Chapter 3

Isla's Pov 

“W… What? The long lost daughter of the… Arielle, you don't need to lie about things like these. If you want to hate me, then hate me, bringing up stories just because you want me to…” 

“I wish I was joking as well!” Arielle suddenly screamed, her eyes wide and pupils shaking, “I wish it wasn't true, but it is. Why do you think mother never liked you? Why do you think some of the elders looked at you like they wanted to snatch you away. Why do you think Lucien hated you? That he wanted to get rid of you so badly? It wasn't because of the fact that you married him in my place, it was because of your identity. You were meant to be above him, and in the position that you were in, below him and pining after him despite your authority, he didn't want that taken away from him. He loved the fact that you were a nobody!” Arielle confessed, the corner of her lips tremblingly. 

“He… So… All these months, he hated me for something I didn't even know about? He treated me so badly because of…” I shook my head, Lucien wasn't my concern now, “Then why do you want to kill me? If you know my real identity, are you not afraid that if my family hears of this, they will come to take revenge on you?” 

Arielle chuckled, slow and chilling, “Oh, poor Isla.” She cooed, crouching to my level so her face was inches from mine, “That’s the best part, you see…” She leaned closer, her voice a whisper laced with venom, “Your family isn’t coming for you.”

I stared at her, breath caught in my throat.

“Because you will be dead before anything happens.” She stood up and waved a hand toward the shadows, “The council, the elders… even our dear mother and Lucien. They’re all in on it, they all want you to disappear. Most of the old foogies are scared that if you survive and go back to your family, you would take revenge on them for everything that they have done to you. All the scars they caused you… So they want you to disappear.” 

“No…” I gasped.

“Oh yes.” She grinned, eyes glowing with madness. “You’re a threat to everything we’ve built.” 

Tears blurred my vision, “I didn’t ask for this.”

“But you’re alive.” Arielle snapped, “And that’s the problem but not for much longer.”

She turned to the kidnappers who lingered by the doorway, waiting like wolves in the dark, “Make her suffer.” She said coldly, “Break her, carve her, do whatever you want. But don’t kill her too quickly. I want her to feel every second of her cursed blood failing her.”

“Arielle!” I cried out, struggling against my restraints, “Please…!”

But she was already walking away, her silhouette disappearing into the shadows, leaving only her echo behind, 

“Goodbye, sister.”

The moment the door shut, I went still, heart pounding. I waited. One breath. Two. The kidnappers chuckled, approaching slowly, but they weren’t careful. They didn’t notice the loose knot around my wrist, the way I had been twisting, tugging, sawing it against the jagged edge of the wood on the chair.

I moved fast. My skin ripped, blood spilling everywhere but I was free. I scrambled up, kicked one of them in the groin, and bolted past the others as they shouted in surprise.

“She's getting away!”

I didn’t look back, I ran. Branches whipped against my skin, the cold air slicing through the thin fabric of my torn dress. My lungs burned, my legs screamed, but I kept going. I didn’t care where I was headed, only that I needed to get away.

Then I saw a bridge, it stretched over a narrow gorge with a raging river below. The wood was old, almost breaking, and it was the only way out. There was nowhere else to run but I had to take my chances. 

I stumbled forward, half-hoping I’d make it across, half-knowing I wouldn’t.

“Got her!”

A heavy weight slammed into my back, driving me into the bridge’s rotting planks. The impact knocked the breath from my lungs, and before I could even scream, a boot pressed down between my shoulder blades.

“Please…” I gasped, my voice hoarse and raw, “Don’t… Please…”

A hand grabbed my hair, yanking my head back so hard I thought my neck would snap.

“You thought you could escape?” One of them hissed, his breath hot against my ear, “You little bitch.”

“Get her legs for trying to run away.” Another said, “Arielle said make her suffer.”

“No.” I sobbed, twisting as panic clawed through me, “Don’t… please, I’ll do anything!”

One of them knelt beside me and grabbed my ankle. I kicked, fought, until I felt the cold press of metal against my shin. One of the kidnappers was holding a crowbar.

My heart stopped.

The man smirked, “This is going to hurt.”

Then he swung. The first blow didn’t break the bone, but it shattered my scream. Pain exploded in my leg, so raw and sharp it was blinding. I thrashed, convulsed, choking on my own cries.

Another blow.

This time, something snapped.

I screamed so hard my voice gave out, just a rasping, broken wheeze. My body seized. I couldn’t even think past the white-hot agony.

“Please.” I sobbed, “Please stop, please, please, I didn’t do anything…”

But they weren’t done. The second man stepped forward, grabbing my other leg.

“No.” I whimpered, “Not again… please… don’t…”

He raised the crowbar.

“Wait.” The first one said, grinning, “Let’s make her beg.”

They paused. I lay there, my body trembling violently, my leg twisted at a sick angle, every breath a new spike of torment.

“Beg and maybe we will leave you alone.” The man whispered.

“I am…” I choked, “I’m begging… please, please don’t…”

Another swing.

Crack.

The sound was worse than the pain, almost. A sick, wet snap, followed by agony so brutal I couldn’t even scream anymore. Just a silent, trembling shell, my face pressed to the cold wood, tears pooling beneath me.

“She is still breathing.” Someone said with amusement.

“Not for long.”

The pain was too much. My vision blurred, blackness creeping at the edges. My body was useless, my legs ruined.

Then I felt hands again, lifting me by the arms.

“No… please…” I whispered, barely audible, “I don’t want to die…”

They dragged me to the edge of the bridge, and then dropped me. My body hit the water with a loud splash that echoed in my ears. As I sank down, my body going cold, the only thoughts in my head was not that I was going to die, but that I wanted them to die. I wanted them to pay for everything I had suffered. 

I wanted Lucien, Arielle and all of them to experience what I had. So I begged. I begged as the darkness engulfed me, and my body sank deeper and deeper into the abyss.

“Please.” I whispered into the bottomless and dark area, choking on river water, “Someone… anyone… help me. I’ll give you anything. I’ll do anything. I just want to live… I want revenge… I want to make them pay. I will give everything, even

if it means selling my soul to the devil. I just want them to pay and give their lives back to me!”