The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Chapter 33

I turned around, unable to believe my ears.

But as she said, there was my sister.

She was huddled in a corner, passed out. She was wearing a night gown similar to mine. Her once beautiful hair was now scraggly and her face was etched with tiredness and dirt. There were deep purple rings under her eyes and her lips were dry and cracked, the bottom one split. She was breathing shallow breaths, her face scrunched up as if she was in pain. On her arm were several cuts, like the ones Scarlett had given me when stealing my blood. There were markings on her ankles, carved in deeply with a knife. Another cut sliced across her face, from her eyebrow to her cheekbone. She had many bruises on her body, as though she had been thrown around a lot. I noticed a patch of dried blood on the right side of her head, her beautiful hair matted from it.

"Isabelle" I whispered and ran forward. I fell to my knees beside her, reaching out my arm but too afraid to touch her.

"she's alright" Estelle "well, she's alive anyway"

"what did they do to you?" I whispered, my voice cracking.

"they tortured her" Estelle explained "under Scarlett's orders. They thought she might know something about your powers. But she knew nothing. I was surprised you didn't tell her, I mean she is your family".

"who did this?" I demanded Estelle "who hurt her like this?"

"Alex" Estelle said simply.

"He's insane" my voice wobbled "he could of killed her"

"he nearly did, actually" Estelle muttered "luckily Spike was there, he stopped Alex from continuing. It was hard, but Spike communicates better with Alex than most of the people in the world".

"why is she cut like me?" I asked.

"they had to test her blood" Estelle stared to sound irritated with being bombarded with questions "to see if she was shifter or not. Now, I have to go before things get suspicious. Get back to your room".

"but... Isabelle.." I whispered, gripping her shoulder more tightly.

Estelle sighed.

"I can give you five minutes" she muttered "but after that you need to return to your room".

She muttered some strange words and Isabelle began to stir.

"Isabelle?" I whispered.

She looked up at me and I finally got a full view of her face. The scar was deep and covered in dirt. It had been mixed with tears, blood and sweat. It destroyed her beauty almost entirely.

"J-Jess?" she gripped my shoulders "Is it.... Is it really you?".

Tears welled up in her eyes.

I nodded.

"oh Jess" she sobbed, pulling me into a hug "have you come to rescue me?"

I shook my head sadly.

"I'm a prisoner here too" I whispered, suddenly realizing my cheeks were wet with tears. I looked around at the walls and a horrible thought suddenly came to my mind.

"Iz, did you draw all this?" I asked, fresh tears already filling my eyes.

She put her head in her hands.

"Iz?" the tears started to fall down my cheeks "Did you?"

She began to cry louder.

"why wont they stop?" she wailed.

"why won't what stop?" I asked, my voice cracking.

"she's experiencing internal torture" Estelle explained "well, that's what Scarlett calls it. She put a spell on your sister so that she would feel as of voices were screaming at her all the time. Basically driving her insane"