𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Moral choice. Nothing is properly considered either good, or bad, aside from those things that are within our own power to control, and the only thing fully in our power to control is our own volition.
Esmerelda's attempts of...
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▬▬▬ CHAPTER SIXTEEN ▬▬▬
ETHAN'S HEART WAS POUNDING IN his ears. He was immobilized, there was a twelve foot tall cyclops in front of him, and he was being squeezed to death. The situation was so dire yet all he could focus on was the fact that Esmerelda had completely abandoned him.
Was she aware of the monster? Was that her plan? Wait for him to lower his guard, and then leave him to be eaten alive by a cyclops while she headed back to camp to report what had happened? If it were anyone else, he could understand, but this was Esmerelda. Kind, helpful, and caring Esmerelda. Did she truly hate him so much to do something like this to him?
Or maybe something else happened to her that could explain her disappearance. He turned back to the cyclops and demanded, "Where's Essie?"
The vicious smile on his ugly face vanished. He frowned at him. "What? I can't hear you, you're too far away!"
He couldn't help but roll his eyes. Cyclopes were supposed to have excellent hearing no matter how tall they were.
Great, he thought sarcastically. So this one has hearing problems.
"WHERE," he started to shout his words slowly. "IS—ESSIE?!"
The cyclops brought him closer to his face and shouted back, "WHO?!"
Ethan had the displeasure of smelling his breath. His late night snack smelled strongly of blood.
"THE—GIRL!"
"YOU HAVE TO HURL?"
"What—?! No! This is getting nowhere!" He squirmed around, but his arms were pressed painfully against the sides of his body. "I was with a friend! What did you do to her?!"
His sole eye widened in surprise. "You have friend? Where?! MORE FOOD!" He started looking around, doing a 360 that made Ethan's head spin.
The cyclops sniffed loudly in the air and grunted in disappointment. "The other one gone now. Can no longer smell."
Ethan's heart dropped.
Even the cyclops didn't notice Esmerelda was with him. Which meant she was long gone before the monster even arrived.
She abandoned me. She actually abandoned me. He thought numbly. He felt like he was going to be sick (though that was probably because the cyclops was currently swinging him around like a sack of potatoes). He never once expected her to abandon him so cruelly. It was just so unlike her!
His mind kept flashing back to her. Where were the signs? Was there any hint he could find where she showed any potential to betray him like this? He remembered her glares, her bitter words, and all the hateful looks she sent him, but he never imagined it all to add up to this.
