“Why are you making me do this, Father?”
“It’s your duty, Nyah,” my father replies. He’s towering over me now with his brows furrowed together in annoyance.
“Duty? I don’t want to do this. Why are you forcing me?”
“Let me explain better.” Malachi sighs in frustration. “You mentioned the Salem witch trials. Well, I was a part of them.”
“You were a part of them? You can’t have been…that would make you…”
“Well, I was fifty when I was hung, so that would make me three hundred and seventy-six years old now. I don’t think I look bad for it.” Malachi interrupts my quick mental calculation with a laugh. My parents nervously join him.
“I still don’t understand.”
“I was one of those hung as a witch. But unlike all the other innocent souls that were killed, I am magical, and far from killing me, they unwittingly helped to unleash amazing powers within me. I’m eternally grateful to the idiocy of their puritan pride.”
“So you’re dead…but not dead.” I manage to get the words out of my increasingly dry mouth.
I wish I’d taken another couple of painkillers earlier because my migraine has returned with a vengeance.
“That’s one way of putting it, I suppose. Anyway, your ancestors helped restore me with the gift of their virgin daughter, and ever since, subsequent generations have provided me with an innocent female when I’ve used up the remnants of the last one.
“Remnants?” I question.
His words don’t sound particularly pleasant—in fact, they sound particularly like a nightmare.
“Yes, my powers come from fucking virgins like you. The first time, when I take your virginity, the energy released is particularly powerful. It will leave me young and virile again. Unfortunately, the effect dwindles the more times I take you until you eventually die, and I move onto the next innocent girl.”
I gape at my parents, “And you’re going to let this happen?”
“Yes,” they both reply, nonchalantly. “It’s tradition.”
“You’re going to allow this man to slowly murder your daughter.” I can’t believe they’re letting this happen—do I mean nothing to them?
“It’s not murder, Nyah. It’s a sacrifice for the greater good.” My father tries to excuse his actions.
I don’t know who these two people are in front of me. Has my whole life been a lie? Don’t they care about me? They certainly aren’t behaving like the loving parents I’ve believed them to be my entire life.
“I beg to differ,” I spit out at them.
It appears I don’t have any more time to argue when the man in the black cloak points at the clock.
“It’s nearly time, sir. You don’t want to have to wait another year for her to be ripe again.”
“No, I certainly don’t.”
Malachi pushes me toward the man I now realize is a priest. He takes a piece of old cloth and wraps it around my hands and Malachi’s, binding us together.
“Mr. Hayes, do you take Miss Stratton as your concubine in marriage? And do you promise to look after her until all her powers have been spent?”
“I do.” Malachi replies happily.
I shake my head in refusal as my parents appear at my side. My father holds me still while my mother places her hand over my mouth.
“Miss Stratton, do you allow Mr. Hayes to feed off your virginity and your body for the purpose of giving him life?” the priest asks.
I try to scream ‘no’, but the word can’t be distinguished due to the pressure exerted by my mother’s hand slammed over my mouth.
“She does,” my father answers for me. I stand there shaking my head furiously, trying to escape my parents’ hold.
“No, she doesn’t.” The stained glass window next to us shatters as my brother bursts through it.
“Connor, don’t do this.” My father lets go of me and runs toward my brother to stop him.
“No, Father. It’s you who shouldn’t be doing this,” Connor responds.
Then my brother raises the gun he’s holding, and without another word, he shoots my father in the head. My father’s brain splatters out behind him, and he falls down in a pool of blood.
It seems I’m in the middle of a terrible nightmare—none of this can be real. It’s a horror movie come to life.
“No.” My mother runs to her husband who’s bleeding out on the floor. “Have you gone insane, Connor?”
“Not me, Mother,” Connor spits out. “I won’t let you do this to Nyah.” He holds the gun up, and closing his eyes, he shoots her too.
I let out a loud scream. My brother has just killed my parents...parents who were forcing me to marry a man who intended to feed off me during sex. This is the worst nightmare I’ve ever had…except it’s not a dream, it’s reality.
My hand is still bound to Malachi’s, and as I struggle to free myself, he pulls me to him, so I’m pinned against his body.
“Continue the ceremony,” he orders the priest. “I have to marry her before the clock chimes.”
The priest opens his mouth to speak, but he doesn’t get another word out as my brother takes aim and shoots him as well. I’ve never seen this side of my brother before. I don’t know whether to be elated, because he’s actually doing something to try and save me, or worried in case I’m the next person he shoots. Oh god, he just shot our parents and killed them. I start hyperventilating in Malachi’s arms.
“Just one left,” Connor growls at Malachi.
“Foolish boy. You think you can stop me?”
Malachi swirls his hand around, forming what looks like a bolt of energy. He throws it toward my brother who manages to jump out of the way at the last second. Connor rolls on the floor, turns around, and aims the gun at us. I urgently need to get away from Malachi, and I stamp down hard on Malachi’s foot. I use such force he has no choice but to let me go, and I run to my brother at the same moment he shoots the evil man I was destined to marry.
“Quick, Nyah,” Connor urges as he gets back up on his feet, and grabbing my arm, he pulls me along behind him, heading toward the door. “We need to get away from here and disappear.”
But before we have a chance to take another step, a blast of energy pushes us apart.
“No!” Connor shouts. A clock chimes somewhere in the room. “It’s too late. Let her go, Malachi.”
Malachi rises from the floor in an unearthly manner and floats toward us on a swirl of black smoke.
“It’s never too late. I’ll just have to wait another year,” Malachi responds. I start to run again, instinct telling me to get the hell out of this place, but I’m stopped in my tracks when a glass cage surrounds me. “Welcome to your prison until then, Nyah.”
“No,” my brother yells.
Connor picks up a nearby vase and starts to hammer it against the side of my prison—the vase shatters, but the cage remains intact. He then picks up a chair and throws it at the glass, and still it doesn’t crack. While my brother is trying to free me from the outside, I am trapped inside, pounding the walls with my fists, but our efforts are all in vain. There’s no hope of escape. I’m trapped, and no matter the force used, I know this magical prison will never shatter.