Obsession

Chapter 22

Twenty-Two

R en's world was turned upside down, figuratively and soon thereafter, quite literally. She caught the coppery scent from the bag as she turned the little screw loose to let it drip from the small tube.

“I wonder what it will be like. Will it really be as it was described in all of those books? Can I actually stay in this world forever?” She mused to herself while squishing the little bag of liquid, mixing its contents back and forth.

Despite her agony, Ren drug herself to the edge of the bed and swung her feet over the edge, sitting upright.

She grappled at the bag with shaky hands and tore at the plastic plug in the small tube with her teeth. It ripped open and red splashed her face, a few drops hitting her tongue.

“That’s it, no more deciding. It’s done.”

Her pupils dilated to the size of quarters. The pain she had been in started to fade away. A sense of euphoria flowed through her veins with each passing moment.

She was like a kid in the snow, trying to catch every snowflake on her tongue.

Joy.

Pure and unadulterated joy.

Despite her aversion, she took another tentative sip. It tasted sweet and as she swallowed it down almost reluctantly.

Then a new pain hit as her body responded in a few seconds to the raw energy that was surging through her.

The richly furnished mansion, which had slowly begun to feel like home, tilted and swirled into madness as her body continued to heal. She felt like she could see through the eyes of each of the men. One by one their vision took over hers and left just as quickly. She could see what they were doing and where they were inside the vast mansion.

Her muscles spasmed and she threw herself forward on the bed trying her best not to retch the few sips of the potent mixture Grayson had dropped off for her. She wailed as she felt her muscles tighten to the point of pain. She could feel the small slices in her skin fuse and the bruises healed with a tingling under her skin.

Ren swore she could feel the blood receding away from her flesh and back to the heart. It came with a maddening itch that made her want to tear her skin off as the wounds scabbed over in seconds, dried out and were replaced with fresh skin within moments.

All in all the process may have lasted a minute, but the anguish had felt like an eternity.

The scent of aged books and fine wines no longer comforted her. Instead they overwhelmed her heightened senses while also serving as a reminder of her situation. She could hear scratches of the rodents within the walls. Low murmurs of growling deep in the catacombs vibrated gently in her ear drum.

The world would age and decay while she had now become immortal, doomed to feel the ache of every blow of life while never succumbing to it. Her heart beat loud in her chest as the realizations and the enhanced awareness spiked her adrenaline levels, it was a persistent hammering that echoed the urgency of her predicament.

“What have I done?”