It had been about an hour or so since Cross escorted me back to the room, and I decided to take the time to really accept my surroundings and absorb them into my soul. If I could come to terms and welcome my new situation, I would be all right. I didn’t know for sure what was in store for me on Canary, but I had to deal with the moment. My sister used to strongly believe in not worrying about tomorrow but rather focus on today. Today, my concentration would be on breathing and comfort. Finding comfort. Rather than seeing this room as a cell, I needed to change my opinion and see it as my haven. Trick my mind, and trick my soul. It wouldn’t be the first time.
When the door to my room opened, I was surprised that Cross had returned so quickly. It wasn’t time to eat again, and I hadn’t used the intercom. Sitting up to face him, my heart stopped when I saw that it was Pike who marched into the room.
I remember once when my sister and I were really young, we had watched a huge storm brewing from the west. The clouds swirled around and came at us faster than we could take shelter. We had run as fast as we could while the wind howled around us, slapping at our faces. Rain, lightning, hail. A torrential downpour of chaos all around. I remember that storm clearly.
It was nothing compared to the storm standing in my room.
“Do not ever try to appeal to my brother’s kindness again!” he bellowed out, stomping straight toward me.
“What? I don’t know what you mean,” I stammered, feeling the collar tighten as I scurried back toward the headrest of the bed, terrified at the fury I saw in Pike’s eyes. Cross must have tried to change Pike’s mind about keeping me shackled like an animal. He must have tried to plead my case about the collar after all. Cross strove to be my lionheart. And evidently…he had lost the crusade.
He bolted in my direction and reached out, grabbing a handful of my hair, pulling me mere inches from his face. “Do you think tears will work? Do you think that begging for mercy will make my brother go against me? Against my will?”
“I’m sorry,” I squeaked. The sting from my hair being yanked by the man caused tears to well in my eyes. “I felt as if I couldn’t breathe.”
He tugged my hair harder, forcing my head to go back so I had to stare into his demon eyes. My throat stretched—so exposed. I wondered if he would bite down and suck from my blood like an ancient monster that tales were told of.
“Are you nothing but a weak little slave?”
“Fuck you.” The words shot past my lips like a bullet before I had time to think them through. Before I had time to really ponder the consequences that would come from such a defiant utterance.
Pike’s eyes darkened, and the red hue of his skin seemed to turn a bolder crimson. The color that once flowed freely through his body of bright red, seemed to clot in patches of blood red. Fury was visible. Wrath was inevitable.
“Right now. You will remember right now forever,” he growled.
I wanted to apologize. I wanted to plead for compassion. I wanted to reach into the depths of his evil and pull out even an ounce of humanity. And yet, the trained soldier in me wanted to kill. I wanted to decimate. To destroy. To rip his flesh from his bones with my teeth. Beg or kill. Plead or destroy. Fuck him. The soldier in me won this battle. The soldier in me took full control.
I spat in his face, smiling when I could see the shock caused by my rebellion twinkle in his eye.
“Fuck you,” I said again.
“Right now,” he repeated. “Right now you will remember.”
Without wasting another second, Pike tore my clothing off so fast and furious that I didn’t even have time to comprehend and try to stop the onslaught. Soon, clothes that once concealed my opaque body, became shreds of fabric tossed around by a beast before me.
I tried to fight him off, even though I knew it was pointless. I was a soldier, trained to assess my opponent. He was bigger. Stronger. Pike would win this battle regardless of how hard I struggled.
But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try.
“Don’t you dare fucking touch me!” I screamed as I tried to scratch out his eyes.
Gripping my hands above my head, he flung me back hard against the bed, only giving me a second to realize I was completely nude at this point.
“I will do more than touch you,” he growled. Gripping both my wrists with one of his beefy hands, he punched at the buttons on my collar with the code. A synthetic-sounding beep let me know that the collar had been unlocked. “Don’t want the collar? Allow me to help you then,” he said as he snapped the latch open, removed the metal, and tossed it to the floor.