Alpha King's Mate

54. Smile

Warning: this chapter contains scenes of violence and other content that may not be appropriate for all readers. Those who may be triggered by such content should not proceed.

     "You think you're so special," her voice rang through my ears. It sounded like ringing feedback from a microphone which only got louder and louder with every word. "But you're not."

     I could see her: her ghostly white skin, her pale green lips, her red eyes, wide in excitement. But her smile, her smile haunted me. It faltered every now and then, as if she had been forced to smile for hours, and her muscles were about to give out from utter exhaustion. She blinked furiously and looked me up and down as she smiled.

     It wasn't inherently frightening, but the fact that she wasn't trying to be, was. She was the spitting image of horror.

     Her greenish hands and bitten finger nails nervously reached out to me. She seemed to retract her hand a bit every few centimeters she advanced. Again, her smile faltered. Finally, her hand reaches my cheek. She pinched me and I cringed, causing her to take a step back. Her head tilted as she gazed at me in curiosity and a hint of fear.

     "Well," she nodded frantically. I hadn't seen her before, yet she was familiar to me. She pushed her white hair back awkwardly, with a flat palm pressed aggressively against her skull. "People thought I was special too. I was so... pretty."

     Her smile disappeared. "I'm not anymore."

     And in an instant she slashed her own throat with nothing but her own hands and those dry, bitten fingernails. I watched in utter horror as she bled all over herself, and sunk to the floor, smiling as she looked me in the eyes. She gurgled and spasmed as blood filled her lungs and her mouth. I shook as I watched her, my muscles tense.

     "No!" I screamed and jolted awake, still shaking. I pushed all of my sheets and blanket away from my sweating, overwhelmed body. Someone turned the lights on, but I couldn't pay attention because my hands were sticky and I couldn't help but feel like it was from the blood. I rubbed my hands on the pillows and he sheets and the comforter and my pants but they were still hot and sticky and-

     "Liv, Liv, Liv, Liv..." He said as he grabbed my elbow and my upper arm. I opened my mouth to speak but I couldn't say anything I tried to mouth out words but my voice just wasn't there. His eyes were hatched with a level of concern I had never seen before. It hurt to look into them, because all I felt was disappointment in myself.

     Lou was standing in the doorway with a candle, dressed in her evening robes. She was scared too. "I'll get Angela."

     "No," I choked out, feeling constriction in the muscles around my neck. It must be from all of the stress. I swallowed in an attempt to lubricate my dry, sore vocal chords. "I have to go down there anyway."

     I pushed myself out of bed and looked around the floor to find my slippers. The door closed and I sighed. Not this again.

     "Liv, you need to rest."

     I couldn't face him. Instead I continued searching for my slippers. "No, I need to go see her."

     Finally, I found them under the couch.

     "She's not even awake, it's 2 am."

     I shot him a glare. "She never sleeps."

     He sighed. "What about you?"

     I made my way to the closet and I squinted in an attempt to find my robe on the floor. "What about me?"

     "You never sleep. This is the second time this week that I've come in here-"