Shadowed

Chapter 80

As Trent stepped away from me, my muscles went weak and I crumpled to the floor curling my knees up against my chest. Hot tears flooded down my cheeks as heaving sobs wrecked through my body. I had never felt so weak.

Trent stood over me, and I shied away closing my eyes as tightly as I could. Fear and sorrow flooded through my body like an icy tidal wave. I wanted nothing more than for it all to be over. My mind felt submerged, there was no longer room for rationality or instinct. I was drained and exhaustion weighed heavily upon my limbs - I could not move. Strong arms reached out mercilessly taking hold of my body, Trent's men dragging me from the room.

My mind was a sleeping chasm of lost thought. I was vaguely aware of their hungry eyes roaming across my partially exposed body. My eyes blurred as their faces ducked close to me as they hissed, whispered and taunted me each word a poisonous dagger to my chest. Their hands carelessly slipped where I knew they shouldn't. The wave of fear which tore through my body filled me feeling like I was drowning underwater. Every hand which touched me, every painful word hissed in my ear tugged me deeper and deeper into an icy darkness. Their words began to slur and then mute into dull unintelligible mumbles as they hauled me down endless dank corridors. My vision was failing me, my eyes struggling to focus.

As gravity waked in stomach I was late in realising the sinking feeling in my stomach was because I was falling. My body slammed mercilessly into the concrete sending shooting pains through my bones. As my throat tightened my breath struggled to release the pain which was tearing through every fibre of my body. Waves of numb paralytic fear. It was as if I had been asleep for the entire night. I'd shut out the faintest possibility of the reality which I now faced - Trent had won. This was not a dream. This is not a vision. This was reality.

A coldness clung to my limbs, eating through my clothes as I lay stripped across the dirty concrete floor. Pain radiated from my hip and shoulder where I had landed. My mouth gaped open as a silent scream tore from my lungs. I curled over screwing my eyes shut as I gave in fully to the darkness which had eclipsed and taken hold of my life. I let the pain roll through me, I let go of the knot which had tightened in my stomach and opened the floodgates. Each surge of emotion heaved through my body shrieking through my lungs and erupting through my mouth. My hands were clenched tightly into white fists as on my hands and knees I purged my body from everything I had held back. Tears raged down my face, hot and fierce as I cried myself dry. When the last sob shuddered through me, my limbs collapsed and I lay on the floor. Unmoving I blinked slowly into the black as deep shuddering breaths trembled my jaw. My mind and body both numb and exhausted; I closed my eyes. I was lost inside myself.

Amidst the depths my only light was the faintest whisper of my name.

Ryan's POV

With each trudging step towards the house my stomach filled with dread. I could already hear Haley's moans of anguish and feel the sorrow which hung over the house in a dense cloud. Stepping through the tree line we could see the Wolves were already gathering together to help move the bodies of those they had lost. They worked in twos slowly collecting the bodies of their dead pack members and wrapping them carefully in large sheets of tarpaulin. A few of turned their grim faces in our direction, and as their gazes past mine I felt a strong pang of loss. My stomach dropped when I saw Harry, Dan and Brody crouched down over one of the bodies. Slowly my feet trudged to a stop as I took in the sight of the body. I recognised the shoes, and the faded blue jeans. My breath hitched in my throat as Brody glanced up at me. His eyes were red and sore, his lips pressing together in a tight line. Shit. Caleb's hand gently pressed on my shoulder gently urging me forward. Brody's face dropped again to look at his best friend who lay dead before him, his hand came up to his head and he hid away as soft sob trembled his body. Harry stood his heavy eyes weighted with exhaustion as he shook his head softly at me, before slowly walking back to the house. I stepped close to Ben's dead body and knelt beside him. If it wasn't for the disjointed angle his neck laid, he could have been sleeping. The smell of death was already subtly rising from his cold body. It left a strange sickening taste at the back of my mouth which I would later not be able to shift. Gently I reached out and stroked the red hair back across his forehead as a single tear escaped down my cheek. "God" I whispered as Haley's cries echoed through the night.