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Annabelle hasn't had the best of lives, living with an abusive adoptive family, the Leften's, who treated her more like a slave than so...
Matthew carried on pulling me for a few more seconds before he suddenly stopped at a closed door and turned to face me with an evil glint in his eye. "I think it's time for a grand family reunion, don't you think so?" He chuckled.
I didn't have time to think about what he'd said because before I could even blink I was thrown into a room, landing on my hands and knees with a thud as the skin split open.
"I thought it was time to finally come face to face with the two people who you've been longing to see since you were a little girl" Matthew said as he walked past me and proceeded to pull the hoods off of two figures that were tied up to chairs in front of me.
They were bound and gagged with bruises, cuts and dirt covering them, but even if I hadn't recently seen them in a dream of mine I still would have recognised them anywhere... my parents.
I sat there, frozen on the floor for a second, as I took them both in. They both looked similar to how I had last seen them in my dream only this time they were even more beated and bruised than before. My mums golden blond hair was almost black with dried blood and grime as it stuck to her face and neck in large clumps around her head. Her eyes were both swollen and she had a split lip that looked like it stung every time she licked her lips to try and sooth the dry skin.
My dad wasn't doing much better, although his hair was naturally much darker than my mum's his too was ratty and covered in blood as sweat beaded across his forehead, making the roots look that much darker than the rest of it. It was obviously very rare for them to allow him to cut his hair or shave his beard off so half of his face was covered in brown dreadlocks as they constantly fell into his eyes. I couldn't see much of his face but I could tell that his nose had been broken and he was sporting a sizable cut that ran from his temple all the way down to where his dimple used to sit.
I sat there as I stared at the state they were both in, I didn't know how to react to it all as a few tears rolled down my cheeks. I quickly recovered though when I saw them try to turn their heads towards me and I quickly ran over to them, hoping I could help them in some way. I didn't make it very far though as Matthew stood on the chains that were trailing behind me, making sure I couldn't reach them. I hissed at the pain of the silver digging into my skin as they yanked me back but I ignored it as I looked over at my mum and dad.
They were facing away from each other and about a foot apart so as not to be touching but their heads were both turned in my direction, pain and desperation written clear as day in their facial expressions.
"Mummy" I whispered in desperation as tears leaked out of my eyes, "Daddy?"
"Aww...what a heart wrenching moment, all the family back together again" Matthew said in a sickly-sweet voice. He took the chains back into his hands before he dragged me to the other side of the room, away from my parents, and secured me to the wall.
Matthew then proceeded to circle around my parents a few times before looking up at me from across the room with an evil glint in his eyes, the red more pronounced then I had even seen it before.
"It would be a shame if someone were to... ruin the moment" he chuckled and before I could blink, he punched my dad square in the jaw, knocking his head back.
I screamed as I watched him do this over and over again, but it only seemed to spur him on. He alternated between my mum and my dad, torturing them in ways I could never unsee. My voice had gone horse from the amount of screaming I had done, and tears had drenched my cheeks and the neckline of my shirt.
"I'll do anything... please just stop hurting them" I sobbed as my legs finally gave out on me and I crumbled to the floor, my arm still bound in front of me.
Matthew suddenly stopped and make his way over to me, blood covering his knuckles as he forced my chin up so I could look him in the eyes. I cringed at the sight of them so close to me but stopped myself, not wanting to anger him further.
"Reject your mate and announce me as your new chosen mate, then I will let them go" he growled, looking more feral than human.
It seemed I took a second to long in answering him because he stood up and turned around to face my parents. I was worried that he was going to go back to torturing them again before I could scream at him to stop he spun around and brought his closed fist down against my cheek, effectively splitting my lip open and bruising my cheek in the process. I let out a whimper at the pain but managed to keep most of it in, I had gone through much more pain than this at the Leftens and if I learnt anything from them it was they the abusers loved to hear their victims scream.
"O-Okay" I whispered as I collapsed back onto the ground, all the fight I had left in me now gone. "I'll do it".
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