Hope
Once we got to my room, Gwendolyn and I fell Kyle onto my bed. Ignoring the blood on my sheets, I walked over to my dresser to take out the first-aid kit in there that had been put when I had injuries on my feet.
“Help me turn him around,” I said to Gwendolyn. Not needing to be told twice, she held onto Kyle’s other side and we both flipped him around so that his front was against the bed, and his back facing us.
As I got a good look at his injuries, my stomach churned in disgust. His back was designed in slash marks with no exception of any part. Monsters. Those people that did this were monsters. The ones who watched it happen were even bigger monsters. And my husband who ordered it all was the worst of them all.
I poured the entire bottle of alcohol on his back and Kyle screamed in pain. I flinched, somehow being able to feel his pain as well. After that, I helped clean the wounds and wrapped the entire thing with bandages.
Kyle fell asleep sometime while I was cleaning the wound, same with Gwendolyn. I, myself, fell asleep on the floor with my head resting on the bed after I was done with it all.
By the time I woke up, I noticed that Kyle was awake himself and he was standing at the far end of the room. I looked through the window to see that it was already sundown. I stood up from the floor and faced Kyle.
“What are you doing standing over there? Go rest on the bed, you need it.” As I said those words, I looked at the bed to see that the sheets were still covered in blood. I facepalmed myself.
“Oh,” I said, then pulled the cover and sheets out from the bed and fell them to the ground. “Don’t worry about the sheets, I have a lot more of those. Wait for a second and I’ll put on another one.” I started to walk over to my closet but I halted my movement when I noticed that Kyle hadn’t said anything at all.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him with a soft tone, taking a step closer.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t-” he started to apologize but I raised a hand to stop him.
“Don’t apologize to me. You did nothing wrong. If I hadn’t left my room, then all this wouldn’t have happened. I should be the one apologizing to you. I’m sorry.” I said to him with a sincere tone.
Kyle shook his head repeatedly, disagreeing with my words. “It was all my fault. I shouldn’t have assumed that you were in the room. I deserved the punish-”
“Don’t you finish that sentence,” I changed the tone of my voice. “You didn’t deserve that. No one deserves that. I don’t know how you people do things but that was the height of barbarism.” I said, memories of seeing Kyle being whipped slammed inside my head, causing to hives to break out from my skin. That was just plain inhumane.
“I appreciate what you did for me. But I’m not worth it.” Kyle said with a sigh, shifting his gaze to the ground.
I took two more steps to get close with him and laid my hand on one of his shoulders. “Don’t say that,” I said with a whisper. “You are worth it.”
I felt like I was talking to myself through him. That I needed to say those words. I needed to hear those words being said. Everyone was worth something. Even those insensitive monsters outside this room were worth something.
“I-” Kyle started to speak and I noticed how his cheeks had tinted pink while my hand was resting on his shoulder, I took a step back, blood rushing through my own cheeks.
“Sorry,” I said to him with a mousy voice.
He shook it off. “Thank you,” he looked at me. “Thank you very much, my lady.”
I put on a smile. “What are friends for?”
Before Kyle got to say anything, a yawn broke out and the two of us turned around to see Gwendolyn waking up. Once her eyes opened, they widened in surprise.
“My lady, you two-”
“Kyle just woke up. Get him a meal,” I ordered, not wanting to hear what she had to say. She stood up in an instant, nodding her head fervently.
“And what about you, my lady?” Gwendolyn asked before she walked out of the room.
“And what about me?” I countered.
“Aren’t you going to eat anything? You didn’t really eat anything during breakfast because of the other lady,” I darted my gaze to Kyle. Our eyes meet and his fell with anguish. No more needed to be said for him to understand that Annalise had gotten under my skin yet again.
“So, should I bring something for you?” Gwendolyn brought my attention back to her.
“Sure, of course.” I said, waving her off. She nodded and disappeared after she walked out the door, leaving Kyle and me alone. I turned my attention back to him and I noticed that his stance was weak.
I forcefully led him to take a seat on my bed, while I knelt down next to him. “Why aren’t your wounds healing?” I asked with a soft tone.
For Lycans, they healed faster than humans. I could remember during my wedding when Darius had forced me to cut him open and he healed up right away. I thought it would be the same for Kyle, or maybe it was only available to those with royal blood.
I noticed Kyle’s throat bob before he replied me. “The whips. They were laced with silver. Silver weakens our kind. The wounds will take a while to heal instead of being there for only an hour or two.” He explained.
My mouth formed an “O”. In that case, that was very heartless of them. Not them, Darius. He was the one who commandeered the entire thing.
Just how cruel could my beast of a husband actually be? Just thinking about him made me feel all icky all over.
“Is something wrong?” Kyle asked me, probably due to the expression I had on my face.
I rearranged my face before I replied him. “No, everything is fine. I just had a bad thought,” I dismissed.
He made a face. “Was it about the king?”
My mouth fell open. “No. No, no, no, no. How did you know? I mean, no. No.” I looked at Kyle. “Yes.” I said with a sigh, dropping my shoulders.
Something sounding close to a laugh escaped from Kyle’s lips. “The king is not as terrible as you-”
“No. Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it.” I stopped him before he could say anything else. I wasn’t ready to listen to anything of redemption relating to Darius.
He has proved to me time and time again that he was as heartless as I knew he was. He had no redeeming qualities in him. I was done sobbing after him and feeling sorry for myself. If he wasn’t going to change, I was going to change.
“But, my lady. The original punishment should’ve been death. Being flogged was a less punishment for what I did.” Kyle said.
I stood up from the ground, then placed both my hands on either of Kyle’s shoulders. “Don’t you hear yourself? In what century is that logical? You didn’t know that I wasn’t in the room, and you say your punishment should’ve been death? Make that make sense to me because it doesn’t.
“You don’t even deserve any punishment. You’ve been the best guard to me and the only friend that I’ve had here.” I said to him.
I saw in his eyes that he was contemplating the accuracy of what I said. So I pressed on further.
“Good people like you don’t deserve such treatment. And I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m-”
“What is going on here?!” Someone burst through the doors of my room, causing me to jump out of my skin and jerk away from Kyle who had straightened up his back in an instant.
At the door of my room stood my husband with an awfully angry expression on his face.