*Omario POV*
“Abi!” I shout her name as I rush to the floor where she lays with a pool of blood around her arm. My shaving razor blade shines a few centimetres from her.
“I should have not left you alone. How could I be so stupid?” I ask myself as I pick her from the floor and place her on the bed. I tear my shirt and tie her wrist to try and stop the blood that is still oozing from her slit wrist.
“Abi, can you hear me?” I can’t help but panic. Her whole tiny body move when I shake her but I get no response. She looks so pale and feels so cold. I am not a doctor but her shallow breathing paints a scary picture I refuse to accept. It’s really selfish on my part that I don’t want to let go of an abused, battered and malnourished slave who has had it. It’s not even about the damn prophecy, I am not really worried about what might happen it she die, Abi just can’t die.
I run to the door and instruct the servant working on the corridor to call a royal physician and rush back to her side and notice that the blood is seeping through the cloth I tied around her wrist. Alarm bells start going off in my head as I close my hand around her tiny wrist and compress. Titan starts whining inside me before an electric shock hits me and propels me all the way to the opposite wall. I hit the wall hard before falling on the floor.
Shit!
It take’s even longer for me to return to reality and for my head to stop spinning. I catch my breath before getting up. These jolts are becoming stronger and dangerous for me but I can’t just let her bleed out. I stumble back to her bedside and hesitate to touch her. Her arm is still bleeding, the bed linen is now soaked with her blood.
“Where’s the damn physician?” I scream my lungs out just when the door opens and Dr Stutter hurries in.
“Your Ma….”
“She slit her wrist and lost a lot of blood.” I interject and get to the point. He quickly checks Abi up and turns back at me with a huge grin on his face.
“Your Majesty, this is good! Very good!”
“Excuse me?” I am really confused. I am not a doctor but there’s nothing good about Abi’s condition.
“She’s dying by her own hand. It’s better than good. It’s what the Alpha always wanted. She’s already unconscious, untying that cloth on her wrist will make her bleed out. It’s perfect!”
I take deep breaths as my fists clenched involuntary. Titan stirs inside me and veins bulge on my neck as I try to suppress him.
“Are you not a fucken’ doctor?”
Dr Stutter stumbles and almost falls. I must have startled him.
“I…I.. am, Your..” he stutters. I can see the confusion on his face. He fucken’ expected me to be celebrate this evilness.
“Do no fucken’ harm! Is that not your oath?” I shout at him but continue suppressing Titan who was to crush his evil bones.
I expect something like this from dad and his okes, not him. He is meant to be fair and just, not some devil’s advocate.
He starts trembling before checking Abi again. I notice that he is actually being thorough this time around. He even gets his bag to get the blood pressure machine and even checks her heart. Things go really fast after this with more doctors coming in and giving Abi two units of blood.
Terrence is also in and out, organising everything the doctors and I need. The short conversations I have with him when he comes are really keeping me sane.
Mother has also come in to voice her displeasure in my contribution in this. She believes that Abi tried to kill herself because I ‘raped’ her.
“Congratulations. You are your father’s son,” she sneered as she stormed out, leaving me shuttered. She is not the only one who thinks like this. I don’t blame them, the evidence is damning. I did claim Abi, she has spent nights in my chambers, I stormed into the servant’s quarters and carried her away, and the two servants who were cleaning the floors with her earlier heard me summoning her barely an hour before all this. As far as everyone is concerned, I am the reason Abi slit her wrist. Terrence is the only one who knows the truth that I have never touched her virtue and it has to remain like that no matter what happens to Abi.
I sit near the bed, watching her and praying that she makes it. I know that I wanted everyone to think I was as heartless as my dad but the fear and anger I see every time I make contact with any servant is leaving me shaken. One after the another, they keep showing up with a made-up excuse to do some chores but their eyes are on her the moment they walk in. I am well aware that most of them still view her as their leader, so this is personal for them.
Terrence says I should not care about any of this because I did nothing wrong, but I can’t. They are servants and don’t really matter here, but their opinion of me actually matters to me more than I am willing to admit. I somehow don’t mind pissing dad’s okes off but not them.
Two hours later, the weather outside has completely changed. It’s summertime and only mid-morning, but it has become completely overcast. The dark clouds have congregated above with heavy rain, constant thunderstorms and lightning.
Abi has not woken up and the doctors have nothing more to offer her. They all leave one after the other without looking at me. Terrence walks in a few minutes after the have left.
“She’s dying, isn’t she?”
“Weak but not dying!” I snap at him. He, out of everyone can’t just give up on her so easily.
“Mother nature is contradicting you, Your Majesty.” He says in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Look outside Your Majesty, the sky is already moaning the death of the last Creekian leader.”
“That’s just a myth, get Rufus.”
I don’t know why the weather is the way it is today but I am pretty sure that scientists somewhere have a logical explanation for it.
“It’s no use, Your Majesty.”
“I did not ask your opinion. Get me Rufus, it’s a command,”I snap again.
I like Terrence but he and everyone else is getting on my nerves now. He bows his head and heads out only to return less that five minutes later with Rufus.
“How did you get here so fast?”
That was just too fast even for him. Rufus does not stay in the castle and is usually out of town midweek.
“I was outside praying for all our souls,” Rufus says.
“Get her better.” I command him. He is the best prophet in the country from what I hear.
He sighs and shakes his head. “I can’t, Your Majesty.”
“You are the royal prophet, off course you can!”
“I appreciate the confidence but there is nothing I can do this time.”
My heart sinks at his response. If he can’t and doctors can’t, then who can?
“There must be something, anything,” I can’t hide my desperation and stupid Titan won’t stop whining.
“We can pray for our souls.”
“Besides that!” I snap. I wish they could all stop with the crap.
“Her human form was strong-willed and resilient. It was suppressing the burning inferno inside her but…” Rufus hesitates.
“She has given up and it’s taking over.” I complete his sentence.
“You know?” Rufus is really shocked. I guess he does not tell dad everything about Abi after all because he has never mentioned her beast.
“Yes.”
I might as well confess, it’s not like he can betray my secret when he has not been completely honest. Terrence looks at me and shakes his head but says nothing. I don’t worry about him, I somehow trust him more than anyone here, at least when it comes to Abi.
“Then you also know that it’s the end of us?” Rufus asks.
I frantically shake my head. The jolt she gave me earlier was definitely stronger.
“No. I am not ready to leave this earth.”
“I am afraid that you have no choice, Your Majesty. I told the Alpha the same thing.”
“I don’t care what you told dad. We just need to revive her human form.”
Maybe I sound in denial and crazy but I refuse to believe that this is the end.
“The doctors have given her blood and everything she needs. It’s no longer physical, there is no will. She is broken, it was bound to happen. How can anyone revive that?” Rufus asks. His question gives me the answer that has been staring at me all along. They all think Abi gave up because of what I did to her and because of the torture but that’s not it. Only I know why she gave up. Maybe I can get her back.
“Get out! Everyone, get out!”