stjorthotic Chapter 60
Chapter 60
The night was too quiet. Not peaceful quiet in the way a predator waits in the grass, every sound smothered by anticipation. My heart beat louder than my footsteps as I moved through the empty corridor of the pack house.Alpha had told me earlier that evening, in front of the others, that I could go down to the dungeon and release the girl. His lips had curved into that strange smile of his the kind that made the hairs on my arms rise.
"You’ve been begging for her freedom, haven’t you?" he had said, as if indulging a child’s fantasy. "Go on then, Ellie. Tonight, you can let her out."
He had turned away after, dismissing me like I was nothing, but the weight of his words crushed me long after.
At first, hope had bloomed in me. The girl would finally be free. I had dreamed of it since the day I first saw her, shivering in her chains. But the more I replayed his words, the more my stomach twisted.
Permission from this psycho Alpha was never a gift. It was a weapon. And I could feel it this wasn’t mercy. This was something else. Still, when midnight came, I rose from my bed, clutching the lantern I had hidden under the blanket. I had to try. Even if it was a trap, I couldn’t leave the girl down there. The house was eerily empty. No guards, no servants, no wandering footsteps. Only my breathing and the soft creak of the wooden floor as I descended toward the east wing. The staircase to the dungeon gaped open like a throat, swallowing me whole. Cold air swept upward, smelling of rust, mildew, and old blood. My lantern’s glow shivered against the stone walls, barely pushing back the shadows. I hated this place. The dungeon was more than chains and stone it was a graveyard that breathed. The walls still whispered with the cries of everyone who had suffered here, and tonight, those whispers followed me down.
By the time I reached the bottom, my legs were trembling. The corridor stretched long and narrow, lined with cells of iron bars. I lifted the lantern, its dim light sliding across rusted locks and dangling chains.
That was when I heard it her voice.
"Ellie?"
The sound was broken, hoarse, but alive. Relief surged through me. I rushed toward her cell. The girl was pressed against the bars, her face gaunt and pale, her eyes wide with desperate hope. "You came," she whispered, her cracked lips trembling into a smile.
I dropped to my knees, setting the lantern beside me. My fingers fumbled at the lock. "Yes. Shhh. I’m going to get you out."
Her skeletal hands reached for mine, clutching them tight. "Please. Please hurry."
I nodded, trying to steady my hands. But then It came. The psycho Alpha’s inner voice
"Inner voice: So predictable."
I froze, my breath catching. My hands slipped from the lock.
"Inner voice: Always running toward cages, aren’t you, little mouse?"
My heart stuttered. I knew that voice. I would know it anywhere. Crazy Alpha.
But not his usual voice. This was different raw, unfiltered, like I was hearing the deepest, darkest corners of his mind.
"Ellie?" she whispered, confusion twisting her face. "What’s wrong? Hurry!"
I forced myself to the lock again, but my fingers trembled. I wasn’t imagining it. I could hear him.
"Do it," his inner voice hissed. "Turn the key. I want to see your face when her body crumples at your feet."
"No..." I mouthed, shaking my head violently.
The girl’s eyes widened. "Ellie? What are you saying?"
"Inner voice: The moment you open that door, I’ll break her neck. Slowly. In front of you. And then I’ll take my time with you."
My stomach lurched, bile rising in my throat. Tears blurred my vision.
This wasn’t just a threat. He meant it. Every word slithered with conviction.
The girl banged on the bars, her voice desperate. "Please, Ellie! Please! He isn’t here. He’s not here!"
But he was. Not in body, but in spirit. His madness coiled inside my head, heavy as chains.
I squeezed my eyes shut, clutching my ears though it made no difference. His voice was in me, under my skin.
"Inner voice: You really thought I’d let you win, didn’t you? Pathetic little thing. Always so eager to believe in freedom."
The lantern flickered violently, shadows leaping like claws across the walls.
"Inner voice: Go on. Free her. Do it. I’m begging you. Because I want the excuse to kill you both."
"Stop!" I screamed, my voice shattering in the dungeon. The girl shrank back, startled by my outburst.
I staggered away from the cell, my chest heaving. Every breath felt poisoned with his presence.
The chains in the farthest cell rattled suddenly, echoing like bones breaking. I snapped my head toward it, and in the blackness, I saw them, two glowing pinpricks. Red. Watching.
A hallucination? Or was he really here, hiding in the shadows? I couldn’t know. I didn’t want to know.
The girl sobbed, reaching through the bars. "Don’t leave me here! Ellie, please!"
I wanted to. God, I wanted to free her. But my hand refused to move. My body refused to betray that voice still coiled in my skull. Because if I did, he would keep his promise.
"Inner voice: One turn of the key, and you both die screaming."
The lantern guttered and went out and darkness swallowed me whole. I heard his laughter filled my mind low, endless, victorious.
I collapsed against the cold floor, the key slipping from my trembling fingers. I had almost done it almost freed her. But the Alpha’s inner voice had chained me tighter than any lock. The key slipped from my fingers and clattered against the dungeon floor, the sound slicing through the heavy silence. My knees gave out beneath me, and I crumpled against the damp stone, clutching my chest as though I could hold my heartbeat in place before it broke free.
The girl’s sobs echoed in my ears, clawing at my heart. She was still calling my name, her voice shaking, but I couldn’t make myself look back. My lantern had long gone out, leaving me in a suffocating darkness lit only by the faint glow of those phantom red eyes I had sworn I’d seen in the farthest cell.
His voice lingered, even though it had fallen silent. It coiled in my skull like a venomous snake, waiting for me to move wrong, to strike when I least expected it.
"Turn the key, and you both die screaming."
The threat played over and over, a curse that wouldn’t loosen its grip.ruth: there was no safety. I dragged myself to the bed, curling into the corner like a child. My blanket felt paper-thin against the cold that had seeped into my bones. Every creak of the house made me flinch, every shadow felt like him, standing silently, smiling. When I closed my eyes, I saw it again the moonlight carving his face, that smile stretching, endless, hollow. And when I opened them, I swore I could still feel his presence lingering in the corners, watching. I bit my lip until I tasted blood, trying to ground myself. My secret pulsed in my chest, heavier than ever.