The woman tucked a strand of berry-pink hair back into her cap before she smiled and answered. “Ruby.”
Cold.
That was the first thought pressing into her waking mind.
Pain.
Icy rivulets streamed through every ounce of marrow in her bones as her back pressed against an unforgiving surface.
Misery.
Everything ached. Persephone willed her eyes to open, but even the simple act of inhaling was excruciating. Her throat was raw as if she’d eaten glass, and a pounding pressure resided in her lungs.
Persephone focused on her fingers and toes, urging them to move, but stopped when jolts of searing pain lashed down her body. Tears pricked her closed eyes and trailed down her cheeks, tickling her ear as they dropped to the floor.
Where was she?
A scratchy whimper left her lips as she tried to cry for help, but even that was too much to bear. She was going to die.
Or… had she already?
Flashes of terrifying memories filled her mind as she watched Narcissus assault and murder her all over again. The way his lips curved into a blissful smile, his hand pumping his cock until he’d come over top of her drowning body.
The tears came in earnest as the memories flooded, threatening to drown her all over again. Pain rippled down her spine, but she couldn’t stop the sobs wracking her broken body.
What had he done to her?
She couldn’t be in the warm, grassy knolls of her meadow. Her teeth chattered in the desolate cold and the sharp points beneath her had to be ice.
Couldn’t think.
Couldn’tbreathe.
She should have never strayed. She should have listened like the good girl her mother begged her to be. Regret was a stone in her belly but didn’t feel nearly as heavy as the sorrow. Persephone knew she deserved every second in the freezing hell she’d been condemned to.
She fell in and out of consciousness with no sense of time or its passing. Heavy drops of water fell somewhere in the distance, and she let its sound lull her back to oblivion. She imagined the sound to be the leaky spigot in her mother's greenhouse. There was always a small puddle beneath it, the ground never dry enough to soak it all in. Green bits of moss grew around the edges and Persephone loved to watch the water ripple as the drops fell.
The drips grew louder but kept their steady tempo, almost as if they were getting closer. Persephone attempted to rouse herself, pulling her mind from the edge of darkness and back to her torture chamber. She still couldn't open her eyes, but her hearing wasn’t faulty. The sound was not water dripping.It was footsteps, and they grew nearer with each passing moment.
Persephone thought to force her body to stand, but she knew it would be futile. She couldn’t so much as open her eyes, much less bring life to her shattered body. She would have to accept this new fate just as she had her punishment. A part of her was terrified it was Narcissus coming back to break her all over again. If she could cower into the darkness, she would. Maybe she could hide from him so he could never hurt her again.
Another voice spoke up in her mind. It was the same one whose defiance got her into this situation.Do not be weak, it said.Fight him. Do not be a coward.
“I can’t,” Persephone whispered to the surrounding darkness. “I’m not strong enough. I need my mother.” The last word came out as a broken sob, her throat still raw from her fight to the grave.
“Shhh,” a hushed whisper filled the space around her. “There, there, darling.”
Only then did she realize she’d lost track of the footsteps as she wallowed in her misery.
A warm hand brushed the hair from her temple as a deep, melodic voice murmured words of comfort. He stayed until her tears stopped flowing, his hand never ceasing its soothing touch.
“I’m going to pick you up now,” he said. “And it’s going to hurt. But we’re going to make you all better.”
She said nothing. What could be worse than what had already happened?
One hand cradled her neck while the other slipped beneath her knees. He scooped her gently, but it didn’t stop the hellfire of pain blazing through every corner of her being. Persephone sobbed while they walked, and he soothed her the whole way.The man held her close to his chest and the warmth of his body did its best to seep into hers.
She didn’t know how long they traveled, but it felt like eternity. She begged for the ache in her body to pull her from consciousness. Blacking out would be a mercy. But, as she already knew, she would get none now.
