CHAPTER 148: The Death I Was Promised
RHEA
Time passes, the ache never fades.
My back aches, my body hurts, and I can’t breathe without feeling the knife in my gut.
I can barely hold onto the silver knife, my fingers are too slick with blood, but I keep trying to pull the damn thing out of me.
I try again. I don’t have any other option. My body isn’t healing fast enough to push the blade out on its own. If I don’t get the silver out, it’s only going to get worse.
The pain is blinding, sharp. My entire body trembles, and the tears roll down my cheeks. It takes everything in me not to give up, not to stop.
My body has healed from worse, I can get through this, too. But first I have to pull the damn thing out and the more I try, the harder it gets.
My hand slips off the knife. A cry of frustration rips out from me.
And suddenly I stop and just breathe.
There’s no way I’m going to get it out unless I take it slow, unless I fucking think about it.
I take a deep breath and then go for it again. This time, I just focus on the feeling of the knife in my hand. The sweat and blood dripping around my fingers.
Then I yank on the blade, sharp enough to make my skin scream. I curl away in pain before the knife falls onto the ground. My hands immediately go over the wound, covering it up so it can heal on its own.
I crawl over the ground, leaving a trail of my blood while moving toward the door that Catelyn had entered from. There’s a part of me that knows where I am, but it’s a bit too dark for me to confirm.
It’s a room, a room I’ve been in before, a place I’ve been in before.
The packhouse.
It clicks in my hand as I reach for the handle of the door. The feeling of it exactly reminds me of when I was working here. Catelyn bought me here. But from what Ethel told me, the pack house has been abandoned. No one lives in it anymore. There’s no point in me to scream for help while knowing there’s no one else here.
I pull on the handle, but the door’s locked. My only hope breaks, and I fall back onto the ground, still in pain.
Someone will come looking for me. My mother, my family–someone has to. They will realise I haven’t been home for days, or nights, however long it has been.
But what if no one does? What if no one cares to look?
Suddenly, my ears perk and the moment I start hearing footsteps, I crawl back over the ground and toward the knife. My hands and fingers tremble as I grab the handle of it. There’s blood everywhere, but I’m not going to bleed again. She will.
Steadying my breaths, I wait for her to open the door, and this time, when she does, it’s sure that I’m within the pack house because I catch a glimpse of the hallway outside.
“That was a bit too quick,” she looks at my hands that are holding onto the knife and then at my stomach that has stopped bleeding. “Maybe I should’ve gone a bit deeper.”
Her eyes glimmer a little madly as she steps further inside the room. My hand curls over the handle, and my grip tightens. She doesn’t seem to be scared of it.
“You’re so dramatic, Rhea. Always were. Look at this mess.” She crouches down, still out of reach for now. “And still trying to fight. But you’ll always be a weak little runt no matter what you do or who you do.”
I take.the chance and fling my arm with the knife. Her hand flies at the handle, knocking the blade out of my hand. She catches me and slams my face into the ground before her hand curls into my hair and pulls my face back to look at her. “Still so much to learn, Rhea.”
Her knee digs into the wound on my stomach, and I can’t stop myself from screaming. Her fingers curl tighter in my hair, and my body tries to thrash, tries to fight her o‘
“Please…” I beg. “It hurts.”
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“And it’s supposed to,” She sneers, “Do you think it didn’t hurt knowing the man I loved died? Watching my husband die?” Her voice cracks. “Did it not occur to you how much it was for me to witness death on the day I was meant to be happy?”
Her knee pushes further into my stomach.
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CHAPTER 148: The Death I Was Promised
Another scream tears from my throat.
“You were going to kill him anyway.” I manage to get out, “And I didn’t kill Ezra.”
“But he’s dead because of you. Everyone and anyone I knew is dead because of you.”
“–”
Her fingers curl tighter, and she pulls harder, forcing the air out of me, “Did I ask?”
My body shudders, and a wave of pain shoots through me.
“No.” My voice comes out weak and strained.
She loosens the grip and then lets me fall back to the floor, “No. I didn’t.” She reaches over and picks up the blade from the floor. “And do you know what the best part is?”
I don’t answer.
“Everyone thinks I’m dead. Everyone thinks I died. I could’ve run away, could’ve gotten out of there. But no, I wanted you. I needed to know what it would be to watch you suffer. I watched you for months, I have been watching you and all the people around you.”
She twists the blade in her hands before crouching down in front of me. I try to crawl. My hand scrapes against the floor, dragging me inch by inch away from her. But my strength is fading fast. My stomach is soaked with blood. Healing’s slowed to nothing and my wolf…
She’s silent.
“And you know, it is going to be quite sad to see you die here. In the same place where you were treated like dirt. Where you belong.”
“Catelyn,” I choke out, tears in my eyes. “Please.”
I beg, and it’s humiliating. But I say it anyway. Because I want to live. I want to live.
“Oh, Rhea, I thought you knew better.” She inches closer, “Please? After what you did?”
I shake my head, “No.”
I see the shift in her grip and the way her hand tightens around the knife.
“No-” I try to push away, to scream, but there’s no breath left in my lungs.
The knife drives into me, just beneath my ribs. My lips part, and the only thing that leaves my mouth is a choked gasp.
She twists it once. Slowly.
“There,” she whispers. “Now beg again.”
But I can’t. My eyes blink once, twice. Darkness pours in so quickly that I barely register anything. Everything that has happened slips in front of me, and it feels like a dream. Like it’s all just been a dream.
All of it.
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