Page 22 of The Sanguine Selection
I take a deep breath, ready to recite the words I know so well as an ember of hope begins to burn as it does with each Selection. May this flame of promise be the one we can nurture…
Or I fear it will be snuffed out for eternity, never to be lit again.
11
Oxana
Even though Iknow I'm safe, my heart still races. My future is uncertain as I'm carted off into the unknown. Just because these men—guards—saved me from the two inhuman men back in the woods doesn't mean that they themselves aren't taking me to a different set of monsters.
Bigger ones.
Scarier ones.
I swallow thickly, trying to calm my nerves. There’s no way for me to know anything for certain, so I refuse to go down that path of thought. But around me, a horde of women sobs and wails into the darkness of the night.
Surely they wouldn't keen so loudly if they didn't know their fates.
Some sick part of me enjoys their nearness, to be surrounded with other people after living a life of isolation. Squeezing myself to the front, I press against the bars of the cart being drawn by a horse. An ornate carriage rumbles along ahead of us. It speaks of a wealth I've never known and never will, and I wonder who it houses inside. Clearly someone who doesn't think we're little more than animals to be treated as such.
Whoever they are, he or she is no friend of mine.
Still, I feel safer up near the front. Although the girls around me aren’t doing anything but crying, I sense the underlying tension growing—their hostility waiting to boil over. When it does, I don't want to be in their paths.
I close my eyes, resting my head against a bar, but the images that dance before me of sharp fangs and a phantom set of cold lips pressed against my neck. I quickly reopen my eyes. My hands tremble even closed around the cool bars, and I wonder if I'll ever be able to sleep peacefully again.
But I already know the answer to that.
It's not just what’s happening now, but everything. Papa is at the forefront of my worries. What he turned into, not knowing if he is okay, or if he’s another monster, too, waiting to hunt me down.
To hurt me—kill me.
The shaking in my hand drifts until my entire body trembles, half due to the bitter wind freezing my bones, the other due to intense fear. What would Papa do to me if he did become something other and hunted me down?
Hunted me and caught me like the others did. I burn with shame, my body betraying me as it comes alive at the memory of the monstrous men. What they did was wrong—and I fought them—but at the same time, I was curious about what they were going to do. My mind is torn, and I don't understand the sense of guilt that washes over me.
Perhaps it’s the culmination of everything that has happened and knowing I should have just listened to Papa. Maybe none of this would’ve happened if I hadn't left the house, but I acknowledge there was nothing I could’ve done to help—or even save—my father.
Everything transpiring is far beyond my scope of understanding, and I'm just now beginning to have an inkling of the world around me. It’s suffused in a darkness that gives no hope of finding the light, but it doesn’t matter.
In the end, I failed Papa. He only wanted to protect me, and now I'm like a lamb being brought to slaughter. Deep down I know that I’ll be bathed in my own blood, just like in my nightmares, monsters chasing me at every turn.
A shout from a guard distracts me from the morbidity of my thoughts. There, looming over the magnificent carriage, is an even more magnificent structure—a building so large my mind can barely comprehend.
Behind me, the girls stop crying to whisper amongst themselves. I catch snippets as the wind rushes their words past my ears. The word ‘castle’ lingers and stirs memories long forgotten, of my mother singing and telling me tales of a place so spectacular that it was beyond imagination. I barely can recall now the details of the castle she spoke of, but I thought they only existed in stories Papa calls fairytales—make believe—and yet here one stands. It’s larger than life, a beacon of light in the darkness of the night.
There are hundreds of windows, each ablaze with a single candle. The glass panes are clear and clean, unlike mine back at home which are covered in frost and muck. To have such money—to have that many candles—makes my heart squeeze.
There’s an opulence I never knew existed. It seems cruel that fate chose to have Papa and me scrimp and scrape by, barely surviving one winter to the next, while some people in this world have more than enough to share for three lifetimes.
As we grow closer and closer, this castle gets bigger and bigger. It's a veritable giant of stone. When the carriage finally stops in front of massive doors, my unease grows tenfold. Nothing good can await me behind them, but ever since I heard that gong, I’ve feared that I'm fighting against a destiny that's come to collect.
The guards waste no time in getting all the women assembled before ushering us forward. My feet refuse to move, but a shove from someone behind me mobilizes my frozen limbs. I stumble a few steps, pins and needles stabbing my numb feet, until I’m crossing the threshold into the unknown building.
The press of bodies keeps me going as the guards herd us into a large atrium where three men wait. Two are tall with the same feral beauty as Elias, and I shrink back at the memory of him touching me. The other man is squatter, his features not nearly as smooth and handsome.
All three men appear decades older than me, but the shorter one looks more worn, his forehead wrinkled with time and something more.Worry.It’s this less imposing figure of the trio that steps forward to address us.
We're guided through a door into a smaller, colder room where the worried man joins us and shuts the door behind him. “Good evening to you all. My name is Jasper, and I will be assisting you. Most of you know why you’re here, but for those who don’t know, allow me to explain.” He spreads his arms wide, a poor impression of a smile pulling on his thin lips. “Welcome to Castle Drock, your first stop in The Selection. If you’re found worthy during the first round of testing, you will go through a second round, and then a third after that. We are looking for a veryspecialwoman whose blood will rouse our kings.”
