Whispers in the Dark (Being Rewritten)

Chapter 11

The man holding me up in the air turned his head to look at him. "Yes, My Lord?"

He already had his back turned and was starting toward the door. "Get as much information as you can from him." He paused a moment, thinking. "Don't kill him, yet. I have a feeling he'll be useful to us."

"Yes, My Lord." The man named Len bowed his head respectfully.

The man with the hood turned his head to look back at us briefly. "And make sure no one goes out to hunt by themselves. Parties of four to five. Hunters don't usually travel alone and after what happened I'm sure they'll be patrolling. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, My Lord." Another nod and the man was gone, the heavy iron door swinging closed behind him. That's when it started.

Len threw me down to the ground and I felt the air leave my chest. Climbing to my knees, forearms braced against the stone floor I tried to regain my breath. A large booted foot came up and slammed into my head knocking me back down. I could feel a warm liquid run down the side of my face and smelled the musky sent of my own blood as a painful stabbing feeling pulsed through my temple, causing me to whimper in pain. My stomach rumbled despite the situation I was in. When I glanced up at him through the bloody haze I noticed that all the men had gathered around me now.

I took it back. I would pick hungered silence over what was about to come any day.

Limbs flew as they punched and kicked me. They barked out questions and yelled for me to answer them. I brought my arms and legs up covering my body as best I could and felt the hot sting of tears forming in my eyes. "Len, stop it!" I pleaded. It was against regulation to call a guard by his birth name, especially one on such a level as Len, but at that moment, in that state of fear, I didn't care. I just prayed. "I can't think like this!" They didn't stop. I felt myself begin to cry as I screamed and pleaded, blood mixing with tears.

...ine...

"Len, please!" What was that? "I'm begging you!"

...Christine...

That voice was so familiar but it sounded so far away. Even as they continued beating me, even as more blood spilled, and I screamed and cried, I mentally reached out toward the soft, faint voice, following it out of the darkness.

Christine!

When I opened my eyes again I was staring into familiar blue one, as deep and as dark as the sea flecked with silver. Gabriel Steele was kneeling in front of me, fingers biting into my arms as he shook me, calling my name, concern and worry plain on his face.

I looked around us still a bit dazed. I was in English class, sitting on the floor in the middle of the classroom, everyone was standing in a crowd behind the desks, staring at us.

This couldn't be good.

"What happened?" I asked in a small voice as I reached up to push hair out of my eyes. I was surprised to see my hand wet with tears but no blood.

Relief washed over Gabriel's face. "Maybe you could tell me," he whispered. "Are you on something? Do you need to go to the nurse?"

I shook my head. "What? No... I-I think it was just a bad dream or something. I've been having a lot of those lately."

"No." His voice dropped again so no one could hear. "That was no dream. Your eyes were wide open. You were screaming."

I couldn't say anything after that. I just sat there and thought.

Falling asleep in class? Causing a scene? I had never fallen asleep in class before in my entire life let alone with my eyes open. I didn't even know that was possible for me. But if what Gabriel said was true and I hadn't been dreaming then what just happened?

I didn't have the time to think any more than that because suddenly a burst of pain exploded inside my head. I felt as if someone was tearing it apart! I fell back against the floor screaming, holding my skull, trying to keep it together. Whoever, whatever was doing this I just wanted it to stop!

Through my screaming I could hear Gabriel calling my name again as Mr. Lance screamed for someone to get the nurse. I opened my eyes to see them but all I saw was the bright haze of the white ceiling, Gabriel, and the students crowding around me. I screamed louder as more explosions of pain were sent throughout my entire being and everything eventually blurred together until I couldn't even see the outline of Gabriel's body and I couldn't hear his voice.

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, trying to clear everything. I wanted to cry, I wanted to run away from all of this but I couldn't. I felt so helpless. When I opened them again I was back in the cell, surrounded by the group of large men I was terrified of.

"Len, stop it!" I felt so weak, blood was everywhere and I could barely see a thing. It felt like they'd been beating me for hours even though I knew it had only been minutes. "Please! You're killing me!" My voice came in broken little sobs. Every time they kicked or punched me I felt the air from my body leave. I hardly had any time to recover it before they would take it away again. I knew this wouldn't kill me. My life was prolonged. I wasn't a human, I was stronger and capable of living through so much more. But that didn't mean I wanted to test my limits.

What seemed like an endless amount of time later they finally stopped the beating. I could barely move and my breathing was shallow. Len knelt down beside my body and grabbed my face with his hands. The beating had tired him out, but only a bit. He was panting slightly as sweat beaded from his brow.

"What's your name, boy?" he asked. His breath was like poison on my face but I answered anyway.

"B-Benjamin." I answered. My voice was so weak and hoarse I had hardly recognized it-

"Benjamin," Len repeated. He gave a small nod to the men behind him and they backed away, leaving the room quietly. "So, you wanna tell me what happened? Everything that happened?"

"Yes..." Benjamin nodded weakly. "Yes..."