18

"Fine! I am so sorry!" The words tore from my throat, raw and broken, as fresh tears blurred my vision. I looked up at her, my hands shaking against the wet floor. "I didn't mean to abandon you, Freya! I always planned to come back for you and the others. Every single day, that was my only goal. But I was also just trying to survive out there. I was desperately searching for a way to break this horrible curse, because I knew the truth. If I had come back home without a solution, Father would have locked me away forever and never let me go again. And there was no one out there who could mark me and save us."

I reached out, my fingers trembling as I tried to touch the hem of her clothes, my chest heaving with deep, painful sobs. "I am so, so sorry, sister. I never wanted you to suffer. Please, just forgive me."

Veronica’s face twisted into a mask of pure mockery, and a sharp, cruel laugh bubbled from her chest. "Sorry?" she screamed, the sound echoing harshly off the narrow walls of the stall. She leaned down, her eyes flashing with a dangerous, manic fire. "What about my pain, Fedora? What about all the endless torture I had to endure because of your little escape plan? You think a simple 'sorry' is going to erase the scars on my body or fix what happened to my mind? Sometimes I still wake up screaming in the middle of the night because of the nightmares. I can never recover from the trauma you caused. You cursed me, you absolute bitch!"

Before I could even blink, her hand wrapped around the back of my neck with supernatural strength. She shoved my head down into the toilet bowl with sudden, vicious force. My face slammed into the rim, and a wave of absolute disgust hit me as I tasted the stagnant, dirty water, mixed with the foul particles left behind by the stranger before us. I tried to pull away, but her grip was like an iron vice, pinning me down into the filth.

She held me there for what felt like an eternity, forcing me to swallow my own terror, before violently yanking my head back up by my hair. I collapsed against the side of the bowl, coughing and gagging violently, my lungs burning as I tried to clear the disgusting fluid from my throat.

"How does that feel?" Veronica sneered, looking down at me with a cold, satisfied smirk. She wiped a stray drop of water from her sleeve, her expression completely detached from the cruelty she was inflicting. "I know I can't give you the exact same amount of agony that I went through for years, but at least this little bath should give you a small taste of my trauma."

Without giving me a single second to catch my breath, her hand slammed back onto the nape of my neck. She shoved my head straight back into the foul water, pinning me down even harder this time. With her heavy weight pressing down on my throat, my mind began to spin into darkness. I couldn't breathe, and my chest felt like it was about to explode. I couldn't help but wonder if this pathetic, dirty bathroom stall was going to be the final chapter of my life. My body was simply too weak to fight back; the previous injuries from my fall had left me completely paralyzed with pain, leaving me entirely at her mercy. Yet, deep down, a strange calmness washed over me. I wasn't afraid of dying. It wasn't like I had ever actually enjoyed living this miserable life anyway.

Suddenly, the pressure vanished, and she dragged my head back up into the air. Veronica stared down at my shivering, dripping form, her brow furrowing in deep annoyance. "Why won't you even fight back?" she demanded, her voice dripping with disappointment. "I thought you were supposed to be strong. The day I was sleeping with your Alpha right under your nose, I thought you were this stubborn, rebellious creature. Where is that energy now?"

I leaned my head against the cold metal partition, my breathing shallow as I wiped the filth from my eyes with a trembling hand. "It's because all my bones are already broken," I whispered, a tired, empty smile touching my lips. I looked her straight in the eyes, completely empty of fear. "Fine. Go ahead and take your revenge. Kill me right here and now. Do you honestly think I would have jumped off the top of that high castle wall if I was afraid of death? Go on, Veronica. Do it, and be fast about it."

Veronica’s eyes narrowed into slits, her jaw clenching as she realized her physical torture wasn't breaking my spirit. She slowly let go of my hair, a new, sinister idea forming behind her dark eyes. "No," she murmured, a wicked, triumphant grin spreading across her face. "Death is too easy for you. What if I just call Stefan right now and turn you over to him? You would absolutely hate that more than death itself, wouldn't you?"

A dry, raspy laugh escaped my throat, despite the pain racking my body. I leaned back, looking up at her with pity. "Fine. Go ahead and hand me over to Stefan. But if you do, he will only ignore you the second he sees me. I can tell from the way he spoke out there that he already misses me more than he ever cared about you. To him, you are nothing but a cheap sex machine to keep his bed warm." I held her glare, refusing to back down. "I will gladly go back to Stefan and endure his cage, as long as I get to watch it destroy your happiness, Veronica."

Veronica’s face flushed bright red with instant rage. She scoffed loudly, stepping back as if she had been slapped. "You absolute bitch," she hissed, her voice shaking with anger. "You think you've won, don't you? You think you got under my skin? You can watch from the depths of hell while I fuck your precious little Stefan until he completely forgets your name and falls in love with me. And as for you..." She looked down at my broken form one last time, her expression turning incredibly cold. "I'm not completely heartless like you are. I won't dirty my own hands by killing my own flesh and blood."

She stepped out of the stall, her heels clicking sharply against the tile floor. "You'll just have to sit here and die a painful, slow death all by yourself."

With those final words, she slammed the heavy stall door shut, slid the lock into place from the outside, and walked away, leaving me trapped in the absolute darkness.