BlackMoon Beginnings (16 page)

I brandish my weapon out. Not really sure
what in the world I am doing. I just hope that I connect with
something. The man trips on a tree root and falls towards me; my
sword sweeps across his chest. Blood starts seeping out of the
wound, as he catapults to the ground. I don’t have time to dwell on
the fact that I may have just killed someone before another person
comes towards me.

This man is smaller than the previous one. He
swipes his sword out, cutting me in the arm. Blood starts trickling
out of the shallow cut. This awakes a natural instinct for
survival. This is a fight or flight situation. I can’t flee, so
I’ll fight. Fight with everything I have in me. I am able to disarm
this man and knock him out within a couple of seconds. I don’t
think they are prepared for me to be able to fight them back.

I look around and see Logan, Colton, David,
and Tom all fighting off multiple men at once. It would have been
fascinating to watch. Emma is a little farther off, fighting a
single person. I feel like I was just thrown into an action movie
where everything is choreographed. Only this isn’t a movie. This is
real and nothing is choreographed. These people are fighting to
kill. It is infuriating to see them try to hurt my friends. When
people come towards me, I’m not going to be nice anymore. I’m not
going to dwell on any injuries I cause…not now anyways. Hopefully,
I can do that later.

Two men come at me at once. I swing my sword
out, but don’t connect with anyone. They jump out of the way and
stand back into an attack stance. I think back to our training
sessions, when Colton said to me,
Well, I don’t think we really
have to worry about you losing in an attack. Just do some of those
flips. You’ll shock anyone enough to get the upper hand.

I drop my weapon and run towards them, their
eyes widen in shock. I lunge forward and flip my body through the
air twice before landing in the middle of two men. I swing my leg
out in a full circle, knocking both of them to the ground. Once
they fall, another man comes towards me. I jump up and kick him in
the gut with enough force to send him backwards. One of the men
that I knocked down previously stands back up and stalks towards me
again, slowly, as if deliberating my next move. I have an idea.

I focus my attention, only on him, until I
hear his thoughts. I know his every move before he does it.
Sidestepping all this attacks, I am able to get an opening after he
starts getting frustrated. I punch him in the jaw, causing his
lower mandible to slide to the right. His eyes roll into the back
of his head and he falls to the ground. I repeat this same move to
the other two men who come after me.

With the three men down, I turn around to
grab my weapon off the ground. However, I stop short when I take in
the sight in front of me. I am surrounded by dozens of people, all
looking at me with menacing glares. Their weapons are drawn and
look ready to kill. I start backing up until I can move no more.
Pressing myself up against a tree, I look around hoping to find
something or someone to help me, as the men start swarming towards
me.

There are too many of them for me to try and
fight off on my own. A feeling of panic sinks in and then I hear a
voice: “Ryanne! Run!” yells someone from my right. I turn to see
who is talking to me and see Colton run past me, sword out. Running
into the group, he hits many men in the process. I can’t move. I
can’t take my eyes away from him.

Caught up in the moment, I don’t see the man
that gets past him until he grabs me around the waist and starts
dragging me into the forest, covering my mouth. He is wearing
gloves, so I can’t try and bite him. I try screaming, but no sound
comes out. I kick and thrash in his arms, but my struggling is
futile. The man is much larger and stronger than me, so he’s able
to carry me farther into the forest. This is the nightmare I had
before and there is nothing I can do.

After being dragged for a couple of minutes,
I start kicking his shins and trying to squirm out of his hold
again. I have to do something.

“Stupid girl.” He yells at me, trying to stop
my struggling. I feel something stab into my arm. The world around
me starts to spin. My limbs refuse to listen to my demands and my
whole body goes limp. Throwing me over his shoulder, he carries me
father into the forest, surrounding me with darkness.

When I wake up, I am sprawled on the floor
and shivering. Disoriented, I slowly sit up, my body protesting
with each movement. The left half of my body is throbbing and feels
bruised. I was probably dropped on this ground. I look around and
all I see is concrete. Concrete floor. Concrete walls. Concrete
bench on the far side of the cell. There is a small door on the
opposite side of the room with metal bars connecting from floor to
ceiling. I’m trapped. I can see men walking outside of the room,
but no one looks at me.

My toes are going numb. I look down and
notice that I am barefoot. They took my shoes? My hair is also no
longer in its ponytail anymore. They have taken everything that I
can use as a potential weapon…or at least a distraction. I stand up
and walk around the room starting to pace. I don’t know where I am
or how long I have been here. I hope that nothing happened to David
or Colton, or anyone else for that matter. I reach back into the
thought box, as I like to call it, and turn the lock. I open my
mind to unleash the thoughts to try and hear what everyone is
thinking, but I can’t hear anything. Only static.

Shoot.

I pace around the room for hours, scraping my
bare feet against the concrete, until I finally hear the sound of a
lock turning and the door opening. Two men walk into the cell. One
of them stays by the door and the other walks towards me. I back up
as far as I can go. He continues to come at me, until he is
standing inches from my face. I morph my face into a neutral
expression, but inside I am terrified.

“This can go one of two ways. You can listen
to everything we say and tell us what we need to know. Or, we can
get more creative when it comes to getting the information out of
you. It’s your choice.” I spit in his face. I’m not going to go
down without a fight.

His hand comes up and smacks me across the
face. I fly into the wall beside me and gasp as the pain spreads
across my cheek.

“Who were you staying with?”

“No one.” He hits me again. I feel blood
start to trickle out of my nose, as the right side my face
numbs.

“Don’t lie to me!” He yells and fists the
front of my shirt in his hands. Shaking me, he continues, “Tell me
the truth. I want the names of the people you were staying with.”
When I don’t reply, he pushes me back against the concrete wall. My
head slams into it and my vision blurs. My body crumbles to the
ground and I can’t think straight. I am in a hazy stupor of
confusion that I can’t get out of.

I hear footsteps receding and the man
mumbles, “We’ll come back later with Dravin. She’ll be more likely
to talk then.” A door opens and is bolted shut again. I try to
move, but a blinding pain shoots through my head.

I black out.

I feel someone nudging me. “Wake up.” My body
is shaking. I can’t get myself to open my eyes. My ears are ringing
and my face is throbbing. I feel someone grab the front of my shirt
again and lift me up, my feet dangling off the ground.

“I said wake up!” He starts shaking my body.
My head lolls back. I feel like it weighs a ton. He slaps me on my
other cheek this time, causing another fit of pain to spread across
my face. I open my eyes and glare at him. I can see two other men
in the room. There’s a man standing in the middle of the room and
another at the door. Is all this protection from me?

The man standing in the middle of the room,
watching me, is incredibly handsome; tall and lean, standing around
David’s height with Colton’s physique. His skin is tanned and his
hair is slicked back into a ponytail at the base of his neck.
Piercing brown eyes stare into mine.

“Thomas, put her down.”

I fall to the ground with a thump; my knees
tuck under me and my arms take most of the fall. Pain shoots up
them. I try to recover quickly, not giving them the satisfaction of
seeing me in too much pain.

“Now, Ryanne. I need some information and
you’re going to give it to me. You’ve been here for almost two days
without food or water. If you cooperate, I’ll think about giving
you some. If you don’t…well, you don’t really want to know what
happens then,” he says. I can’t see him, but based on his tone of
voice he is smiling.

“Now,” he says calmly, “Where were you
staying at? We already checked your home and you haven’t been there
for a while. We looked around the area where you were captured and
there was nothing there. Where were you?” They didn’t find the
house? That means Claire’s enchantment worked. I am finally able to
sit up, but I refuse to talk. “Nothing? Fine.”

He stands up and walks to the center of the
room. His eyes never leave mine, but they narrow, his face
furrowing in concentration. I am about to ask what he is doing, but
my head starts aching. The dull pain intensifies, causing me to cry
out. It worsens to the point where I can’t think straight. It’s
unbearable. I scream in agony, but the pain doesn’t lessen. I fall
back to the ground, on my stomach, curl my knees up under me and
prop myself on my elbows, grabbing my head. Panting, I try to
breathe normally, but can’t. I’m unable to concentrate on anything
but the pain. Suddenly, images start forming in my mind.

“
What’s wrong honey?”She asks me, while
taking her eyes away from the road for a second.

I bite my lip and continue staring out the
passenger window. If I share what just happened with anyone, they’d
never believe me. It’d be his word against mine.

With a sigh, I turn and look at her, “Nothing
happened, mom. I’m fine.” All I want to do is curl up in a ball in
my bedroom and cry myself to sleep.

“
You’re not fine. You wouldn’t have called
me to pick you up if everything was fine.” She turns back to me,
trying to figure out what is causing me to act this way. She’ll
never know. I can’t tell her. She’d overreact.

Messing with the seatbelt, I reach out and
grab her free hand. She worries too much. I’ll be fine. I just need
to stop thinking about it and busy my mind.

“
Mom, why are you…” Out of the corner of
my eye, I see a flash of silver. I face forward and look out of the
windshield. A large truck is driving on the wrong side of the road,
heading directly for us. At its current trajectory, the truck will
collide with us head on, the majority of the impact on the
passenger side. My side.

“
Look out!” I yell at the same time as she
turns and looks at me, tears in her eyes.

“
I love you, Ryanne.” Throwing her hand on
the horn, she jerks the car to the left.

I love you too, I think as we collide with
the truck. My body is thrown forward right as the airbag deploys
sending me back against the seat. My seatback rubs the skin across
my neck and chest raw.

The sound of crushing metal fills my ears as
glass starts shattering around me. The outside world blurs as the
car starts flipping through the air. Glass fragments scrape across
my skin with each movement. Warm blood starts oozing out of the
cuts. The car slows as the back connects with the base of a large
tree.

I’m hanging upside down when the car finally
stops moving. I try to move, but pain shoots through my side. A
large piece of glass is embedded under my ribs. In the distance, I
can hear sirens headed in our direction. I turn towards the
driver’s seat to see if mom is okay, but the seat is empty.

Black spots are starting to cloud my vision
as the ringing in my ears worsens. I reach out and lightly touch
the area. Drawing back, I see my hand covered in blood. I reach
down and unbuckle my seatbelt. As I fall, I succumb to the
darkness.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“
Mom?” I grumble as I try to open my
eyes.

“
Sweetie, can you hear me?”

I open my eyes and instantly shut them. The
room is too bright. Fluorescent lights overhead reflect off the
white linoleum tiles on the floor, instantly giving me a
headache.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“
Where’s my mom?” I ask as I slowly open
my eyes again. One look at her expression tells me all I need to
know. I start shaking my head as the tears begin falling from my
eyes.

“
No, no, no” I repeat over and over again.
Maybe if I keep saying it, she’ll come back to me. As the nurse
starts walking towards me, I begin screaming. I want my mom. I
don’t want a nurse. I. Want. My. Mom.

“
I’m so sorry, honey.” She whispers as
more nurses come into the room. I struggle against their
restraints, trying to get away from them. I know they just want to
help, but there’s nothing they can do. That truck was supposed to
hit me. Not her.

Me.

I was the one that was supposed to die. I
watch as a nurse walks over to the side of my bed and pushes the
button to inject me with morphine. I continue struggling against
her until I start to feel the effects of the drug.

That is the most painful moment of my life.
My body is numb; the physical pain no longer there. The emotional
turmoil is worse. Leaving me with my thoughts and memories, I
realize that I’d rather feel the physical pain. That moment was the
moment that I realized that I had no one left in the world. The
only person that truly loved me was gone, ripped from my life and
never coming back.

I was alone.

The images go away, but the headache doesn’t.
I turn my head and see all the men still standing over me. I close
my eyes, because the lights in the room are too bright. I prop
myself up and empty the little contents of my stomach.