Ava's POV
I thought this was going to be the most painful experience that might take my life, but when I was pushed in, I felt nothing. Not even my body was wet, as it seemed like I was floating above the water without gravity to pull me down.
When I was forced into the confinement by the Beta's daughter, I screamed at the top of my voice in panic and terror of the agonizing pain I would face, especially as I saw how the liquid was bubbling like boiling water, making me remember that the wolfsbane and silver combination torture was something that was a nightmare for every wolf, and I had seen many die from the pain, but as I was finally buried and enclosed inside the same toxic and deadly liquid, I felt nothing.
Why can't I even feel the wetness on my skin? It just appeared like I had lost the ability to feel touch, and I noticed I was losing consciousness too, with something like a soul ejector pulling my soul from my body.
"Ava!" I heard someone scream my name in a voice that was filled with fear, that heart-wrenching fear that hits one when they are at the point of death.
My eyes, which were shut, popped open, and I suddenly found myself on the outside of the Royal Packhouse, right in front of the gate, staring at the whole pack, with all its members peacefully living their lives.
"What is going on? How did I get here?" I mused as I got more confused. The last thing I could remember was being pushed into the silver and wolfsbane confinement that was prepared to check on my true identity after being suspected to be a demon. So how the hell did I end up here?
And who owns that female voice that screamed my name in a terrifying tone just now?
I saw three men, which included Stan, the warrior leader, as they stepped out of the Royal Packhouse gate, and that made me smile widely. I ran to him, shouting his name, since I recalled he was the only one who had been nice to me, but just then, the strangest thing happened.
I tried to hug him from behind but ended up hugging the air as his body passed through me without any contact. Even when I shouted his name, he didn't turn or act like I made any sound. I also noticed my voice was queer and seemed to be within me.
My jaw dropped instantly as a thought hit my head: I could be dead already!
"No!!!" I screamed in horror, but just like before, it was muffled by a force I can't understand. I was sure I made that scream with all my might, but no one was looking at me.
I ran to Stan, who was now a few metres away from me. I kept shrugging off the thought that I was dead from my mind, even when that was the only thing that could explain why I seemed to be in another world. Hot tears were brimming my eyes and pouring like two springs while I kept breathing heavily.
"Stan! Look at me!!! I am here!!" I screeched in terror, stretching my hand to grab his hand, but once again, it swayed past. I couldn't touch him. Our skin never comes into contact.
But then, he stopped walking and spun toward me.
His hazel eyes fell on me and I gasped in excitement, thinking he had started seeing me, but what happened next made me shake in wild fright. He fell dead.
Stan died and went cold, followed by the two other men with him. Their eyeballs turned creepily blue.
"Stan!!" I screamed, but then my ears began to hear cries of agony, wails, and blood-gurgling screams. I looked up and around me, seeing nothing but dead bodies piling up. Everyone of my pack members was dying in large numbers, falling off and going limp.
"No, what is happening?!!" I cried out, but the cries increased, taunting and battering my head.
Right in front of me, everyone was slumping and dying, and their dead bodies were scattered all around the ground, leaving me in terror.
With a wild run, I sped into the Royal Pack House to announce this massacre to my father, but a sudden laughter of mockery began to resonate all around the building.
As I made my way to the royal mansion, I could already see the guards outside slumping too. The terrifying part was that they would die without their eyes closing and would keep looking at me just as Stan had done. The stare was the type that was blaming me for their deaths. Even the screams echoing all around seemed to be directed at me.
Finally, I entered the sitting room of the Royal Pack, and everywhere was dead silent, with dead bodies scattered around, cold and stiff with blue eyes open.
I screamed in fear as the dead bodies seemed to be haunting. It forced me to shut my eyes, looking away.
Once again, that hoarse, sarcastic laugh began. This time it was more intense and came from the royal palace, where my father could be.
"No! No! No! This is not real!" I whimpered, sprinting erratically to the palace, as I prayed for wake. It should be a nightmare, but the more I ran forward to the palace with the laughter increasing in my head, the more I felt the sensation all over me. Everything appeared too real to be a dream.
"Here she comes!!" That was what I heard just as I kicked open the door of the palace.
"Ava!!" I heard that same feminine voice that had called me out in fear at the beginning. It was calling me again, but the difference was that I was seeing her right in front of me.
A woman clad in a white royal robe and with brunette hair just like mine. She was blindfolded and had her hands tied while forced to kneel on broken rocks, which caused her knees to bleed.
I was struggling to breathe as my eyes caught the dark figure behind her. It was like a fog, but had the figure of a man. Besides the fog, there was also a lady, whose face I couldn't see.
My head was banging now as I kept wagging, telling myself continuously that I was dreaming.
My eyes caught a lifeless body on the floor soaked in the pool of its own blood. I traced the face and saw the man was my father.
"No! Daddy!!!" I burst into tears and tried to run to him, but found out I had lost the ability to walk. My legs had frozen and every part of me was paralyzed so that I couldn't move anymore.
"Who are you?! Why did you kill the Alpha, my father? Why!! What did he do wrong? Are you the one that is also caused my pack members death?" Hot tears seared my eye sockets, flooding down my cheeks as I yelled at him.
His reply was another round of mocking laughter. This time, I also heard a feminine voice laughing along with him.
"What?..." My whole body froze as the woman kneeling's blindfold ripped off, revealing her stunning face, but it was her sapphire blue eyes that drew my attention.
"She is your useless mother..." The husky voice from the fog mocked us both. We both stared at each other in tears as she called my name again, her tears streaming down her eyes more.
"Don't fail me. I have failed, but I have faith in you. Don't fail too, because you are the only hope remaining!" She sobbed bitterly, trembling and breathing heavily.
Her words resonated sharply inside my head while I stared at the most beautiful woman in front of me, who had just been called my mother. She was the one who had that voice that was filled with fear like one who was at the point of death. Now I see why she was calling on me.
"Mommy..." I purred and attempted to at least touch her, but not even my hand could make a move.
Another round of those creepy and taunting laughs came again from the fog.
"You can't stop us!" That was the last word I heard before it all ended.
A lady who I couldn't see her face suddenly appeared from the black fog and paced close to my mother with a sharp knife in her palm. Her hair was familiar, and so was the way she walked. It all seemed like someone I had seen before. As I racked my brain to figure out who she was, there was only one person who kept flashing through my mind.
Aurora
Snickering evilly, she placed the blade on her throat and slit it open, blood spurting and streaming down with a rush as my mother's body fell dead instantly, lying beside my father.
"No!! Mummy!!" I shrieked with no strength left in me as the scene playing in front of me tore my heart and soul apart, with agony. All my efforts to save them were all useless, and I had to watch them die.
At almost the same time, everything began to spin around me, and like a vision, I saw my pack being razed by fire. The dead bodies were burned black without burial, and it all seemed not to be a dream or illusion as I could feel the heat of the fire.
My pack was really getting destroyed while I stood, stuck in the same spot with no ability to move.
"If you don't save them, this will be their fate. Not even your mate will be spared. The werewolves' existence might turn into a history." I heard a voice speak inside of me. It wasn't my wolf, but another beast with a deep and scary voice.
"Who are you? And what are you saying? Who are those that killed my parents and destroyed my pack? What's the hell is going on?!" I bawled and broke down in tears as my heart shattered even more.
"I am your second beast. You just have to be strong till the day I rise. If you let them push you to your death, you have failed your mother, and she will never forgive you for letting her enemies have victory over her." The beast replied, and I was about to ask who the enemies were.
But just then, everything was blown off with the wind. It all faded away, and I began to hear murmurs from familiar voices. My skin began to tingle as it got wet and my clothes also got drenched as I found myself pulled down and sunk into the liquid substance inside a confinement. My sense of touch was back and then reality struck me when I least expected it.
I felt the most excruciating pain ever.
Sharp and burning affliction spread throughout my entire body as the silver and wolfsbane mixture scourged me like a group of poisonous serpents stinging every part of me.