The Queen's Conquer

Chapter 13 : Terrifying Truths

Raison D'être • [rey-zohnz de-truh]
A reason for existing.

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~+~

~ Anastasia ~

They've left me alone. After nearly an hour of threats and thrashing out, they've stopped trying and started watching—or, opening the door to this unfamiliar, dark bedroom every few minutes to make sure I'm still breathing—that I haven't hurt myself. I don't know where the hell I am. It's a different house, a different room, a different atmosphere. But I lost awareness of everything long before I arrived.

Time doesn't move the same way when I look down at the blood that's crusted over my hands—when I feel the slow trickle of warmth against my neck coming from my ear. Every time I attempt a swallow, my throat cries out at how swollen it has become. The tears haven't stopped, they've only slowed and numbed me. I don't know what it's like to feel anymore as I cower in this shadowy corner with my knees pulled to my chest.

A dresser is what splits me from the opening of the bedroom—what keeps me hidden in this tight space and makes me feel a sense of security. Murmurs continue to slip through a crack in the door joined by the faint sliver of light coming from the hallway beyond. I don't care to hear what they're saying, I don't want to bother trying anyways.

The mysterious woman who had touched my forehead earlier seems to have the most composure out of all of them about my traumatic state. I learned her name is Lilith—that's all I'm able to recall from their bickering about what the hell to do about my erratic behavior. Sterling and Liam seem to trust her, I don't know why nor do I care. I want none of them to touch me after what I had done to that man; I'm afraid I'll do the same to them. I can't seem to erase the images of my hands burning away the flesh from his body. The smells, the bright red blood, all of it.

A large door suddenly opens and shuts somewhere off in the house, but I don't move a muscle. I stare at my crimson palms, watching the blood drip from my ear, feeling the erratic yet steady beat of my heart. The whispers halt as footsteps drum down a set of stairs before the voices begin again, this time from below me.

I press my thumb and forefinger together, rubbing the dried blood against the skin between my fingers. More footsteps sound out, this time coming up the stairs until the bodies are directly outside of my door.

"Samuel, she's not—" Sterling says in a hushed yet demanding tone from beyond the wood.

"Fuck off," Samuel bellows with so much contained anger, cutting her off. "She's my mate. She'll talk to me."

"She's unstable. She threw a vase at Liam and almost clawed my eyes out," she goes on.

But Samuel still doesn't listen, opening the door to reveal blinding light just to get his body through the frame before it's closed and locked shut. Suffocating darkness becomes the only thing I see, but I can hear his breathing—I can feel his hesitant steps as he nears my crippling body in the corner of the room. I know he sees me despite the fact that it's pitch-black in here.

Something holds him back from touching me for a moment—maybe the fear that I'll explode into an inferno and sear every inch of this goddamn house, including him too. But once he's only a handful of inches away from me and I still haven't made a move to attack him as I did for the rest of them, he's down on the floor and touching my leg with so much tenderness. My body goes slack at the feeling of his twin electricity shooting through my body, unable to steady my tears any longer.