Page 9

A Part to Play

I instantly felt like crying at the sight, and no doubt would have done if I had the option. However, all I could do was accuse her in a desperate tone,

“What have you done?”

She scoffed at this and told me,

“I have done nothing to this vile creature that was sent to aid in my kidnapping.”

I wanted to scream at her so loud it would make her ears bleed and her head feel like it was being ripped open. Because she might not have done this with her own hands, but she had still been the cause.

“Is that you, Cookie?” The second Orthrus spoke, a gasp slipped through, making me wish I had the power to run over to him.

He was hanging by his wrists from a chain bolted to the ceiling.

I instantly recognized the runes and symbols around the cuffs being like the ones I had used on Jared when preventing him from getting off the bed.

Only, with no circle of salt on the floor, I knew they must have worked differently.

He looked in bad shape, as if he had been tortured for hours, and those cuffs were obviously preventing him from healing.

The blood stained his bare torso, the scraps of material on the floor in pieces like half his clothes had been ripped off him.

Long, deep cuts looked like a wild beast had gone at him, slashing over and over again at his chest and abs.

His face was bloody and swollen, making me want to cry and reach out to him to do anything to ease his pain and suffering.

“Please… oh please tell him I am here. Please don’t hurt him anymore, ” I pleaded with her, making her flinch before asking,

“Who is he to you?”

Orthrus flinched at the sound, lifting his head up slowly like it was made of lead.

“He’s… he’s like my brother.”

She reacted, taking a step as if shocked.

“Brother?” she repeated.

“Hey, Cookie, it is you. Good, I’m glad they didn’t hurt you,” he croaked out.

“Why would you care, HellBeast? You were sent to kidnap me,” she snarked, making me shout at her,

“NO! You are wrong! He would never hurt us… can’t you see that?!’ ”

She whimpered in pain and held her head as my agony broke through. As for Orthrus, he drew in a painful breath and muttered weakly,

“Not kidnap… rescue you.”

“The girl you knew, the mortal who had this body, who was she to you?” she snapped out the question, getting frustrated as, clearly, this wasn’t going to plan for her. Although I didn’t know what she had expected, but it definitely wasn’t to hear him say the single word…

“Sister.”

Again, she gripped her head in pain as I cried out, a silent sob locked inside her mind. Because now she knew the truth, that I hadn’t been lying to her. And this obviously was enough to spark the seed of doubt I had been hoping for, because she calmed enough to ask,

“And the other HellBeast, the one who tried to take me first, what of him?”

Orthrus raised his bloody face and said in a pained way,

“My brother… the man who loves you… Cerberus.”

She staggered back, her body shaken the second she heard his name. The name she had refused to acknowledge still held life and always had, despite the lies she had been told.

“No… No… it… it can’t be,” she stammered, giving me cause to tell her,

“You see. I told you that I don’t lie. So why not look into my memories and see for yourself?” I said, trying again. To which she simply shook her head and said,

“I told you… I… I can’t.”

“Then at least ask yourself why? Why wouldn’t you be able to if Garmr isn’t the one controlling you?”

She turned to the wall and braced her hands there, hunched over as if in greater pain.

“No, he wouldn’t… he wouldn’t do that… he loves me.”

I scoffed at that.

“No, Anástasi, this isn’t love. Love isn’t control or some possession he can use as he sees fit. His love has only ever been a lie, one told to control you,” I told her, this time with far more compassion than ever before. But when she started to shake her head, I decided to push a little more.

“He was the reason that Cerberus was taken, he told you the lies that your HellBeast left you, when in truth, he was the one who tried to have him killed. But it didn’t work and by the time he made it back, you had already been taken by Garmr.”

“No… No… it’s not true,” she protested weakly.

“Then ask yourself why he would kidnap your sister, if not to use her against you, to use her as a way of control,” I pointed out, once again trying to force her to see the truth.

“He told me she needed to be protected,” she countered, and if I had been in control, I would have shaken my head or closed my eyes in frustration. But in the end, all I had the power to do was to sigh.

“Even more lies.”

“You don’t know that!” she snapped, and I could feel her own frustrations mounting.

“I do though, because I have heard it from her own lips, but you know the only thing she didn’t tell me?” I asked, despite knowing she wouldn’t want to hear what I had to say next, and I was right.

“I don’t want to listen to this,” she said defensively, something I ignored.

“That may be so, but you will listen all the same, because if I am to be a prisoner in this mind of ours, then nothing short of killing us both is going to shut me up ,” I threatened, making her grimace as I continued.

She knew I was right, there was no way of silencing me right in this moment and if I had to haunt her for the rest of our days, then I would until she finally saw sense!

Because I was getting stronger by the minute and in turn, she was getting weaker.

And without knowing how long that would last before she found a way to shut me up permanently, I knew I had to take my chance while it lasted.

Which is why it was time I used the one person I knew she loved against her.

“Lerna… our dear sister… the one who has always tried to save you to the bitter end, do you know what she told me, or should I say, what she didn’t tell me… she didn’t speak of your betrayal.”

“No… No, I didn’t…” she argued, and I had to wonder at this point what Orthrus would have thought of hearing this one-sided conversation.

Could he hear how she fought with herself?

Did he understand that I was trapped inside her mind?

A prisoner just like him, only my jail cell was in fact my own body.

If he did, then he made no response to it and that fact worried me even more.

Which was why I knew that time was of the essence.

I had no choice but to try and fight her even more.

“Oh, but you did, because Lerna only told me of Garmr’s crimes, not that of your own.”

“I… I… never…” she stammered, tears falling down her cheeks as she felt the pain of betraying her sister’s love.

“You chose to believe him over your own sister. She tried to tell you, didn’t she… tried to get you to see the truth, but you ignored it. You told her that she didn’t understand that she had never felt love before, so couldn’t see it…”

She gripped her head and shook all over. Because the truth was, I didn’t know how I knew this but the words flowed from me, all the same. Our shared consciousness aiding me in this battle, like reaching out and catching echoes of the mind.

“You chose to believe his lies over the truth she needed you to see, so you could save them both. You let her down, until in the end, she had no choice but to take you by force and even when telling me this story, she still protected you, protected us from knowing what we had done,” I told her, making her cry out in desperation,

“Please stop… stop it!”

“You know it’s true, you recognized the pain in her eyes when she saw what you had become. That you had chosen the villain over your own blood, your own sister.”

“SHUT UP!” she screamed, taking no more and hitting her limit as she hit a palm to the side of our head. The sound of her anguish rattled the walls, even making them crack and with it, Orthrus swayed on the chain that kept him hung from the ceiling.

“And once again, I made my point,” I told her quietly, knowing that I had. Because she was now shaking all over before lowering to her knees and crying, huddled over, and muttering only one name,

“Lerna… Lerna…”

“Hey, Cookie, it’s okay… don’t cry…” Orthrus said, trying to comfort us, making her raise her head to look back at him. Then she raised back to her feet and I felt myself try to tense, now concerned she would take our argument out on him. Which is why I pleaded,

“Please don’t hurt him!”

She ignored me as she walked closer until she was looking up at him. His huge, bloodied frame almost lifeless as it shadowed over her.

“How were you captured?” she asked, and had I had control of my body, my heart would have been in my throat.

“Save… my brother,” he said faintly, and the sight pained me. I had never seen Orthrus as anything but the easy-going mountain of a man that seemed unbeatable. Unbreakable. Undefeatable.

But now…

He looked broken.

“But you are surely to die here, HellBeast, so was it worth it, when many believe he should be here in your place?” she asked, making me snarl at her,

“Fucking fool!”

She hissed at the pain my distain caused. But then he raised his head slowly to make eye contact. His once beautiful amber eyes were bloodshot and swollen. Eyes he kept focused on her as, with the last of his strength, he told her,

“I would die for my brother, and I would smile as this life left my vessel if it meant knowing he would live on. That’s what family does… what Ella would do.”

A whimper broke free of her as I cried out his name.

“Oh Orthrus.”

Again, my high emotions were able to take back a tiny amount of control as she stumbled a step in retreat. It was as though his words had struck her with a knife to the heart. One straight to the core as he recognized the difference between her and I. The good verses the evil.

And now…

She was starting to recognize it too.

But then as she stepped back up to him, she was just raising her hand to cup his cheek when suddenly her name was called, instantly putting me on edge.

“Anástasi! What are you doing in here?!” Garmr snapped angrily, making her lower her hand. But before turning to face the bane of my existence, I heard her whisper something to Orthrus. Something I missed at first. As if her mind was playing tricks on me.

Garmr looked as pompous as ever, wearing a long, old-fashioned suit jacket. One that made him look like a mix between a pirate villain and some 17 th century English gentleman. As for his face, it was easy to see that he was less than pleased to find his precious commodity in here with his enemy.

“Am I not allowed to go where I please?” she argued, making him flinch a little at her tone.

“The prison is no place for you,” he replied, quickly having to mask his irk. But clearly this wasn’t good enough for her as she snapped,

“Why not?”

“It is dangerous.”

She turned and gestured to the prisoner.

“Dangerous, how exactly? Can his words hurt me?” she countered, and I swear I wanted to clap, making me tell her,

“That was a good one.”

I felt her grimace before smoothing out her features.

“His lies can,” Garmr threw back, to which Orthrus started laughing before saying,

“Says the biggest liar of all.”

Garmr gritted his teeth before thrusting out his hand. Some unseen force made Orthrus start thrashing on his chains, screaming out in pain just as fresh, deep claw marks appeared. But then something happened because, this time, it wasn’t just me screaming for it to stop, it was Anástasi.

“STOP!” she ordered, throwing out her hand and preventing Garmr from inflicting any more injury. Garmr took a step back as if he had been struck by our interference. But at least it worked, as Orthrus promptly stopped screaming.

“Anástasi, what are you…?” Garmr started to question, taking pause the second she interrupted him.

“He is mine to kill and mine alone. Any pain he receives will be by my hand, for I warn you, I will not be happy to hear this has been taken from me. If fact, I don’t know what I would do if I was to find him dead one day by another’s will.”

Garmr narrowed his gaze, as if at first he didn’t believe her.

But then she turned to face the prisoner, who lifted his head up seconds before she held out her own hand and fisted her fingers.

Orthrus bellowed in agony, writhing around his chains like a fish on a hook.

Then he opened his mouth and blood poured from his lips.

“No… no…!” I cried in horror, knowing now that nothing had gotten through to her. As for Garmr, he looked pleased, before holding his hand out to her, which she took with a grin.

“Very well, my love, no one but you will touch him again.”

She beamed up at him, kissing his cheek. And just as I thought I had lost, she started to close the door, but not before looking back at her prisoner. Orthrus looked straight at her, spat his blood to the floor before grinning. Then he winked at her with a nod of his head.

Which was when her whispered words finally came to me.

The words finally giving me hope like never before.

Because it proved the most important thing. That her heart was not as lost as I thought it was.

Not when she had told Orthrus to…

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