Chapter 118
Clementine:
I have been sleeping in the attic since I was scalded at dinner and nobody came to check on me. The hot soup tossed at me by my stepmother burned my skin. I was a child, so I could not heal fast. I knew I was going to suffer. They would not give me any medicine. My father didn’t care. It happened right in front of him and he did not object, so I knew it did not affect him.
Glinda had been extremely bothered for two days, and her tantrums only made me suffer. She kept pacing outside my father’s study, arguing with him back and forth. I did not understand what was going on between them, but being a child did not mean I was clueless like Leysa.
For Leysa, things were different. She was special. She would not be put in places where she could see or hear anything that would ruin her peace of mind. She was treated sacredly. Yes, sacred was the right word, because my father used to call her that. He would say she was his mental peace.
I anxiously covered my ears when I heard grunting and yelling from the floor beneath mine. I was in the attic, so the floor below was the alpha’s floor where my father, my stepmother, and my half-sister were. My body was in pain, but I had to get up to see what was going on. The commotion was too loud.
I snuck out of bed, hoping I could rub my arms or my neck where the soup had landed, but I knew if I did it would only cause more irritation. I silently reached the door and then the staircase. All I could see were shadows on the wall from the open bedroom door opposite it. The shadow of a man and a woman was all I could see. The woman was pushing him non-stop and screaming until I focused harder.
“How could you do this to me? Right when I said I need your time,” it was Glinda yelling at my father.
“And I told you that I got distracted by this bitch,” he yelled back.
I did not understand what they were talking about. Maybe it was me. Father did get annoyed a lot because of me. So maybe what happened at dinner had pissed him off so much that he did not want to spend time with my stepmother. I did not understand, so I continued to look at the silhouettes.
“Really? Is she really that good that you got distracted by her?” I squinted my eyes just a little and noticed Glinda was holding something. It seemed to be a big knife or maybe a hammer. She was swinging it around a lot while arguing with my father.
“Come on, honey, put it down. You’ll hurt me. Have you not done enough damage already?” I could easily spot my father’s voice because I hated it so much.
Then I noticed something. As I squinted my eyes a little too much, I saw something on the bed. It seemed like an arm and a leg. I wasn’t sure, so I started walking downstairs to see what I was seeing. That’s when I didn’t realize one of the stairs creaked.
And then all I remember is my stepmother running out of the room with the hammer in her hand, running up the stairs, and lifting it. The next thing I knew, the striking pain on my head and the blood trickling down my face and neck knocked me out of my senses. I gasped as I began to wake up.
“Clementine, are you OK?” I heard voices saying my name, asking if I was fine. A visible contrast to what had really happened the last time. I began to see faces, specifically the ones I recognized as my mates and my ex–best friend. Their heads loomed over mine, blocking the view of the sky. I rubbed my eyes as I realized I was in the North.
“Wait, how did I end up here?” I asked, breathing heavily, noticing that I was on the big road between the village and the first big city. It was the same bus stop where I had found Ian last time.
“You passed out,” Ian said, and as the others stepped away from me, I began to get up, watching him explain.
“How?” I asked, confused, until I looked at their faces and remembered what had happened before my eyes shut.
“What happened to her?” I quickly asked, holding Troy and Haiden’s hands, the ones standing on my left and right.
“It was chaos,” Yorick replied, looking disturbed. They all looked very sad.
“Oh no, she died, didn’t she?” I asked, starting to break down. I couldn’t remember the last time something had affected me this badly. I would feel bad for people, but to cry like this, even I surprised myself.
I suddenly stopped, noticing how much I was breaking down, almost like a child. Then I realized the way they were staring at my face.
“I think I’m just emotional,” I said, rubbing my face in my hands.
“I cannot believe the White Squad did that. That stupid Xenia got that innocent girl killed,” Yorick said, huffing and puffing.
It took us fifteen minutes to calm down, but I realized that when I saw the fleshmingo take her and behead her, I passed out. Yorick had put me on his shoulders and run away while the others fought the fleshmingos to make sure they didn’t scratch or hurt me. They had done an amazing job, an unconscious person coming out without a single scratch, even though my squad mates were badly scratched up. They did great saving me, but I felt guilty for becoming a burden on them.
“I don’t know what happened or why I passed out,” I said, still visibly shaken from the nightmare I had. I didn’t understand why I would dream about something I didn’t even remember, or was it a faded memory?
“Did anybody find out why she did what she did?” I asked my squadmates, who shook their heads.
“No, we all just ran away to avoid the fleshmingos. It was chaos after that. But we won’t let the White Squads get away with it this time,” Haiden grunted, his fists clenched in anger.
“We’ll rest here, and after you’re completely okay, we’ll continue our journey to the main city,” Ian said, standing next to the pole at the bus stop, arms folded over his chest, staring into the distance.
“I’m ready, let’s go,” I started, then my eyes shifted to the side, and I saw the White Squad showing up.