Red Ribbons (Forgotten Series #1)

Chapter Three

A month later

My limbs shook and ached as I scrubbed the floor. I did my best to focus on the motion, trying to get lost in it, to jump my mind into auto-pilot. When I could lose my mind, let it go blank with the monotony, I could escape the hollowness of my chest, the yawning abyss it had become. I did my best to adapt, to push through it, but it was like a slow descent into a space I knew I couldn't come out from.

I had started to throw up my meals. As sparse as they were, I needed the food but it was getting harder and harder to keep everything down. The lack of it made me feel weak and dizzy. It was why I was trying so hard to lose myself in the work, to lose myself in the motions. Back and forth, back and forth, again and again, Back and forth, back and forth. I was trying so hard but the dizziness and the trembling in my limbs wouldn't let me drift away.

"You are missing spots, Omega." Ingrid's voice was heated as she hissed the words at me. I flinched under them, dipping my scrub brush back in the pail and looking for where I had missed. It was getting worse. I was making mistakes. The thought made me anxious, bile rising up in my throat. I couldn't make mistakes. I dashed some water across the floor, scrubbing at every inch I could reach, ignoring how sodden my dress was getting. I needed to make sure it was clean.

Ingrid thumped her boot against the floor. She was watching me with that all knowing gaze, searing through me with it. She knew I would make a mistake and she was waiting for the perfect moment when I did. My back still ached from the caning I had received. I had missed clearing dishes from one of the rooms I had cleaned. A lonely cup and a spoon, tucked away, but I had missed it and I had been punished. I was sure my back was still heavily bruised. My healing was no longer existent.

"Omega..." At the taunting voice I refused to lift my head. I needed to clean the floors and I knew she was just wanting an excuse. I dipped the scrub brush back into my pail and before I could take it out a shattering sound had me jumping. "You missed a spot." I slowly lifted my head at her mocking tone, a flower vase lay cracked and broken on the floor by her feet. Its contents strewn over the area I had scrubbed. My face paled and I slowly crawled towards it. Another mess.

An Omega must never let anyone clean up an Omega's mess.

My heart hammered in my chest as I slowly started to pick up the broken pieces. I needed to clean up the mess. It was in my section, it was my mess. The mantra circled my brain, tightening the words around my skull until it ached and threatened to explode.

An Omega must never let anyone clean up an Omega's mess.

"What the hell?" At the angry voice I gave a sharp gasp turning quickly in fright to see which pack member I upset with my actions. A searing pain slashed through my palm as I completed the movement and Ingrid pushed off from the wall.

"She is a clumsy thing." Her words were bored and my eyes finally managed to land on the shifter who had spoken.

The blue eyed male glowered at Ingrid darkly. "I watched you drop that." He puffed himself up, his eyes growing darker with his displeasure to her actions.

Ingrid bowed her head meekly. "It was an accident." An accident. The words ran through my mind, mocking me over and over again. Ingrid was good at the deception she was playing.

"That wasn't an accident. I watched you do it." The male wasn't backing down, getting further into Ingrid's space, making her shrink even further into herself. She only used that position for the pack. The pack saw her weak meekness and the rest of us received the cruelty she had naturally. "You are a cruel old bitch." He spat the words out at her and I quickly turned my gaze to the floor at the heavy insult. The blue eyes male never was one to mince his words.