C10 Offer him your body

Time was ticking at its usual rhythm but for me, every second became a painful hold on the thread of my father's life.

"Axel..." I whimpered, my eyes wide as I looked between him and the butcher who was now standing only a few feet away from my Father.

One swing of his knives and my father would be dead.

"Please... You can still stop this... Please!" I turned my tear-filled eyes to Axel and dropped onto the ground again.

"How can I sit here and watch you kill my father?" I yelled, forgetting the monster I was speaking to.

His red eyes twisted and they became a sudden alarming blend of black.

In a blink of an eye, he grabbed my neck and glared at me.

"Your father made me watch when he sold my sister to the cruellest woman ever!" He spat and I squeezed my eyes in fear.

"You father made me watch as he took my brother and allowed his guards to have their way with him! Your fucking father took my parents away from me! Your fucking father stole my kingdom and turned my body into a bloody canvas!" He roared his voice shaking the garden.

I could only whimper as I knew I had crossed the line. There was no way back for me. I was doomed and my parents were going to die with me.

"Please, if we can take it back. I promise we will... I will! But please..." I sobbed trembling under his touch.

"How can you take it back?" He roared, his voice filled with anger so deep I could feel the flames burn my skin.

"Can you bring back my family?! Can you remove the trauma you caused every one of us at such a tender age?! Can you do that Violet?!"

I could only cry as my voice refused to come out. I couldn't bring back his family —hell, I couldn't even take back what my parents had done to him but all I wanted was for him to let my father go.

He was choking me but I wasn't even afraid of my death. All my heart beat for was my poor father.

"Please..." I whimpered and a trail of my tears dropped on his arms.

As if my tears had burned him he dropped me unceremoniously to the ground and locked eyes with the butcher.

"Open him up and make sure he stays alive! I have a special plan for him!" He growled.

Before I could move from my position on the floor, the butcher unclipped his large knives and swung them in the air like he was making a spectacle. Then with one swift movement, he cut through my father's stomach.

Time stopped. The world turned dark. My father was going to die.

"No!" I screamed, running toward him.

The guards closest to me tried to stop him but I heard Axel's voice growl from somewhere behind me.

"Let her be!"

I didn't care that there were a dozen guards around me. All I wanted was to get to my dying father. I pushed out of their hold and ran to my father.

The butcher made another swift cut, this time he cut the ropes that tied him and my father dropped to the platform like a bag of potatoes.

I got there just in time to hold him in my arms, easing his fall.

"Daddy!" I screamed, trying as much as I could to hold the opening in his stomach where the butcher had cut to stop the blood from seeping out.

My vision blurred as the strong smell of blood filled my senses. For a moment I was taken back to that gory room and all I could see were the eyes of that poor girl as her heart got clawed out of her body.

I started panting fast as I realized that my father was the next victim.

"Daddy! Please stay with me. They are bringing help! Please stay with me!" I mumbled despite the river of tears that flooded my face.

My father shook his head weakly and he held my hands —which were now soaked with his blood.

"He will return... He will do more harm... Save yourself. Let me die—"

"No! You are not dying! I am not letting you die!" I screamed as my heart shook in its cage.

"You are going to survive and I am going to find a way out of this place, you hear me? You will survive!"

He tried to speak but a racking cough caught through his throat and I helplessly looked around for help. Axel had said they should sew him up but what if the guards wanted him dead?

My panic returned as I feared the rate at which my father was losing blood was going to lead to his death.

"Help! Somebody help me!" I yelled helplessly.

"Axel is a monster, Violet. You can't convince him! Just save yourself and your mother if you can..."

I shook my head refusing to listen to him. Before now, I thought Axel was not who they said he was but after I saw that room.

After what I saw him do in that room... I knew that my father was right. But I wouldn't give up on them.

I would not leave and abandon them in this hell.

"Help!" I screamed as I saw a man approaching.

"Hey, do not shout so much!" He hissed as he got beside me.

I turned around and noticed he was carrying a first aid box, and he wasn't alone. There was another man with him.

"Move aside, let me stitch him up!" The man with the box hissed.

I moved but not completely away. The man opened up the box and pulled out a long needle. Then he started coming toward my father.

My eyes opened so wide they almost reached my hairline. "Aren't you going to sedate him? You can't just stitch him up like this!" I cried out in shock, shoving his hand away from my father.

Was this man a medical practitioner or a joker?

"Are you going to teach me my job or are you going to watch your father die?" The man growled at me.

The second man came closer and they both glared at me, daring me to pick the latter.

"Step aside or we will let him bleed." He threatened.

"Your King is going to punish you! He asked you to keep him alive!" I retorted but they exchanged looks and smirked.

The second man lowered himself to his knees and looked at me. "Listen spoiled brat, our king doesn't kill his kind. You and your father are mere humans. You think he will care that much?"

"Move over or watch him die?" The first man hissed.

Quickly, I stepped away and watched as he poured a large amount of alcohol on my father's cut, without as much as a warning.

My father screamed in pain but he was held down by the second man, who smirked.

"Give him another dose. The pain should help him pass out," he snickered.

And to my horror, the first man did just like his friend had suggested.

Unable to take the pain anymore, my father passed out.

There was a satisfactory grin on their faces and I realized that they were enjoying this. They were loving the way they inflicted pain on him.

"Why are you doing this?" I cried, unable to keep it in any longer. "Why are you so cruel?"

They turned to glare at me as if they had forgotten about my existence and my voice had suddenly reminded them that I was still here.

"That is a waste of good material for a man that doesn't deserve as much as a cotton dab!" The one treating my father hissed.

"Our king will kill him soon. Do you know what he did to my family? Do you think your daddy cared when he got my sister opened and watched her bleed to death?" The second man snarled. I could feel his pain and bitterness in his voice.

As much as I wanted to sympathise with him, my tongue remained frozen in my mouth.

I tried to remember their faces from our dungeons when I was smaller. There were a good number of werewolves there but I couldn't remember these faces.

But that couldn't dispute the fact that my father might have hurt them like they said he did.

"You should be grateful, the King decided to keep him alive!" He said and then turned to his friend.

"This is starting to take longer than necessary! Stitch him up and let's get out of here!" He growled.

"Definitely!" The other said and they concentrated on their job.

My tears continued flowing till they finished and another set of guards came to drag him back to the dungeon.

Before they could lock him up again, I ran inside and watched as my mother started crying seeing my father's unconscious body.

"He is going to kill us all Mother! He is a monster!" I cried, falling by the bars that separated us.

She wiped her head away from my father's body and her eyes settled on me. She got on her feet and wiped her tears, then she walked to where I was.

"Violet, you have to be strong. Our ticket out of here is in your hands..."

"How mommy... How? He doesn't even look at me—"

"No baby, no," she said, clutching my hand. She reached her hand outside and she wiped my tears.

"He wants you. I saw it in his eyes the other night."

"Mom, What do you mean?"

She looked around to make sure that the guards were not paying attention to us and then she leaned even closer. "Offer him your body for our freedom."