Silver

Chapter Twenty Four

My arm was gone. The whole fucking thing! I was a ghost from just below my shoulder down.. Guess the flames of the great sea snake cauterized the wound. I felt a little dizzy seeing my missing appendage but I have more pressing matters to deal with. Zoey. Is my mate alright, is she safe? There was one little problem with getting to her. My body was going numb, black spots dancing in my vision. I hear a voice saying something right before my eyes roll and everything goes black.

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Dream

It's Christmas and I'm surrounded by my family. I know what this is, it's a memory from my childhood. I know this isn't real. How can it be? My family is dead. But I see my mother. She is standing in the kitchen, preparing Christmas dinner and chatting bout the snow storm. I lose all will to force the dream from my mind. In this memory I can see myself, sitting in front of the fire playing with my new toys and bickering with my younger brothers. I'm six.

My father comes through the front door all covered in snow but he's grinning like a fool. To me and the boys he hold out three carved wooden bow staffs. My family had drilled into me and the boys about weapons and defending ourselves. They told us that we were special, supernatural. That one day, when we were older, they would tell us what we were. I watch the scene bitterly. Unfortunately that day never came.

Suddenly the scene changes. I watch my younger self, now eleven, coming home from hunting. I see as the younger me opens the door and walks in. As she gets to the living room she hits her knees. I steel my nerves from what I know is coming next. An agonized scream leaves the eleven year old Victoria's mouth as she hits her knees. Strewn along the floor in the living room are the lifeless bodies of her family. Her twin eight year old brothers, Daniel and Simon, have their eyes closed as they hold hands. Their throats are slit. As if that isn't bad enough her father stares at a point to the left with dull eyes. The hole in his chest means his heart is gone. And then she sees the worst possible sight of her life.

Her mother lay, without a stitch of clothing, staring lifelessly at the ceiling. Bruises cover her body as if she had been beaten to death. I quickly close my eyes as my young self crawls to our mother, crying and begging her to wake up. 

"Momma, Momma please wake up." Young me cries helplessly as she shakes the cold body of our mother. I want to say 'she won't wake' a total cliche from Harry Potter but I can't because I know this is a memory, a nightmare. She won't be able to hear me. This is my most painful memory. Worse then when I killed a person for the first time, worse then when I was captured by rogue soldiers and tortured for months on end, even worse then when Zoey was taken. My eyes widen. Zoey. What am I doing here, watching the worst day of my life, when my mate could be dead for all I know? With that the nightmare begins to fade.

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My eyes snap open and I roar in both pain and fear. I have no idea where I am and I can smell that my mate is not anywhere near me. It's not until I go to move the blankets that cover me that I remember my injury. My arm is gone. Well shit.