Previously...
"We don't have time, just go," Jeanette urged, snapping her fingers.
"Darling, you thought you could let them get away so easily," Hiram's disembodied voice reached them.
Jeanette, Kyrah, and Zuber were startled by Hiram's voice. He hadn't still come into view. Kyrah pretended to be asleep and Zuber sat there stoically. Jeanette dropped the keys intentionally, signalling Zuber with her eyes, who took them through the cell bars deftly.
Jeanette also dropped another bunch of "fake keys" at the same time, which she had taken out from her pocket quickly. She knew something like this could happen and was prepared for it. When Hiram came into view, she quickly clutched the dummy keys from the marble floor and pretended to be scared.
"Did you really think you could get away with this?" Hiram scoffed, his dark eyes boring into Jeanette's green ones menacingly.
Jeanette stayed quiet and cast a glance at Zuber's palm, which was balled into a fist. The cell was dark, but she was grateful that he had caught the key.
"Answer me!" Hiram bellowed. "Aren't you grateful for everything that I have done for you?" He shoved Jeanette towards the cell, the bars hurt her back and she flinched with the sudden impact.
"You're hurting her!" Zuber spoke with anger.
"No! She is hurting me!" Hiram retorted and Zuber grew silent. He was fuming and was filled with abhor towards Hiram's merciless actions. He heard Kyrah's soft intake of breath and squeezed her hand, trying to comfort her.
"I want to make you my wife. And this is how you repay me?"
"You're like an uncle to me. I can't even think of marrying you," Jeanette spat back disgustedly.
Zuber wanted to beat Hiram to a pulp. But he constrained himself from doing so as Jeanette's plan would fail and the three of them would never be able to escape.
"Oh, but you will, darling. I couldn't marry your mother. But, I will surely make you mine." Hiram chuckled with a crazed look on his face.
"My mother?" Jeanette gasped.
"Why, yes! You see, I took you away from your parents when you were just three."
"A tiny little doll. They loved you so much! But it was my perfect revenge," Hiram spoke with hatred.
"What are you talking about? Am I not an orphan?" Jeanette froze, shock written on every inch of her face and salty tears wetted her pale cheeks.
"I was best friends with your parents. Your father and I loved your mother dearly. I never had the courage to tell her about my feelings," Hiram spoke with a faraway look on his face.
"One day, your father proposed to her and she agreed happily."
Silence followed and no one even took a breath. Hiram's voice once again raged with a high pitch.
"What about me? Nobody knew my wishes. They hurt me!" he cried angrily and punched the cell bars.
"The day they were married, I started scheming for my revenge. Did they care about my happiness? No! Then why should I?"
"So, I snatched their precious little daughter away from them. I kept you with me, hidden, since 22 years."
"And you know what was the best part?" He laughed madly.
"Nobody even suspected me!"
"I am not an orphan. I have parents..." Jeanette murmured in a daze.
"How could you do this to her?" Zuber screamed.
"You grew up to be exactly like your mother. The same green eyes and reddish-brown hair. How could I not fall for you?" Hiram sneered, ignoring Zuber's remark and cupped Jeanette's face with his hand.
Zuber was going to make another remark but Hiram's words started repeating in his mind.
"You know what?" Hiram continued, ignoring the dull silence. "I hate you! I hate you because you always remind me of your parent's love. Whenever I see you, I see your mother's pretty face." He pressed Jeanette's jaw with his fingers.
Jeanette's face contorted with pain and she attempted to free herself from his hold. She failed as he was too strong.
She had no other option but to shift. Her green eyes brightened to a lime green and her legs were quickly replaced by a black tail. She was always disgusted with what her color had been changed into. It was all due to the dark liquid that Hiram forced her to eat every day. Her weakened powers, her lost green color, a lie that she was an orphan, everything was due to him.
"I had a family!" she hissed, her eyes blazing with great rage. She lashed out at him with her tail, hitting his legs hard, due to which Hiram screamed in agony.
"And you kept me away from them!" she cried out, hitting him once again.
"My whole life, I was never loved! All because of your stupid plan!" she screamed. She was going to hit him once again, but Hiram took out his vial quickly and threw a drop of the dark liquid on her.
Her powers were seized immediately and she fell down panting on the ground and returned back to her human state.
"I told you before... as long as I have this, you will never be able to fight me," he snapped at her.
Jeanette whimpered and curled herself into a ball on the floor.
"You were lucky that there is no food here. Otherwise, you would have been knocked out for so many hours with this in it," he said, twirling the vial.
"Get up!" Hiram roared and grabbed her by her hair. She winced as her head started throbbing with the sudden loss of energy.
Inside the cell, Kyrah's cold hand squeezed Zuber's palm tightly and she shivered with fright.
"You had one of your family with you all this while. But, you were too naive to notice that." Hiram guffawed as if he had cracked a hilarious joke. He started dragging her along with him.
Turning to Zuber with an eerie smile, he gestured towards Jeanette and jeered, "Say goodbye to your elder sister."
Hi, everyone! How are you all doing? ❤💙 I hope you are having a great day. I am back once again with a new chapter.
So, what do you think of this bombshell? Were you surprised? 😨 Shocked? 😱Speechless? 😶Comment in and let me know!
What do you think of Hiram's past? Also, Jeanette's whole past and the reason why she stays with Hiram is cleared completely. I hope you all get it. If not, you can ask me anything. I am just a comment away! 😉
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The Serpent Within
Fantasi"Why did you kidnap me?" she asked straight away. "You will be safer here than anywhere else," was his curt reply. "Why?" her voice hinted fear. "Do I count this as your second question?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "I don't mind telling, but you...
