This Life (COMPLETED)

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

We get up quickly and head towards the sound before we lose it. I hurry behind Kain as the sound gets louder. There it is, right through this clearing of trees, the very car we saw parked outside my graduation all those months ago, parked right outside a cabin. I don't even notice Kain stop as I rush towards the car, but am quickly tugged back and behind a tree.

"Kain, what-" His hand quickly covers my mouth and nods his head towards the clearing.

There's someone guarding the door of the cabin that is staring in this direction. We watch as the man who's been delivering us messages gets out of the car and approaches the other man. "Where's Crow? They weren't at the apartment; I think they're finally searching."

"I don't think they're searching, I think they've found us," the other man replies, his gaze still looking this way, despite Kain and I being hidden behind a tree. "Why don't you come out now? Crow will be pleased to know you've finally arrived." The same man calls out, clearly for us to hear.

I look to Kain and he is already looking at me. "Whatever happens darling I just want you to know how much I love you, how I will always love you," he moves his hand from my mouth and places his lips on mine.

Before I can even register what just happened he pulls away, "Why are you talking like that?" I ask, anxiety filling my body.

We hear leaves rustling and Kain looks away from me, "Kain!" I pull his head back to me.

His hazel eyes swirl with fear, something I'm not used to seeing in them. "This isn't your fault Charlie. It's me she wants, not you. It's always been about me."

"Kain what are you talking about?"

Before he can reply a gun cocks causing both of us to look in the direction of the two men watching us. "It's time, follow me and no one dies," the man that delivered the notes says.

The other man snorts and adds a "yet." As he trails behind us, still holding up his gun. We all walk in silence towards the cabin, my mind reeling with what Kain was trying to tell me. What does he mean this is his fault? What was he going to say?

My thoughts are interrupted as the man opens the door and gestures me to go in, but my body freezes before I can set one foot down, causing Kain to walk into me, which led me to trip into the room. The room that looked so familiar: the bed in the same position with the same comforter. The curtains hung across the window swayed with the wind, just like they used to when I'd leave the window open for him. The closet cracked open with a robe hanging on the doorknob. And the most eerie part was the splattered red stains on the wall and rug in the very spot I once laid...

This was an exact recreation of Elizabeth's bedroom where my father killed me.

"What the fuck?" Kain's horrified voice comes out in a whisper as he grabs onto my arm, pulling me to him. "This—how—no, no, no..." his voice is shaking along with his hands as he holds me.

"Let's go, Crow's waiting in the basement for you two." Each man grabs us, separating us as Kain yells out, trying to grab me.

My petrified eyes meet his, which only causes him to try to fight against the man even more. "Enough!" The man growls out, but he doesn't stop until a cold metal is pressed against my head.

"No!" He chokes out. His eyes darting around the room in horror, "not again, please no."

"Stop fighting and she lives," the man holding a gun to my head says.

His crazed eyes meet mine and I plead with my eyes for him to just go along with this. We need to get to Luna. He gives me one nod, before we are pushed out of the room that Kain watched me die in all those years ago.

I try to stay silent as the man's grip on my arms tightens as he shoves me towards the door Kain was just pushed to. It's a staircase and I watch as Kain disappears down them. Something else about this seems familiar, but in a different way. It doesn't look as familiar as the feeling of panic that's rising in my chest. I'm hesitant to follow behind Kain and his guard, but my guard is having none of that as he nearly knocks me down the stairs.

When I reach the bottom it's dark, too dark for my eyes to adjust. The only source of light is the small flashlight Kain's guard is holding as he walks. My heart is pounding and I'm beginning to break out into a cold sweat as if my body is trying to tell me something, warn me of something.

Suddenly a light switches on and it takes me a few moments to adjust to it, but when they do I wish they hadn't.

No. No, it can't be. Not again.

_______________

"Move it," he says as he pushes me down the hall.

"No more," I hear a voice say and it takes me a moment to realize it was my own. I can't even recognize my own voice anymore.

The devil laughs as he pulls me around the corner back to the room I've suffered in so many times before. "No."

The panic is taking over as we reach the cage. The witch waits outside with the key, opening it for us as the devil tosses me in. The numbness is beginning to hit from the potion the witch brewed. The potion I was forced to take. I was hoping one day the potion would numb me so much that I wouldn't wake up from it. But I always woke up. And the pain was always there. The devil made sure of it.

I lie on the cold hard ground, motionless as the familiar sound of a belt hitting the floor sounds throughout the otherwise silent cage. And so it begins...

_______________

I hear a distant voice yelling my name, but I can't focus, not after that memory just passed through my head. I've never recalled that one before. Why would it come back?

And then I remember. I'm back. I'm here again. The hallway, that led to my cage, it's all the same. I'm back. I'm back in the insane asylum.

"Charlie! Darling please, open your eyes. I'm here," a familiar voice says and comforting hands hold my face. I blink my eyes open and am met with horrified hazel ones. "You had a panic attack and passed out," he explained. I glance at the two guards who were weirdly enough allowing Kain to comfort me.

"The idiots thought you died and were freaking out because Crow wants us alive," he whispers loud enough for only me to hear.

"Let's go, Crow is waiting in the room around the corner for us," one of the guards says.

Kain's eyes flash with anger but he goes to stand, pulling me with him, but I start to hyperventilate again. "No, no, no Kain I can't, I can't go in there. I can't go back in there!" I beg and he eyes me in confusion before glancing around us.

"Is this—Where Joanna—" He trails off as I nod. Several different emotions pass through his eyes before he pulls me up. He looks towards the guards. "Crow wants us alive, which means if I want to walk with her you can't do shit about it," he tells them confidently. One of them just rolls his eyes before telling us to follow him.

"I got you, you have me this time around, okay?" Kain whispers in my ear as we start down the hallway. I nod and lean more into him as we round the corner.

And there she stood, Matilda Crow, standing outside the cage swinging keys around her finger, smirking at us.

But my gaze doesn't stay on her for long because a familiar voice calls out.

"Kain?" She calls; her blue eyes turn to me with tears spilling over, "Mom?"

Luna. 

______________

WOAH! It is getting intense... what are your thoughts? What do you think is going to happen?

-Julia :)