Born of Blood

Chapter 9

He was laying in her dried blood.

On his back.

Panting.

Scarlet was frozen.

Trembling.

Pain exploded from the lower half of her body. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe. Red angry imprints of fingers wrapped around her neck, the flesh was prickled from his force of strangulation.

Her whip injuries had  ripped open again, not as severe as it once was, but her thin scabs no longer existed. She could feel grain and pebbles from the floor grinding into her flesh as she lay immobile, the warmth of blood pooling beneath her. Her scalp hurt so terribly, the burning pain throbbed in time with her pounding headache, he had pulled clumps out of her hair while he shoved her face into the dirty, bloody, concrete floor, the right half of her chin and cheeks flesh was raw with fresh scrapes.

Her wrists were bleeding, her tender newly formed skin had split in certain areas as he held her arms down.

He had raped her.

Over and over again.

Apollo had raped Scarlet.

She wanted to run, to scream, to cry, but she couldn't move. She was frozen, stiff as a statue as tears rolled down the sides of her cheeks, shaking with her stuttering breaths as her blown pupils stared at the black abyss above her. Her legs trembled from the pain, she had never been touched there. She had always been afraid of it, seen it with women Rogues captured at the border of Malkún territory seeking asylum.

She would have to clean the cells when they were done.

Watch them remove limp, catatonic, wolves from the floor and throw them back to the forest while the burly warrior wolves chuckled as they watched them go. She didn't know if the Moon Goddess was real, but she always said a small prayer for them. She would imagine while she was cleaning the rooms that she was cleaning their soul. Would she have to clean her own soul?

She was so cold, so cold. Her body couldn't stop trembling, but was it cold, or was it fear?

A laugh exploded in the silence, Scarlet jumped, a sob leaving her mouth as a hot trail of tears rolled down the sides of her face. She braced herself for another attack, for the feel of his calloused fingers on her body, for the trauma.

"Fuck, how stupid am I?" Apollo sighed, though he still reeked of alcohol over the last few hours it had begun to dim in intensity.

The scent of orange blossoms suffocated her.

"They're going to know when they smell you, they're going to smell me." He whispered to himself, his hands pulling at his hair.

"I've gotta cover it, I've gotta cover the smell. Dads gonna be so fucking pissed!" He hissed in the silence.

Scarlet's gut wrenching sobs put pressure on her lower half, the pain burning to agony from between her legs, as she saw him rise to his feet. She couldn't help but cry harder, reality setting in while his eyes rolled over her body. She had been assaulted, she had been raped. Her flesh heated with panic, with terror and her brain couldn't get the feeling of him out of her, her cries turned hysterical.

Apollo paced the floor, looking around the room, his eyes touched on the whip before looking at her body, so already covered in scars, and shook his head.

"No, whips are quick, they're going to want to know why I've been down here so long." He tugged at his hair again.

He paced the floor for a moment before stopping and looking back at Scarlet. Her body struggled to pull itself into a protective ball as she wailed into the open room. She could feel liquid between her legs and she couldn't tear her eyes from the ceiling to see if it was blood, she couldn't look anywhere but into the dark. She didn't want to see herself, she didn't want to see her body, she didn't want to see the crazed man pacing the room. Apollo's face stepped into her vision, and she began to cry harder, a tremble beginning in her limbs as he stared down at her trembling form.