His image slowly fades away and she snaps her eyes open to find herself lying on the cold floor of the prison. It was a dream all along.
A drop of tears slid down her cheeks as she crawls back and rests her head on the wall, hugging her knees to herself. Her whole body is cold and her body is already getting numb. The prison is cold and her body is almost shivering, but there are no clothes to cover her and protect her from the cold that keeps penetrating her bones.
She sighs deeply as her mind wanders off to what happened yesterday. She still can’t believe what the alpha had told her about her being a werewolf. It’s hard to believe. She has been living all her life believing that werewolves are supernatural creatures that only existed in series, but it never occurred to her that they are really existing and even if she wanted to give that a thought and weigh the possibility of them existing, she could never imagine that even she would turn out to be one. How’s this even possible?
The grumbling sound of her stomach reminds her she still has had nothing to eat. It has been three days already and she has been starving. For how long will she continue to starve like this? For how long will this pain continue? Those are the questions she keeps asking herself, but judging from the happening, it seems like this will last for as long as she is breathing. How she ended up suffering for the crime her father is said to have committed in the past, is what she can’t bring the pieces together. It’s still confusing. Yes, she knows that her father is heartless and treated her like a piece of trash, but she could never have imagined that he can get involved in killing someone and taking his wife away. That’s the height of it all. Thinking of this, she knows that there’s no hope of her being forgiven eventually. He’s going to make sure that she suffers to death.
The metallic sound coming from the bar gate pulls her back to reality, and she raises her head as her heart misses a beat. Fear grips her.
Seconds later, the gate finally opens and although it’s dark inside here, she manages to recognize the person that had just walked in, to be madam Leila. Seeing Leila, her heart lits up in excitement.
“Cassie…” Madam Leila whispers, looking around to be sure that nobody is watching her before she finally walks over to Cassie and squats down to her size.
Cassie hugs her tightly, sobbing on her shoulders. Although they just met barely four days, she feels connected to her from the first day and found herself comfortable around her. She feels safe around her and gets the love she couldn’t get from her father.
“Shhhh! Don’t cry…” Madam Leila pulls away from her and cups her cheeks in her palms, staring into her eyes while having a weak smile on her face.
“You’ll be fine, OK? Just hang on…” Leila whispers, wiping her tears with her thumbs, while she just nods her head.
“Here, I brought you something to eat. You should be fast about it before someone comes in here,” Leila hands her two balls of rice balls and she quickly grabs them from her.
“Thank you,” she says to her and starts eating them hurriedly, tears trickling down her cheeks. She has so many questions running through her mind, so many questions that need answers, but she doesn’t know where to start. And even if she knows where to, what if madam Leila can’t answer them? Those are the questions that she keeps asking herself.
She stops abruptly and slowly raises her gaze to meet madam Leila’s.
“What’s going on?” That’s all she can ask. Maybe when she knows what exactly is happening, she’ll be able to figure out the answers to the rest of her questions.
Madam Leila’s face drops sadly. The look on her face tells her that she is not going to be able to answer her question.
“Cassie, I might need to go now. Please take care of yourself,” she stands up and without sparing her another glance, she ambles out of the prison and locks the gate carefully behind herself.
Cassie’s heart breaks into pieces as she watches her leave. Her only hope of knowing what’s going on, can’t answer her question. Who else will?
A few minutes later…
Cassie is still in the same position, sitting on the floor while resting her back on the wall, her knees are hugged to herself as tears keep streaming down her cheeks.
Her heart skips when she hears the gate opening, and she gulps down nervously. Fear grips her as soon as two guards appear before her. Of course, she knows the guards won’t be there if they weren’t sent by the alpha, which means that she’s in trouble.
They both glance at each other before they saunter to her and grab her arms, pulling her to her feet. Her feet are numb. As much as she wants to protest, she knows that won’t be necessary, knowing that they won’t listen to her.
They drag her out of the prison and straight to the courtroom. Stepping into the courtroom, her heart sinks deep into her stomach at the sight that welcomes her. It seems like the whole of the pack members are present there. This only happens when there’s an important announcement that’s going to be made.
She gulps down the lump in her throat as she stares at the crowd one after the other.
Realization dawns on her as two dangerous words keep ringing a bell in her head, ‘death’ and ‘punishment’.
She winces painfully as they push her to her knees. The crowd keeps murmuring as they throw glances at her. They all look confused, especially seeing a stranger in their midst. But one thing they know for sure is that the alpha looks extremely angry, he would never summon all of the pack members if it’s not something important that needs to be attended to…