The Sacrifice [Undergoing Editing]

Chapter 54: Let's Catch Up [What Did I Miss?]

Heat pressed against my side, like a loving hand, murmuring warmth and strength, slipping life into me. I curled up to it, instantly recognizing it as something to do with Aisu. My Aisu. A smile brightens my mind, but it made no appearance on my face. My smile was saved for Aisu. Only for Aisu. I shuddered silently, panic forcing my mind to race.

Sixty-one, fifty-nine, sixty-one, fifty-nine. How many days did I miss? Sixty-one, fifty-nine. I shook my head mentally, but made no movement. I wondered suddenly if all the previous events had been a hallucination. I peeled my eyes open. I had to know.

I saw white all around me. White walls, white sheets, white bed, white ceiling. Then I saw silver. A flash of metal around the bed, caging me in. The heat next to me was a gigantic black Wolf, and on my other side a boy with snow-white hair slept against my side. I didn’t mind him. I stiffened slowly and slipped unnoticed from the bed. Stiff muscles screamed at me as I neared the door and I slowly noticed my change in clothing.

This wasn’t my previous clothes. Someone had changed me. Someone had touched me. I bit back an anxious, fearful wail. What if they’d hurt me when I was out? I patted myself down, but I found nothing new to add to my list of sadistic injuries. I sighed with relief and allowed the tiredness that clawed at my eyelids to pull me back to the bed and shove me into sleep again.

An illusion. Everything around me is an illusion. Sixty-one, fifty-nine. A door. I see a door. My feet pad toward it silently, but I don’t want to go to it. I don’t want to see the other side of it. I open it anyway. Ropes dangle from the roof, nooses hanging on their ends like the fruits of an evil tree. I walk through the room, my hands itching to pull myself up onto the stools beneath the nooses.

I turn to my left. Is that Archer? His face is purple and he’s wriggling silently, his mouth opening to call out to me. His jaw slackens as I reach him and his eyes roll back onto his head. Archer’s body stills and I stare deep into his night-colored eyes. They’re dull, lifeless yet I feel nothing. No loss is allowed to fill me. This strange controller makes sure of that.

Aisu is dragged into the room. My heart breaks and I want to run to him, to tackle him, but his movements are as controlled as mine. He looks at me, and we exchange heartbroken glances. He reaches down as tears stream from my eyes and intertwines our fingers. My heart gives a flutter of joy before my controller stops it and deadens the feeling. I squeeze Aisu’s hand back.

He steps onto a stool. I open my mouth to shout out a warning, but it is closed by my controller again. Aisu helps me onto the stool beside him. We face each other as he tightens the noose around my neck. My mouth opens and a “thank you” tumbles out before I tighten his noose around his neck. Aisu thanks me and we both know what is going on.

The panic in our eyes is evident. The stools beneath our feet are tugged from under us and my air cuts off abruptly. A jerk, and I’m seeing though dead, dead eyes, watching the tears stream from Aisu’s glacier-like eyes. He jerks about, never letting his eyes leave mine, before he is as dead as me. My soul screams.

“Breathe, Snow.” Aisu’s voice reached my ears. Sixty-one, fifty-nine. I nodded my head and opened my eyes, taking deep breaths and exhaling slowly. Aisu patted my hand and held onto it tightly. “In, out. In, out.” I pushed myself upward and allowed my disgusting hair to fall into my eyes. The white that had dyed my hair so long ago was long gone, never to return.

“It’s fine.” A hollow voice spoke. I recognized it vaguely as my own, and cringed at its sound. It sounded dead. “I’m fine.” I shook my head and gave Aisu the only smile I could conjure up. A pained one. I glanced about the room. “Where are we? I don’t recognize any of this.” Aisu hesitated before he answered me.