Alpha’s Rue: His Shunned Luna (Athena Enchanted) novel Chapter 376

“You okay?” The lady asks, staring intently.

“I don't—” I pause, looking around for something, unsure what exactly, but the location im in has me very confused.

“First time here?” She asks.

“Where am I?”

“Confinement,” she grins, her eyes lighting up like she’s happy to be here. “This is where the bad kids come. Have you been bad?”

“What?”

“You hurt that pretty girl in the garden three days ago.” She says, smiling still.

“Three?” I frown. Have I been asleep that long? If yes, then why am I here? How could I be in confinement if I was unconscious and did nothing? “Where’s Evelyn?” I ask her.

“Your nurse?” Her head tilts. “It's her day off today.”

I groan, pushing off the bed, but my hand is cuffed somewhere, so I begin to yank on it. “Hey, what are you doing?” The woman asks, “You’ll activate the shock in that thing.”

Shock?

What kind of place is this? I take the risk, trying to break free. “Let me help you.” She says, sliding off her bed. She walks towards me with a limp and kneels beside my head, trying to pick the lock with something she fishes out of her bra.

When she's done, she goes back to her bed and puts the hair clip in her bra, then nods to my hand. I look down and yank again, this time, it pulls free. I sit up, the room spinning from how fast I do it. “Where are you going?”

“Getting out here.” I groan.

“You can't, it's locked.” She nods to the door.

Fucking hell.

I’m going to die here. I really am, and Lumi too. I feel her less and less every day. She doesn’t talk to me as often, much less after I got locked up in here. I can’t lose her.

“You look familiar,” The lady says, staring once again.

“I’m not.” I swallow.

“I know I’ve seen you before…” she trails off, squinting as if it could jog her memory. “Hmm, anyway, what are you in for?”

“Aren’t we all in for the same thing?”

“No, not me.” She laughs, “I killed my mate, his mistress and their twin sons because the boys watched my child die.” She casually says, “Long story,” she rolls her eyes, moving past the revelation like it's nothing. “But I cooked their kids, and fed them to them, then killed them.”

What the fuck?

She looks harmless, innocent except for that stare, but she’s a murderer, and a cannibal? Cannibler? Is there a term for someone who forces cannibalism on people?

God, I can’t imagine what those people must have gone through.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she frowns. “They deserved it, they physically abused my sweet baby boy, and I got even.”

“Okay,” I nod. Hoping to put an end to the conversation before my stomach turns and I throw up.

She smiles, “Won’t you ask why I’m not in jail?”

“Why?” I almost whisper.

“I pleaded insanity,” she snickers. “That’s why I’m here, it’s nicer than prison, and every once in a while I act out to stay on the crazy list because I can’t go to jail…” she tells me, pausing when she realises I’m not listening to her anymore. This place might be better for her than jail, but I can’t be here, I don’t want to be here. “Are you okay? Missing home?”

I nod.

“I’ll take you with me,” she winks. “You can get outside and—” she stops talking when the locks outside start clicking. She shifts, putting herself in a corner. I look away too.

A nurse I’m unfamiliar with walks in, wheeling in a trays of food. “Dinner..” she says, her attention on the lady. “Are you ready?” She asks, sitting down beside the lady. That's when she sees me, “Oh, Luna Aeliana, you’re awake.”

“A Luna,” the lady says. “Luna.” She says, her voice squeaky as she nods. “Hmm, luna means moon, pretty moon. Where is it?”

“Quiet down, Mama Bird.” The nurse sighs, putting a tray on her bed. “Eat.”

“Thank you for dinner,” she smiles. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, eat,” the nurse urges. Coming to me with another plate, which she puts in my lap without asking. “Mama bird, can you remind her to eat too when she’s awake?”

“Who?” The lady pouts, looking nothing like the woman who was speaking a moment ago. Maybe she is crazy, she sounds and looks it. Did the nurse trigger her?

“That girl,” the nurse points to the unconscious girl in the room. “Esther, remember it. Esther, eat your food.”

“Esther, eat your food,” the lady repeats.

The nurse waves at me as she leaves, and I turn to the lady with a frown. What the hell just happened?

“Ugh, green beans.” The lady groans. “I hate this crap.” She tsks, pushing it to one side of her plate. Again, I’m confused. “You should eat.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You kept moaning and clutching your stomach,” she tells me. “I heard it growl, too, so eat, Luna.” She smiles. “You’ll be here long if you don’t cooperate, it’s punishment for a reason, and eating proves that you've learned your lesson.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Eat,” she tells me. “It’s actually good. Just not the green beans, they taste pickled.”