ISLA'S POV:

I looked up, quivering. I was terrified. I couldn't breathe. I feared if I breathed, Zaila would turn and kill me.

As if not breathing would save my life. But it wasn't going to.

Zaila's voice demanded tauntingly, "Beg for mercy."

"Wh-What?" I couldn't have heard her right. She didn't care that Adyson and Nicholis were gone...?

"Beg for mercy. Do it," Zaila repeated, "And I might let you go."

That wasn't true. She would never let me go. I was already dead.

"No."

"What did you say?" Zaila asked. I could tell she had known what I had said. She knew every move I could possibly make in this situation.

"I said..." I started, lip trembling, "I said no! I won't beg for your mercy."

Zaila started giggling. An odd noise. Not one of happiness, as laughter was usually known for. 

"I...had a feeling you'd say that..." Zaila said slowly, her sweet voice returning.

Zaila knew everything about me. Inside and out. She could tell you things about me I didn't know myself. Zaila knows me better than I know me.

"Calik, how wonderful it will be to add another... confirmed...death, yes well I suppose that would be the best word... to our board!" 

I closed my eyes hopelessly.

Calik seemed to have said nothing.

"Calik, why do you never respond to me?" Zaila asked, false sweetness still strong.

"You already know why."

I could picture Zaila frowning as she said, "I do...?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Isla what do you think? Do I really know?"

"How the he--" I started, but was cut off by Zaila, whose sweet voice vanished.

"Don't you get sassy with me." 

"How am I supposed to know that?" I said in the nicest possible tone I could manage. Which still wasn't all that nice.

"Do you not even know your own step-mother?"

"You were gone--!" Drawing in a frustrated breath, I started again. "You were not... present... during my life."

"Wasn't I? Oh well, I'm getting sidetracked."Her sweet voice disappeared,  and I could tell at that it wasn't coming back.

Zaila approached me, her shoes still as loud as ever.

She seemed t be walking towards me excruciatingly slowly, like she wanted to build up anxiety. She probably did want to, and she was succeeding.

The only thing I knew for sure is that I didn't know anything for sure.

Maybe she would leave me, I couldn't walk away. Maybe she would leave me to starve here. Or maybe she would stay and watch me starve. Maybe she would kill me quick. That seemed unlikely. The most likely thing was for her to beat me senseless until I died.

Zaila stood over me. She hummed a slow, melancholy song. "Poor, poor, Isla... A useless creature with no more pity to be given to her... A helpless girl who's out of luck."

She stopped talking, leaving me to wonder when the pain would come, and to where.

But it never did. Zaila simply stood there, probably glaring daggers at me lying miserably on the floor.

I whimpered against my will, breaking the silence.

"Hm...." Zaila was thinking. Of ways to torture me? I assumed so. "Calik, gather my things. We're leaving."

One of my guesses was right. She was leaving me to starve.

"Miss, are you sure...?" Calik asked cautiously. I could hear the obvious fear in his voice.

"You dare to question my direct order?!"

Calik scampered off without another word.

"This, this is a pitiful thing. Too bad there's no one left to hear your cries. You have no pity left." Zaila's voice spoke only the truth.

I had no one left to give me all their pity. I had no saviors left.

~~~

A/N:

*screeching over lack of updates*

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN I'M SO SORRY WHY OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

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forgive me pls