MoonBound: The Gamma's Captive

Heavy chains around her wrists and ankles, mighty dungeon bars keeping her in. This wasn't how it was supposed to end.

BY IGNAS, IT JUST COULDN'T END LIKE THIS!

"Ahhhhh!" a guttural cry rang out from the depth of Aniya's throat, as she pulled against the chains that imprisoned her while she begged not to be killed, begged to live just one more day for her son, begged for another chance that she probably didn't even deserve.

If they kill her, it would only be right; a fair judgment for the lives she had taken and those she had ruined. Still, she didn't want to die. She was just starting to live after so long, and everything was beginning to fall into place: her sister and many others had forgiven her for all the crimes she had committed against them and she was just starting to be happy, so why must she die now?

"Please, don't kill me. I'm not a monster." She tried to reach the bars in futile attempts, desperately pulling and yanking at the chains that held her down as tears streamed down her cheeks, making her black-netted veil stick to her face. "Please let me out, I need to see my son. Arlo needs his mother!" Her voice was hoarse from how much she had cried, yelled, and pleaded at the top of her lungs. Her legs crumbled beneath her and she fell to the hard and cold dungeon floor, her sobbing even louder than before.

"What do you mean my sister is the monster?" She heard a voice ask at the other side of the bigger door that kept the dungeon sealed. With the way the doors were designed, she shouldn't have heard it. That reminded her of the unnatural power she now had and her heart tightened with pain, it was a knowledge that affirmed the very thing she was trying to run away from

She was a monster.

The door pushed open immediately, and there her sister was. Belladonna was standing in front of her at the other side of the bars, her blue eyes filled with observation, anger, and... maybe worry.

Some other people had rushed in after her sister; Lytio - the Head of the Village of Inaymi, and Sir Eli - her sister's lover and the one who threw her into the dungeon in the first place. He wanted her dead, she could see it in those guarded eyes of his that were with hatred and filled with distrust; nothing she didn't deserve.

"Open the gate!" Belladonna commanded and Aniya watched through the net-lines of her veil as the guards obeyed. She rushed up to her feet immediately, words spilling from her lips. "I meant no harm!" Even though Aniya was on her feet she still had to look up, her sister was taller than she was. "Please, I didn't mean to hurt anybody. I have changed!"

However, Belladonna pulled Aniya's veil over her head, and immediately she knew what her sister was searching for and her hopes died.

For some days now, people have been getting killed in Inaymi by a strange beast. It left no survivors except her sister who it had almost killed but for the dagger she had attacked it, leaving a deep cut behind just around its neck.

That cut was what her sister was looking for and she found it right there where she had left it behind because indeed Aniya was the one the monster had possessed, she had known about it for a while now and even though she had thought of confessing, the thoughts of being killed and being taken away from her son was too much for her. For that reason, she had stayed silent, but things had only worsened since then, for the monster that possessed her had now become a killer; she was a killer.

"Sister Bell, I can explain, I didn't—" She stopped immediately, the realization that her veil had been pulled away and the scars that covered a good half of her face were now exposed- those intertwined red and angry lines against her fair skin. "No, please! Don't look at me. DON'T LOOK AT ME! Please, don't look at me!" She yelled but Belladonna grabbed either side of her face, staring at the effect of the fire that took the life of their father; a fire he caused.

"Aniya."

"No— no, NO! I'm not a monster. I'm not a monster. Don't look at me, please don't look at me." She cried, as she shook her head, her eyelids shut tight, tears raining down her cheeks.

Belladonna's arms went around her, her grip was tight as if to remind her that she wasn't alone. The embrace was unexpected, something she didn't deserve and was grateful for.

"You are not a monster. Aniya, you are not a monster. You are my sister. You are not a monster, but you have to tell me everything." She pulled away, looking at her. "Tell me everything, right now. Let us save you."

The silence dragged between them before Aniya started speaking.

"After the fire, I thought I was going to die. I could do nothing and my face was gone. I was so sad that I would be leaving Arlo alone and one day, when I felt like I was truly and finally dying, someone came to me. It was a voice, just a voice close to my ears. She asked me if I was ready to sacrifice anything to live. I said I would do anything for my son. I don't remember what happened but I woke up, alive." She smiled, her eyes still teary. "It was more than enough. My face was scarred and I healed slowly, but I was alive! Alive for my son. It was more than enough."

"Then?"

"It felt like a dream because nothing happened after. I had nothing special, I was just a healing person and Zesika was taking care of me." She paused. Zesika was the wife of the village head,  her son's godmother, and her best friend "Please, don't let Zesika see this. Don't let her deem me unfit for my s—," she paused when she looked past Belladonna's shoulder and saw Lytio. "I am not a monster!" She shouted to him. "Please, don't take my son away from me. Tell him, sister Bell, please!"

Belladonna held her face between her palms once again. "You are not a monster. You are my sister."

Her brown eyeballs danced from left to right as she tried to find reassurance in Belladonna's blue eyes. It was even surprising that she was doing this at all, had she not wronged her the most?

The forgiveness was indeed real.

Slowly, Aniya nodded, as she gulped.

"Nothing happened. I had even forgotten all about it until— there is a man in the woods with a dog," Cold ran down her spine as she remembered him, fear gripped her very being. Her voice quivered slightly as she kept on speaking about him. "I don't think I have ever seen him before in the village. He knows. He said he knows what I am. He tried to kill me." She whispered the last part. "Maybe— maybe because I am that dangerous, maybe you should lock me away from my son— You. Need. To. Go. Away. From. Me." Her lips trembled. "I don't want to attack you again." The words rushed out of her mouth, and Eli was behind Belladonna in a flash.

"No," she said to him, stopping him from interfering.

"This thing makes me kill!" Aniya shouted as her body trembled. She pushed her hand through her hair and the chains clanked as she moved. "I go unconscious then I wake up, and I see blood! Sometimes, I do not see blood, it clears it away." Feeling defeated, she crumbled to the floor. " I almost killed you! Lock me away, I don't want to hurt anyone! I am so sorry. I'm a monster."

"You are not a monster! Get a hold of yourself, Aniya!" Her sister was on her knees, as she pulled Aniya to rest against her chest.

"I heal," she whispered, tiredly. "It only started recently. I heal every cut quickly except the ones I acquired from the fire. These scars will live with me forever." Then she stopped. "And the one from your dagger. I don't know why but it won't heal."

"Aniya—"

"My head hurts. Go away from me, please. I can feel it again." She looked up at her sister with fear in her eyes. "I'm falling asleep."

Eli yanked Belladonna away from Aniya immediately and he slammed the gate shut.

To Aniya, everything was beginning to sound very distant, her vision nothing but a blur. She was losing to the creature that had possessed her; the monster within - the creatures with furs, canines, and beastly fury.

She wondered who she would kill this time or if they would finally kill her.