Free Web NovelChapter 32: Acting Sick
REBECCA’S POV
The rest of the afternoon passed in heavy silence. The white pills Stephanie gave me did their job, dulling the sharp pain in my broken shoulder to a manageable ache, but I still felt no peace. My mind kept replaying her words over and over again. A pill that stops the heart. A temporary death. An escape. It sounded completely crazy, but in this house, it was the only choice I had left.
As the sun began to set, casting long, dark shadows across the small, cramped bedroom, the heavy lock on the door turned.
My heart jumped into my throat. Remembering Stephanie’s warning, I quickly made my body go limp and pulled the thick blanket up to my chin. I let my mouth hang open a little, breathing in short, shallow gasps, and closed my eyes tightly to look as if I had a high fever.
I expected to hear Stephanie’s soft, quick footsteps, or maybe the heavy, terrifying footsteps of Alpha King Kaden coming to check on me. Instead, the footsteps were loud, sharp, and unfamiliar.
"Get up, murderer," a harsh voice barked.
I opened my eyes halfway, making my gaze look blurry and unfocused. It wasn’t Stephanie. It was a tall, older maid with an angry look on her face. She held a wooden tray with a bowl of thin soup and a piece of stale bread.
"The Alpha King orders you to eat," she said, slamming the tray down on the bedside table. A bit of the soup spilled over the side, staining the dark wood. "Not that you deserve it. If it were up to me, we’d let you starve."
I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to use my normal voice and show her that I was feeling a bit better. Instead, I let out a low groan, curling my right arm over my stomach as if I were in deep pain from hunger.
"Water..." I whispered, making my throat sound as dry as sand. "Please..."
The maid laughed nastily, rolling her eyes. "You have hands. Pour it yourself."
She didn’t spend another second in the room. She turned around and marched out, slamming the heavy doors shut behind her. The lock clicked back into place.
Once she was gone, I let out a long breath and slowly sat up, trying not to move my left shoulder. My body was still weak, and despite my acting, my stomach was truly hurting from hunger. I reached over and forced myself to eat the plain soup, dipping the hard bread into it to make it soft enough to chew. I needed my strength. If Stephanie’s plan was going to work, I couldn’t afford to faint from real starvation before I even took the pill.
After finishing all the food, I got out of bed and carefully went into the bathroom to wash my face. Staring at myself in the mirror, I looked like a dying woman without even trying. My skin was pale, my lips were dry and bleeding, and the dark circles under my eyes looked like deep bruises.
I went back to bed and lay down under the sheets, staring blankly up at the ceiling. Every time the wind blew loudly outside the windows, I jumped, thinking Kaden was coming. But the Alpha King never came.
By the next morning, the nervous waiting was making me feel physically sick. I hadn’t seen Alpha Kaden since he gave his cold orders. Part of me—the terrified, broken part—was deeply relieved. I didn’t want to look into those pitch-black, dead eyes again. I didn’t want to feel his heavy Alpha energy making it hard for me to breathe. If I could just avoid him until the plan started, I might actually get out of this house alive.
The morning went by very slowly. No one came for hours. I thought of Queen Helen and wished she had never walked into that library. If she had stayed at Kaden’s side, what befell her—I mean us—wouldn’t have happened.
It was well past noon when the door lock finally rattled again.
I immediately started acting again, letting my head fall to the side and closing my eyes halfway as I let out a soft, miserable whimper.
The doors opened, and a quiet set of footsteps entered. I peeked through my eyelashes and felt a huge wave of relief. It was Stephanie. She was carrying another lunch tray, keeping her head down properly as she walked past the guards outside.
She closed the door tightly behind her, waiting a few seconds to make sure the guards weren’t looking through the small window. Then, she rushed over to the side of the bed, setting the tray down with shaking hands.
"Rebecca," she whispered quickly, leaning down very low. "How are you doing?" freewёbnoνel.com
"The painkillers helped," I whispered back, keeping my voice very low. "But I’ve been acting sick all morning. The maid who came last night thinks I’m about to die."
"Good. That’s perfect," Stephanie said, her eyes looking both scared and determined. She reached into the front pocket of her apron and pulled out a small, tightly folded piece of brown paper. She pressed it into my hand, closing my fingers around it. "I have them. They’re inside."
My fingers tightened around the small package. I could feel the shape of two small, hard pills through the paper. My heart began to beat fast and hard against my ribs. This was it. My way out, or my death.
"Listen to me carefully," Stephanie whispered, looking over her shoulder at the door before turning back to me. "You must take them tonight at midnight. That is when the guards change shifts, and the hallway is very quiet. Once you swallow them, you will have about ten to fifteen minutes before your body completely shuts down. You will feel a deep, heavy coldness spread through your chest, and then you will fall asleep. Do not panic when your breathing slows down. It is supposed to do that."
I swallowed hard, my throat feeling tight. "Are you sure your friend is ready? What if they throw my body somewhere else?" freeweɓnovel.cѳm
"He is ready," she said firmly, gripping my arm. "His name is Link. He lives in a small cabin right on the edge of the Full Moon border. The guards always dump dead slaves and prisoners in the clearing near the old oak tree there because it is easy. Link knows the exact spot. He will be watching from the shadows. The moment the guards toss your body and drive away, he will pick you up and take you to his cabin."
She leaned in even closer, her breath warm against my ear. "He has medicine ready to help you wake up completely, and his truck is packed. Once you wake up on the third day, he will drive you across the border into the human world. You will be free, Rebecca. Completely free."
Tears filled my eyes, and I nodded quickly, slipping the small paper package under my thigh, hiding it deep beneath the heavy mattress. "Thank you, Stephanie. I don’t even know how to thank you for this."
"Just survive," she whispered softly with a sad smile. "That is enough."
She straightened up quickly, changing her expression back to a blank, servile look. She picked up the water pitcher from the tray, pretended to check it, and then turned toward the door. She slipped out of the room quietly, leaving me alone with the secret hidden beneath my body.
As evening came, the terrifying weight of what I was about to do began to crush me. I lay perfectly still, keeping the drugs safe under the mattress, practicing how to look like a dying woman.
The door opened late in the evening, and my stomach dropped when I saw who walked inside. It wasn’t a low-level maid this time. It was Martha, the head maid of the estate. She was an older, strict woman who wore her gray hair in a tight bun, and she ran the whole house with an iron hand.
She walked over to the side of the bed, her boots making sharp clicking sounds against the floor. She didn’t bring any food. She had just come to look at the prisoner.
I didn’t miss a beat. I let out a broken, painful breath, my chest moving up and down heavily as I gripped the sheets with a shaking hand. I forced myself to look like I was sweating and in total agony, rolling my head back against the pillows.
"Martha..." I cried out, making my voice sound completely broken as I reached my right hand toward her. "Please... please help me..."
Martha stood at the edge of the bed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. She looked down at my pale face and my swollen shoulder with a cold expression. "What is wrong with you, girl?"
