The commander stared down at me, disgust plain in his eyes. My hair stuck to my cheek, matted with sweat and blood; I could barely move now, everything ached so much.
Please let the end come soon.
I was not pleading to this beast – there was nothing good in him and I knew that – I think I was begging my body to let go.
But I couldn’t escape from here…not yet…a part of me still lived. I could not let go of Cassie… It was not time yet. And so, I simply stared back at the creature, my eyes as dead as his.
The pains in my body bothered me less than the deterioration of my mind. I couldn’t really remember when I last slept. Certainly I’d been unconscious on several occasions, but that did not really help, and the rest of the time they had kept me awake, with incessant questions or other less pleasant activities. Now though, everything was fading: I was so aware of what I was losing from my mind it was terrifying – it felt like entire periods of my life were melting away.
Images of Cassie were the strongest for me – love protected my memories – but even those were getting harder to see as I tried to hide her from them. I knew the pictures were becoming less distinct: the colour and light of my mind was weakening.