Red Ribbons (Forgotten Series #1)

Chapter Nineteen

The classroom was dark and damp. I wasn't sure how long I had hung there for but it felt like an eternity. The wounds on my back never closed. They never ceased bleeding but there were never any new ones. Ingrid was still missing but I could still feel the cane every so often as it continually reminded me of where I was. As I hung there I wondered how on earth things had gotten as bad as they had. I couldn't even comprehend life away from the small concrete room but I was aware there was one there. Faint murmurings that felt muffled and small seemed to come from the door behind me but I could never grasp what they were saying or who was saying them.

Every time I tried to remembered all I could see and feel was anger and blood, there was nothing that told me of what had happened. I felt stuck and unable to move. I closed my eyes in defeat and that was when the first pulse hit me. It was like pure burning energy moving through my body in tune to my heart beat. I gasped and my eyes snapped open. The room around me pulsed and wavered with each energy wave that seemed to come from outside of the room and from inside of me at the same time. I gasped at each one that struck me. There was no pain with them and I felt almost comforted at their rhythmic pulsating.

The pulses were like a living entity, their entire form one giant heartbeat that shook the foundations of who I was and who I would be. I felt suddenly frightened as the walls around me pulsed violently, the solid concrete bending and waving like paper. I yanked against the chains around my wrists, the fear rolling through me insistently. I swallowed hard and gave up as the chains refused to move, refused to budge even a fraction. I held my breath as the pulsing grew faster and faster until it was like a constant hum through my body. I gasped loudly as I watched the world around me vanish into darkness. The walls tore down without a sound and the room disappeared as the ever brilliant red of my blood faded like smoke.

I floated in the dark abyss with the humming singing through my body before I was yanked forwards. I flew faster and faster, as if being pulled by an invisible tether. I felt myself swirling around and around, dizziness became all-consuming before I realized I was becoming conscious. I grew more and more dizzy and a heavy feeling descended upon me as I felt a myriad of different emotions and sensations bombard me violently.

Panic filled me, I couldn't control the emotions I was experiencing as I snapped my eyes open in the first time in I didn't know how long. Bennett sat across from me on the dark lawn, his shadowed face was sombre. Confusion wracked my brain, I had a breakdown in the hallway and now I was sitting on the lawn with my mate. The humming seemed to grow more powerful and I snapped my eyes to our hands.

His large left hand was pressed to my smaller one and a jolt of sheer panic filled me as I realized what it meant. I took in a deep rasping gasp as the pulsing stopped completely before I yanked away, scrambling to my feet and bolting. My heart pounded in my chest violently and emotions swirled around me. I couldn't focus as I bolted through the dark forest that surrounded the house. I needed to get out, needed to escape. I couldn't focus on anything but that.

I ran like demons were chasing me. My heart felt like it was pounding hard enough to escape my chest and the emotions swirling inside of me were violent and intense. I froze, leaning against a tree as I felt my chest tighten painfully. I took in short gasping breaths, feeling like I wasn't getting enough oxygen into my body as the foreign emotions bombarded me mercilessly. I slumped down, wrapping my arms around my stomach and trying to suck in the air I needed to live.

I couldn't sort through the feelings and sensations that were running through my body and it was becoming too overwhelming and I started to sob. Deep heaving sobs that made it even more difficult to breathe. I couldn't stop them even if I wanted to as I let the terrified confusion roll over me. Bennett had claimed me without my consent, without asking me to, and now everything was pressing down on me, overwhelming me to the point I couldn't breathe. The panic was just as intense as the terrified confusion and I didn't know how to gather myself together, how to sort out my emotions.