The Alpha's Doll || #wattys2023

Chapter 34

Read up to chapter 51 on my Patreon. Link is in the bio.
Updates twice a week on wattpad!

***

Damon's death trap of a vehicle luckily had electric gps navigation as an option on the main screen. I slowly used the keyboard to type Somber Forest whilst trying not to crash. The estimated time of arrival said that it would be forty minutes. I tried not to think too much on the way there. My anxiety was building like blocks of stress, I could not stop thinking of all the ways that this could go wrong. It did not help much that the roads to Somber Forest progressively became darker and more dangerous. The pavement eventually turned into bumpy off road trails of mud and soil. Eventually, the only light I had to bear sight came from the moon and the tail lights.
Vervain Plantation, Tiffany had said, the prison was located underneath a vervain plantation.

What did vervain look like? What color were they?
I was just now realizing that I had no clue as to what the plants looked like.

The GPS made a noise to alert me of my arrival. Sure enough, a sullen looking wooden sign hanging from the branches of a tree read; Somber Forest. Do not enter.

I knew I'd have to find the rest of the way on foot. I escaped the small vehicle after turning it off. I left the key right underneath the seats, pre planning my escape. I lifted my dress and immediately , my heels sank into the mud.

"Fuck!"

I took them off and left them in the car. I searched for spare shoes that Damon might have had but instead, found nothing but a flashlight. Barefoot, I made my way into the mass of pitch black trees and used the light from the flashlight to bear view of a passageway. My feet eventually began to blister and bleed as the various instruments of the forest grounds became apparent. I slipped on rocks and branches, slipped in puddles of mud until my red dress was now practically black. I must have been walking for ages but there was no sign on a vervain plantation anywhere.

"This is ridiculous," I mumbled to myself, exhausted and defeated," this forest is huge. It could be anywhere."

Seconds later, the breeze stirred and altered the slight scent of something citrusy. There were subtle hints of a deeper fragrance, perhaps lavender?
Could that be the scent of the vervain?

In all cases, it was my best bet. I rose to my feet, my dress feeling much heavier now that it was hosteling mud, and inched forward as if to follow the scent of something lemony. The breeze stirred harder but the smell lessened and so I tried to walk the other way, where the fragrance became much more potent.

"It has to be this way," I mumbled.
I strutted further, and the deeper I went into the forest, the stronger the smell became.
I must have been walking for five or six minutes, until I caught sight of a pretty little sprout of a purple plant. I bend down and smelt it.

It smelt like lemons.

I walked even further, I burst through a mass of even more trees and then like magic, there it was. A massive field, with thousands of little bright purple vervains. The scent here was almost overbearing in strength, it became bitter almost immediately. I felt both a sense of calmness to my severe anxiety and sudden stomach pain.

I pushed through the field of plants and searched for a door or some sort of indicator as to where the prison might be. In the center, I caught sight of a metal window that was nailed shut.

This must be it, this must be the door to the inside of the prison.

But there was no way I'd get it open. The door was nailed shut with dozens of massive metal screws. I tried the handle but just as I had thought, there was no budge.
I felt a slight sense of lightheadedness but I tried to shake it away.

If the vampires escaped, that would mean that they used another passageway out. There has to be something else nearby.

Away from the vervains by at least two hundred meters was a hole in the ground. It was gaping wide open, I pointed the flashlight into the direction of the hole to discover that it was indeed a passageway.
This must be what the vampires used to escape.

I felt the trembling of bones and I placed my upper body inside of the hole and began to crawl downwards at an angle. My arms sank in the mud and I struggled to both crawl, and hold on to the flashlight. It suddenly fell from my grip and everything had gone pitch black again.

"Shit!" I blurted out. I heard the flashlight hit the bottom with a thud and suddenly, I went flying down as well. I screamed out as I lost control of where I was going. There was no surface to hold on to, I was simply plummeting down through the hole until I finally hit the bottom, right side to the flashlight. I quickly gripped it and offered some more light to my surroundings. I rose to my feet, my skin bleeding from multiple wounds. I was inside of a tunnel, I could hear the sound of a nearby stream. I didn't know which way to go, and so I went left. I took my first few steps and I could suddenly smell the overbearing scent of iron. For a moment, I felt liberated, I began to run in both panic and hope that I might have just done it, the smell of iron must be the silver. The tunnel had passageways that led to multiple other directions, I kept going left and following the scent of the silver. The air was littered now with a strong scent of blood and I realized that it might be what I was smelling the entire time. I came to a halt as my foot hit something solid. I looked down to discover what looked to be a coffin.
I held the flashlight further to light the rest of the room and almost screamed out.
The room bore dozens of coffins, every single one of them was open and empty but the one at my feet.

The door of the coffin began to shake and the voice from someone who said," help me, please."

Could it be a vampire underneath the coffins?

"Help me, please, I'm too weak to open it."

It sounded like a human girl.

"Who are you?" I struggled to even talk. The longer I was down here, the harder it was to breath.

"The wolf men, they brought me down here so that the vampires can feed off of me. Please help me, I've been stuck here for days."

Oh my goodness, it was a human little girl.

"One minute, I'm gonna get the door open!"

I balanced the flashlight on one of the coffins and struggled with the lock on the coffin.

"It's locked! Do you know where the key is?"

"It must be on the ground somewhere-"

I fiddled with the muddy grounds and found a large metal key nearest the middle coffin. I hurried to unlock the coffin and with my heart ready to burst out of my chest, I let burst the door with enough force to break it. I could not see the face of the little girl at first, only her blond hair.

"Are you alright?" I whispered and leaned closer.
The little girl was facing the bottom of the coffin. She had gone silent.

"Grab my hand, I'll help you up."

Still, I was met with silence. Was I too late?

"Hello, can you hear me?"

I grabbed her shoulders and she suddenly turned with lightning speed. I backed away quickly and fell back into the wall of the tunnel.I flicked mud from my face and looked up to see that she was standing now, hovering over me on top of the coffin. Her bright eyes shun red, even brighter than the flash flight. She had her fangs extended well below her chin, her icy white skin revealed pulsating purple veins.

"Tricked ya," she grinned.

***

Thank you for reading. Don't forget to comment and vote!