Page 10 of Captured By the Monsters
SERA
As my feet lifted from the ground, I began to panic. “Madison! Mishka!” I yelled, needing to know what was happening to the girls.
“There’s nothing you can do for them,” the soothing voice whispered in my ear, but this time it didn’t bring me peace of mind. It enraged me.
“Bullshit! Put me down! I’m not leaving them.”
I wouldn’t leave them here to die. I couldn’t.
“We must protect you, precious.” The rough voice swirled around me, seemingly explaining everything that mattered to them in just five words.
Attempting to stand and push at the shadows around me, I tumbled back to my knees, completely disoriented and off-kilter in the darkness. I yelled the girls’ names once more, the answering silence all I needed to know. They were gone.
I allowed a few tears to stream down my face for the four girls who had lost their lives senselessly. They’d been ripped from their homes and forced down here for what? To die because they weren’t properly matched to be breeding machines for these monsters?
A scream of rage tore through my throat, and I surged to my feet and dove headfirst through the wall of shadows that cocooned me, collapsing on the other side of them.
It had been the wrong move.
Once again, the searing pain and feeling of suffocating clogged my throat and lungs, my eyes burning with unshed tears as I confirmed my two assumptions:
The two girls lay unmoving with their eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling with open mouths of terror. Dead.
And the cave walls no longer glimmered, the forcefield no longer rippled at the cave’s entrance. It was seemingly gone, a steady breeze of air blowing through now.
“Damn…you,” I wheezed out, including all of these monstrous fuckers in that statement.
Trying to push from my hands and knees to stand, my limbs trembled with the strain. My eyes fell to the ground as I focused all of my energy on the desire to stand and fight, but shock stunned me from moving as I felt the ground shake beneath me.
“Get away from her! She is ours!” the gravelly voice roared as I looked up and felt the weight of the remaining three Trifectas focus on me just before they converged on me.
Oh shit.
Falling onto my ass, I scrambled backward as quickly as I could, which was honestly at a snail’s pace with the toxic air still poisoning me. Why was this place no longer safe all of a sudden? It was becoming increasingly clear our lack of knowledge of this world was a huge component of why so many of us died.
I found myself in the corner of the cave as I watched the creatures swirl and vibrate with energy in front of me. Were they fighting? It was so hard to make out their individual shapes, but my eyes continuously found the same three figures, and I knew they were mine somehow.
I felt the pull to them like a moth to a flame, and maybe that was the perfect analogy for what this was. Because despite whatever unexplainable draw I felt to them, I knew in the end I would be burned and likely killed.
Voices echoed through the cave, many of which I didn’t recognize, but I did manage to understand that they were arguing over who I belonged to. This confused me, as even with what little information I possessed, it seemed clear that the crystal had shown exactly who I was matched to.
“You cannot force a match, Azmunch!” one of my shadows yelled, echoing my own inner thoughts
Despite the panic that I would soon face the same fate as the other girls if I didn’t get clean air, I couldn’t help but snort out a precious breath at how close to “ass munch” that sounded. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen making me a little loopy, but it was funny.
And of course it belonged to the voice I had been fearful of as he roared back, “You will not stop me from trying! We have waited far too long to find our match.”
“You leave us no choice.” The whispered threat floated through the air a second before my three shadows came together in front of me, reaching for me with their tendrils. Upon contact with me, the crystal lit up and I quickly slammed my eyes closed once more to protect my vision.
Shrieks ensued, and I couldn’t help but crack one of my eyes open to see what was going on. My mouth dropped open in shock as the shadows stretched and lengthened into menacing blobs that reminded me of the grim reaper—all smoke and death. The three of them advanced upon the other shadows with ominous intent.
“You would slay your brethren?” Azmunch scoffed, acting like he was calling their bluff.
My Trifecta responded instantly and with unwavering certainty.
“Yes.”
“Without a second thought.”
