Chapter 37

Forest's POV

I could feel her slipping away.

Every tick of the clock was just another reminder that another second had slipped by and we were no closer to solving the puzzle.

"Maybe the city means this city?" Ash said, "Maybe the whole thing is literal,"

I sighed, "Yes Ash," I said, sarcasm thick in my voice, "Because every tree around here is man made, that clash in melody and are surrounded by a defining silence."

My mum sighed in annoyance, "This whole riddle is an oxymoron. It makes no sense because it's not suppose to. They are making it hard for us to succeed."

I nodded, "What do we do," I whispered, "She's slipping away," I tapped my head, "I can feel her slipping away, and I can't do anything."

My mum pulled me into a hug. "We'll find her. He can't have her. She's ours."

I nodded in agreement before turning back to the riddle. We had to solve it.

Terra's POV

"Terra," My dad sang, coming into the cell, "Terra, Terra, Terra," He was laughing, cracking himself up.

It wasn't a pretty sound.

It sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

"What," I growled out, trying hard not to cough or wince at my scratchy voice. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of how much his torture had done to me.

"Well you see Terra," He said, a smirk on his face as his eyes danced with fire. "I had a great idea of what to do today. It's going to be so much fun."

His words did nothing to assure me, probably because of the evil tone they were said in, or the way he has never done anything nice for me.

Ever.

"Do you want to know what I'm going to do today?" I shook my head but he either didn't see or didn't care. "I'm going to teach you a lesson you'll never forget."

Between one word and the next he grabbed my hair, pulling me into the air and threw me down, making my wrist snap as I landed on it awkwardly.

He grabbed two chairs from across the room, and threw me into one of them, chaining me to it so I couldn't escape.

He then sat across from me, as if we really were in school, just two friends having a conversation rather than a mad lunatic who kidnapped his daughter just to beat her and sell her off to a random man for fun.

"Now," My dad said, smiling, "first lesson is science."

As he said that Tyler came in, carrying a tray of medical instruments.

"You know Terra," My dad said, smirking at me, "I've always loved the working of the human body. The way the muscles twitch or the tendons snap, but your brother, your poor poor brother, has never gotten to see the human anatomy, so today, we are going to show him." Then, as if an afterthought he added, "If you move less, it'll hurt less."

He grabbed the scalpel, bringing it towards my arm. His mouth was moving but I couldn't make out the words, I was transfixed on the instrument getting closer and closer to my arm.

We all watched my blood drip down my arm, but all for different reasons.

I was watching in horror, my life giving blood dripping down to become a worthless puddle on the floor.

Where as my brother and dad, they were watching in sick fascination, watching the way the blood twisted and twirled as it glided down my arm. They didn't care if they bled me dry. They just thought it was fun.

They cut, more and more, I screamed out as the blood gushed down my arms, my legs, my chest.

They didn't care.

I welcomed the darkness like an old friend, opening my arms wide to be taken in to it's dark embrace.

There was no pain.

There were no sounds.

There was no life, or death.

This was a grey area, lost in between.

Before Forest, the darkness was always my home, my safety, the one I would go to when it got too much.

The darkness took me away from the pain.

So I welcomed it.

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Pain.

There's something about pain.

However much pain I feel, however much torture they put me through. I never get used to it.

You would think that, after years of waking up in pain, after being unconscious for minutes, days, sometimes even weeks, I would have gotten used to the pain. The ache in my bones, the itch of still healing cuts, the way I can barely move for weeks or months later because of healing bones, or bruised ribs.

When I was little I used to think it was normal. I used to turn up to school and wonder how the children in my class never winced away from painful touches, how they could run, jump, play, while I was stuck sitting down, in too much pain to move.

I used to think they were just better than me. Maybe they were good, so their parents didn't beat them as much, or maybe I was just weak. My dad always said he didn't hit me that hard. It only hurt because I was weak, because I let it.

Over time I began to realise it wasn't normal. But I didn't realise quite how bad it was until I met Forest, and Atlas and Isla.

The way they treated each other, the way they treated me, showed me just how abnormal the whole thing with my father and brother was.

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They came back, again and again. They would give me 10 minutes of being awake before they would come back. They would cut me to see my blood flow, inflict pain on me just t see me twitch, just to make me scream.

I tried to stay strong. For Forest, for my family.

But everyone has a limit.

A limit of the pain you can take.

A limit to the lies you can be fed before you believe them.

A limit to the amount of times you can tell yourself to be strong, not to give up, things will change for the better.

If you go over that limit. The person will fall apart.

I hadn't just gone over my limits, I was so far over my limits I was scared to look down and see what I had become. Because it probably wasn't me. Not anymore.

What do you do. What do you do when the only way to survive is to do the exact thing that could kill you, and the exact thing you don't want to do.

You adapt.

I'd adapted to life in the cells.

I stayed quiet. I complied to their wishes. I listened to them.

It made the voice in my head happy, and that's how I knew it was probably a bad idea.

But when your in the moment, a bad idea doesn't seem as bad. I thought I was doing my own thing. Surviving. Adapting. Until Forest came.

That wasn't what I was doing.

I was giving up.

I just didn't want to admit it.

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"Hello Terra," Simon said, standing in the doorway. He visited me daily. Always greeted me politely. Always being nice. I suppose I forgot what he could be like.

I smiled up at him, "Hello Simon," I didn't realise I was doing exactly what they wanted until I was in too deep to escape.

I suppose too long of just trying to survive did that to you.

I always believed Forest would come and save me. It wasn't a question of if, just when.

But as the days stretched on. With no way to track time, it became harder and harder to believe he was coming.

My biggest mistake was trusting them. I trusted them to not try to trick me. After ages of them playing fair. I forgot they were evil. They would never play fair.

"Terra," Simon said, drawing my attention back to him, "Are you ok? You seem a bit spaced out."

I nodded, "I'm fine, just a bit tired, that's all."

He seemed satisfied with that answer, "I'll let you rest then,"

Simon walked out, giving one last look before closing the door.

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A few minutes later the door clicked open and Nathaniel walked in. He looked twitchy. He kept looking over his shoulder, as if he was scared of being caught.

"Come on," He said, undoing my chains, "We don't have long, as soon as they realise your gone they'll come looking for you."

"What are you doing?" I questioned, rubbing my wrists where they had been confined for what felt like ages.

"I'm saving you." He said, leading me out the building, keeping to the shadows. "Now run. Run, find your mate. Never come back."

So I did.

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I ran as fast as I could. Like a gazelle, running for it's life. In a way I was. Not for my life. Too my life.

I ran randomly. Looking for any indication of where I was, any indication of how to get home.

I thought it a miracle when I saw the school looming in front of me. I was only a few miles away from home.

I ran as fast as I could. I knew exactly where I was going. I knew exactly what I was going to do when I got home.

But there was one, little detail I forgot.

I forgot last time. When I met Aran.

I forgot that eyes can lie, sounds can be distorted, smell can be disguised.

I forgot that they would never play fair.

I forgot.

My second mistake.