Caged in the dark light.

Hunched over bent knees.

Closed eye

Cooled skin

Bars of iron surrounds

Chained to the wall.

Feet bare to cold stone.

Single key drops in front

Head rises.

Eyes Mere slits of awareness

“It is time”

Outstretched fingers

Wrap around steel.

Internal magma

Begins to bubble.

Freed

Holding back is not an option.

It was twenty long and silent years. The only sound to let me know that I was still on this earth was the cawing of the raven.

They took me to the “Stone Hold”. Where they keep the unexplained, caged, hidden away until all thoughts of who they are and what they have done are just a rumored story. A fiction that was made up to let them justify what had occurred.

I do not think of the past anymore nor do I think of my future. I focus on controlling it. It has been sleeping for a very long time. I was told it would awaken one day when I was a child. The head of our family said not to control it. Let it run free when it emerges. Eventually, it will calm down, and we both will be in sync.

I was a child when I was told this. In my sixteenth year, the beast emerged. I recalled arms and mouths. Bodies of all sizes and flashes of images of my innocence tossed away but what I took in return was more precious.

Then the blackness came, and I woke up here. Surrounded by stone and iron bars. For extra measure, they chained my leg with steel. The beast laughed realizing their folly. Then it retreated into a space deep within and sleeps.

The sun rose and two ravens cawed in the distance. Something is stirring. I am being warned.

The thick oak door opened at the far end of the room. Sounds of soft footsteps approached the bars. Then a clink of small metal hit the stone floor before me.

“It is time for your freedom. The beast has slept long enough.”

I looked up slightly through slitted eyes to see a young woman wearing a green gown flowing to the floor and a matching cloak in her arms.

“You have been caged too long and I am afraid to tell you that a great wrong has fallen to your family.”

She swallowed audibly.

“You, Kannan Wallace McDonald are the last.”

The beast stirred from my shock at hearing my name.

“They will come for you and destroy the last Wallace woman. They will destroy the beast.”

I should die. This beast will rain down hellfire on those who caged us. Knowing it is the last. It has awakened.

I stood barefoot on the cold stone, picked up the key, and approached the door. The chain tugged at my ankle reminding me of the nuisance. A minor tug and it snapped.

The female gasped in shock.

“You could have freed yourself.” She whispered.

I put the key in the lock and pushed the iron door open. The beast has decided to stay quiet for now.

“You need to hurry quickly. I will take you someplace safe.”

I looked at her questioningly.

“I will tell you everything after you are safe.”

She wrapped a cloak around me, and I smelt it. Earth. Deep, clean, and rich. Her skin touched me, and warmth stirred me. Images of the past. Soft, pliant skin—

“Control” she whispered. I looked at her and it was not me she was referring to.

“Willing,” the beast said. Then went back to sleep.

Stepping out of my exile and into freedom I fully awakened. Now I must put to ground those who killed my blood.

(From this point on will be graphic. Blood, gore. sexual verbiage. You are warned)