Capture (Book 1 in the Wolfen Brethren Series)

Torment

This had been edited but there may still be mistakes.

Vanya was not left alone. Though Neema could do little to move her from the large cell they had placed the teenage girls in for their "protection", she made sure to visit Vanya every day for long periods of time. She ate at least one meal a day with her and when she could they walked around the compound so Vanya could see a different scenery, though the white walls were same in every corridor.

Neema and Vanya cherished the moments they shared together, they both had a companion who had noticeably been there at one of the darkest hours of their lives. Vanya had stood witness to the hundreds of people being whipped and if it wasn't for Neema's request that she take care of her siblings she was not sure she would have mentally survived. If Vanya had not been there for her siblings Neema was not sure where they would be now. Both females were tied together by that fateful day but they had begun to grow from it, their friendship becoming organic and real, almost like a sisterhood.

It had only been a week since Neema had found her but already Neema could see a difference in the young girl, her shoulders were not so sunken and her hair did not hide her pale face. Sometimes Neema swore she randomly caught a wistful smile on Vanya's young face and it lifted Neema's heart to unmeasurable heights.

Carson often joined Neema and her family when they visited Vanya though his visits were more sporadic than hers.

Vanya was good for her family. She had formed an infinity with Caillum where they communicated in their sullen quietness. There small whispers earning giggles behind hands and behind backs. In Vanya's company and in that tranquil room, Neema's family were able to catch a few hours shut eye before the monsters of the night returned to torment her family. Vanya, the room and its candles of burning incense were good for Jana, they calmed her and put her in a calm state so she could thrive during the day.

Sleep evaded them during the night, Neema struggled to sleep without meeting Khan in her nightmares. He had turned her somewhat sleepless nights into restless and tedious attempts at rest, the moment her eyes closed images of his snout dripping with her blood flitted behind her lids. The memory of his abuse often left her gasping at night.

Sleep evaded not only her but Jana as well, as a family unit they were withering. Though her sister flourished in the attention given to her by Vanya and Khan, when the night came it was the same nightmare that plagued their slumber. The whipping post had affected Vanya, it had changed Caillum but it tormented Jana, the sounds so horrific it prohibited her from sleeping. It besieged her.

Neema felt as if she had failed and she knew that by default Caillum and Vanya felt the blame like a spear to their hearts as well. They had not been able to stop Jana from being there and though they had all been hurt by that fateful day, Jana was too young to understand that that day would never harm her again. But what good was understanding that when the memories had already begun too rot her young mind. The Humans punishment and their later separation had scared her sister so much so that sleep had become an evasive friend that they fiend for, craved, would die for.

Jana was restless, her anxiety turning to anger as she worked her self into a frenzy trying to battle the wave of tiredness that crashed over her body every night. The more she fought sleep the more tired she became and the more volatile she turned, turning her anger towards her skin. Her pretty gold skin. Every night Neema was forced to watch her little sister scratch at her skin as if it were a parasite that she wished to rip from her body. And sleep was that, it was a parasite that sucked off her energy with its deep promise of a fresh day, a new life.

It was no good because Jana wanted no part with it, her small lips stuttered as she threw her body from side to side like a whirlwind, bringing desolation to their life. It was hard to watch her sister tear herself apart but that was all Neema could do, all Caillum could do. They had tried every lullaby they knew every remedy that graced the planet but still there was nothing.