Chapter 3
Shattering Punishments
800 years later…
Everyday to her was dark, bloody and nothing but painful ones she could never escape. 'It's been 800 years now,' she told herself, not bothering to fight the fire demon guards that were to take her to the center of the camp.
Everyday that past since she met Jin, Loreena was sentenced by Rathan and the other three leaders to go through all the punishments for 1000 years, but though she had two hundred years of her sentence left, it all was hell for her. It took a few days for the leaders to decide what to do with her, but they would have more fun taking turns doing the punishments.
The first punishment was 2,000 lashes with a poison whip, but the poison only stunned her.
The leaders were kind of chicken when it came to killing someone, they didn't want their plan to be spoiled of releasing the entire Netherworld by using the prisoners as sacrifices. Jacknife stepped forward with his whip that had frostbite like stings when it hit you in the back.
Loreena could hear the prisoners go quiet at sometimes but other times, some cheered, ones who blamed her for their punishments. Some were quietly praying that she wouldn't die, but she knew she would never hear the words of mercy from her mother and father.
Her whole family was killed once she was taken back to the camp that day she was with Jin in the woods. The lashes were finally done and she was taken by the arms fiercely by the fire guards that flipped her over so she faced DarkEyes.
The good looking vampire smirked at her slyly, and then started beating her senselessly unarmed. She was weak and dizzy from the icy sting of the whip and couldn't fight back; he always had the upper hand when it came to fighting her. Other Night Maidens wanted to give her their energy so she could fight, but Pyroblood kept the power transfers out of range with his Fire Seal.
When DarkEyes time was almost up, he stopped beating her and took her beaten body in his arms and kissed her throat. She suddenly screamed as his fangs cut into her skin from the same mark he always used, his bites never healed on a prisoner's throat, it remained forever as a lesson of discipline if someone's punishment was light.
Since her punishments started right at nightfall, they always lasted three hours and the last was six before sunrise. No one was allowed in the sunlight, and for that everyone was pale as the moon itself.
Pyroblood's Punishment was Loreena fighting a hungry Merciless Wolf, and if she survived she was to fight him. Usually she won by using her hypnotic charm but never had enough energy to even launch two attacks on him, her weakest of attacks never had any effect on him if he used his Flame Circle which protected him and her energy was mirrored back at her.
Though Pryoblood hardly ever fought, he was a master of the arts of Pyro Magic.
Her last, longest punishment was done by Rathan, the strongest of the four leaders. He was a master of illusions and shape shifting, he would always make her believe he was Jin, but unfortunately she always fell for it.
Then, he would pull her up into the air by the arms thousands of feet into the air, then he dropped her into a pit of hundreds of razor sharp spikes that went through her entire body, but she would never die, the collars every prisoner possessed had a special spell that would resurrect them back into life again.
Rathan would do the same process eleven times till the sun was just seconds before rising, then he and the four leaders led all the camp back into their pitch black huts for the day.
He would take her into the Dungeon of Eternal Pain and she would remain there: cold, numb from pain, bloody and untreated. She rarely ate and never had the strength to do the daily chores for the four leaders.
But the worse part of the punishment was at every new red moon; they would take her to the Room of Massacre and chain her to the plank that faced the moon and the view of the barren valley, her back facing the four leaders behind her.
In the background, she heard a roaring fire and the sound of metal and hot lead contacting one another. First, Jacknife would start a huge fire in the pit in the middle of the room. Then, Pyroblood would take out one of his curse knives and sharpened it to full sharpness while DarkEyes melted a small cauldron black lead. Rathan would heat the knife till its blade was white hot and bright orange. Then, DarkEyes would dip the knife's blade into the hot lead and handed the knife to Rathan.
Loreena closed her eyes tight as she heard Rathan's graceful steps behind her and suddenly screamed bloody murder as the moon demon made another black cross on her back she had over six hundred small painful crosses on her back.
She felt the lead mix with her bloodstream and the heat of the blade and lead slowly burn her skin to a crisp black, the sharpness of the knife drawing her delicate blood easily.
"Happy New Moon slave," Rathan whispered softly in her ear. Loreena would've killed him if she was at full strength, hearing the word being said to her made her boil with anger, but she could do nothing and would never be able to.
But that night of the eight hundredth year, she felt strange lying down in her cell. She felt a strange voice call out to her, her half of the Power Wing Stone glowing brightly in the moon's red light. But she ignored it and bit off another scream of pain from the newly made cross on her back.
The voice and the glowing of the stone kept coming back to her whenever she ignored it, so finally she listened and something happened in a fast blur.
She felt her spirit energy return to her and her wings mend by themselves by the strange magic. 'Is…Is someone calling me?' she asked herself softly, turning from side to side again from the pain that burned and shook her body, the visions of what happened the night she came back from the woods.
She screamed at the image and tried to sit up, and suddenly her wings took flight into the night, breaking through the steel bars and into the cool night air.
'What in heaven is going on?' she wanted to say, but she felt the pain from the cross suddenly die down. She flew freely across the night's now cloudy sky, the scent of fresh pine calming her stiff body.
But the freedom didn't last long, for an Exploding Arrow pierced her wing and she was down on the ground outside the camp, the sound of hungry wolves and three headed dogs with the leader coming her way. She immediately prayed for a successful escape, and then with all her last bits of power, she ran off into the woods beyond the hellhole she despised.
It wasn't long before the wolves and three headed dogs were barely on her heels, but every time they came close she used her spike studded boots to kick them back in the rose bushes, soon she wasn't being followed as much anymore as she crossed into the rebel territory in the mountains.
She hid inside a log to catch her breath, her energy running out by the second, and the sounds of the dogs, wolves and angry masters could be heard again. She knew if she stayed here the dogs would sniff her out and she would surely die if she went back to the camp.
Using her ninja like stealth, she slipped out of the rotting log and ran silently through the forest. She didn't care if the semi sharp pine needles and tree branches pricked at her body, she was used to pain, bloodshed and death around her, she had grown up with it every since she walked into the camp 850 years ago.
But she stopped at a steep hill of thick bushes and trees to see Rathan and Jacknife in view, the wolves and dogs must've fallen behind. She could feel their magic in the collar pulling her slowly towards them, but she resisted hard and before she plunged backwards down the steep hill, she threw a Night Curse Dagger at the leaders.
She heard a scream of pain and a little of blood spray. She was consumed in blackness as she rolled fiercely down the hill, then she was stopped by a long tree branch that had caught on her black kimono and back, she was hanging limply from the branch, bloody all over, body beaten to a pulp and a nasty hit to the head.
TO BE CONTINUED…