Eren
This has to be hell. There is no other way that this could possibly be living. Everything in this room, in this place, in my head is torture.
Strong putrid odors filled the room and mixed in the air with the foul smell of my dirty body along with the vomit, blood, and excrement that was on the floor and caked onto my feet.
Waking and sleeping and everything in between were just such a blur that I wasn't sure what was real and what was a dream or my imagination.
Dane was hardly able to make any appearances due to all of the things that they kept injecting in my arms.
No amount of torture or pain that I have experienced before this could ever have prepared me for this type of existence.
Because in between the pain of being alive in this place, was the bursts pain that I would feel deep inside at random times.
They would wrack my body so intense and so suddenly that no matter what state I was in, pain would shoot through my chest so hard that my heart, breath, and mind would all stop for a second.
Knowing that these feelings were hers and not my own were even worse because the longing of seeing her would linger after the physical pain was gone.
Zane was barely giving me enough food and water to keep me alive, so I didn't even have enough fluid in my body to shed tears at this point.
Wishing for death was wrong because I knew what I would be leaving behind, but this was not living. This was just extending the inevitable death that I knew would find me once he was done with me.
My mother visited me often now, while sometimes if would be for short moments at a time, other times it would be for hours on end.
Her face and smile were the only things that I looked forward to. Her presence was bliss so her words that helped keep me going sometimes hurt me.
At times she wouldn't speak and others she would sing, but it was when she would tell me to be strong and hang on that I wished for her to leave.
No one else visited my dreams or nightmares and no matter how many times I tried to think of Dylan I couldn't keep her beautiful face in my mind for long.
I wasn't sure if it was my mind that thought I couldn't handle it, or if it was my heart that felt like it had been ripped out of my chest that prevented me for dwelling on the images of her.
Zane has been the only one to come in and spend any time with me here. There have been no other members of our pack and not even my uncle himself, just his body with Zane in full control.
Hate had filled me so often that at first, I had used it as fuel to get through the pain that Zane would inflict.
There were all kinds of things that he would try to do with his claws and small blades. He would let my body heal just enough to keep me from needing any kind of medical attention before starting all over again.
Now that I think about it, he hasn't even sent Marq down here to do any of the healing magic that he has used on me before.
A few times when I had been alone for long amounts of times I would think of Vit or Noel. Sometimes I would think of Lecia and Nico but thinking of Cruz was just as hard as thinking of Dylan.
Regret and sorrow were harder to deal with than the pain sometimes. In fact, they were a type of pain that may be worse to deal with than the physical pain because they hurt both my body and mind.
Wishing was just as bad as having hope, or maybe they were the same thing, but regardless they were truly terrible things.
At times when Zane was down here with me skinning and slicing or just ripping at my flesh he would talk and tell me of all the things he had done with different women.
Sometimes he would talk about the plans that he had for me. He spoke of how he had considered sending a piece of me to Dylan to convince her to come back here, but so far, the only thing he has removed was my blood and skin.
It has been some time that I had been able to even have any type of reaction to the things that he did to me. I felt numb and broken in an almost irreparable way.
When Vit had come to us with the plan to help Dylan get out of Blood Mist, he had said that he had never give us further details about where they would take her, and I was finally grateful for that.
Zane had tried to interrogate me and get information from me, but that hadn't lasted long because once he found out that we were mates, he knew that I would never tell him anything.
There were times that I thought or was almost sure that I had heard the screams or cries of others coming from somewhere just outside the massive steel door of this cage, but I couldn't be sure if it was real or not.
Once I had been on the verge of begging him to end this. I wished for him to just take the blade that had was twirling around his fingers and push it in farther than a few centimeters.
Maybe if I would have had the strength I would have lunged forward and thrown myself against the blade and prayed that it would hit a vital spot that wouldn't have time to heal with Dane.
Of course, that was too much to ask for. I had no strength left to fight, or beg, or do anything other than hang here like a pathetic rag doll for him to use for his amusement.
Most of the time this room was completely dark and while at first it messed with my mind, now I had come to find comfort in the darkness that seemed to consume my entire existence.
I wasn't sure how long it had been since Zane had been here to visit me, but when the light suddenly flicked on, I was almost sure that I had been sleeping or maybe I had been in a daze, but I could feel that something was different.
From the moment he got close enough for me to see his face, my brain seemed to wake right up because it wasn't Zane who was standing before me this time, but my uncle.
He stood close enough for me to see the blue of his eyes, the sweat on his forehead, and a few stands of black hair fading to a dark grey.
Unsure if it was because I had been out of it a moment ago or because my brain was trying to figure out what was going on, but for a moment I stared at him and had to blink away the image of my mother's face that had appeared atop his own.
My uncle leaned forward and snapped his fingers twice right in front of my face as I stood there just blinking for a few seconds.
"Snap out of it Eren, I came to tell you that you won't be lonely for much longer."
When the words left his mouth, I had to replay them over and over in my head to try to figure out what he was trying to say.
Essentially, I thought that maybe he was going to be bringing in another female like he had done before, but that wasn't company or companionship.
So, then I considered that maybe he was going to take me out of here and put me in one of the other cells that I had seen beneath his private offices in the old barracks.
But I guess he was done with what little patience he was trying to show me because he reached out quickly and grabbed my chin with his fingers.
Squeezing he pulled my chin up sharply so that I was facing him and the smile that spread across his face made my insides twist in unease.
"Haven't you guessed by now? I would have thought that you would have figured it out the moment I said something."
We stood there for a moment in this awkward position just looking at each other and realization began to sink in as my brain continued working as hard as it could to figure out what he was talking about.
It must have started to show on my face because his fingers began to squeeze harder and I saw his eyes almost brighten as he watched me figure out his meaning,
"No," I croaked out somehow. My voice was horse from lack of use and hydration, but I forced it out just the same.
The smile on his face spread even wider and I reached for Dane. I could feel him sitting in the back of my mind and as I called to him, I felt him trying to rise.
I couldn't remember when the last time that Zane had injected me, but from what I could recall it hadn't been in the last few hours at least.
Time didn't mean much to me in here, so I was just guessing at this point, and this was probably the most coherent I have felt in some time.
"Have you finally figured it out boy," he laughed while still holding onto my chin. "Who knew that it would have been this easy? I didn't even need to track her, just track her little friend."
His words were filling my head, but so was Dane along with my anger and fear. It was starting to pulse through my body and even though my muscles were weak, I felt myself gaining strength.
"Dylan is nothing if not predictable and there is no way that she would leave her friends behind. I mean I'm sure if she knew that you were alive, she would have come back by now as well."
I was trying to follow everything he was saying, and it seemed that he hadn't found Dylan outright, but he had found Lecia.
The fear that shot through my veins was real and hurt almost as much as the last beating Zane had given me.
My eyes were just watching him and trying to see if this was another type of torture or maybe some type of lie, but I couldn't scent any hint of deception on him and that just made this all worse.
"No," I got out again and this time it sounded more forceful, but instead of making him waver it made him more excited.
Putting his face closer to mine, he squeezed again even harder and this time I thought I felt my back molars shifting under the pressure from his fingers.
"Yes! And once I get her back here, I will make her watch as I let Zane torture you so that she will not only fall in line. She will learn that if she disobeys, I will have him kill you in front of her."
There was a hint of madness in his eyes, and I knew that his words were not just true, but that he might actually wish for that to happen.
Finally, I felt Dane's voice in my head. "He doesn't have her yet, and he never said that he truly knows where she is, just Lecia. Stay as calm as you can!"
I tried to focus on the feel of Dane's voice in my head, if I was being honest, I missed having him with me, but I couldn't do what he said.
My body didn't have much strength even with Dane back with me, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity, it might end up being my very last one.
"Are you excited to see her again? To know that she is back and within your reach. To smell her sweet scent? To touch her soft skin?"
My uncle's words were meant to hurt me, but as I looked at him, I couldn't help but see the reaction that they were having on himself.
"She won't come back here, not even if you tell her I'm alive, she'll never believe you if she can't feel me."
I didn't mean to say it. I couldn't help myself. The sight of him getting excited at the thought of having Dylan here again was disgusting and filled me with even more rage.
Squeezing again even harder, I felt the blood begin to fill my mouth from how hard he was squeezing my jaw, teeth, and gums.
"Maybe you're right," he said with a look of sheer delight on his face. "Once she shows up at the meeting, I'll send them a message to remove your bands and if she suddenly feels you then she will undoubtably come with me."
No! What had I done? Instead of making him reconsider whatever sick or twisted plan he was trying to come up with, I ended up helping him.
I knew I had little time left with him, and no other options, I sucked the blood and saliva onto my tongue and before he said another word, I spat it all out at him.
The sound of the blood and saliva hitting him right in his face was satisfying and I used his sudden confusion and shock to take the opportunity to move forward and head butt him as hard as I could.
A crack resounded around the little cell and a howl of anger flowed from his mouth as he reached up and covered his now bleeding nose with his hand.
Dane was furious with me, but he was trying to give me as much of the little strength that he had.
While I didn't have enough strength to shift, I let what he could give surge through my arms, and I pulled at the chains with all my might.
The chains were clamped to the wall, and I heard the creak of the metal as I pulled. My uncle was cursing as he ripped a piece of bedding off the little cot on the other side of the room so that he could wipe his face and nose, but the noise must have grabbed his attention.
The bones in my shoulders and arms were aching and screaming for me to stop, but if I did, I knew that he would win.
Broken bones were nothing new to me and I cared little about what might happen to me. Dylan deserved to find a new mate and live a happy life and I would do everything in my power to make that happen.
Giving one last pull, I felt a snap before my arms fell down to my sides for the first time in, I didn't know how long.
Shock startled me at the realization that I had actually done it, I had broken the shackles or at least pulled them from the wall, but it was short lived.
I had used every last bit of strength and when I felt my uncle's hot breath on the back of my neck, I knew that I wouldn't win this.
He whispered against my skin on one side as a sting hit me on the other side and I knew that he had injected me with something.
The room was going dark and this time not because the lights were being shut off. I felt my body moving towards the floor and his words echo in my head as the darkness came over me for hopefully the last time ever.
"Too little too late nephew, just like last time, your best wasn't enough to save any of them."