Page 2 of Dominion

“Medea,” she hissed, her eyes burning a hole in the side of my face. As I looked up, seeing the sea of red, black, and white in front of me, my resolve to never look at them again remained strong. The skulls lining the walls of the hallway were enough to keep my gaze straight ahead instead of straying to the sides as it wanted to at first.

“Áse tin, Dímitra,” my father whisper-hissed at my mother, telling her to leave me be, to shut up. The stubborn mule that she was, she started arguing with him, earning a couple of weird looks from the elders walking next to us.

The couple staring straight at us I’d never seen before, just like the majority of these other people, but there was something in their eyes that almost made me stop and run to the back. Far, far away from here.

The vacant, cold gazes landed on me after they examined my mother and my father, the woman’s eyes straying towardthe white strands of my hair that couldn’t be covered by the hood of my cloak. Her pale, almost-silver eyes connected with mine, sending a rush of fear and terror straight through my bloodstream.

The stories I knew about the Order and how things were being done were only that… stories. Up until a couple of months ago, when our lives changed completely, when the fake sense of security we lived in completely shattered. Everything I ever wanted went down the drain when my father announced what was going to happen to Cassandra.

I would never forget the scream that erupted from her throat, or the tears rolling down her cheeks as she begged him, pleaded on her knees not to send her, not to do this to her. But he was relentless, and later on, I found out why.

My rose-colored glasses, with which I observed the world, shattered into a million pieces when she died. The bright blue skies I loved suddenly weren’t all that important anymore, nor was the school I adored. The friends I had couldn’t understand the dark cloud looming above my head, and I couldn’t talk about the things that sounded so meaningless to me now.

Hearing the stories about the Order was completely different versus being thrown into the middle of the things.

The bell rang loudly through the hallway, shutting down the moans and cries momentarily. As we shifted deeper into the underground little town they created ages ago, the tall entrance into the main chamber was getting more and more visible.

Latin inscriptions on the pillars held by the two sculptures wearing masks similar to the one I was carrying sent dread through my blood. I could understand every single one of them.

Unus Dominus.

Fatum Unum.

Ave Satanas.

My feet stopped working, freezing me in place. If it wasn’t for the hard press of my father’s chest against my back, I would’ve started running back. Far, far away from this godforsaken place.

Far away from these people dealing in things I didn’t want to know about.

“Medea!” my father hissed, forcing me to walk, to go ahead, but I couldn’t. The lack of air squeezed my lungs in a vise grip, the sharp claws of powerlessness digging into my sides, bleeding me dry. “Archíste na kineíste,” he said, telling me to keep moving, every single word laced with barely contained anger, pulling out the tears I was trying to hold at bay.

How could he do this?

How could anyone?

They knew what they were going to do to us, yet they still agreed to sell us to these monsters.

“Bampá, se parakaló,” I begged, pleading with him, hoping he would finally hear the desperation in my voice, the sound of my heart breaking right in front of his eyes. But he shoved me, digging his fingers into the side of my neck, keeping me upright when all I wanted to do was fall to my knees and beg.

Beg until one of these people developed a conscience.

Until one of them saw how unfair this situation was.

“Kínisi!” he yelled out, ordering me to move, and I knew I would never be able to get out of here. The first tear slowly trickled down my cheek, followed by a second one until I could no longer hold them back.

My vision blurred as we passed through the arched gateway, entering into a massive room lit by the thousands of little lanterns hanging on the walls, but the lanterns weren’t what drew my attention.

Twenty stone-made chairs were placed on the other side of the room, elevated on the dais in a half circle, overlooking the entrance to the room. Men and women sat on them, looking atus with amusement, licking their lips at the sight of the new blood.

The girl who stepped to my right wailed uncontrollably, her soft voice burying itself in my mind, reminding me of my sister, of the light they stole and all those things that were perfectly her. I tried not to look at her, to spare myself additional misery, but her pain was as palpable as the golden sand that greeted us at the very entrance of this place. The misery we both had, that we both held on to, couldn’t be seen, but it could be felt in the entire room.

I dared to look at her, to memorize her, to maybe try to ease her worries, but as my eyes connected with her onyx depths and red-rimmed eyes, there was no hope in them. I still held on to mine. I still hoped I would end up with a family that could love me, that could show me that it wasn’t all so bad.

But seeing the agony in her eyes, feeling it all around me, my hope started slipping through my fingers. When my father pushed me again, guiding me toward the front of the group, I clutched with everything I had onto the tiny sliver of dreams that still lived in my mind. I went ahead, keeping my head high, staring right at the man sitting in the center of the half-circle whose eyes were already on me.

With a thumb pressed to his full lower lip, and the eyes of a predator seeking his next prey, I didn’t want him to look at me, but he did. The small smile that started dancing on his lips told me that things wouldn’t go exactly as I wanted them to.

Not that they ever did, but I still hoped that the family they would give me to would be loving, warm, understanding. My eyes ran over the rest of the members of the High Council, the founders, the Mothers and Fathers of the Order, and not a single one of them had the light I desperately wanted to have.

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