Leave Out All The Rest

Up

Leave Out All the Rest

Chapter 38: Up

POV: Emily

[[TRIGGER WARNING: MENTIONS OF ABUSE]]

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A scream shot across the night sky.

It was my scream. It still burned my lungs, even when it echoed across the darkness. It was surrounding me, that darkness, swallowing everything whole. I couldn't see the trees or their leaves—they were shadowed monsters, caging me, forcing me to the ground. I felt the grass like actual blades sinking into my bare skin, frozen, wet, sharp. I tried clawing at it, to get myself up, but all I pulled up were roots and dirt. 

I screamed again as I was yanked up before my back collided against rocks. 

Instead of seeing stars from the hit, I saw the full moon beginning to take up the night sky. 

A warning.

God, let me die. Please.

"Change of plans," hot breath touched my ear, making ice run in my veins. I let out another cry, of disgust, of fear, of shame. "I was going to wait until the end of term. I was going to take you then. No one would've thought twice about it; young, foolish, lonely girl runs away with her older boyfriend. Typical."

I flailed violently, trying to free my hands from beneath his body. 

His hands went around my neck, squeezing to sedate me. 

"Then Potter and Malfoy started nosing about," Lance growled in my ear. "They started asking other Slytherins questions, trying to find anyone who might've seen me missing on full moons. Then Harry Potter visited my father in Azkaban. It was only a matter of time before they knew."

"Please," I begged, looking past his gold eyes to find the moon. "Please no more. Please."

He had taken everything. There was nothing left. 

God, let me die. Please.

Lance laughed, baring sharp teeth at my tears. He took his left hand from around my throat, tapping my sore, bleeding cheek. "I had a girl during summer," he said, a delighted, twisted glint in his eye. "I never understood it, the hunger of this life until she crossed my path. There's nothing like it, but the pack taught me patience. Strategy. Father was the opposite, but then again, he had the Dark Lord's name to run free before. We don't. So I had to wait, but the hunger kept growing, the animals in the forest don't come close to—"

I sobbed hysterically when his leg forced my thighs apart again. I couldn't survive it once more.

"Then I saw you that night," he continued with a haunting grin. "Alone and defenseless. Pathetic. You practically wrapped yourself up with a bow for me, Emily. All I had to do was smile for you to jump head first into me."

I was never alone that night—I made myself alone. There was a difference.

"I can't promise it won't hurt," Lance said, pulling himself up a few centimeters. He looked up at the moon like she was a lover, one who owned him instead. His mistress. "But your time is up now."

 Lance Greyback's twisted, cruel human side had taken what it had wanted from me, now his cursed werewolf side was going to devour the rest. 

He shuddered, stiffening as a scream of his own rippled past his lips. It sounded like agony before his bones started to crack. His flesh started shedding off, gold eyes transforming green. His nails, now long, thick, and jagged sunk into my skin, pulling at it like he wanted it to come off, too. New blood poured out of me, mixing with what he had already made me drip out.