Taken Over (The Ravening 2)

After what I had just experienced, with that thing, I was fairly certain that nothing could truly hurt again. But to be fair, if I had been able to scream when it had a hold of me, I would have shredded my vocal cords with my agony. I didn’t know if I could keep back a cry of pain now. I stopped fighting against the gag, closed my eyes and bit down hard as Lloyd seized hold of my wounded shoulder.

“What are you…?”

Bret’s question was cut off as Lloyd jerked sharply on my shoulder. A loud snap, much like a bat hitting a ball, split the air as my shoulder was wrenched painfully back into place. I cried out against the gag, unable to keep the sound suppressed. Thankfully, the gag did. A wave of blackness washed over me, nausea surged up my throat as I teetered on the edge of passing out.

“Some warning would have been nice,” Bret snarled.

“There is no time for niceties.” My eyes rolled slightly, I wanted the foul tasting gag out of my mouth, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not yet anyway. Lloyd was kneeling before me. “The shirt has to come off.”

My eyes widened, the last thing I was going to be able to do was lift my arm at this moment. Bret started to protest as Lloyd brandished a knife and slit the front of my shirt deftly open. Bret’s face flamed red as he turned hastily away, but Lloyd remained analytical and distant as he tugged the tattered remains of clothing from my wounded and beaten body.

There was a time when I would have been just as red as Bret, but not anymore. Now I didn’t care that the only thing covering me was a bra, a bra that was white, tattered, and dirty. Modesty was something I didn’t give much thought to anymore, and though I wasn’t about to go wandering around nude, this bit of skin wasn’t going to affect me even a little.

Lloyd’s hand rested on my good shoulder, his gaze was intent on me. I blinked as I tried to bring his face into focus. “This is going to hurt Bethany.” I nodded, had anything felt good in the past half an hour? I was certain that I could take this, certain that I could take anything after what that thing had inflicted upon me. “Scream if you need to.”

My eyes widened as Lloyd turned away and pulled a long lighter from his bag. “What are you doing?” Jenna asked tremulously.

Lloyd didn’t answer her as he tugged his belt off. I watched in wide eyed horror as he dug a small hole underneath a stone and built a quick fire beneath it. The stone blocked the flame from above and helped to keep the smoke from rising. When the flame was a decent enough size and glowing red with heat, Lloyd placed the large belt buckle into the fire. The buckle was square and flat, but I was fairly sure that I had once seen a horse engraved upon the front of it. I was about to be branded by a freaking belt buckle, and tattooed with a horse. Or at least I hoped it was a horse, it may have been a camel for all I knew I had only glimpsed it once.

“Your belt buckle?” Bret demanded incredulously.

“Do you have anything else that’s metal and big enough to get that wound all at once, or do you just want me to hold the lighter to her skin for awhile?”

All color vanished from Bret’s face; he looked like he was going to be sick as he looked back at me. For a brief moment I wanted to stand up and run. Wanted to spit out the gag and flee screaming into the woods. How had my life become this? All the technology and advancements I had grown up with were gone, and I was about to receive a medieval cauterization in the middle of the twenty first century. With a freaking belt buckle of all things! It all seemed so impossible, so surreal, and wrong. If it wasn’t for the three people sitting around me, and the trail of blood I was leaving behind, I would have run. There was only so much a human being could take after all, and I was rapidly nearing my snapping point. But to run now was certain death. This had to happen or I would be hunted down and captured before I could even make it a full mile.

A small trail of black smoke began to come off the belt buckle. It was taking on an ominous orange and glowing hue that caused bile to roll up my throat. Lloyd slipped his shirt off and wrapped it around his hand. It took me a moment to realize that he was going to grab hold of that buckle and press it to me. Dismay filled me as I realized this was going to burn him too, maybe not as bad, but he was going to be hurt. I closed my eyes, I couldn’t watch anymore.

“I’m going to need you to hold her.” There was no saliva left in my mouth as I tried to wet my parched throat. Bret’s hands were gentle as he grasped my good shoulder. “Not like a baby Bret, I’m going to need you to hold her still,” Lloyd said impatiently.

I didn’t open my eyes, I refused to, but I knew the minute that the metal pressed against my skin. A garbled scream boiled up my throat, and froze there. The smell, and sound of sizzling flesh, reached me moments before I passed out. 

CHAPTER 8

It was nearing dawn when I awoke to a bouncing swaying motion that caused my stomach to heave violently. There were hands holding my calves, and another set grasping me gently under my armpits. “You can put me down,” I managed to croak out, surprised by how dry and wounded my voice sounded.

“You’re awake.” The relief in Bret’s voice was palpable as his hands tightened upon me. I felt him bend over me as they stopped; his breath blew against my cheek. My eyelids fluttered open. It was momentarily disconcerting, and dizzying, as Bret appeared upside down over top of me. “I was so worried.”

“Please put me down.”

They had stopped walking, but now Lloyd gently lowered my feet to the ground as Bret supported me for a long moment. I took stock of myself, acknowledging all of the aches and pains in my overused, overworked, and beaten body. I took in the throbbing pain of the burn high on my shoulder. An ugly, large blister had formed over it. I couldn’t quite tell if it would eventually become a horse, or some other four legged creature yet. My entire shoulder was an ugly mottled color of black and purple, but it was no longer bleeding. The blood had been scrubbed from my body; I hated the fact that they had probably used some of our precious supply of water to do this. Someone, probably Bret as it seemed extra large, had taken a shirt and wrapped it around my chest. It was tied under my arms and knotted in the back by the sleeves.

“I was so worried.”

Before I could react, before I even knew his intent, he bent and kissed me. I was so stunned, so startled by the familiar comfort of his lips against mine that for a moment I didn’t react. For a moment I was swept into a time when everything had been boring, safe, and secure. I was swept into a time when I had been with Bret and content to stay that way, even with the lack of feeling and desire I had felt for him. I had been willing to stay with Bret simply because I did love him and I cherished his friendship, even if he didn’t cause my heart to race, didn’t strengthen me, and love me unconditionally, and simply hadn’t made me feel the way that Cade had. His kiss swept me into a time before I had experienced the loss of everything I knew.