Mundahlia (The Mundahlian Era, #1) (37 page)

Rini

36

I was chained to a chair at a grand table. The dining room. Decorated with carpet of red and ceilings of gold and silver, separated from each other by smokey grey stone lining the grand walls.

The Queen and some of the royal children—some familiar from the trial, some new—sat at the other end watching me struggle. She seemed to stare at me as though she wished I weren’t in my predicament, but didn’t know what to do.

Bane pounded a fist on the table, “Hurry up! We’re hungry!”

Doors flung open and chains being dragged about the floor sounded. Large men carried Angela and a little boy Enthiduan in.
No!
This is what Del was talking about. How they eat them. The large men laid them down on the table, and tied their hands and feet so they couldn’t move. Angela and the little boy were sobbing. So was I.

“No, please!” I mumbled. “Please!”

Bane turned his gaze to me. A smirk flew up his face. He leaned to Willa. “Save me some will ya?”

“Yup!” she exclaimed, snickering after and looking at me.

Bane got up from his seat, the chair legs rasping against the floor, and walked to me. “You know, for all I care we could have eaten
you
instead, Rini.” His fingers traced my arms. “But I’ve grown quite attached to you,” he whispered in my ear. “You’re like my own little toy, that I can use whenever I want.” His hands ran across my breasts. “And,” he leant closer. “We didn’t get to finish our little...
moment
of passion.”

“You’re sick!”

He laughed. “After dinner, we can pick up where we left off—don’t you think?” A woman dressed in black bondage entered the room. She had a collar around her neck and her feet were forced into narrow platform shoes.

“Ah, the entertainment!” Bane said.

The others and the Queen stared at me. Unsure of what to do or say.

A large man wearing a white shirt with black suspenders and shorts stood behind the woman. He held a stereo that looked twice his size in his small arms. He pressed a button and music began to fill the room. The woman, made up with too much makeup, began singing strange words in a high-pitched voice that resonated across the room. Opera.

Bane put his hands on my shoulders and lent closer to my ear. “But first-” He waved his hand and the others picked up their knives. Everyone except the Queen. She had a hand under her jaw, with a look that meant her mind was deep in her thoughts. With a gleam in her eyes, she got up from her side of the table and left the room. Leaving me feeling less safe than I already did.

The metal from the knives in the hands of the royal children, gleamed in the light. Leo reached on the table and tore Angela and the little boys clothes open to expose their chest. “Dig in!” he said.

I saw their knives move closer to the bodies.
No!
I shut my eyes and turned my head as I heard the bellowing of a high-pitched, skin-crawling shriek. Tears flooded my shut eyes.

“Look at it!” Bane laughed. His hands still on my shoulders.

I didn’t.

He put his hands on my head and turned it violently in the direction of the gore. “Look at it!” he ordered again.

“No!”

His sharp boney fingers tried to pry my eyes open. He finally got one to open. It was a sight of pure malice. Angela and the little boy were screaming their heads off as the family members tore fleshy meat from their torso. I could feel their pain. A stinging sensation that pulsed throughout my whole bruised body.

“Bane stop it!” I bawled. “Please!”

“What did I tell you in the room,” his face was close and quiet. “
I
am alpha!”

A few of the children put their knives down. “Man, there goes my appetite.” A boy said, getting up to leave. He had a golden mane of hair, and features of a lion, but that couldn’t be. Del and Mark had told me Martin’s friend was the last of his kind. A few of the children followed the boy out.

“He’s horrible,” I heard a girl say as she shut the door behind them.

“Fine, all the more for me!” Bane shouted then in a burst of anger, ripped me from the chains and carried me over to the center of the table. Angela and the young boy’s blood was seeping though their lacerations. A desaturated fluid that looked like grey tar.

At the sight of Leo and another male reaching their knives to Angela and the little boys neck, I started bawling uncontrollably. “No! Please!” Leo and the other man stopped for a moment, looking over to me with a confused gaze. Slowly, they retracted their knives and I sighed. And then, with a swift movement of betrayal. It happened. I nearly vomited at the sound of my new friend and the young boy I had seen in captivity, gargling over their screams.

“Look at that,” Bane said, holding my head toward the massacre in front of me. “It’s quite a sight now, isn’t it.”

“Angela!” I cried, wanting to collapse onto my knees, but Bane’s grip tightened.

She spurted out a gray liquid from her mouth and inhaled. “I see them, Rini. They’re waiting for me.” She looked at the ceiling as she talked about seeing her husband and child. “Oh my, how my daughter has grown.” I let out another tear as I continued to hear her speak. “I can finally be with them again. They are allowing me back in.” She smiled painfully. “I-I’m—
free
.” A glistening tear escaped her eyes and dropped onto the table. Within seconds, everything stopped. The struggling stopped. The screaming stopped. The woman who’d been singing had stopped as well. All that was left was the eerie sounds of chewing from the many mouths in the room, and my out of sync crying that bounced off of the walls. Angela’s light had faded away, and she was now dark. Like a burnt out lightbulb. The light from the little boy soon faded too as he curled into himself and took a last breath.

Bane released one hand and reached over to Angela’s body, tearing a piece of the grayish meat off. “Try it,” he laughed, holding it to me.

“No.” I said raspy, trying to look away from the gruesome scene.

He put a hand on my jaw and squeezed my cheeks. “Open your mouth.” I tried to move my face away, but he jerked it back. He hovered the meat near my mouth. Trying to feed me like a baby. It was so close that I could smell it. Raw and sharp. “Try your friend.” He brushed the meat against my lips. It was sickening.

“Open up for the choo-choo train,” he laughed.

“Bane just stop it!” A female voice called from the center of the table. “That’s enough of your sick jokes, she’s suffered enough.” I looked up and found a girl with long, light brown hair staring at me. Her mouth was stained with the dark grey liquid that was Enthiduan blood and she was dunking another piece into a dark sauce. “Leave her alone already.”

“Don’t run your mouth at me, Evelyn!” Bane said.

“Just sit down and stop trying to act like you’re the king!” she spat. “You aren’t any more special than the rest of us.
Ooh!
you’re a tiger, just like dad. Well, guess what, who gives a shit! I doubt she even killed the mundahlian. You probably did it and framed the poor girl.”

“Shut up, you bitch!” Willa shrieked, flinging a piece of meat at Evelyn.

“Look you little serpent, you better settle down before I beat the crap out of you myself!”

“I can kick your ass!” Willa shot back. “I can take down a stupid little fox anytime!” She snapped her fingers that were lined with long and sharp black nails. “Like
that
.”

“Why don’t you slither back to hell!”

“Make me!”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah!”

Evelyn raised her hand. Willa’s did too, almost as if being controlled.

“Don’t you dare!” Willa warned.

Evelyn swatted her hand. Willa’s did too—across her cheek.

“Ow!”

Evelyn laughed. “Quit hitting yourself, quit hitting yourself!”

“Bane!” Willa yelled. “Tell her to piss off!”

A girl with flowing bright vivid red hair burst through the doors. “Stop this madness, this instance!” She was wearing black leather that hugged her body almost like a glove. The other guys at the table turned to her. She looked about as old as Bane, if not a few years younger.

“Yes, Viv.” The two fighting girls said.

She looked to Bane—standing behind me. “Sit!”

“Fine!” He cast me onto the floor. I landed with a thud by the woman in bondage’s feet. She bent over to try to pick me up, but a voice arose from behind me. “Don’t you dare pick her up!” Bane scolded. “Or else
you
will be the next
thing
we eat!”

“Sorry, doll.” The woman said to me and then followed the man who tugged on her chain out of the room.

Before returning to his seat, he leant down in front of me and stuck the meat he had into his mouth. “Delicious,” he said, sloppily chewing. I shivered, but didn’t say a thing. Beautiful innocent creatures had just been murdered in front of me. Treated like nothing more than sashimi—raw pieces of meat people in my world usually eat with soy sauce. Never in my life have things been so morbid. So out of sync and utterly farfetched that I don’t even know what to think.

The rest of the meal was quiet, with only the sounds of chewing and the tearing of the meat that sounded like someone stretching a piece of material until it snapped off. The woman with stark crimson hair, paused in the doorway to give me a glance—almost hopeful and friendly, but most of all sympathetic. She hadn’t eaten any of the meat, only stayed to make sure things were calmed. Then, shutting the door behind her—she left. I didn’t get to process her face long enough, but I knew I’d probably see it again, someday. I’d just have to remember the only feature that stuck out like a sore thumb and I’d know it was her. Her bright red hair, almost the color of a strawberry.

“Awesome!” A guy next to me exclaimed, digging into the little boy’s lifeless body. “I found it!” He pulled a small pearl from the body. It was blue and striped in red. Without taking any extra seconds to study it or guess its power, he swallowed it.

“All right Tony!” Bane congratulated. “That one looked a hell of a lot like mine!”

“This one’s a dud,” Willa said disappointed, searching around the insides of Angela. “That’s not fair! It was
my
turn to find one!”

“What do you mean?” Bane questioned. He stood and walked to the carcass. He stuck his hands in and searched. “Nothing,” he said, pulling out his hand to examine it. “That’s impossible. Father fought to have them keep their pearls for us to have!”

“Guess he didn’t fight hard enough,” Evelyn sassed.

I glanced into the pocket and saw the pearl tightly tucked in it. Did she know that she was going to die? Is that why she gave it to me?

I was returned to the dungeon with the Enthiduans after dinner. I didn’t do much but curl up in the corner me and Angela had shared.

They all turned to face me. “Where have you been?” one asked. I didn’t say a thing. I couldn’t. “Are they—”

I nodded.

“Well, don’t be sad,” the male Enthiduan said. “They are finally freed from this place.”

I turned my face away and began to sob.

“She is in Enthidua now, my dear,” he continued. “Reunited with her family. Why are you crying?”

“Because she’s dead!”

“Do not cry, my dear” he whispered. “This will not be the last you see of her. I’m sure she will find you someday soon.” He lowered his head. “Soon,” he repeated.

...

Everything was different. It had all changed so much from what I once knew. I didn’t like it. Didn’t like it one bit. My family and friends would soon all die horrific deaths. My relationship—the first one that had felt so real—lasted only a few days before crashing down. The emotions, and the intensity in those few days with Jett were immense and true, and I missed it dearly.

My new friend Angela had suffered a torturing death. And I had witnessed it right in front of me while a vile man held me back, tormenting me after trying to force himself on me just moments before. My life—as I knew it, was over. I mean, exactly how does one recoup from this? How can I smile after seeing my friend get torn to pieces and devoured by these-these monstrous creatures? Being treated like nothing more than a turkey during Thanksgiving, or other scrap of food. No one at that table cared that she once owned a bakery. That she had a loving husband and daughter, waiting for her at home. In hopes of one day giving birth to a son, which her husband so desired to carry on the family name. Or that in her spare time, she spent her hours of the day feeding the needy and fixing up her land to the best that it could be. Or even that the only reason she was here, was because she was sick and tired of the gods in her kingdom treating the rest of the Enthiduans like pieces of chopped liver. No one at that table gave a
shit!
But me. The girl chained and bound, forced to watch her utter painful words over the gurgles of blood oozing from a slit throat. The woman who had let me vent without saying a word until I finished. And only after then, would speak warm words of wisdom. The woman who was so kindhearted and optimistic, that she truly embodied the qualities of an Angel. The woman—who had saved me from what was going to happen, and sacrificed herself for me—even though she’d only known me for a few days. I should have just ran out after her.
Why the hell did I have to stop and take a breath?
She paid the ultimate price for me. And I just sat there, watching her die. Unable to do a damn thing about it. How can I ever smile after that?