HOLLY’S POV,
Holly walks into the meditation cave and looks around unsure. Such serene surroundings are not really her thing. Just hearing waterdrops gives too much space to think and she has learned to cope by keeping herself distracted. She takes a deep breath and tells herself to suck it up because she decided she wants to face her demons so she can’t go back now when already the silence makes her uncomfortable.
Zeus is putting lit candles all around the cave and just leaves some space in the middle. He sits down and she sits down facing him. She knows her eyes are full of fear, but she has suppressed these memories for so long. Zeus takes her hands in his and his calm eyes are the only comfort she has at the moment. “So, to begin the meditation all you have to do is focus on the flame of one of the candles and listen to the water drops. I will be there any step of the way, you will hear my voice and I can pull you out if it gets too intense, okay?”
Holly nods nervously and stares at the candle flame intensely. Zeus softly starts to sing an incantation and at first, that is all she can hear. However, after a while, she hears the sound of the water drops in the background and concentrates on that. The sound becomes louder and after a while, it is all she can hear. It seems like the water drops fall slower and slower and the burning flame starts to change. Images emerge from the flames dragging her in deeper with every second.
She blinks her eyes and suddenly she is in a dungeon. She looks at her feet which are dirty and covered in chains. She just wears a rag and sharp angles of her thin body cut through the fabric. She looks around her wildly and immediately feels terrified. She is back at the general’s dungeon. She screams from fear when she hears footsteps and tries to make herself as small as possible.
The first thing she sees is his big leather boots in front of her cell. She doesn’t dare to look up when he opens the door and walks towards her.
“Don’t be so shy little bitch, I have a party and promised my friends some fun.”
A cry gets stuck in Holly’s throat, those parties are the worst. He roughly grabs her by the hair, and she looks up at his cruel face. His dark eyes look at her with disgust and he spits in her face before dragging her to a bathtub. He throws her in and brushes the dirt off her with hard strokes. Holly is trembling and he says, “If you are a good submissive slave maybe I will get you some nice dinner afterward.”
Holly bites her lip trying not to cry and he pulls her hair, so she has to look at him. She cries out from the pain, but he just stares at her angry, “Bad start, you always answer with yes sir remember?”
Before she can answer he has pushed her face underwater. She struggles and tries to get away from his grip, but he is too strong. Just when water starts to fill her lungs, he pulls her up. She lays at the side of the bathtub coughing up water and panting. His expression is emotionless, and he kicks her stomach, “Get up you lazy pig.”
Trembling Holly gets up and he points at a door, “You know where to go.”
Completely naked she walks through the door into a room filled with men. In the middle, there is a big bed and, on the sides, there are chairs and plenty of bottles of alcohol. The men hardly look up when she walks in. They have all done and seen her before. Holly walks to the middle of the room and stands still looking at the floor.
The general claps his hands cheerfully and shouts, “So gentleman what will we do today? Torture or rape?”
The men start shouting both the options and the general says, “You know what let’s do both. Officer Mackintosh, you have done well at the last battle, so you have the honor of going first.”
The other men cheer and Officer Mackintosh a fat short guy comes forward. His eyes slide over her body, and he licks his lips. He walks towards the table with torture instruments and picks up a burner. He walks towards her with his eyes full of hate, the other men just keep talking and drinking like nothing interesting is going on. Holly’s body fills with panic and fear, and she starts to shake uncontrollably screaming, “No, No, No, No!”
Zeus his voice is like a calm beacon in a chaotic storm, “Holly, I am here. You don’t have to be afraid they are all dead. Nolan and Gabriel made sure of that. This is a memory; you are in control so break free and take the chance to do whatever it is that you need to do.”
Time seems to have stopped and everyone in the room is frozen except Holly. She slows down her breathing and takes the burner from Officer Mackintosh his hands. She lets him defrost from time and he just looks at her confused because she is now holding the burner. She doesn’t give him the time to react and just burns his face till there is nothing left but burned skin. His screams fade out and his body falls to the ground. Holly steps over him and takes her time using the other instruments on the remaining officers.
Now it is only the general left, she first takes away all his weapons before letting him wake up from time. He slowly looks at his surroundings, the sight of his dead officers makes his expression go from confusion to disbelief. He falls on his knees and asks, “How? What are you?”
Holly towers over him and for the first time she can see how pathetic he actually is. Now that it is just him left, he seems to have forgotten his cruel and confident ways. She looks at him disgusted and says, “I am justice. Do you think you can torture angels and get away with it? If there is a devil, don’t you think there is a god?”
His eyes get big with fear and Holly feels powerful knowing that the roles are reversed now. “What will you do to me?” he asks trembling. Holly looks at him coldly, “I don’t need to do anything to you because you are already dead.”
He shouts, “What?”
But then he looks at his hands and realizes that the flesh is rotting away in front of his eyes. His screams get louder and louder when his whole body falls apart. Holly stands there looking at him crumbling and all she can feel is relief. There is nothing left that can hurt her not even the memories. Her surroundings slowly start to fade and with it the pain, panic, and fear that came with them. She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes.
She is back in the cave and her heart is beating steady. She smiles at Zeus, and he looks at her proudly but then she notices someone standing in the corner of the cave. Nolan emerges from the shadow, his eyes filled with vulnerability and hope. At that moment she knows he didn’t give up on her yet. She quickly gets up, runs towards him, and jumps into his arms.