Soul Tied - Book One ✔️

Chapter One: The Beginning

Xirasti age 8.

"You're a freak," Tara says. Then she pushes my shoulder. "You're nothing like us other demons. Something is wrong with you and we all know it." The look of pure hatred in her icy blue eyes. My body starts to tremble because of how scared she makes me.

"No, I'm not a freak," I say softly looking to the ground.

"Look at you..." She sneers. "You're purple and you have a tail. You even have wings and you can't even fly!" She reaches out and pulls at one of them gripping hard. "You can't even go on soul missions 'cause you're a baby. You're useless." She sneers at me.

"Stop!" I beg. I raise my hand and it begins billowing out black smoke and I push my hand out in defense. I watch as she is moved back a few feet. How did I do that?

She laughs menacingly. "Is that all you got?" She uses her hands and pushes me hard in the chest. It happens in slow motion. I lose my balance my arms outstretched grasping at the air hoping for some way to stay on my feet. There is nothing to catch me I fall off the rocky ledge into the darkness of the cavern.

The cavern walls still have light half shining on them from the torches in the courtyard. The rocky walls have arms protruding out of them with hands gripping trying to grab a hold of something, anything. There are so many of them. No more light. It's just darkness now. Some of the hands connect and grab me by the hair. Other hands scratch my face and tear my clothes. All the while voices are coming from the wall a clangor of sorrow. The moaning, pleading, wailing, and blood-curdling screams are overwhelming to my ears. My throat hurts because my screams are mixed with theirs. There are no lights no hope just the endless black. I can normally still see in darkness but there's nothing here to see. No cavern walls anymore. Nothing just me hurtling downward.

The further I fall the voices start to dwindle away until there's only silence. Now that it's silent I rather have the voices. It was stopping me from thinking. All alone, free falling the panic starts setting in. So many questions run through my head in quick succession. How long have I been falling? Does this cavern have a bottom? If it does am I going to die from the landing? Will I be stuck here falling forever?

I've been falling for a while now. Then I start to see lights on the cavern walls. The light is dim at first but the further I fall the brighter it gets. I turn in the air to begin falling on my stomach so I can see where I'm going.

There is a bottom to the cavern and I quickly come upon it. I feel myself flickering in and out. One second I'm in one spot the next second I'm in another. The ground is close now I squeeze my eyes tight and wait for the impact. I brace my head. I flicker and am tossed to a different spot right before I flicker to a different spot right before I hit the ground. My body hopped a few times then slid to a stop. If I hadn't flickered at that last moment I would of been killed. What was even causing me to flicker and move around like that? Almost like I was being teleported. My arm hits something hard and solid. Intense pain radiates from my shoulder to my hand. I look down and my arm is bent at a weird angle. My eyes were wide in terror and I started to feel queasy.

Then I hear there is a chain rattling next to my head. I lean on my other elbow and wince. I hurt all over. I notice there's a crunching sound whenever I move.

What is this sensation? I realize my teeth are chattering and my back is wet. My good arm instinctually wraps around my chest. I sit up and the crunching noises happen again. I squint my eyes because the light is bright bounding off of the wet white material below me. Tiny dots of white flutter in the air around me. What is this stuff? I hold my hand out and watch it dissolve on my skin. Despite myself, I smile. "Am I in heaven?" I whisper to myself. I can see my breath coming from my mouth when I speak. My arm throbs with pain and a feeling of being stabbed and sharp pins and needles along with numbness.