Pretty Faces and Dark Places by Rose B. Mashal Read Free Book Online Page B

longer struggling against my restraints, but I couldn’t stop crying.
    My vision become a bit better as the time passed, still slightly blurry, but I could see things more clearly than before. It felt like there was a thick fog of smoke all around the large room, a room that was completely empty aside from the chairs that surrounded the wide space in the middle of the room where the cross I was tied to was. It brought the full attention to it by being centered this way.
    Where I am? What’s going to happen to me? The questions kept roaming in my head.
    A while later, a great door opened right in front of me, and then I saw people entering the room, many people. All of their eyes were on me as they took a seat here and there on the chairs that were placed around the room.
    I was completely humiliated and terrified, feeling like this was some kind of a live show for them just by the look in their eyes and smiles on their faces. I even thought it wouldn’t be a shocker if they started passing around popcorn.
    What shocked me the most was seeing Sophie entering, followed by William. Her face was blank, no emotions showing on it at all. I thought she wouldn’t like seeing me this way. I thought she’d try to help. But – she didn’t do anything. She just took her seat and sat down, watching me closely just like the rest. This alone made me wonder if it was really Sophie whom I was looking at and not just her clone, because I knew Sophie would never allow this to happen to me.
    Still, I tried, because I was that desperate. “Sophie?” I called with the tears causing my voice to shake. “Sophie, please help me!”
    “Andrew?” a voice called, and I turned my head to look at the source, a woman in her late 40s. The seat she took was a bit different from the rest, making her stand out, though her clothes that were sparkling in the fogged room were enough to make her look as if she was a lot higher than the rest, if you know what I mean.
    “She was her best friend during her human life, Mother,” Andrew replied.
    Mother?
    Human life?
    What did that even mean?
    It was only then that I noticed that every single one of them had black wings. The same as the wings I’d seen on Andrew’s back in my dreams.
    My eyes widened as I stared at them, shock consuming me. I had no idea if I was dreaming, having a very bad nightmare, or if I’d simply gone insane and started imagining things.
    I didn’t get the chance to wonder for long, because once everyone was seated and the great door was closed, Andrew brought an iron collar and put it around my neck. I struggled a lot, but all of my efforts did me no good, not helping me at all. I even begged him, but he only smiled and patted my cheek tenderly.
    I disliked his tenderness so much.
    “Andrew! Please! What are you doing?” came my terrified voice.
    He didn’t reply, only focused on the task at hand.
    After he was finished securing the cold collar around my neck, he then attached chains to it and pulled, causing me to lean my top half down. If it wasn’t for the chains around my stomach, I would’ve fallen, but instead I stayed in this position when he tied the chains to a nail in the floor.
    My arms were behind me, still tied but keeping me standing. The whole of my back was exposed, and looking at the people – or whomever these creatures were – became so difficult that eventually I just stared at the floor beneath me.
    My tears fell from my eyes to the floor, my arms aching and my legs hurting. The restraints around me were making me almost unable to breathe, and everything was just too much, everything was pain and darkness, everything was wrong.
    The next thing I knew, there was a loud noise that sounded like rocks moving, similar to the sound you’d hear when you push marble pieces on the floor. And suddenly light filled the room that had only been dimly lit before, and the fog disappeared.
    I tried moving my head to the side, looking at the source of the faint