Underdogs

SEVENTEEN

❝I don't have time to worry if it's right or wrong. You can't hope for a horror story with a happy ending.❞ ㅡ Eren Jaeger

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Chapter seventeen:

A PIECE OF TRUTH

Her body ached, her limbs felt like they were a second away from giving in. Her breaths were ragged, and a wince would threaten to form on her pale face every time air filled her lungs; her insides burned as blood seeped from fresh wounds on her skin. 

With trembling fingers, she scratched the back of her ear and suppressed a grimace as her fingertips brushed away strands of hair, which were stuck together because of the blood that had yet to stop pouring from the side of her head.

Galene had never felt so grimy in her short life, but she had no time or strength to mind it. Over the last couple of years that she had been in that cell, many children had fallen sick due to the infections that lived amongst them. She had witnessed it with her very own eyes: their paleness, the drained look in their eyes, and finally, death. 

Only then had thugs walked in to retrieve their lanky bodies, probably to discard them in abandoned alleys for rats to sink their teeth on them.

"Useless scumbags," Hans had once snarled.

Galene had snapped, clawing at his face with split nails in attempts to leave another scar on his face. But she was weak, her strength drained, and her muscles debilitated due to hours of wrestling against her torturers. Thus, it had been so easy for the cruel man to send her crashing to the ground.

But she could take that and more; her mind was set, she would not waver. Or so she thought.

She was currently standing in a dark room, cold and alone. Her eyes had yet to get used to the lack of light, but before she squinted, the door behind her opened and someone walked in. Daring not to glance at them, she waited for them to approach.

"My, my."

The lights flickered on, and a woman she knew all too well walked up to her. And then, slender fingers were tracing her jaw. Revolted, Galene jerked away from their cold touch and forced her heart to remain inside her chest.

The woman hummed in mock defeat before sighing. "Look at me."

But Galene stood her ground. There was something she would never do, no matter how much they tried to force her to. Obeying, listening, and complying. Long ago, she had made a promise to herself; she would endure the pain and torture, but her mind would not quiver ㅡ she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of taming her.

"Do not test my patience!"

Nails dug into her skull, eliciting a pained grunt from the girl, before her head was whipped around. 

The woman was snarling, brown eyes blazing in fury and features hardened into disdain. "Listen closely now," she hissed, before her lips pulled into a sinister smile. "We've decided you're ready to learn something new today. Isn't that wonderful? You're doing so well, Galene."

Galene had no other choice but to let her drag her slim body to a metal chair. Only then did she pay attention to her surroundings, to the strange utensils hanging on the ceiling in front of her. And only then did she realize there was someone else in the room.