Alpha’s Rue: His Shunned Luna (Athena Enchanted) novel Chapter 105

Chapter 105

AELIANA

My hands are tied behind my back with a scarf, the sting painfully biting into my wrists. Why does this keep happening to me?

“Why didn’t you speak up?” Seraphine barks, her fingers threaded so tightly in my hair that it hurts.

“I didn’t want to get involved,” I confess. Seraphine and her friends got into trouble and tried to pin it on some poor girl who would lose her scholarship if anyone found out. I couldn’t forgive myself if I cowered and lied.

“You get involved when I ask you, Squeak.” Seraphine snaps, pulling harder at the strands of hair in her grip.

“Hmm,” Audrey grunts. “Since you like hold your tongue, hold your breath.” She says, nodding to the sink filled with water. At least it’s clean today, but still, I don’t want to get anywhere near it.

“What?” I choke out, feeling trapped. I keep hoping this will end someday, somehow, but I always find myself in this position.

“That’s a great idea.” Seraphine laughs.

I shake my head, “Please, don’t do this. Not here, you can do whatever you want to me after school but-”

In response, she kicks at my foot. “You don’t get to decide, we do. And you better learn.”

“Learn it fast, Squeak.”

“What have I ever done to you?” I sob, tears streaming down my face, mixing with sweat and water.

‘Way too much,” Audrey tsks, “Stick her in the sink, and if she fights back? We break her.”

Seraphine forces my head down, and I try to fight back, twisting away, but I’m outnumbered. Trying to resist doesn’t work. It upsets them. Audrey pushes me and I hit the wall between the bathroom stalls. “Why don’t you listen squeak?”

“Maybe we should break her again,” Seraphine offers, mischief dancing in her eyes.

“That’s a fun idea,” Audrey says with a smile. “Give me the mop?”

“Girl, I think that’s-”

“Stop!” I scream, a second too late. The dirty mop is swung across my face, landing like a heavy, wet dirty slap. And they both laugh, pure, raw and evilly.

I’m hit with it a couple of more times, I feel dirty, wronged, and I don’t understand why they pick on me so often. “Have you learned your lesson?”

“Yes!” I practically beg, my voice breaking into hoarse sobs. “I will agree to your lies. I will.” I say, nodding repeatedly.

Seraphine pauses, slowly shaking her head. “Nope, I am not convinced.”

“You’re going to bruise her, babes.” Audrey laughs.

“She heals quickly,” Seraphine snarls, hitting me with the stick end of the mop. Her hits are blind, aimless, and I swear she laughs harder each time that I yelp or cry out for her to stop. “So we can break her as much as we like, and if she tells anyone? We kill her.”

1/2

.25 Bonus

The “Please, it hurts…-”

“You’re running?” Audrey laughs. “Alright. Run. You have five seconds and you must outrun me.”

“That’s not fair,” I cry out.

“Life isn’t fair, Squeak!” Seraphine barks out. “If it was you would have died with your wretched mother.”

“One. Two…” Audrey starts counting. “Go on. Three. Four, and down she goes.” She laughs, successfully tripping me to the dirty floor, my arms bruised, hair matted and snort filled face. “Is your hair bothering you? I can cut it.”

“No!” My body jolts forward.

I’m dry, I don’t ache anywhere-not in an alarming way.

It was just a dream.

A nightmare.

But my body doesn’t seem to believe me. I scan the room, trying to reel in reality. Think Aeliana, think, you know what to do. Five senses;

See? The flowers I painted on the wall.

Touch. My arm.

Feel. The weight of my blanket.

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