Page 14 of To Trap a Soul

That was old and barbaric! She’d heard tales of such things, but that was from ancient times, and ancient lands and people. Those sorts of things didn’t happen anymore, and yet... apparently here she was, about to be one.

She was even wearing a damn white gown, all dressed and ready.

Her cries became more distressed, and she fisted the back of her nightgown, wishing with all her might that her arms were free so she could fight back. She feigned a step to the right, causing them to heave that way, then she attempted tiny shuffles to the left.

She made it about two half-steps before she was caught again.

Heart racing, with her breaths sawing in and out of her rapidly heaving chest, Lindi couldn’t believe the very deity that told her to save herself until marriage would be the reason she’d die.

And there would be no one here to save her. They were thousands of kilometres from any kind of civilisation, in the middle of the continent. Hundreds of thousands of people lived near the coasts or just below the mountainsides, but not here.

She should have known something was wrong with the world, that things were changing, when she saw the lightest snowflakes in her village for the first time last year. It’d never happened before, snow a strange and foreign sight in Austrális, to the point that they melted before they even touched the ground. Gosh, thewinter that year had been harsh, but she never thought there was a deeper meaning to it.

She never thought it would be the first sign of this day.

“You’re making a mistake!” she screamed, twisting hard enough from Mathews’ hold that she fell towards Sal with her face pointing down.

A shocked and pained gasp ripped from her when something cold, hard, and sharp lodged in her gut. With Sal holding her shoulder to keep her upright, she looked down with widened eyes to find his dagger lodged hilt deep above her navel. Hot crimson liquid spread across her abdomen and quickly cooled against the wind.

He ripped the blade from her, and Lindi instantly sagged to her knees as her arms pulled against her bindings in an attempt to cup her wound to no avail. Gregory began some kind of loud, boisterous chant, but she couldn’t make it out against the ringing in her ears and the black spots in her vision.

Unable to stem the flow of her blood, she collapsed to her side with the edge metres from her. The pain was immense, her fear even more painful, and her heart racing with adrenaline worsened the throbbing.

She couldn’t believe this had happened... that this was truly the end.

The shock that clutched her bones had her frozen on the ground momentarily, and she only snapped out of it when they finally stepped away to leave. To discard her here as she bled out.

To callously leave her in her final moments of death.

I thought they were going to throw me off the cliff.

She didn’t know what was worse: the fast fall or this slow and lonely death.

April 26th, 1683

With her sight growing murky, Lindi wriggled uselessly towards the edge of the cliff. Terror suffused every inch of her body as she kicked and heaved weakly in her bonds.

Please, God! Please save me,she pleaded, looking down at her feet – or rather, beyond them.

Her dry bottom lip trembled at thethingthat skittered just within the border of the shade. Red eyes, so bright and petrifying, never left her. They lookedhungry,enhanced by the white froth that bubbled at the corners of its maw, and the way it licked at its muzzle. Sharp, glinting claws tore at the ground as it paced, braving the sunlight by a millimetre before yelping and backing up.

“They’re real,” she whispered hoarsely, dehydration and blood loss having parched her aching throat. “I can’t believe they’re real.”

And as each minute passed, those pointed shadows created by treetops were reaching towards her like a set of fingers. They were bringing the creature closer, and she was so terrified of itshe had started worming her way towards the ledge of rock.

I’d rather fall.The idea of being eaten alive was horrifying – she couldn’t imagine how painful it would be.

Her consciousness was slipping again, but it wasn’t fast enough.

She could barely smell over the coppery scent of caked blood in her nose, but the creature had a pungent aroma to it. Its features were utterly inhuman, but it also didn’t truly look animalistic. It was a monster, something that appeared part dog, part bird, part... who fucking knew? It was indecipherable.

It had bird-like legs, with wings low down near its hips. Its torso and front legs were thick and feline, yet its face was dog-like and boorish. It just looked twisted and screwed up in all the worst possible ways, while its flesh truly didn’t look like skin. No, it was glossy, like it was being held together by some tainted force, like void magic, and she worried it’d consume her with just a mere touch.

She also feared it’d turn her into one. She didn’t want to become a devil – was that what the men meant when they said the creatures were growing in number? Were they turning humans into whatever unholy thing this was?

She didn’t want to be eaten by one, in any way, shape, or form.

What did I do wrong?she asked with a shiver of delirium rolling down her back.I’m a devout woman. I’ve never violated your teachings.

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