“Such a pretty ring for a pretty princess,” the shadow purrs. I can’t see it, but I can feel the sharp pricks as it trails a taloned finger along the edges of the gold band on my finger. Tears burn my eyes from the pain in my arm. “But I don’t think you’ll be needing this anymore.” At its words, I finally get a good look at the creature over my shoulder, though it’s blurry and distorted by unshed tears. It looks almost human, but its skin is gray and wrinkled, looking on the verge of desiccation. Its hooved feet sink into the marsh below as its horned head tilts inmy direction, glowering oppressively down at me. The eyes are a glowing blood red that unsettle me. Long, greasy black hair hangs around its face in stringy clumps. It reeks of must and mildew.
Its free hand reaches to pull the ring from my finger, but I close my hand into a fist before it can take it.
The creaturetsksat me in response. Next thing I know, I’m being dragged by the arm in its grasp. I kick out and struggle, trying to pry its hand from my wrist with my free hand. The creature grabs my other wrist and squeezes tight, causing me to release my grasp on its hand with a gasp of pain.
“Let me go!” I shout with a crack in my voice, the tears finally having burst free.
“No,” the creature growls. “You’re coming with me, little golden one. You’ll make a fine addition to my collection.” I can’t see its face, but I can feel the sinister smile in its voice. A marshy bog come into view and I struggle more to get out of its clutches.
This is it. This is where I’m going to die. The banshee was right. I hear a sob tear from my throat as I think about the fact that I’m going to die out here in this forest all alone. Aunt Fleur and Tom have no idea I’m even in Alinea. They’re never going to know what happened to me.
“HELP! Somebody,please!” I plead into the otherwise still forest, my voice cracking on the last word. I expect my voice to carry on an echo through the empty forest, but it feels like the sound drops at my feet. I’m not even sure if there’s anyone around to hear my cries in the first place. But I hope, because that’s all I can do now. Hope and fight back with everything I have in me. I’d even take Bastian’s mother over this creature.
“Shush girl! You’re mine now.” I’m thrust into the bog with only my shoulders above the water because the creature is still holding my wrists. It moves to hold both wrists with one hand while it stoops down to grab a fist sized rock with the other.“Now let’s see about that ring, shall we?” It flashes its teeth at me in an attempt at a smile. The expression causes me to cringe away further. Its teeth are all pointed, sharp and yellowed.
I still refuse to unclench my hand. The creature releases my other hand but pulls my ring-adorned hand high enough so I can’t reach without the leverage of ground beneath my feet. I kick anyway, hoping I can connect with something in the water of the bog, but I meet no resistance. It takes the rock and begins smashing at the bend of the ring. I cry out in pain as the impact ricochets through the bones in my hand.This thing is going to shatter my hand.It repeats the motion over and over again. I can feel the cracks and snaps in my fingers telling me that several bones are broken. The pain blinding me from taking in anything else happening around as I continue to lash out.
Finally, it halts the pounding and I let out a shaky breath at the momentary relief. “There. Much better,” it says with another of those devious grins. It drops the rock and reaches out its hand to drag its talons down the side of my face. My cheek burns from the path the talons take, and I can feel moisture gathering where it’s drawn blood. It pulls a talon into its mouth and sucks. “Mmm, you taste as pretty as you look.” I shiver in disgust and try one last time to free myself from its grasp.
“Oh, does the little princess want to go for a swim? By all means,swim.” It releases its grip on my wrist and for half a second I’m relieved before I realize there’s no bottom to this bog and I plunge into the icy water. The creature’s hand finds the top of my head and pushes me deeper, deeper into the bog. I kick and try to swim back to the surface, clawing at its hand with my good one, but a swift knock to my head causes stars to cloud my vision, momentarily disorienting me. By the time I’m able to recollect my thoughts, I can’t tell which way is up or down. I can feel my lungs burning as they beg for me to take a breath. I tryone last time to kick towards where I think the surface is. Once again, a hand pushes me down, down,down.
I… can’t… breathe.
Black spots start to flood my vision. Instinct takes over and I open my mouth to suck in a gasp of air but instead inhale the grittiness of the bog. I start choking, barely noticing when the pressure pushing me down disappears. My vision starts to spin and black begins to overtake my sight.
I don’t have the strength to fight against the bog dragging me further into the dark depths.
This is it.
I faintly recognize the feel of something gripping around my waist and pulling me as everything goes dark.
“Come on, come on,come on!”
I hear a voice, but it sounds far away. Distant. Almost like it’s at the end of a tunnel. Or underwater.
Or maybe I’m underwater? That would make sense considering I just drowned.
“Come on, breathe for me,” I hear the voice pleading. There’s a painful rhythmic pressure beating like a drum on my chest.
“Liv,please.” The voice sounds panicked now.
Wait. Hold on a minute.
There’s only one person who would call me Liv.
Who evenknowsme as Liv.
Bastian.
I must be dead or dreaming because there’s no way.
I begin to gag and choke as water makes its way up my throat. I quickly roll to the side, sputtering, coughing up nearly half the bog while I’m at it. The warming presence of a hand moves tomy back and rubs soothing circles while I continue to purge the water from my lungs.
“Thank the gods,” Bastian breathes out on a relieved exhale.
Once my throat and lungs are burning, but no longer filled with water, I roll on my back and look up at Bastian who’s kneeling over me. His face looks almost anguished, and I swear it’s probably the most emotion he’s ever shown around me. “How—” I try to speak but my voice comes out like a croak, and it feels like I’ve swallowed liquid flames.
“Hey, take it slow. Don’t try to talk yet,” his soft voice soothes.
