CHAPTER 5

"No way, that was me!" Zephyr scoffed, disbelief and defiance coloring his voice. Denial masked the panic that I knew was churning beneath his surface.

"What the actual thing is going on?" Zephyr shrieked, his mental outcry a physical agony that radiated through my skull. It was as if a red-hot poker was being thrust into my brain. The pain was blinding, numbing and utterly terrifying.

A shadowy figure materialized before me, a grotesque caricature of humanity twisted into an ominous form. Fear, a sensation long dormant, clawed its way to the surface. I was petrified, paralyzed by the horror unfolding before my eyes. Confusion clouded my mind. Something was terribly wrong. I'd known and believed Zephyr had tripped me of all feelings and emotions, yet fear gnawed at me. My heart pounded in my chest. Something else is at play.

"Suspected" Zephyr hissed, his voice trembling slightly. "We have to get out of here, now!" His urgency was palpable, but I was trapped in a nightmare, my mind a prisoner in its own body. The shadow seemed to leer at me, its inhuman eyes boring into my soul, which made me shriek even more.

"Don't worry about that," Zephyr assured me, his thoughts a cold comfort. Yet, the icy tendrils of fear continued to grip me. I was a hostage in my own body and here the captor, the demon, the manipulator was unsure and confused of events that suddenly came into the picture.

"We can't escape, you psycho" I managed to articulate, my voice a mere whisper.

"You might make me kill an innocent individual that's if we eventually get out of this prison. I'm tired of this." My words were weak, but they were a defiant stand against the darkness that consumed me. The shadow seemed to grow larger, more menacing, and I let out a scream that echoed in the confines of my mind.

"What am I going to do?" I cried out, my voice laced with despair.

"My family is scared of me, thanks to you!" I was a monster in their eyes, a creature to be feared, and it was all Zephyr's doing.

With a cruel efficiency, Zephyr compelled me to rise from the bed. My body moved like an automaton, my limbs obeying his every command. He drove me towards the wall, and I began to pound on it with increasing desperation.

"Help!" I screamed, the sound foreign and distorted. I was a puppet, a mere conduit for Zephyr's madness.

"No one's coming," I muttered, my voice barely audible over the pounding. Then I heard footsteps, a glimmer of hope igniting within me.

"Wait!" I gasped.

"So, we could have left anytime, but you chose we stayed?" My voice was filled with disbelief which made me realize, nothing could stop him from doing what he wants to.

"Don't push me, Arachna!" Zephyr warned, his voice icy. A shiver ran down my spine. I was at his mercy, and I knew it.

"What are you going to do? Kill me?" I challenged, my bravado a thin veneer masking my terror. At that moment, I heard my mother's voice, a lifeline in the storm. Tears streamed down my face, a silent plea for help.

"Allison?" My mother's voice called out, all that was separating us was just the metal wall, I could feel her. A beacon of hope in the darkness. However, memories of what Zephyr made me do to her in the past made me shed more tears.

I can't be controlled like a puppet forever.

I bet he's reading my mind, he better knows that this battle for control was far from over.

I heard him scoff and like that I was compelled.

Something truly beyond my control which makes him truly the king of manipulators.