Page 74 of Degradation (The Brethren Lords #3)

Pailtyn

I know I’m not there. Not in that space I was before.

My head feels blurry. My head feels wrong.

I try to flex my fingers but even they refuse to cooperate.

And then the door opens. A man walks in, quickly followed by another and another.

Are these demons? Are they here to claim my soul? Is that where I am now, I’ve finally left purgatory and I’m now in the pits of hell.

My heart races and races as they stand with me between them, as they pull me along and my feet drag against the freezing cold tiles.

Something nonsensical escapes my lips, it could be a scream, it could be a laugh too.

Hell is empty and all the demons are here. And they’re dancing. Dancing with me.

My head rolls back uncontrollably, it jerks so violently it makes my neck jolt, and I wonder if I’ve snapped it.

I have no real feeling in any of my body so I could have done for all I know.

Someone slaps me hard. I blink, desperately forcing myself to focus. We’ve stopped moving now but somehow it only makes me feel more disorientated.

And then the man who’s speaking, his voice, it’s so close, it’s so close to his. But it’s not deep enough, not nearly physically as domineering as my monster is. It doesn’t fill me with the equal measure of horror and desire.

“Fucking bitch.”

“Who, who…?” I can’t get my tongue to form the words.

A sharp, nasty thing bites into my skin, it tears into the vein in my neck. Icy cold fills my body and that awakeness is fading, is rapidly being replaced with the darkness I know so well.

The darkness that is my friend.

The darkness that embraces me. The darkness that loves me.