Defiance: The Hybrid's Tale

Cassandra Pope.

I failed.

So close...

I could have reached my goal much faster if I had acted sooner. But life rarely worked out according to one’s plan. Did I regret it? No. I would have done it a thousand times over if it meant that I could have held Aveny in my arms just one more time. To feel her gentle hands comb through my hair as she did when we were younger. We used to picnic under the willow tree by the pond when we were in high school. I would lay my head on her lap reading a book while she combed my hair with her fingers.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back onto the stone wall, trying to lose myself in that sweet memory. Why didn’t I kiss her? If I only had the courage and taken the chance, maybe our lives wouldn’t have turned out in such a manner. Me, ending up chained in one of my father’s torture chambers and Aveny trapped in a mirror. The smell of blood and shit hung in the air. Most likely, one of the previous guests soiled themselves while waiting for their inevitable doom. Who wouldn’t? My father was a sick son of a bitch who enjoyed killing his victims slowly until they begged him for death. And yet, he denied them their wish as another part of his twisted game.

A game I was now a part of.

Would he show me mercy, or would I face the same gruesome fate? I shook my head. There was no point dwelling on those sickening thoughts. I would soon find out what he had planned for me. No doubt he’d take the time to gloat until I wanted to chew off my own wrists. I could already see his face in my mind’s eye, staring at me through the darkened cell with a huge grin on his face.

It was already dawn, and in an hour or two, the mansion would spring to life. My brother would most likely be the first to visit me. He’s been waiting for this day from the beginning. Now he was the star child, the only demented one left to kiss my father’s ass until it gleamed under the glare of the sun.

My legs were numbing as I stood shackled to the wall. I would have thought that my father would care about the welfare of his future successor, but he probably wanted me to suffer as much as possible. The iron cuffs were chaffing around my wrist, digging into my flesh. I couldn’t move much since a leather girdle also strapped me to the wall, keeping me standing. The freezing air didn’t help either. Periodically, I would clench down on my teeth to stop my jaw from clattering.

The screech of a steel door at the end of the hallway drew my attention to the cell door. The familiar footsteps of my brother made me groan.

How predictable!

“Good morning, dear sister,” said Ethan with a grin smacked on his corpse-like face. You know what they say, you become what you fuck.

I ignored him and stared up at the filthy ceiling. Several spiders hung from their cobwebs.

“Oh, come now. You must have known it would end like this for you the moment you betrayed us.”

Ethan pulled out a key ring and opened the cell door, sliding it open. He sauntered in and came to a halt in front of me. The pungent odor of alcohol hung on him. He must have celebrated my capture. The burn scars of my lightning bolt decorated his neck and chin. A permanent reminder of what happens if you stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.

He reached up and gripped my chin, applying pressure. “Not so tough, are you? Maybe I should repay you for this.” He removed his grimy hand from my face and caressed the scars.

“And would that make you feel like a man if you did?” I asked in a mocking tone.

Seconds later, my left cheek burned as he slapped me across the face. The sound thundered throughout the dungeon. I bit back a yelp, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of the pain he caused me.

I glared at him. “Shouldn’t you try to get your corpse to hit me? She might hit me harder.”

Yet again, another slap seared my right cheek. My eyes started watering. A metallic taste flooded my mouth, which I spat out on my brother’s shoes. He darted back. “That’s my shoes, you bitch!” He reeled back for another hit, but he stayed his hand. “Be glad dad told me not to harm you much, otherwise I would have enjoyed making you scream.”

“What are you doing here? Bored, aren’t we?” I smirked at him. “Doesn’t father have time to play with his favorite dog?”

Ethan rushed forward and clasped his spindly fingers around my neck. “Don’t worry your traitorous little head about what dad’s up to. He’s busy dealing with Vance and all those people who helped you.”

“Really? Vance isn’t a pushover. He’s far more capable in dealing with father, now that he has the evidence he needs to act against you two.”

Ethan slung his head back and laughed like a maniac, clutching his stomach. “And what’s he going to do? Dad controls half of the council. They wouldn’t act against him. Father will deal with the old geezer by slitting his throat.”

“Good luck with that.”

Just as Ethan wanted to argue further, the familiar screech of a door interrupted him. He glanced back at the entrance to the cell. Moments later, his undead plaything entered the room in all her glory. She wore a pair of tight-fitting jeans and a pale blue camisole. Her red high heels clacked up to us. The fake Aveny smirked at me. I wanted to slap her pretty face into the filthy floor and drag her back to the grave she crawled out of.

She moved forward and slung her arms around Ethan’s neck before pecking him on his mouth. Gross! He moved in for a deeper kiss, but she stopped him with her painted talons. She shook her head and said, “Not now, honey.” Her eyes turned to me. “So, the mighty bitch has fallen at last. It’s about time.”

Ethan’s grin threatened to crack his face. “Yeah... Once dad’s done mopping up the mess she’s created, he’ll deal with her. Can’t wait.”

The fake Aveny pouted and said, “Ahh! But I wanted some fun... Well, I’ll just have to create my own fun, don’t I?”

She drew her knee back and hit my brother in the family jewels. Ethan clutched his nuts and yelled, falling to his knees. Before I could recover from my shock, she grabbed my brother by the hair and kneed him in the face. He toppled over onto the floor, knocked out cold. What the fuck? I stared at the fake Aveny in stunned silence.

“Arg!” Aveny cried out, “The ass touched me! Goddess! After all this time, and he still makes my skin crawl.”

Then it hit me. Aveny?

“A-Aveny... Is that really you?” I whispered.

She turned to me with an enormous grin on her beautiful face. “Yes.” She rushed up to me and started undoing the shackles around my wrists. “Sorry, I took my time, but your father’s confinement spell took longer to break.”

I wrapped my numb arms around Aveny’s neck as I hugged her tightly. My dream came true. She was in my arms. I buried my nose in her hair. Jasmine and coconut—Oh, how I missed how amazing she smelled. Slowly, my eyes filled up with tears, and I began sobbing, drenching her shoulder. All the years of bottled-up emotions spilled forth. For the first time in years, I could catch my breath in the arms of the person I loved most in this life. For a moment, I thought I had lost her for good because I wasn’t good enough.

After reining in my emotions, I pulled out of her embrace and stared into her beautiful blue eyes that made my knees weak. “H-How did you get out?” That question sliced my brain to pieces. My father had destroyed the scroll, so how...

Aveny scoffed and then said, “I memorized the ritual when you showed me the scroll. You’ve grown forgetful over the years. I have an eidetic memory, remember?” She tapped me on my temple.

I laughed at my fragile memory. Of course! That was how she always aced all of her tests without studying while I had to work my ass off to get a B’s in mine.

Before I could stop, I leaned forward and planted a kiss on her plump lips. I froze while my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. Aveny stiffed, which made me whip away. Even though I wanted to kiss her for six days and seven nights, I realized I had fucked up.

“Sorry, Avy! I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry--”

Before I could finish my sentence, Aveny rushed forward and kissed me on the lips. My back hit the wall as she melted into my embrace. This was really happening. Wait! Was this really happening?

I begrudgingly pulled for her scrumptious lips, panting slightly. I had to say it. For years I’ve waited to tell her how I felt about her, and now that she kissed me back gave me a glimmer of hope she felt the same as me. “I love you, Aveny,” I whispered, brushing my lower lip against hers.

“I love you too, Cassy,” she replied, smiling.

I shook my head. “No. Not as a friend... but as a lover.”

There. I threw my confession into the open. My heart raced, waiting for her reply.

She giggled and said, “I know.”

Aveny kissed me again, but deepened it. Our tongues glided around each other’s in a rapturous dance, savoring each moment until reality pulled us down from heaven. We pulled apart once again. I brushed her cheek before placing several butterfly kisses along her jaw.

“As much as I want this to continue, we have to get out of here before this idiot,” she kicked Ethan on the side of his head,” wakes up and blows our cover. My father can only detain yours for so long before your father gets suspicious.”

“Wait.” I grabbed Aveny’s wrist just as she turned around. “Your father is here?”

She nodded. “What? You’re not the only one who has been playing around in the shadows.”

“Your father knows about the decoy left in your place?” I asked her as we made our way out of the cell.

Aveny grabbed the cell door and slid it closed, locking Ethan inside. “Yeah... He’s known for a while now.”

That would have explained why her father had become so distant over the years. As much as I thought she had played a dangerous game by informing her father about her imprisonment, I couldn’t help but admire her ingenuity. She saved us both. I followed her down the corridor toward the torture chambers, wondering where we were going? “Why are we heading this way? The exit is at our backs.”

Aveny lifted her finger to her lips to silence me when we reached a double iron-wrought door. Several voices snarled behind them. She slowly pushed the door open. Three of our fellow coven members were busy interrogating a servant.

“Tell us who you work for?” shouted one of the coven members, who held a bloodied whip in his hands. His victim sobbed incoherently. An unnamed young man lay bloodied on the torture rack, no older than Nathan.

I clenched my jaw as I stared at the injustice of the three’s actions. They were torturing the young man for nothing at all. My eyes caught several chains hanging from the ceiling overhead. With the twist of my hand, the chains sprung to life and wrapped around the torturers’ necks, lifting them in the air. They flailed around in the air until they lost their will to fight.

“Brutal,” Aveny said, glancing my way.

I scoffed and said, “They had no right to torture one of our own.” I approached the battered young man and began untying him. “Let’s get him down and leave this hellhole. We’re done here.”

***

Aveny surprised me yet again when she led us through an escape tunnel I never knew about. After trudging through pools of stagnant water and climbing several steep steps, we emerge from a cave in the middle of the forest. The young man we saved followed us, still trembling as we made our way to the edge of the forest where a single silver SUV waited for us. Never in my life was I prouder of her. I affectionately squeezed her hand as we approached the car.

The driver’s door burst open, and to my surprise, Alex ran up to us. He swooped his mother into his embrace and started crying with her. For a full five minutes they stood there, hugging each other, afraid that if they drew away, they’d lose each other again. I prided myself on keeping a calm demeanor in most situations, but even their joyful union reduced me to tears. After what they suffered through, they deserved a bit of happiness, but we couldn’t stay. We were exposed as long as we stayed in the forest and my brother wasn’t about to stay knocked out for long. I half-expected my father’s henchmen to burst through the trees at any moment.

I stepped forward and said, “As much as I love your reunion, we have to get moving.”

They reluctantly pulled apart, drying each other’s tears away. Alex turned to me and then pulled me into his embrace. “Thanks you, aunt Cassy. Thank you so much.”

I giggled, petting the back of his head. “Don’t thank me. Your mother had freed herself. I only helped a bit.”

It was his time to laugh. He hugged me tighter. “But Aunt never abandoned my mother... You faced them alone and got the ritual that freed her.”

“I would do anything for her, you know that.”

Alex pulled away and then nodded. “I know.” He eyed our guest and then said, “And who’s this?”

“M-My name’s Denis,” the young man stuttered. He walked forward and shook Alex’s hand. “N-Nice to meet you.”

Aveny said, “We found him in the torture chamber being whipped for information on any other traitors in the coven. We couldn’t leave him there.”

Alex started walking back to the car. “Well, you can come with us and we can drop you at a place where you can lie low for the time being until the Elder Council has dealt with my grandfather.”

The young freckle-faced man began fidgeting, glancing back in the mansion’s direction. “I-I have nowhere else to go... My parents support your father, and it was they who told your father that I was acting suspicious...”

I stepped forward and said with clenched teeth, “Your parents handed you over to get tortured?”

He nodded while staring at his feet. I rushed up to him and hugged him. “Then you’re more than welcome to join us. We’re heading to where the rest of our family is waiting for us.”

His trembling body slacked in my embrace. “Thank you.”