Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 199879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 999(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 999(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
TWENTY-FIVE
ASHTYN
It’s been two days since Haidyn choked me out and helped Saint place me in a straitjacket for him to brand me.
I woke up confused hours later back in his bedroom naked and feeling drowsy. I cried a lot. Then Saint gave me a bath. While he bathed me, Saint explained that Haidyn had knocked me out and Devin had dressed it with cream and a bandage. He took it off for my bath and put on a new one afterward. I have a fresh one on now. I haven’t seen it nor do I want to.
They branded me. A part of me no longer feels anything. My family is dead, my life just …gone. What else is there to do?
Rolling over in Saint’s bed, I stare at the empty spot next to me. He wasn’t here when I woke up this morning. It’s not the first time this has happened, but he didn’t leave me any information as to where he’s at, and I don’t have a phone. Mine was ruined when it got placed in a flower vase and something tells me I’m not going to get a new one. Everyone that I’m allowed to talk to is here. Why would I need to reach the outside world? I’m dead.
A knock on the door has me sitting up, the movement making me flinch as the bandage pinches my skin over the brand. “Yeah?” I call out, and my voice cracks. I haven’t said much in the last two days. Saint keeps feeding me pain pills that either make me sleep or drowsy. He’s bathed me the previous two nights, brought me food, and keeps me in bed. Says I need to relax and let the brand heal. Devin comes in to check on me and changes the bandage. My neck looks better and no longer needs one.
The door opens, and my pulse races when I see Saint’s father. His green eyes search the room as if he’s looking for his son. When he sees I’m alone, his cold stare meets mine. “Your presence is required.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rise at his words. “For-for what?”
“A session,” he responds.
I let out a sigh of annoyance. I thought I was done with those. “Yeah, okay. Just, uh…I need to get dressed.” I stumble, trying to explain that I’m naked and in his son’s bed. It’s not like he doesn’t know we fuck. He saw him take my virginity.
He nods. “She’s expecting you in the basement.” Shutting the door, I frown.
Why the fuck would I need to go to the basement? It would be easier if she just came to me.
Throwing off the covers, I use the restroom and grab a piece of toast that Jessie brought me earlier with my breakfast. I haven’t touched it until now. Might as well eat something. Who knows how long she’ll force me to listen to her annoying voice?
I get dressed, throwing a T-shirt on with a pair of Saint’s sweatpants. It’ll rub the least on my brand. After I put on some socks and tennis shoes and throw my hair up in a messy bun, I leave Saint’s room.
You know that feeling when you stand up too fast and get dizzy? That’s how I feel. I don’t know if it’s because of my lack of food or the fact that Saint gave me a pain pill at three this morning, but either way, I feel weak and tired. I’m going to crawl back into bed after the session.
Making my way down in the elevator, I reach the basement level. It’s quiet down here and always cold. It smells of rotten eggs—demons. The stories of Carnage that I heard when I was little were that they torture until they finally get tired of playing with you and let you rot. The souls stay trapped to haunt the new ones brought in while they await their same fate. Torture at its finest.
“Ashtyn. Hello, dear.” My mother’s therapist walks toward me. The way she’s smiling makes me think that maybe she doesn’t know my mom was killed.
“What are we doing down here?” I ask. Carnage is a massive place with multiple buildings scattered over the land. It’s a maze that one could get lost and never be found in. So why here?
I’ve been told that it was once a college that was started in the late 1800’s that was eventually abandoned. Now that’s just hearsay, considering if you google it, there is absolutely nothing to find on said college. But I’m not surprised. To the world, Carnage doesn’t exist. Therefore, neither would the college that the Lords acquired.
“How are you feeling, Ashtyn?” She ignores my question and asks her own. Her eyes scan over me once as if assessing me and her lips frown.