Page 152 of Cursed Lifeline

I nod, turn, and start to make my way back towards the six-way. As I’m just about to turn the bend, she says, “If we lose each other, meet me where the three tunnels bend into one. There—I’ll be waiting for you.”

My heart stops.

My mind races.

What did she just fucking say?

Turning, I focus on her silhouette in the distance. Illuminated by the lonely light, she reaches up high and cuts the cord to the tin can of blood. Pouring it out into the slosh at her feet, she reaches into the shadows, produces a bag, and slings it over her back. Before she turns my way, I catch a glimpse of a wooden stake sticking out from the confines she’s slung over her shoulders.

Swallowing hard, her peaceful eyes hold mine as she approaches, and it suddenly hits me.

I’m cursed.

Just like Felix.

Just like my fucking father.

Fifty Five

Esme

song: legends are made | sam tinnesz

“Alfred,I am not going to ask you again where. Am. I?”

With my eyes covered, I rely on the sounds, smells, and feelings intensifying in the air around me to try and get my bearings.

Alfred sighs, “All will be revealed in due time.”

“If this is another one of Felix’s training exercises…”

“I wish, petite. But no, training has ultimately run its course.”

Panic sets in as the deafening roar of a crowd pierces my ears. The creeping suspicion I am being set up settles at the base of my spine and starts to vibrate across my entire body, making me take a step back in fear. When I do, my back collides with a cold concrete wall. Voices trail our way and I turn my head in their direction. But with the blindfold covering my eyes, and my wrists shackled in chains, making out who it is or trying to plot an escape is out of the question.

“Help!” A man screams as several footsteps shuffle through the space, causing my breathing to increase. “Please, don’t do this. I can’t die like this. Please, I beg you.”

“What group did Viktor say?” a man asks

Viktor?

“The werewolves,” another one sneers.

Their voices grow further away, much like the shuffling of their feet, as the terrors of the man they’re carrying off continue to bounce off the cement walls around us.

“There is not enough of him left to satisfy even one of them,” the first man says.

“Not our problem,” the second insists, his voice barely tunneling in my direction from far away. “What the boss says, we do. Now grab his fractured femur, it’s poking out too far to make the next turn. Fuck, he’s bleeding out quickly. We’ll be lucky to get him there when he’s still fresh.”

He lied.

It’s the first thought that races through my mind.

Felix lied.

I’m a damn fool.

He said he was prepared to do everything he could to keep me safe this time. Feeding me to the enemy in my previous lives is not how I envisioned his promise playing out. My hands begin to shake as I accept a fate I was sworn I’d never meet again.

---