Once Betrayed Never Forgotten

Chapter 24: Shattered Illusions

My heart races as I listen to the echoing screams reverberating through the corridor. The metallic scraping and shuffling noises send a shiver down my spine. Instinct propels me into action, and I hurry to unlock my chamber door. The key turns with a quiet click, and the door swings open, revealing the shadowy passageway beyond.

My eyes adjust to the dim light as I peer out, and a chilling sight meets my gaze. A figure drags itself along the cold stones of the corridor, moving with a grotesque determination. Hunched over, dressed in rags that hang off his wasted frame, the man’s appearance is a haunting blend of desperation and madness. Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

My heart wrenches as I watch him struggle. He’s clearly weakened, emaciated to the point of near- collapse. I can smell the sour, unwashed stench that clings to him, and his eyes gleam with a wildness that chills me to the bone.

Startled, he turns his head towards me, his eyes wide with raw animalistic terror. Before he can scream, I clamp my hand over his mouth, trying to reassure him with my eyes that I’m not a threat, as I whisper, “It’s ok. I won’t hurt you. Please don’t scream.”

For a moment, he freezes, his gaze locked with mine. Slowly, I remove my hand, and he sags against the wall, his frailty evident.

Breathing heavily, he whispers in a hoarse voice, ‘Please, please don’t be one of them. I can’t go

back there… I’d rather be dead…”

His voice is strange, with an almost British accent, upper class and posh but ragged and manic.

I shake my head, trying to convey that I’m human, just like him. “I’m not one of them, I promise,” I assure him in a hushed tone. I curl up my lips and point to my perfectly normal human canines, so much shorter than the cruel razor–sharp fangs of a vampire.

“See?” I whisper to him. “Human.”

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Bon

07:2

He exhales, relief flooding his features as he collapses onto the floor, his body unable to support

him any longer.

“Who are you?” I murmur, as he leans back against the wall and closes his eyes, his whole body shaking

is story.

Desperation colours his voice as he begins to tell me his

“My name is…” he begins, then pauses, as if struggling to remember his own name. “David…” he

Chapter 24. Shattered Illusions

says slowly. “Yes… David Joyce–Campbell. I worked as the Chief of Operations at the Silverscope Medical Centre in London, a business owned by the Evergreen Legacy Consortium. That’s how the Vasiliev family found me. How they captured me…

He begins to cough, his whole body wracked with shuddering as he wheezes, struggling to catch

his breath.

“I’ve been a prisoner for decades,” he whispers between coughs, his eyes glazing over. “Down

there.”

He points downwards, at the floor, or at somewhere far, far beneath it.

“Myself and two others… we’ve been held captive in the dungeons, chained up like animals. Left

to rot and fester like old meat on the butcher’s hook.”

His wrists bear the scars of heavy iron manacles, the chains that bound him for years.

“Tonight, I managed to break free when our sadistic little caretaker forgot to lock the cell door,” he murmurs. “She looks like an angel, but she’s a devil, through and through.”

“Your caretaker?“I echo his words.

“Yes, the one who looks like a little girl,” he says wistfully, and with a start, I realise that he’s probably talking about Seraphina. “She seemed distracted this evening. Maybe it’s that big party going on… I could hear the music, the merriment of those monsters. And they took more blood than usual, so much blood, plenty of guests to feed…”

A shiver runs down my spine as he describes the horrors they endured. Drained of blood, trapped in a nightmarish existence, his words paint a grim picture of the true nature of the vampires in this castle.

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“They’re monsters,” he mutters, his voice tinged with bitterness. “Feeding on us like catt Keeping us locked away, tortured. Revelling in our pain.”

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07:20

Some stupid part of me still wants to believe that he’s mistaken, or that he’s lying but what reason could he have to mislead me? The ugly truth is staring me right in the face, and I can no longer deny it.

The rage that had been simmering within me ignites into a blazing inferno. Not only was. Aleksandr’s deception a betrayal, but it’s now clear that the entire vampire family is responsible for the suffering of innocent humans. I can’t believe how stupid I was to trust him. To trust any of them, my mother included. She knows she must have known all along – what she has married into and signed herself up for.

Chapter 24: Shattered Illusions

And not only did Aleksandr lie about his intentions with regards to me, and the deadly risk a sexual encounter between us posed to me it turns out he also lied when he said that he and his family don’t feed directly on humans. In the library a few days ago, when I asked him if he preys on humans, he told me exactly what I wanted to hear. He reassured me that the members of the Vasiliev family only drink donated blood from hospitals and blood banks, owned by their multinational corporation. Clearly that, just like everything else he’s told me, was all one big lie, a trick to lull me in a false sense of security, so that he could pounce and have his way with me before throwing me away like garbage.

I’m done making excuses for him, and for my mother, trying to see her side.

Still, I have to see it for myself.

My fists clench at my sides, and I silently vow to put an end to this cruelty.

“We need to escape,” the escaped prisoner pleads, his eyes pleading with desperation. “Please, show me the way out of this nightmare. You know a way out, don’t

you?”

His words are a clarion call, and I nod firmly in agreement, not wanting to break it to him that I’m just as clueless as he is about how to escape.

“I’ll do my best to find us a way out of this hell hole,” I say firmly.

But I also have my own mission to free the other captives, to unveil the truth, and only then to

get the hell out of this horrific hellscape of a castle.

to escape

“We’ll find a way,” I say, my voice firm, despite the fact that I haven’t yet found a way to the maze–like castle. “But first, we can’t leave the other captives. Take me to the dungeons.”

Chapter Comments

EJ

POST

I have a feeling he isn’t telling the whole truth. Yes he probably has been locked up for a long time. Yes, Seraphina probably is either feeding or taking their blood. But, I’m thi..