The Throne ? Book Two

Chapter 12- The Tendrils

"W-what do you want?" I question, unable to keep the fear from my voice.

"Blood." She calmly answers with a massive and wicked grin on her face. My eyes widen and I struggle more fiercely against the Darkness bonds, desperately trying to summon my wings. Nia laughs as the tendrils of Darkness that are wrapped around me start to cut my skin, drawing my blood.

"Angel!" Inferno exclaims, and hits the Darkness with a blast of fire. Nia screams out in pain and immediately retracts the Darkness to her. Without it holding me up, I fall to the ground, exhaustion pulling on me.

"How dare you!" She screeches at Inferno. He sends another blast of fire, but this time to Nia's mind. She sways on her feet a bit then collapses as I stare at her unmoving body in shock.

"Angel, don't worry, it's a cleansing fire. It will only hurt if she struggles against it. She let the Darkness take control and corrupt her in her time of weakness, and now she needs to let go of that." Inferno explains before I scream at him. I nod in understanding as he picks me up gently, trying to avoid my cuts as much as possible. As he carries me, I slip into a trance, entering the realm of dreams.

In the realm of dreams, I let my wings out. I feel at home here, this place fills me with comfort. I walk until I find Saber's mind, and I bring it with me to Nia's mind, where I weave them together. This will mean that they share the same dream, even without their connection there to make this bond for me. When I leave the dream realm, I fall asleep, absolutely exhausted. Going into the dream realm always takes energy out of me, especially during the day.

Antonia's POV

I open my eyes to see that I am in the dream realm, the grey fog swirling around me. I start to sob as I remember what the Darkness made me do to Angel, what I did to Angel. I hurt one of my best friends.

Using the Darkness that is apart of the grey fog that makes up the dream realm, I create a dream for me that I deserve. In the room I placed myself into, there are different methods to cause someone else, or yourself, pain. But, for this instance, I am forcing myself into a nightmare.

I go back in my memory to the time when I was in a room completely surrounded by Darkness, with my arms and legs chaining me up in a standing position as the blood slowly drops off of my body to make a pool below me. I go back to the worst day of my torture with Cora, the day I nearly gave up.

Flashback:

I slowly blink open my eyes to see nothing but darkness still. My eyes desperately try to seek out any light to adjust to, but they don't find any. A huge force sweeps away the Darkness to reveal a tiny, lone, dull lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, and a woman standing underneath.

"I've had a bad day, dear. But, the good news is, you're going to make it even better. So, please do scream." Cora says with fake and sickening sweetness layering over the wickedness in her voice. I think I would cry if I could, but I ran out of tears. Being here for three days will do that to you.

I flinch and whimper as she strikes me over and over in the same spot with her whip of Darkness, but it's not enough for her.

"Scream!" She commands me, and with another powerful blow to my back, I let out an ear piercing scream as the pain continues for what seems like years...

Flashback over

I snap out of my nightmare to see Saber looking at me concerned, and with tears running down his face.

"Why did you interrupt my nightmare? I was in there so I would feel the pain again." I snap at him, tears brimming in my eyes.

"I interrupted because you should never have to relive that, you should never have lived it! Why do you feel like you need to feel that pain?" Saber asks, bringing me into his arms.