A slight racking of something steely from a distance drew me out of the shadows of darkness to my relief into some bright white light. I coughed slightly, feeling my throat itching a bit and closing up. What was the matter now? What was the dream all about? My eyes still closed, I tried to ruminate on the meaning of the dream which had seemed to have gone on for hours. But nothing came up. I didn’t understand one bit of it. I didn’t know who those crying ugly women were, or what the valley was all about, never even heard of it before, until the dream. Not that I am even sure that the spot exists in real life. For all I know all these fucked up dream was a characteristic of... characteristics of what? I heard my mind ask in a way, as if taunting me. But I came up short. A characteristic of what? Why was I hallucinating or having dreams without foundations, or at least so I thought. I didn’t read or watch a movie about blood sucking demons or some shadow of death and darkness. My ears perked up when I heard the metal racking again, and it dawned on me then that my cell door was being opened. Taking a deep breath, hoping it was Adam, I opened my eyes slowly whilst sitting up on the bed. A smile slithered across my lips, joy about to tender over, when I saw Adam saunter into the room with his twin, Noah. A smile that dried up immediately when I beheld the stern look on his face. What was going on? Did something happen? ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N0v3l.Fiɾe.net "Adam, what is the matter?" I asked him tentatively, subtly standing up from the bed, waiting for him to walk to me, and probably hug me and tell me that all was right, or what had got his face all strung up. Staring at him, I could feel a rather strange energy around him, something that I haven’t seen or gotten before. It was unseen but tangible. But Adam stood at the entrance, not giving a reply to my question. Rather he stared at me head to toe like a bitchy girl would, before sneering at me, causing me to pause my lips in astonishment. What happened to my Adam? I closed my eyes, willing all this to be a dream, willing that I was still in the shadows of darkness than this. I preferred to live there than bask in the un-affection of Adam. Now, that I have tasted him, have tasted his love, have tasted his being, I couldn’t afford to be on the receiving end of his hate. "Don’t delude yourself." I heard him say, heard him clicking his tongue, and soughed, pinching myself to see the trueness of my situation. "Follow me." He mentioned so sardonically that I had no choice but to open my eyes and get used to my reality, my sad reality. What had happened? Did Adam hit his head somewhere? Had Claire managed to brainwash him? I watched as he turned around without sparing me another glance and walked out of the cell, not that he was in it in the first place. He had just been hanging by the side post. He stopped a few inches away from the door, and without turning around, asked me if I was planning to stay in the cell forever. Not wasting any more time, I followed after him, stopping at a point opposite him, watching as he turned around and locked the cell, still not sparing me a glance. I wanted to try again, I wanted to ask him what the problem was, what had been going on in the few hours that I had been away from him, but for some reason my mouth stayed shut, and my throat...it was still itchy like something was clawing on it. I wrapped my hand around my throat, wondering what could be the problem. I haven’t experienced this sort of issue before. Was it something that I had eaten? My mind played a rewind tape of all my memories for the night, from the biggest substance that went into my mouth to the tiniest chocolate. I and Naomi had really tasted up the food down to the tiniest detail before things started to fall apart. But nothing came up to be suspicious. Everyone had eaten just as I had. As I walked behind Adam, my mind drew and stayed on the drink that a guard had given me a few hours before I had succumbed to sleep. Courtesy of the prince, he had mentioned. Thinking of it now, my head cocked to the side, my steps slowing down unknown to me, I believed the the drink was suspicious. I hadn’t ordered it. I don’t think Adam had either. The guard had just come up to me like some robot and handed the drink to me, even his voice had been a bit off. But look at stupid me, anything strung with Adam was all good to me. Looking at the behaviors of Adam now, I was beginning to wonder if the water hadn’t been drugged. At least that would explain the stupid dream that I had. Was it death for me though? Poisons were usually made to kill someone, but why was I alive? The time frame for the poison effect hasn’t elapsed? Well, I don’t know. I don’t even know if the drink was poisoned. But I don’t really care at this point. Adam was ghosting me. And where the heck was Noah? He had come with Adam to the holding cell, but my attention had been so fixed on Adam and his abnormalities that I hadn’t noticed when Noah left. "Quicken up your steps. I don’t have much time on my hands for an idiot." I heard Adam say sharply and gasped, not surprised, yet not believing that Adam would speak to me like that. Even when he had been my bully, he hadn’t spoken to me in such a degrading way, like I was some rag or slave to him. A slave in our pack was treated better than this actually. I quickened my pace, inhaling deeply at intervals to quell the scratching on my throat.