ADRIA’S POV
I didn’t know if that was what dying felt like but I did know that it was peaceful and at that moment, dying didn’t seem so bad. I had seen everyone. My mum, Lucien, my best friends and Monica was dead and I hated the feeling that made me feel I was going to be weak forever.
Just when I let go completely something burning hot was poured through my lips. It was so hot that it spread around my tongue with an intense, burning heat and traveled down my throat spreading the heat there.
My eyes flew open and I started to cough hard. I saw my mummy with one of her little herb bottles in her hand, staring at me with the definition of worry on her face. She dropped the bottle hastily and placed both hands on my cheeks.
“You are not going anywhere! You will survive this. You weren’t found just so you could die on me! So, listen up Adria. You will go through it all. You will come out victorious, do you hear me? You’re not allowed to die.” She said, holding my cheeks tight and I was forced to stare up into her eyes, ignoring the burning heat soaring in my chest.
I blinked once, and moved my dry lips to say a word but it was so hard. My lips seemed really heavy.
“What is it, darling? What is it you have to say?” She asked, gently, relaxing her grip on my cheeks.
“S…sl…” I swallowed, taking in a slow breath. “Sleep.” I managed to say and she patted my hair.
“I will let you sleep. I do understand how tired you must be. When you wake, I’ll have something prepared for you.” She assured me softly, still stroking my hair.
“But… we can’t just let her sleep. She… she, just now, it felt like she had died! How can we let her go to sleep?” Stacy asked, frantically, looking from me to my mother.
“She will be fine.” My mother assured with confidence as she straightened up. “Now, let’s be sweet and give Adria enough time to sleep.” She said softly, and my friends cast wary looks my way before getting up slowly from their chairs, and leaving the room, still glancing back at me.
I was sure I smiled, but the sane part of me knew my lips didn’t move a bit.
Then I closed my eyes.
I had been having a random, blank dream for what seemed like the first few minutes, but suddenly everything turned dark. I was underneath a swirling sky of gray, and there was a shrill scream somewhere. I saw myself eating a bunch of cut up rats and I fell to the ground, remembering horribly of Monica forcing me to eat raw rats. I screamed and thousands of black rat raced towards me.
“I will help you!” A voice suddenly shrieked. “Hold onto my hand! Look at me, Adria!”
“Who are you!?” I asked, unable to tear my eyes off the rats.
Suddenly a girl appeared with her hair over her face, blood dripping from her fingers and the exposed part of her face, and she stretched out her bloody fingers.
“I am you and you are me.”
My eyes flew open with a jolt and cold beads of sweat rolled down the sides of my face as I panted. My body was burning up again and the pain came from Monica’s bite on my shoulder.
I was sweating all over and my body burned hard. I began to wail and in a minute, my mother dashed through my doors.
“Adria! Are you okay?” She asked, in fear as she held my arm.
“Hot… hot…” I breathed out with tears pouring down the side of my eyes.
“Adria. Adria, you need to calm down. Look at me. Look at mum. You’re not hot. It’s your mind, you’re very cold right now and…”
I started to scream and she panicked. She ran out the door and came by with a lot of bottles hugging her chest. She dropped them on the floor and with shaking hands she mixed a few of them, and gave it to me.
The herbs were super effective. Immediately they had gone thickly down my throat, I could feel myself cooling down and in a minute, I took a deep breath.
My mum sobbed for a while before bringing a bowl of shepherd pie and feeding me every single thing after making sure I was seated up.
She told me my friends had gone for classes and promised to be back, and I nodded.
She stayed with me for hours, helping me feel better and telling me funny stories and it was in the evening close to night that Lucien showed up.
My heart jumped as I saw him and I realized how much it meant to me just to see him again. When he had rescued me, I had been in so much pain and passed out so, it was probably the first time I was seeing him properly since my kidnap.
He walked to my bedside and sat on the stool there looking miserable, and I couldn’t help but feel sad inside. I knew he was blaming himself.
“I’m sorry, Adria. I’m sorry.”
“Why… didn’t you…tell me …. About her?” I managed to ask because I really wanted to hear his explanations.
“You weren’t supposed to know. I didn’t want you to feel scared that a wolf was watching you in school all the time and if she knew you knew about her, she might have become really nasty, scaring you and doing all sorts so I left it. When you guys became friends, I felt she wouldn’t dare to harm you because I had my eyes on her all the time. I thought she wouldn’t dare to get on my nerves. I didn’t see this coming and even when I suspected her, I couldn’t push further because of the treaty we have with the humans, they would lose the trust in us. I… I know I have no excuse. I’m just really sorry. Damn, I sound worse with each sentence.” He explained, unable to meet my eyes, and looking really pitiful.
I moved my hand slowly and held his. “She… your mate. She said.” I breathed out, and he finally looked at him and scoffed.
“You’re my mate. It’s unusual because you’re human, but I’ve never been dissatisfied with it. Every moment with you has been a bliss. Monica is just the daughter of one of Alphas in the other Alpha Kingdoms who I met when I went on the journey I returned from not too long ago. She kept on showing interest in me but I didn’t give her any high hopes, so when she started living here all of a sudden, I knew what she was after. You recall when she brought those pancakes, and I told her I wanted to have a moment with her, it was actually to make it clear that I had no interest in her whatsoever. She stormed out crying and I thought she’d really leave but she didn’t and since she laid low, I didn’t say much. I just thought it hurt her pride to leave because I told her to.” He explained, holding tightly onto my hand since I was too weak to keep on holding his.
“It is okay.” I told him slowly, and he closed his eyes tight as if wishing none of what had happened happened.”
I and Lucien stayed together for hours, talking although he did more of the talking because all I could release at a time were a few broken up words.
My illness and nightmares continued the next day. My nightmares were even worse. I saw myself eating Monica’s dead body and laughing. I was chased and locked in a place full of dead bodies. My other self laughed at me and dragged me, trying to bite me on the same shoulder Monica had bitten me.
Whenever I slept, I always woke up sweating and breathing hard, and on the third day, the hotness, the pain of which I had been trying to bear, seized me harder than before.
It felt like my blood was boiling and fire was being applied to my shoulder. I screamed, and twisted my body which had been so hard to move since the incident. I fell hard to the floor, writhing and screaming until my mum rushed in to me.
“Adria, Adria, it’s okay!” She assured me and dashed to my table where she had kept the herbs she constantly used for me.
I turned all over in my pain, grunting as the veins on my neck and forehead threatened to pop. Hot, burning tears cascaded down the side of my face and I didn’t feel better until my mum’s herbal mixture was pushed into my mouth. I took in deep breaths as I began to cool and my mum lifted me to a sitting position and hugged me, crying hard.
We both sat there crying helplessly and the sadness we both shared at the moment was unbearable. Was I going to die eventually? What exactly was going to happen to me?