The Dark Flower (Azriel x OC)

13. The Meaning of Pain (Persephone)

Percy lay curled up within the confines of her small cell. The air was cold and damp, sending constant shivers over her and the brick walls were so close together that she couldn't even fully stretch out without touching them, not that she wanted to when any little movement sent another wave of pain over her body. 

Time was impossible to tell in the depths of the dungeons. Food wasn't brought in regular intervals or even at all, really. Guards seemed to change shifts at complete random and there was no one around to speak to her... to tell her what was happening. She hadn't realized how absolute her reliance on others had been until now.

She could have been trapped down there for days or weeks or even months. More than long enough to chip away at her sanity. 

At some point... she wasn't entirely sure when... she'd started to hear voices. Whispers, actually. Distant whispers that she couldn't quite understand or make out. It wasn't until she'd started calling out to them, begging them to answer, that she'd realized that it was all in her head. 

After that rather dim realization, the voices only seemed to grow louder and louder, until she could actually make out bits and pieces of what they were saying. Wishes for death, for an end to suffering, for the sun, for the moon, for the night sky... 

And so the pain never ended. Not the pain in her mind or heart, not the pain from her flayed back, and slowly that pain seemed internalize inward until if felt as if her insides were ripping themselves apart. Her body went hot and cold all at once and she could have sworn that the very ground she lay upon tremoured. 

No position brought any relief. Curling in on herself pulled at the torn skin of her back, laying on her stomach made that internal, shredding pain in her gut spike. 

"What did I tell ya?" A gravelly, male voice asked from just outside the cell. It was clearer than the voices that constantly invaded her head, but still... Percy couldn't be certain that it was real either. "It's her." 

Another male snorted. "Her? She's practically a fucking human." 

"Still half fae, ain't she?" said the first. "Either way, the High Queen wants her front and center. Wants to see just what she's made of." 

The door that seperated Percy's cell from the prison hall creaked open. If she'd had any energy, she'd have tried to scramble over into the corner, but she felt so very weak right then...

Rough hands gripped her upper arm, dragging her to her feet. Percy flinched at the feeling of his hands. She hadn't been touched since that day in front of Amarantha... and these males were hardly bothering to be gentle. 

"Cauldron!" the second hissed out. "She's gettin' blood on me." 

"That's what happens with females," the first spat out. "They bleed and bleed and bleed and make a giant fucking mess about it."

Percy whimpered as they dragged her up the stairs, neither of them wasting time by letting her get her footing. She could hardly keep up with their brisk pace, not that it mattered when they simply jerked her forward when she fell so much as a step behind.