demon, or whatever it was reassembled to the side of her.
A sudden pain shot deep into the base of her spine, making her fingers and toes splay out in unbearable pain.
"Giiive yourshelf to meee!" the creature howled from behind her. Another wave of pain pierced through her and consumed her, from her shoulder blades to her tender ankles.
"N-N-Noooooooooo… never!" she managed to scream hoarsely, more from the fear of the worst thing she could never imagine happening to her if she gave in. If this was what she got from not giving it, what more when—
She flinched when she heard screams—other screams. A man and a woman, their hysterical screams in counterpoint, from either side of her, like some sadistic musical phrase. They weren’t far away though Cassie couldn’t see them. The place was so large and filled with utter darkness that she wasn’t certain if they were even in the same cavern or just in adjoining cavern “rooms.”
Both of them screamed again. “Aaaaiiiii—” And then their tortured voices were cut simultaneously, abruptly. It made her wonder not just who they were. Why they, like she, were here. But also, why had they both stopped screaming at the same damn time? To terrorize her further? As if this wasn’t enough?
Cassie flinched again and shivered when the grey mist abruptly reassembled itself and reformed in front of her. She could feel its cold presence, its “body” taking up space. This time, its triangular dark ruby orbs were brighter and larger. Some sickening feeling inside her decided without any other reasoning that it’s bigger and brighter because it has fed.
From the others, it’s fed. That’s why they’re silent now.
The Wraith aggressively pulsed with dark hues of jeweled flames and blood in its ruby red eyes and multiple shades of gray form, as it undulated on its tentacles.
Not understanding clearly what it wanted increased her terror. It poured from her like her sweat, hot and relentless, exhausting her in the oppressive heat. The creature growled. And, finally, she understood what it meant. As if the meaning had been transmitted directly into her mind and flesh.
“Fuck,” she muttered, then braced for more pain.
"Shtupid girl! We will break you, you will shurrender. You shhhall giiive yourshelllff to uuussh," the creature declared with utter conviction.
Us? How many…?! There. Are. More? If only one creature causes this much pain…!
Her eyes darted about as her vision filled with tears and sweat. She looked hard, but she saw nothing certain in the reddened, grayish and inky black shadows. Like the trapped animal she was, all her thoughts scampered wide and far from her, while her pain magnified tenfold, making her body tighten and bend taut as a bow with its demand. It was so painful that she could not scream. If she had, her ears were so numbed by her own raw shrieks and the demon’s “voice” that she hadn’t heard her own voice screaming.
The voice was frustrated with her and the creature's manic howling filled the cavern, filled her with such throbbing pain, like explosions of knives from different parts of her body, all at once, to center deep in her core. Not once did she ever bleed. Her sweat poured out in hot rivers down her body, dripping and sizzling to the ground, the steam rising back to her to make her boil all the more in the heat.
Cassie's vision dimmed and became small and pointless. She panted for each smothering breath as her body became dehydrated. Each breath was coming shorter and shorter, gasp after gasp, as wave upon wave of unbearable contraction of pain cut into her ability to stay awake.
But she did not succumb to the nightmare. For some reason, Cassie managed to fight the desire to surrender, as the beast said, and give herself to them. She somehow knew that whatever would come after her surrender would never be as worthy as what she would give up. But she could not know where she had find the strength to stay alive.
Until
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