Obscure

forty one

THE WARMTH INSIDE Sophie started to burn. It scorched her from the inside out, and it hurt so bad that she wanted to scream. The jelly continued to hinder her movements. It rendered her motionless, trapped within a world of fire. Her thoughts became chaotic and distressed. She could hardly form a coherent thought. Her pulse pounded like a drum just behind her ears. Her mouth started to ache. It seemed focused on the area just above her canines.

The pain was all she could think about.

"Don't try to fight it," Wolfe's voice whispered inside her mind. His voice steadily grew softer and softer as the pain increased. "It will only prolong the venom from taking effect. And I've read that it hurts more the longer the process is drawn out."

Sophie couldn't answer him.

The pain frazzled her mind. She could hear his words, and understand them. She knew what he meant. It was just impossible to piece together an answer.

Her heart started to beat faster. It pulsed like a humming bird, and ached with the flame of the venom. Then for a sweet moment, it receded and clarity returned to her mind.

"I'm so sorry," she thought desperately toward him. Her thoughts became frantic as she felt her clarity start to slip again, and another wave of fire flared upward. She knew that once her human side died, Wolfe would be alone with his thoughts. That kind of solitude would drive him insane.

"It's not your fault," he growled at her. "Don't think like that."

Her mind reeled. She wasn't even aware that she had started down that line of thought. A small part of her did feel that she was at fault, now that he mentioned it.

The flames seemed to pull toward her chest now, abandoning her toes and her fingertips. The cold that replaced it hurt even worse.

His voice continued inside her head. It sounded desperate. It was as if he knew that the end was coming soon. "Sophie, you had no control over this. You never have. I never meant to imprint on you; it was an accident. I'm so sorry about that. Because of me, you haven't had control over your emotions since. And you have absolutely nothing to do with my imprisonment. This is not your fault."

Then she couldn't think again.

Her clarity abandoned her. It rendered her helpless against the strange sensations she felt. The battle of hot and cold seemed to grow with intensity as each second passed. The icy coldness spread throughout her body and crawled up her arms and legs, racing after the receding warmth. It numbed her. She could hardly feel her toes begin to wiggle inside the jelly.

The heat seemed to collect around her heart. The warmth twisted and churned, turning her heart into a ball of pulsating flames. The heat built inside her chest until she almost couldn't take it.

Then her heart exploded.

The heat fanned out. It rushed through her veins and chased every inch of the cold from her body. It coursed through her like a wildfire and devoured every cell, searing her from the inside out. It started to dwindle. She felt the heat fade from her body until only a small amount of it remained. The warmth seemed to have moved upward. It concentrated inside her mouth, in the area just above her canines.

A sharp pain pierced the flesh there, for just a moment. Then the rest of the warmth receded, and vanished completely.

Sophie could feel each individual particle of the cool jelly pressing against her skin. It mushed together, forever in motion around her, and was completely unstable. It still sizzled in spots around her throat, where the skin had been clawed. Without realizing it, she blinked. The green tinted jelly rushed to fill the newfound space. It dissolved before it could even reach her eyes.

It took her a moment to grasp that she could move her eyelids now, despite the jelly.

Her eyes reopened. If she concentrated, she could see past the layer of jelly and into the lab that surrounded her pod. It was a small space, cluttered with strange machinery and several other similar pods. Lights blinked and screens overflowed with rows of information. A heart monitor was situated just across from her pod; the usually jagged line laid flat.

She twisted her head to the right. The jelly squished around her, and it submitted to her movement. Another small row of pods stretched along beside hers.

Movement drew her attention toward the left.

A darkened silhouette crossed the room and stopped just in front of her pod. As it came closer, distinct features began to appear through the hazy jelly. She recognized the person as the Headmaster.

The jelly jiggled as machinery whipped on around her. The floor shifted around beneath her. A drain opened at the base of the pod, and sucked at the substance like a vacuum. A small stream of water helped rinse the jelly away. She spared the drain a few seconds of her attention and then returned her gaze to the Headmaster.

His face became clearer and clearer as the jelly cleared.

He seemed a lot older than she had remembered. His hair seemed even whiter at the roots. It was pulled back, away from his face. Faint indentations crinkled at the corners of his eyes and mouth. The more she thought about it, the Headmaster that she remembered looked more attractive and alluring, to an extent.

This one just looked old and mildly impressive.

Her bare feet pressed against the base of the pod. Crisscrossed bars of metal pinched her skin. The whirring sounds around her seemed to grow louder and louder.

Then finally, the jelly had vanished. All that stood between her and the Headmaster was a thin sheet of glass. A small fan burst to life above her head, drying her off. Then the pod opened. 

The Headmaster examined her, his expression thoughtful. His eyes skimmed over her and then paused on her face. He seemed to absorb her expression.

"How are you feeling, my dear?" he asked.

Her jaw clenched tight. At first she wasn't sure how to answer. Her memories swirled around inside her head, tainted with the ghost of flame. It wasn't her fault, she remembered him saying. It was the Headmaster. The Headmaster had control over Eli as well.

Then another stark realization slammed into her. She couldn't hear Wolfe.

fun fact: we hit half a million reads when this chapter was posted. In a span of three weeks, this story jumped from 260k to 500k. It's still insane to me!