who?) were emptying her off herself.

She curled into herself, her sharp nails tightening around her bare skin as she tried to protect herself from the invisible blows.

But they were destroying her from the inside, not the outside.

Desperation; it was that and willpower with which she protected that one word.

She (who?) did not know what it meant, or what value it held to her previously, but right now, it was her sanity from the darkness that smothered her.

Breathing raggedly, she shivered in the dark, enduring a punishment that she had no idea whether she actually deserved.

They were breaking her, and it was working.

Her mind had left her with nothing, her body was decaying and time had finally shown its true face.

They were breaking her, they were breaking her, they were breaking her, they-

Sound as loud as a clap of thunder tore through the wicked silence violently, and piercing light shone thorough the darkness.

It was door, somewhere at the corner of the room. And through the open door came someone.

She couldn't see who it was, her eyes were too sore and mind too frail, but the person rushed towards her in a hurry-the sound of shoes clacking against the cold floor.

A shriek emitted from her mouth and with detachedness she felt herself instinctively back away from the stranger that brought back light into her dark world.

"How could you do this?" It was a male who spoke, the voice seemed to be familiar, but she didn't particularly care anymore. Her body now acted on its own accord, her mind was a jumble of nothingness.

Something warm-and large- was draped quickly around her panicking, shivering body and she felt herself in his embrace.

He said something else, to someone else outside the room, but she couldn't remember it. She kept an iron grip over that one word in her mind, repeating it again and again.

"You are going to be alright." He said to her. She fell limp against his body, not because she trusted him, but because she needed all her strength to remember that word that was so important to her.

His hands-large and warm- softly stroked her hair and then carried her like a newborn in his arms.

He carried her outside, into the light and she turned her head towards his chest to keep the light away from her eyes.

She didn't have enough strength to hold the word. It was kicking and biting and burning her, trying it's best to slip away from her grasp.

"You shouldn't do this son." A different voice.

"You don't need her." He sounded cold-like the room.

"What do you plan to do? She is dangerous alive."

"Then we'll throw her somewhere that will make her as good as dead."

"Listen to me, she is dangerous. We made a mistake that we do not wish to repeat and for that we need to dispose of the waste to make a new one."

"It is a country where even the Gods do not go, isn't she out of your way?"

"She wouldn't be out of yours, would she?"

Her strength was waning so quickly, she was reaching the last legs. Still, she held on to that word.

"What I do with her, dear mother, is nobody's business other than mine."

"You will regret this mistake."

"Then so be it. I will decide what is to be done with her. Do not search for her, do not even think about her. She is dead from this moment on."

He carried farther and she knew that she was dead long before he before he even uttered those words.

But then why did she feel such a need to fight for that one word in her mind? Why was it so important to her that even when she was carried to her death, she wouldn't let go of it?

The atmosphere changed around them; they were outside.

She opened her eyes and looked at his.

Those irises where the blackest she had ever seen in her life.

He smiled at her gently. "You are safe now."

She stared at his smile and then at him. The word finally cooled down in her trembling mind and she could breathe properly again.

"You are not going to die." He reassured her.

Her eyes fell on the dark brown hair that fell clumsily on his eyes for a moment when he paused to hold her comfortably.

The word in her mind finally found its place between her slowly returning thoughts and then she could smile at him. Thoughts, like a gentle stream, flowed into her feverish mind; first in trickles, then gurgling and gushing with full health.

He looked surprised as she said," I know." Her voice was cracked and almost gone, but it didn't matter.

Asta, her mind whispered contently; finally in complete possession of the word.

Asta.