Horror / The Dark Mark
Michelle blinked rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the dim light. During the travel by Portkey she must have fainted. The man was looming over her, eyes staring down at her as she shivered beneath His gaze. She made to pull her cloak tightly around herself but realized she wasn’t wearing anything and panicked. Had it already happened?
Her throat felt as if a large bezoar were lodged in it. She tried to gasp for breath but it was like being under water. The more air she managed to take in the more she felt like she was suffocating. The man laughed, “I’m not going to hurt you.” She closed her eyes. ‘I will live. I will make it through this.’
She wasn’t sure where she was. She’d been focusing too intently on the man’s eyes. Red like burning embers. She didn’t want to look into those merciless eyes again. She heard him laughing and her body tensed as she felt the long fingered hand on her cheek.
“Don’t worry, my pet. This won’t hurt.”
She scrunched her eyes tighter so that no light could pass through the lids. The ground beneath her was hard, gritty, she thought she felt grass to her right. His fingers ran through her hair and she held back the scream that was stuck inside of her throat. She had lived through this, she didn’t think that had changed just because of Patrick’s arrival.
With his image held in her mind, the lump in her throat lessened. Kevi – the bright eyes and smile, how she’d held her in the bed that night while she cried. Regina – telling her that she was sorry for getting her into this. ‘It’s my fault…’ Michelle thought as He ran his nails hard over her cheek and drawing blood. She bit her lip, holding back the hiss of pain. ‘Sadist.’ she thought angrily. She wanted to move, to run, get as far as she could before He struck her dead. Perhaps Annie was better off not living in a world as chaotic as this. Salty tears traveled down her cheeks, mixing with her blood, burning the scars slightly. She felt Him take His hand and grab her shoulder roughly.
“Stand up.” He commanded and she shakily got to her feet with her eyes still closed. He slapped the side of her face with the scars. “Open your eyes.” She slowly let the lids rise open, afraid of where she’d be. The first thing she saw was the tombstone. Large and ominous against the dark sky. A shadow of pain.
He threw her bodily against the rough stone and felt some of the skin rub off her thigh and she gritted her teeth in pain. She whispered to herself, “I lived through this, it’ll be okay.” She felt his hand slap across the back of her head and gasped.
“Silence,” he growled, grabbing her left arm and holding his wand to it. “I want you to watch this, wench. Watch closely. It’s a sight unlike any you’ve ever beheld before.” She could almost hear the smile in His voice.
She looked over at where the wand tip touched her bare flesh and flinched when the tip glowed white. A feeling of intense pain spread throughout her arm, and she cried out, willing her eyes to stay open. Her upper arm felt as though it was consumed in flames and she bit her lip to keep from screaming out again, tears flowing steadily down her cheeks, but still she did not look away.
From the tip of the wand crawled a small snake. It slithered around her arm obscenely before settling in its proper place and was frozen, merely an inky drawing on her arm. Around the snake’s tail formed a human skull, drawn as if by an invisible hand, the mouth opened wide to admit the snake passage. The snake was alive again. Head rearing, it opened it’s mouth to expose its fangs and then remained frozen. She was only aware that she was sobbing loudly when He pulled His wand away. She was branded. She was one of His. She shook her head slowly, eyes burning from not having been closed. She felt Him behind her, one hand at her waist.
“Now, let’s see if you’re any better at following directions from your Master.” She closed her eyes, her body shaking. She just wanted to be back in the castle in her four-poster bed, curled up under the covers with Sable sleeping at her feet, Kevi just down the hall if she needed her. She cried out as she felt the spell hit her, never even hearing Him utter the words to the curse. When the spell lifted her body ached.
“I didn’t say you could close your eyes, child.” Mouth open, she gasped for breath, clutching her chest with her hands. She laid there for only a few moments until she felt His foot collide with her side. Groaning, she hear Him talking. “On your feet.” She groped for the gravestone in the dark, using it to hoist herself up. She turned to face Him but he spun her back around. “I want to know who came with you tonight.” Her eyes snapped open and she rested her head against the cool stone. He would know and He would hurt them all. He’d kill them. She couldn’t think fast enough.
“Friends. From school.” She swallowed her fear. “Please…what’re you going to do to me?” She heard the curse coming this time and braced herself against the rough stone, managing to stay on her feet for the duration. The spell lifted and she felt blood dripping between her breasts where the stone had dug into her flesh. He laughed, watching her struggle to stand upright. She was determined not to fall, she would not give Him that satisfaction.
She felt His hands wrap around her neck, His robes against her skin. He smelled like Death. She kept her eyes open; blinking only when she needed to. He leaned towards her ear and whispered in a low hiss, “Serve your Master well, my pet, and He will reward you.” His tongue felt like a snake’s against her ear. The copper snake – Kevi.
Her heart lurched painfully in her chest. Was she alright? And Patrick? What about Drow? He’d been attacked by the Dark Lord. They’d all been there for her and she’d caused at least one person to be hurt. Perhaps it was good that Regina had never shown up. Her heart thudded against her rib cage as she felt his hands tighten around her neck.
“You still haven’t given me their names, dear.” She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t give him names. She leaned her head back and almost recoiled instantly. His whole face was snake-like and she couldn’t seem to choke back her fear. He sneered.
“What is it, dear? Are you afraid?” He shoved her against the stone, still smiling, red eyes glinting. “You should be.”
She grunted in pain and waited for Him to release her. When He did she stumbled and almost hit the ground, heart close to exploding, her whole body shaking. He threw her back against the tombstone, hand at her throat, “One should not keep their Master waiting.”
She was not going to give them away and so she leaned forward to kiss Him, eyes still open so that she could see His reaction. His eyes did not change but His hand tightened around her throat and He pushed her away. She wanted to gag but couldn’t seem to open her mouth.
He glared at her as she lay on the ground, clutching her knees to her chest. She continued to stare up at Him and hoped that He wouldn’t ask again. He laughed, using His wand to lift her back up off the ground and onto her feet. She leaned back against the tombstone, catching her breath.
He held his hand out to her, “Come.” She obediently walked forward, her legs hardly able to support her weight. She walked up to Him, her eyes never leaving His, even though she wanted more than anything to look away. Anywhere but into His eyes. She stopped when she was standing within arm’s reach and almost pulled away when He put His still outstretched hand on the top of her head. She was freezing, the tears on her face dry, her body still trembling under His gaze. When she felt His lips against her forehead she passed out.
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I must admit i like your submission. I’m still busy processing why, so this may be a little unstructured.
I think that there were too many names that weren’t directly involved at that moment, her friends…EG Kevi.
This isn’t really a negative, just that it was a set of unkowns. The rest of the story would obviously rectify that. I did like that it wasn’t a stereotypical encounter but also not completely groundbreaking either. It doesn’t feel as if the torture endured or the situation of the interrogation was bound by a formula that we would have come to know before, there is a refreshing aspect to it.
It also doesn’t break the mould though. It definitely is a familiar scenario. You have achieved this without being too reliant on previous formulae of this scenario.
The mix of emotions was good. I don’t believe that one would have full control of one’s emotions when you’re completely consumed with fear as the dark lord’s captive is. I believe that you would want to keep your eyes closed, then also try to keep them open at times. It seems natural to me.
The fuzziness of what she hears at times and what she doesn’t hear ((RE: the curses)) also seems well within the natural scope of events.
I would like to read the preceeding and succeeding parts of your submission. It is interesting!
The only negatives i can think of, they aren’t biggies, are that the sentence structure sometimes required that i had to read twice to understand and that this may be an overworked theme…(Star wars unerring success may be my undoing though) my apologies, i did not manage to copy a string of text to support my statement about sentence structure. Silly me.
This is, as i said, not a biggie though.
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