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Shadow
Breath in.
Breath out.
Breath in.
Breath--
'How long will you pretend that this isn't really happening?' Gabriel chuckled, reclining in his seat as though viewing a beautiful scene.
My fingers tightened around the leather hilt of the small knife in my hand, and I cut my arm once again, but this time to spite myself. I watched the blood dribble down into the cup.
This cut was unnecessarily deeper than the rest, for no reason other than my anger.
'Don't worry, you'll get used to the pain.' he said.
I flexed my fingers, dropping my trembling left hand to my side, blood dripping to the floor from the tip of the knife. I wished so much to kill him. There was no pain, and he knew that.
There was only the painful acknowledgement that I had broken one of my truest principles.
'Come here.'
I walked to him, taking the cup along with me.
'So sweet,' he smiled as he drank my blood. 'Especially when you're so. . . willing.'
I closed my eyes wishing I was home, except I only saw Mount Justice and Gabriel would know that if he happened to read my mind, so I quelled the thought.
'The mixture of the two Omega's is just perfect, isn't it?' he placed the empty bloodstained cup back on his desk, taking my right hand and wiping it down with a cloth.
'Look at this.'
I didn't. But he always made me do things. Always.
'Look. At. This.' He grabbed my chin, forcing my gaze on my arm.
'Beautiful, isn't it?' He trailed his unnaturally cold fingers across the five parallel, horizontal cuts on my forearm just above my wrist, identical to the ones on my left arm.
I felt my eyes prickle at the thought. I'm doing this for Elijah.
'Don't tell me you're going to start crying again, you seem to be doing that very often, not like the strong girl I once knew.' he laughed.
'I'm sorry Gabriel.' And I meant it, I wish I was the "strong girl he once knew" so I could string him up a pole by his fangs. But this year, I was tired of fighting fights that were never concerned with my benefit.
'Of course you are,' he wrapped gauze around the cuts while handing me a file. 'Your newest mission.'
I skimmed through the pages, my eyes widening as I did.
'Now don't go on looking so surprised, you must have suspected I wanted you for another reason other than your blood. Which, as nourishing it is, isn't worth the price I paid for you.'
I looked up at him with bated breath. 'You want me to—'
'Exactly.' Gabriel clapped his hands in delight. 'Your blood is tainted by poison and it already has such a potent effect on my lifespan, reasonably your pure blood should result in what, immortality?'
He laughed to himself and kept laughing, leaving me to stew in my own dread and wonder what he'll make me do next.
'I expect you to be back in three hours.' he told me, not sparing a glance in my direction, like he didn't expect me to even try to escape.
But of course, that was true. I wouldn't dare escape, no matter how much my heart ached each time he degraded me.
'Can I see Twelve?'
'When you get back.' he answered curtly.
And that is the reason I can't leave. Glancing at the bandage on my arm, I pulled down my sleeve to cover it.
I tried to forget how good being useful made me feel, how much I craved the thought of being needed more than the pain of the cuts.
I tried not to think about how I cut myself because I was asked, not forced, because I knew that deep down, I really did deserve it.
I very much wanted to hurt myself.
And he let me lose.
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AN: I feel freaking awful. I forgot how sad this thing was, and I'm the Author!
P.s At this point my writing is no longer goddamn awful so I don't need edit much. In fact, the only thing I'm changing right now are the quotation marks ( " ) to ( ' ). I had gone on an hiatus and when I got back to writing I forgot how I had structured previous chapters.