Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy) (6 page)

I wanted to tell Shaul that I loved
him. I felt I had to say it even if he didn’t feel the same, but my
lips wouldn’t move. Even my face had numbed.

The music became so loud in my head
that I couldn’t hear Shaul anymore if he was even speaking at all.
Maybe he was paralyzed too. My eyes welled over and I must have
passed out.

I woke up. Dizziness overtook me.
“Shaul?” His name came out muffled because something was covering
my mouth.

My face felt strange. It was wrapped
in something—bandages. My entire face was wrapped in soft, gauzy
cloth. Even my eyes were covered. This frightened me. It was so
strange.

Where was I? I tried to orient
myself.

After some thought, I remembered being
caught in a huge light powered butterfly net. Memories came back to
me. Shaul and I had been encased in tiny metal spokes and then the
spokes beneath the encasing had penetrated my body like tiny
needles sliding deep beneath the skin. The pain had been shocking,
but then my body became paralyzed and I felt nothing at
all.

The memories brought my emotions
aflame. Where was Shaul? Was he asleep somewhere beside me just out
of reach? “Shaul?” His name was dry in my throat.

He didn’t respond.

My body was exhausted. I struggled to
move. My limbs were in working order. And, at least, now, I felt
the sensations of life coursing through me. No longer was I
paralyzed, but I was strapped down.

With my hand, I felt around my body.
There were material sashes wrapped over my torso and around what
felt like a small bed that I lay upon.

I reached up to my face. My right eye
hurt like hell. And as my senses became more coherent, I felt the
hot sensations of wounds on my face.

Gently, I unwound the gauzy bandages
from my face. The room I was in was still and quiet. I imagined
Shaul and I were alone because besides the slow mournful tune
playing in my mind, the silence was blaring.

It was difficult lifting my head to
unwind the bandages because of the dizziness I felt. But, I managed
to start at my chin and slowly unwrap upwards. The gauze stuck to
small dried cuts on my chin and cheeks.

I flinched, but the pain was nothing
compared to the brutal torture I experienced in prison from
Lucindean, that huge, evil woman who barely escaped with her life
when I collapsed the dungeon. Certainly, tearing open some minor
cuts could not compare to being attacked ruthlessly with high volts
of electricity from her laser baton. Just the thought of Lucindean
made me stronger and more determined. I was glad Shaul had stabbed
her in the eye with a rock.

Just when I was about to take the last
of the bandaging off of my eyes and head, I heard the slightest
rustle. At once, I yanked the wrap off tearing a layer of skin from
my eyelid as it stuck. I let out a short scream. But, worse than
the exposed flesh on my eyelid, was the horror before my
eyes.

Jezebel Bradeere was staring me in the
face with her sparkling amber eyes. Shadows of the night cast
across her face. From the light of the lantern set on the small
wooden table beside her, I saw the scar on her face redden as it
often did when her emotions were set aflame.

She had the slightest smile that
softened her harsh, yet attractive features as she towered over me.
I couldn’t help but flinch upon seeing her tall, muscular, sleek
body, remembering how fiercely overpowering she had been when she
held me down in the woods and spit in my mouth before mutilating
me.

Hatred flared up in me.

“
Hello there, Cordellia.”
Her voice was husky and sultry like a dome cinema star. “I saw you
naked. The scars on your chest look more prominent than I could
have hoped for. It still says, ‘slut.’” She placed her hand on my
chest.

I flinched at her touch. The trauma
she had inflicted upon me rushed back to me. I felt like a mouse
caught in a trap. The helpless feelings I had back when she pinned
me to the ground and carved into my flesh with a knife invaded my
thoughts. I felt weak and powerless trapped again under her
machinations.

But, I wasn’t going to let her weaken
me. No. Never again. It didn’t matter that I was disoriented and
fatigued from paralysis because my hatred burned
stronger.

Jezebel Bradeere took away my power.
Jezebel Bradeere robbed me of my human dignity. Jezebel Bradeere
sent me to a life of horrific imprisonment.

I bit down hard on my lip as I tried
to contain the rage that was now screaming inside of me. I didn’t
want her to know she had an effect on me. My hands balled into
fists. At this point, if I wasn’t strapped down so tightly, I would
have pulled her head off.

Despite my bouts of weakness,
imprisonment had hardened me and even though my body was much
smaller than hers, I had a fierce determination that I hadn’t
possessed in the past that leveled the playing field better than it
had prior.

I felt a thin stream of blood slide
from my eye and down my cheek. With the back of my hand, I wiped it
off and onto the sheet. Looking around, I realized I was on my own
bed in my mother’s cabin, the same place I had lived before I had
been sentenced to life imprisonment for crossing the boundary
line.

The thin white curtains were pulled
shut on the windows and I could see the moonlight shining through.
“Where’s Shaul?” I tried to keep my voice steady.

“
He escaped.” Her smile was
subtle, yet mocking.

My eyes widened.

“
I guess your boyfriend
didn’t care about you after all.”

“
What do you mean?” I
wanted to get her talking as a distraction, so I could figure out
how to get the sashes untied that were pinning me to the
bed.

“
Shaul Hainsworth is an
intense guy.” She shook her head like she was enjoying a memory.
“The paralyzing fluids must not have worked on him. When the
community members lowered the net to the ground, it appeared as if
you and Shaul were both unconscious.

“
Your mother ran over to
you, gushing and hysterical. President Mazen Tratzel had to pull
her off. I bet she’ll get lashes for that. Stupid woman.” She
chuckled and walked over to a cabinet on the far side of the dim
cabin room.

I couldn’t help it—my eyes welled up
at the mention of my mother having any caring feelings toward me.
It didn’t appear as if Jezebel noticed my reaction.

While she was at the cabinet looking
for something, I felt around the sashes that strapped my torso
down. I figured the knots must be under the bed because the surface
of the fabric was smooth. My hands were free, so I pulled at the
sashes, struggling subtly to feed the knot upwards. I was making
headway, but I couldn’t let her see what I was doing. I strained to
lift my chest as an attempt to loosen and stretch the material so I
could maneuver my body around more freely. It worked.

Jezebel was still talking. “First,
Tratzel’s men unfastened you from that fierce apparatus they had
you mummified in.” She looked over at me momentarily as she brushed
her hand though her shiny brown hair.

I could tell she was thrilled to be
the first to tell me the story. In fact, her arrogance was rising,
which was good for me because it kept her focused on herself rather
than on me and what I was attempting to do.

“
Once they got your nearly
lifeless, bashed body from the net, Mazen ordered your mother into
custody and he had the baker, his wife, and kids carry you to your
cabin where they tied you down and bandaged you up.”

Now, I was beginning to understand why
they did such an amateurish job tying me to the bed. They wanted me
to escape! I had no idea why the baker and his wife would want me
free, but why else would they tie me up in such a pathetic manner
that even the most stupid could break free from if given the
chance? No digital devices. No metal clasps wired to torturing
apparatuses. Just plain, simple fabric ties.

Before my imprisonment, I had been
friendly with the baker and his family. Well, mostly my mother was
friendly with them. She was a dishwasher in their bakery sometimes.
She often wrote down recipes and healing remedies and had me
deliver the papers to them late at night when nobody was
around.

“
After you were out of the
way, six of Mazen’s men unfastened Shaul. It looked as if he was
dead. His body was entirely lifeless. No rise and fall of the chest
like there had been with you. One of the men yelled out, ‘He’s
dead!’, but just as the words came out of his mouth, Shaul sprang
to life and snapped the man’s head entirely off. Hardly a second
passed before he attacked the other five men, pulling their limbs
from their bodies and snapping their necks…”

I tugged slightly at the sashes and
realized that they were unfastening. From the looseness, it
appeared as if they had only been tied in slip knots. I was all too
familiar with this sort of tie from my years of working with
horses.

Jezebel pulled a syringe from the
cabinet and went to another cabinet where she sifted through a
variety of bottles filled with various liquids. My body tightened
realizing that she was probably planning to fill the syringe and
inject some sort of poison or mind altering drug into
me.

She continued talking merrily as she
looked. “Mazen tried to shoot Shaul with his laser gun, but Shaul
was too fast. He ran up a tree and then just seemed to vanish.
Nobody could find him anywhere.” Her eyes were wide in bewilderment
when she turned to me. “It was a shock!”

I held very still, hoping she hadn’t
detected what I was up to.

“
There’s a search team
looking for him now. Later today there will be a community
gathering where we will be addressing your mother’s outburst.
After, we will access your crimes of escaping prison and
demolishing the dungeon…”

She walked toward me with the filled
syringe. “There’s talk that you are going to be used for medical
experimentation. Your crimes are the most serious and deserve the
severest sentencing. Have you ever had your skin peeled off your
entire body? Laboratory rats injected with flesh eating poisons
have been proven to show some regeneration with full body skin
peels. Though, they often die from the injections.”

With that, I contorted my body,
throwing myself face down on the bed where I reached beneath and
pulled the remaining slip knots.

Jezebel yanked me backwards by my
hair. My body flew in the other direction onto the bed. The anger
flared up in me something wild and I grabbed the oil lamp off the
table. I smashed it at once against the bed frame, lighting an
immediate fire from the oil spill and flames. In a rage, I grabbed
a large shard of glass and slashed it across Jezebel’s chest. Blood
gushed forth.

Shocked from the sudden turn of
violence, Jezebel pulled me to the floor, but I managed to flip her
onto her back as I was fiercely out of control. Blood from my eye
wound obstructed my vision, but I easily slashed her belly. Smoke
was filling the room. And while her astonishment prevailed, I ran
out of the cabin.

6

I wiped the blood away from my eye for
clearer vision. The clearing was empty except for the night torches
lit on the center stage where lashes and criminal sentencing took
place. In the morning my mother would likely undergo public
whipping right there for crying out in my favor. From what I could
tell, the oil lamps were mostly turned out in the community cabins
that were lined up in concentric circles in the woodsy
terrain.

It seemed as if everyone was sleeping.
But, they wouldn’t be for long when they detected the smoke rising
from my cabin and the walls burning in rage. As cruel as it was, I
hoped Jezebel died inside. I hoped to never see her again. I hoped
my vengeance was complete—finally, once and for all.

I hoped the whole community went up in
flames. Except for my mother. I wanted her to live even though I
hated her. She betrayed me. But, a mixture of hate and love dueled
within my heart.

Where was Shaul, my rock and my
redeemer? I needed him. How could he leave me alone at a time like
this? I worried that he was injured or trapped
somewhere.

At once, I took off running. My feet
were bare. But, I was great on my soles. Being a josephine gave me
thick skin that was resistant to the harsh turf beneath. For the
first time, I noticed I was dressed in a gauzy nightgown of sheer
white fabric with a thin lining. At least I wasn’t naked for
once.

The night air rushed over my face. I
ran with the wind. I ran through trees, past boulders, little
waterfalls, and gentle ponds. I heard the night sounds of crickets
and small animals scurrying away. I was free and nobody could touch
me.

I wanted to abandon this place.
Desperately, I wanted to leave. I could start over anew. Maybe I
could find a better community somewhere else. Maybe a different
state? Possibly other parts of the country weren’t as bad off as
California.

But, I had heard that after the U.S.
Economy Crash and the Great Sun Scorch, the entire United States
had been overtaken by the serpent people. Even other countries were
overrun with the Devil’s descendants. If only I could find a place
where I would be safe. A home where nobody wanted to hurt
me.