Chosen

Chapter Forty-One: Scarlett

"It's just you and me."

I panicked, slipping down to try and duck under his arm. His fist grabbed the collar of my shirt and slammed me back against the wall.

"Don't make this difficult, girly," Julian said in a way that didn't sound like him at all. My mind flashed back to the drunk men in Azreal; I was half-conscious then.

I cried out. My head ached. Why was he acting like this?

He pressed closer to me, and closer-

"What's going on in here?!" came Addi's voice as the door slammed open. Julian backed away, releasing my shirt, which was now torn. I fell to the ground and started crying.

"We're having a little...fun," Julian chuckled.

"Oooh," Addi said. "Carry on."

"No!" I yelled, but the door had already slammed shut. Julian turned back to me. I scrambled away, crawling underneath the bed. Julian was a bit too large to fit under it. I curled into a ball at the furthest corner away from him.

"Fine then," Julian said sharply, and then the door opened and banged shut. Just before it did, she heard him. "I'll be back. I'm right outside this door."

I shivered. The room was unnaturally cold. I waited a few minutes, then crawled out and looked around the room for a better place to hide. I saw a closet. I opened it. It had a high, cluttered shelf. I started climbing, only to fall as a knife sliced my hand open. I bit my lip so I wouldn't cry out, but I fell with a crash to the floor and Julian slammed the door open.

"Well, well, trying to escape?"

"Stay away!" I said, my voice shaky. But he advanced upon me anyway, scooping me up an in embrace that would have otherwise been sweet. He grabbed my hand and looked at the cut; it wasn't very deep, but it was long, and it bled a lot.

I struggled to get away from him. He picked me up by my waist and pinned me against the wall, where he had me before. My face grew hot. I slapped his cheek, hard. He ducked his head and held his cheek. I told the opportunity to kick his stomach. He flew backwards, but got up quickly. He was a lot stronger than he looked, apparently.

And then we were fighting. He was trying to touch his lips to mine, to kiss me. He was pulling at my clothes, my jacket, my tie, my pants. As I fought him, I could feel my nails starting to elongate; the outside world starting to silence. The demons were taking over. I couldn't control them. And if they did take over, I would almost mist definitely kill him.

"Julian," I sobbed. "Julian, stop! If you don't stop - Listen! They're taking over - the demons are - if you don't stop, they're going to kill you!"

Julian just laughed. That made me angry, and I roared, pouncing on him like a cat.

Kill him.

My hands were on his throat, squeezing, oh god oh god when did my hands get there, and suddenly my fingernails blackened and elongated.

All the better to kill him with.

But no! I couldn't kill Julian...helpless Julian...pinned to the ground, suddenly looking fearful.

But I did. It was far too late. I sank my claws into his throat, then my teeth, and tore his throat there.

As the demons faded, I sat realizing what I had done and sobbing. Sobbing, sobbing.

And then everything went black.

A scream of rage pierced the air. "It didn't work! Why didn't it work?!"

And then pain blossomed on my back from a long, thick cord. A whip.

"You said they were reliable! You said they would work!"

I recognized then that it was my mother's voice, without caring.

"Please," my voice begged, though I didn't feel like begging, "please, I thought they would. I never expected them to be so strong."

The Queen screamed out in rage again. "Strong?! They're anything but strong."

Then why are they so hard to defeat? I couldn't help but thinking. I was unsure who they was, but in a way, I also knew. And then pain sliced across my back again.

"You lied to me! You lied!"

"I-I didn't - I swear-"

"Shut up, you worthless servant."

Servant.

I was seeing Rosalie again.

In fact, I was Rosalie. 

I opened my eyes to see the Queen's enraged face standing over me. She was scowling, and thinking, always thinking, making a plan for Scarlett's - my - destruction.

"I won't be trusting you again, bitch," the Queen said. "This is your fault."

There was another stinging pain. I was beginning to grow accustomed to and numbed from it, as I always did.

The Queen threw the whip to the side.

"I will make sure, since you have grown attached to the lot of kids I have decided to kill, since you have aided them against my will, I will make sure it is your hand who strikes them down."

And with that, everything went black.

I could hear voices, voices of people I knew, voices of my demons, voices from the dream, and the worried voices of Scarlett and Julian.

Of Julian.

That was impossible. I had killed him, with my hands, with my teeth; hadbripped out his throat and left him to die.

Strong arms picked me up and cradled me. I thought of Julian's embrace, then thought better; this one was warmer, softer, more welcome. And the arms, the hands, they pulled me out of my half-conscious slumber.

I opened my eyes wearily. It was Athena, holding me, comforting me. Giving me a comfort I didn't deserve. I pulled away and made sure she couldn't touch me, couldn't comfort me. When she knew, when she found out...

But I had killed him in this very room. And he wasn't there, on the floor, and Athena wasn't sobbing.

Then Julian walked in the room, perfectly unharmed, and I screamed.