Mara's POV
a loud gasp flew past my lips as I blinked my eyes open. It took a few minutes for my eyes to focus on anything in particular, and to stop my eyes from seeing multiple things at once. The first thing I noticed was that I was no longer suspended by the silver chains like I was before I had passed out. The second thing I noticed was that the wound around my wrists had fully healed up, and there wasn't any trace of scar or sign that silver had previously burned into it. The third thing I noticed was that the skin on my back was now fully healed. I lifted my hand and touched a spot on the lower part of my back– it was indeed healed, and I was sure that there weren't going to be any traces of scares on there.
As a vampire with two souls, the power to heal back was two times faster than the ones of normal vampires – which is why I had no idea of how long I had spent passing out.
I lifted my head off the ground where my head had been resting, noticing that I was completely alone here at the moment, and that thought alone was enough to make me jolt into a sitting position the next moment. I allowed my eyes to roam the corners of the room which I was currently in, confirming once again that I was alone.
Now was my chance to escape.
I pushed myself to my feet and grabbed my discarded blouse from the ground, shrugging it on with a little difficulty. I was feeling a little bit slower and groggier than normal, and it felt like the usual strength in my bones was reduced to half of my usual percentage. It was all because I was really hungry. At this point, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to control my urge to feed if I end up sighting any vampire any moment from now.
I shook my head a little when a wave of dizziness hit me after a moment, and after a few seconds, the dizziness started to ebb away. Once my head was feeling normal once again, I began to slowly make my way towards the entrance of the room I had woken up in. I ducked my head out and glanced from side to side, checking to see if I might see any guard standing around, and surprisingly, the whole place was empty.
It looked too good to be true like it was all a setup– but the thought of being able to escape and get my freedom to myself was just too good for me to resist. I might end up having to run away to a different country entirely because I was a hundred percent sure that lord Klaus was going to send some guards after me as soon as he noticed that I had managed to escape.
I began to make my way through the opened door until I was in a hallway, and that was when I realized that I didn't even know where it was that I was currently heading. Determined to succeed in carrying out my escape plan, I started to make my way down the first hallway I decided on, and then I took a left turn when I came towards two. I was silently hoping I wasn't walking straight into a huge trap as I kept on walking forward as silently as I could. I couldn't run fast with my vampire speed because I was weak and the spell cast around this whole place was still somehow presently me from using my power.
I sighted a part that led into the night and felt a relieving feeling rush through my brain as I rushed forward on tired feet. I was almost at the end of the partway which I was still walking through when a cold and firm hand suddenly clasped my wrist and I let out a loud, startled scream when I suddenly got pulled sideways. I tried to fight the person off but a different hand grasped my other hand, temporarily halting my movements. I still tried to free myself, kicking and screaming to no avail as I got pulled past all the way I had walked through, into an open space – where a bunch of other guards was discussing. They all halted whatever it was that they were talking about when the men holding me captive threw me in the middle of the ground, in a spot where the other guards were huddled around.
"She was trying to sneak away." The first guard who had caught me spoke up almost immediately.
"She was pretty feisty, for someone that went through that much torture some hours ago." The second guard commented, making my stomach twist with anger and realization that I had been out for over one hour after I got tortured with silver chains and knives.
I shuddered at the thought of going through that ever again… forgetting that I had just committed a crime by trying to escape, and would undoubtedly have to be punished.
******
At this point, death was better than what I was currently going through. If only I could die from feeling pain if only I could die.
I thought as a ragged sob tore out of my mouth when I felt the skin of my back start getting peeled off like the way they'd peel the skin of an apple off.
And each passing of the knife through my skin sent a deep stab of pain through my body that made my head dizzy with the whole intensity of the pain over and over again, and blood kept dripping to the ground.
Once again, my hands were chained with silver chains, but were pinned to two sides of a pillar, instead of a roof like my first round of torture which had taken place hours ago, had been like.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered once again as I screamed out in pain once again, I had been apologizing for attempting to escape over and over again, but the guards were hell bent on completely breaking me, it seemed like that was their only goal at this very moment.
"No, you're not. You probably wished you could use your power, so you'd be able to snap our necks with a flick of your finger." The guard standing before me sneered as he dug his fingers into my hair and tugged on my hair, using his grip on my hair to lift me off the ground a little, and it sent so much pain throbbing through my scalp, and over my whole body.
All that he had just said was nothing but the truth, but I wouldn't dare admit it, and I sagged in relief when he abruptly let go of my hair, making me go down with how weakened I was currently feeling, the only thing still keeping me suspended high was the silver chains, and they were biting into the skin at my wrists even more– coupled with the pain of the skin of my legs being peeled off…
I got lost in a haze of cries and pleas and screams and sobs and pain and more pain and more intense torture and more intense pain that almost made me lost consciousness at a particular point, but a sharp couple of slaps thrown in my face by strong hands made that wave of dizziness disappear in an instant, leaving me gasping for breath as I sobbed and wailed in so much pain.
"Please!" I screamed and tried to shriek away when a guard started to walk toward me with a sharper and longer, silver knife.
"I'm only going to cut your big toes off, it wouldn't hurt that much, nothing a feisty one as you can't handle." The guard offered absent-mindedly as he checked out his knife. I was trembling and pleading for him not to do it, trying to hop out of his reach, but he ended up gasping my still sore skin that was yet to heal off and I let out a sharp cry and stood still in an instant as pain like I never felt was possible, floated over my whole body.
"Relax, it's going to grow back in hours, and you being a two soul vampire might have it growing back in an hour – I'm going to make it quick and snappy…"
It hurt. So much.
I doubled over as the pain so sharp and painful seared through my right foot and I tried to hop because of how intense the pain of my biggest toe being cut off had felt. My cries intensified in folds and intensity, as well as the pain when my other big toe got chopped off as well.
I never knew this was even possible, to begin with.
The sight of my two big toes being on the ground in a small pool of blood, a few inches away from my feet, made me a little bit dizzier than I was previously feeling and I averted my gaze off the horrifying sight in an instant.
"Now, this is the last one… then we're going to let you be." A voice so loud and calm echoed around me a few minutes later and I weakly blinked my eyes open to stare at the guards standing a few feet away from me.
He stepped on one of my chopped toes and the sight made me wince, just before I noticed what he had on his cradled tray.
He had on pliers.
Silver ones.
My gaze jumped back to his face almost immediately and I started to tear up the next moment, as soon as I realized what he planned on doing to me.
"Please, p- please, I'm begging you– not my fangs please, please." I started to plead as I started to sob in dread.
Not my fangs, anything but my fangs.
I remember my father telling me about how painful it was to get one's fangs getting pulled out. He said there was nothing as painful as that in the whole damn world.
"It's not going to hurt for long, and besides lord Klaus said this was your punishment for attempting to run away, so next time, you'd remember how much it had hurt to get your fangs pulled out in case you decide to try to escape again."
I gasped a little in shock as the guard's words washed over me, so I didn't know Lord Klaus was this wicked.
All because I had attempted to escape?
It all happened so fast, one moment, a bag of blood was being held over my mouth and nose, to call out my fangs– because they all knew that I must be so damn hungry.
I tried to resist it, I tried to, but I couldn't control my inner instincts to feed in the extremely weakened and dizzy state I was currently in, and after a few more moments, my fangs burst out of my lungs all of a sudden.
I tried to will it down instantly, desperation clogging my brain and making it completely impossible to will it away from the way I'd normally be able to do.
And with cries spilling past my lips and silver digging deeper into my wrists, my fangs got pulled out one after the other by really strong pliers.
The pain that washed over me as each fang got pulled out had been so intense and soul-wrenching, and there was nothing I could do about it; there was nowhere I could run to– I had to stay there and take all the pain they were all hell-bent on raining upon me.
Once they were done with my fangs, I could barely keep my eyes open, and with a deep sigh and a wave of resigned tiredness flowing through my veins, I sagged down heavily on the chains, feeling the chains cut deeply into my skin even more as I slowly slipped into an unconscious state once again – and the darkness welcomed me with open hands this time; because there was no longer pain.
There was only darkness, and more darkness – a dark void.