Suki:
"Yorick, listen, please. You need to listen to me. You cannot do this to me. I have been dead for far too long. I am finally alive. You cannot take it all away from me," I pleaded, panicking as the words spilled out.
I started revealing everything, desperate for him to believe me.
Even though he had already told me it would not change anything, I still wanted his attention, some proof that I mattered, that I was capable of something.
"I have one last wish from one of the monsters in the north," I cried.
Nothing I said seemed to matter to him. He allowed his warriors to drag me aside and push me toward one of the rooms. I did not know what it was, but it filled me with dread.
Everything seemed to stop the moment I was shoved against a door.
"Do you know whose bedroom this is?" Yorick asked as he stepped up behind them, pointing toward the room next to where I stood. "This is my bedroom. You really thought you would come here and stay in this room, didn’t you?" he remarked, laughing and shaking his head.
"I didn’t. Trust me, I’m telling you it was Oriana. I am Suki," I insisted. "Do you really think I would come up with a lie this detailed if I were Oriana? I would have taken someone else’s name. Why would I choose Suki’s name?" I argued, trying to make him understand.
As they pressed my ear hard against the door, I heard growling and grunting from inside, and panic took hold of me.
"No!!! Yorick, do you have a monster here? No, you cannot do this to me. I’m a crusader. We fought in the north together. How can you do this to me?" I screamed as they pulled me away from the door, just as Yorick stepped forward and opened it.
"Yorick, stop it. Do you think Clementine will ever forgive you for this?" I shouted at the top of my lungs, grunting and kicking in the air.
My foot swung toward Yorick’s back, but I missed.
"Like I said, no one will tell her," he replied coldly. "Do you think I will let my innocent Clementine be exposed to all these disgusting secrets? No. These kinds of traumas are for people like you and the others."
The way he mentioned everyone else froze me for a moment. It was true. Yorick had lost his mind.
"It is not my fault what Oriana did to you. Please, please let me go. I cannot die again. Please," I begged, crying out as freedom slipped just out of reach.
Yorick stepped aside, revealing what kind of monster they had brought me here for, and my breath caught in my throat.
"What the hell?" I muttered, my eyes widening as I stared at the figure in front of me.
It was not a man. It was not a monster either. Whatever it was, it was deeply unsettling.
An old man sat in chains in the corner. His fingernails were long, his claws oversized.
He looked like something pulled straight from a grave, with exaggerated facial features and expressions.
This time, I decided to fight hard, to fight for myself, to face the monster alone instead of forcing someone else to do it for me.
With or without the wolfsbane, I was going to fight until my last breath, so that even if I died this time, I would not die helpless.
I ducked as the creature lunged at me, its chains scraping loudly across the floor as one claw missed my head by inches.
I drove my elbow into its ribs, but the impact barely slowed it before it slammed its shoulder into my chest, knocking the air out of me.
It looked old, yet it was still strong, and that was the frightening part. I rolled across the ground just in time, its claws tearing into the stone where my head had been.
I kicked out hard, catching its knee, and it let out a low, guttural sound as it staggered back. I noticed that every time I hit it, it recovered quickly.
Then it grabbed my arm and squeezed until pain shot through my shoulder. The worst came when I saw the hunger in its eyes as it bit into my arm.
It was not a bite out of anger or meant only to hurt. It felt like it was tasting my flesh.
When I placed my hand on its head and shoved it back, it tore a piece of flesh from my arm with it, biting down and chewing.
The sight froze me in place, and then it came at me again for more.

Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Surrender To Us, Our Luna (One Luna, Four Alphas)