Pacing. Agitated. Nervous. Afraid.
Mixed emotions dance around me as I pace back and forth around the room with my phone clutched tightly in my hands, hearing it ring and ring for the past few minutes.
Damien is seething silently on the couch with Grayson eyeing him like a hawk.
The phone went dead again as I groan. "I don't understand" I murmured lowly as I dial Lillian's phone number again. I told her not to call me just in case Damien might be able to track her down. I told her that I'll be the one to call her when the coast is clear, and now that she's not picking up causes me to be frightened if something bad happens to her. It is never in her to not take my phone calls.
"Lillian please pick up" I pleaded while biting my nails in anxiety.
Damien abruptly stood up, pointing an accusing finger my way "This is all your fault. If only you didn't mend with our business then she wouldn't have been away now. Something bad could've happen to her and it is all your fault!"
Grayson growled at him in warning, taking a stance in front of me protectively while my shoulders curl in guilt. Picking them back up, it's not only my fault.
"What are you telling me then? Watch and just listen to my best friend crying and suffering from your filth as she just faces this pregnancy on her own because her freakingly filthy husband can't keep himself in his pants? Is that what you're saying?" My own accusation hit through the center of his chest as he faltered in his advance.
Looking at me challenging me in the eyes, his voice spoke with a low growl from his other side "I swear, Aria. If anything happens to her or my child, you won't be able to see daylight again. You know the punishment of standing our way but you chose it anyway, so if I were you; I will already be begging the gods to help me because I won't show you mercy" his threat and only warning has both Grayson and I shivering in fright. Fear of the pain to me while his is the pain of losing me. I am his light, his life. If it weren't for me, he would still be that cruel and heartless bastard that I met. And I know for a fact, it'll kill him if he loses me...and worse. But this is my choice, I made it and I'll stand for it. I don't want to leave Grayson and Fernando's side so soon, and I don't even plan to. The Harrison's are cruel, and most people they whip are either broken or already dead. Only the dominants that they whipped survived, and the fact that I'm not a dominant causes doubt to fill my mind. Thinking the what if's with my body shaking of what is to come. Yet, I still will myself to keep my promise...be alive for everyone. But if ever that it is not my fate, God will be the one to take care of my family for me.
*****
5 weeks later...
Still, no word from Lillian. I have called everyone near her, the neighbors, the pilot that took her...everyone. Still, no sign of her, like she just disappeared.
Damien is already out of control, his dominant side surging in the surface; wanting the punishment to be done to someone who took their female away from them. He doesn't care anymore if I am his female's best friend, all he cares now is his blinding rage; wanting blood to be shed.
Grayson is like a raging beast on the far side of the underground basement. He is tightly tied up in the wall, not able to break free. He's screaming that he will take the punishment instead but Damien is too blinded with the want to shed my blood in his hands.
"It was your choice" was all he said to me before the first slash of the whip hit my skin.
A whimper coming from my throat as the burning pain spreads like wild fire in my back. The whip continues on as my screams and cries of pain fills the closed place. No one to witness my pain. Grayson growling and raging out in the corner, his desperation so clear for anyone to see. He never likes it when I'm hurt even a small tiny scratch. But now, he had to see me come undone in front of his eyes. Deep, long painful gashes of the whip marking my skin eternally as blood pools down on my knees.
Looking at the pudle of red liquid in front of me, I then know that the reason of the submissives' death with the Harrison's punishment is not from the pain or the wound...it is the great loss of blood that not even the greatest of healers can save us. The time to take us to them is never in the slightest enough. We are not like the dominants who have faster ability for the skin to clot and stop the bleeding. Right then and there, I know I won't be able to see my Fernando and Grayson anymore.
Looking at Grayson as the whip continues to mark my flesh painful, I'm already crouched so low. My head resting on the floor already with my pudle of blood. A tear leaks out from my eyes as I mouthed "I love you" to him with his desperate and anguished face is the last thing I saw.
This is my end.