A Stolen Soul

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Cascata Island 

Present Day

I felt cold floor beneath me before I knew what it was. I saw the pitch black interior of an enclosed room before I knew where I was.  

The room smelt musty and dank. It was completely dark except for a candle sitting on the floor beside me. I realised then that my eyes were moist with my falling tears. Where was I? How did I get here... the last thing I remembered was running away from...? Penn... Penn had hit me across the head... he knocked me unconscious. Elijah? Where was Elijah? 

I slowly sat up and my whole body ached. I looked around me confirming that the room was pitch black and contained nothing else in it, apart from a small window covered by metal bars; it was too high for me to attempt to climb out of.  

My head was throbbing. I gently felt across my scalp and a thick, dried crusted layer of what I could only assume to be blood was smeared from the gash on my scalp, across my forehead and down my cheek. It crumbled away in flakes as I scratched my fingernail over it. I winced in pain when I touched the wound. I held my hand over my mouth to keep myself from vomiting. 

Suddenly, a dim, creeping light filled the dark room as a heavy metal door was opened. The screeching sound of the large door opening echoed through the empty room.  

My head felt dizzy from confusion, nausea and the thumping pain from my cut. I slowly raised my eyes and my vision came to rest on a tall man with dark eyes. 

He held my gaze. He slowly walked towards me and I realised it was Elijah. 

"Where am I? Where is Penn? Why are we here?" I demanded. I tried to stand but my legs felt like jelly and unable to support my weight they collapsed beneath me. 

He stopped just in front of me. "Cascata Island. You're in the prison chambers... I've come to say goodbye," he whispered, his voice lifeless. 

"What? Goodbye? You can't just leave me here. You can't. I thought you wanted to help me... I thought you loved me," I shouted and angry tears fell from my eyes. 

"That's the thing, Brenna, I do love you. But by falling in love with you I have failed my people, I have embarrassed and disgraced them... I was only meant to get you to trust me, keep an eye on you, make sure you didn't get hurt, so I could..." 

"Bring me here so my body could be given to the queen," I whispered. His eyes were pained. "Yes, I'm so sorry." 

"Tell me the truth, Elijah, I want to know everything. Who are you really?" I sobbed. 

He sighed and sat down beside me. "I'm not human, Brenna, I'm immortal. I collect human doppelgangers so that my people can always stay young." 

"That's what your weird tattoo symbolises, doesn't it?" I whispered. 

He nodded. "The cross symbolises eternal life, the snake, the skin of the doppelgangers." 

I let out a shaky breath. "If you're immortal, how old are you?" 

"I'm two hundred and fifty years old and eventually I will start to age rapidly. For the first two maybe three hundred years of our life we only age about three years every century. This of course starts from the age of eighteen before that we grow like any human child does. And hence..." 

"You wait for us to turn eighteen before you take us." My heart clenched painfully as tears started to fall. "How are doppelgangers created?" 

"We must sleep with a human resulting in a child. The half-human child must grow on Earth, continuing the bloodline. It takes around 500 years for a doppelganger to be born."