Chapter 8: Cursed

Adeline felt as if her brain was being forced through a meat blender, but all the while, it was being compressed into a tight ball. The pain was like nothing she had ever felt before; it was excruciating.

'Stop!' She screamed in her mind as the pain increased. 'Please stop! It hurts, it hurts! STOP!'

Adeline was hysterical, and she was sure that if she had been awake, tears would've been racing down her cheeks as she folded in on herself. Never in her life had she experienced such pain; and the worst part was that she wasn't sure if it was physical pain, or if her brain was just making it up. Could it be her mind just making the hurt up? Adeline had wondered, but she knew the truth. It was too painful to be a figure of her touch deprived mind.

"Stop.... Stop.... Stop." She moaned in agony as her fingernails dug into the hard surface she was curled up on. Nothing she had ever experienced, nothing that she had ever felt, held a candle to the pain that was enveloping her. Even though it was painful when the beast tried to take over, it was never as bad as this.

"This is just a dream," She told herself, "This is just a dream that I will wake up from.... Just a dream." In the haze of pain and agony, Adeline remembered a time when she was eleven years old. Looking back on it, she realized how stupid it was, but just recalling that memory seemed to help with the pain, even just for a moment.

Howls of laughter surrounded Adeline as she flailed and writhed. "Stop it!" Adeline growled as she tried to pull out her head, but her attempts were futile. It was a stupid dare that one of her friends had challenged her to do, and being the stupid, naive girl she was, Adeline had followed through eagerly.

The clicks of cameras made Adeline's face grow red with embarrassment. Even though everyone couldn't see her blush, Adeline knew that they were fully aware of her humorous uneaseiness.

"It's not funny!" Adeline snarled as she wrapped her hands around the base of the pumpkin and pulled, trying to squeeze her head out of the hole. Instead of freeing her head, the pumpkin's hole seemed to shrink under her jaw.

"Help me!" She cried out in exasperation. Her pitiful plea was echoed by more laughter and more clicks of cameras.

"Hold on," Adeline's father said, his voice light.... amused. She felt fingers hook into the carved hole and pull; she was guided over to a table, told to kneel while laying her head on the table and to stay as still as possible.

Adeline almost smiled at the memory. It had taken twenty minutes to get it off her head, and she had to take two long shower to remove all of the pumpkin guts from her hair. She bet, if she looked around, she could still find pictures of her dilemma hanging in frames around the Pack House.

Adeline lifted her head abruptly as a deep voice surrounded her. She couldn't decipher where the voice was coming from, what it was saying, or who it belonged to, but she could tell that it belonged to a female.

The voice was quiet, a murmur. Seconds passed as Adeline looked forward, her eyes squinting in the bright whiteness that seemed to swallow her. The deep voice was a rumbling hum that shook Adeline to her core; it used the kind of tone that someone would use when they were confident... when they were determined.

Adeline folded in on herself as the voice grew louder and more pronounced. Second by second, the voice would rise an octave until her eardrums rattled and her heart pumped alongside the current of sound. With the raising intensity of the voice, the pain increased tenfold.

The chanting grew deafening as Adeline slammed her hands over her ears, but that didn't seem to do anything but make the voice more powerful.

"STOP!" Adeline roared as her head thumped with pain. She didn't even focus on how it was possible that she was experiencing pain in her unconscious state, but then again, it was there.

Adeline curled in on herself as her head split right through the middle. Her screams and pleas were unintelligible as the whiteness around her darkened.

Resting her forehead on the hard surface right in front of her knees, Adeline trembled with the pain that tore through every cell, muscle, bone, and tendon.

Adeline's nails bit into her scalp and yanked at her hair as the pressure behind her eyes intensified. It felt as if her skull was being split in half, all the while, being beaten with a hammer.

"AHHH!" She screamed just as the voice boomed all around her.

Surrounded by a unknown speaker and murky grey, Adeline gave up fighting. Just as quickly as the voice had announced its presence, it quieted until it was no more. Once again, Adeline was alone; but this time was different. This time, she welcomed the solitude....

She embraced the darkness.

????

The room erupted in chaos as the girl screamed. Wolves and threats swirled around the Oracle, but she still stood over Adeline with eyes so light in color, they could be pure gold.

Sasha pressed her fingers more firmly to the young she-wolf's temple, but it was proving difficult, as the girl thrashed and screamed whenever Sasha touched her. Adeline's frail, thin body was surprisingly strong against the ropes holding her down; even though she jerked, squirmed, writhed and fought the bondage, it was doing its job.

"Oracle! Release my daughter!" Sasha heard the girl's father snarl from somewhere behind her. The wolf's voice was deep and tight, it was obvious that he was trying to hold back his beast from attacking her.

It was clear that she couldn't see to Adeline with her parents so out of control, so she pulled away her hands enough to open her end of the matebond.

"Get the Alpha and Luna out of the room!" Sasha said urgently. She heard Desmond's reply, and in no time, he and two other warriors escorted the hardly controlled Alpha pair out of the room and down the hall. It surprised Sasha that they didn't attack anyone in the room, especially with the history they had with their pups, but she knew that they weren't that dumb. She was a sacred Oracle, and whether they liked it or not, Sasha was trying to help their daughter.

"Brace yourselves," Sasha warned everyone in the room. "I cannot have another interruption. If you don't think you can handle this experience, than you can leave." The room was silent. Sasha's eyes met everyone's in the room, and on by one, they dropped their gazes.

They understood.

Truth be told, Sasha didn't just need to tell everyone to brace themselves, she needed to be told that, too. When she had first touched Adeline, briefly, the girl's mind and soul had been so well guarded, that she wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to break through. Adeline's mental barriers were so strong, so well built; Sasha had never seen anything like it before. She knew that this was going to be one of the most painful things she had ever done, but she had to do it. Sasha would never back down from something she had set her mind too.

Spreading her fingers two inches apart, just like a dear friend had taught her oh, so long ago, Sasha placed her fingers to the girl's temple, and pushed her ancient magic out of her being. Adeline began to strain against the ropes immediately as Sasha's vision dimmed and pain crept into her skull.

All Sasha saw was darkness. Usually when she would 'see' into someone, she would get bombarded with memories and thoughts. She didn't see anything in Adeline's conscious; instead, she saw an unmoving wall of blackness. Whatever that darkness was, it was separating Adeline's soul from the part of her mind that controlled her wolf's actions.

Adeline's wolf was disconnected from its own soul.

Sasha pushed more of her magic into Adeline's mind, trying to find a way to get through the barrier, trying to find a weakness. The pain in her head increased, scratching and biting at her eyes and behind her ears. Sasha wanted to withdraw her magic to make the pain stop, but she knew that there was no way to get around the agony; either she get it done now, or wait later when Adeline was awake. Sasha wouldn't do that to the poor girl.

Sasha could hear Adeline's screams, but since she was so focused on the task before her, the wails of pain were muffled; it was as if she were underwater. Sasha gritted her teeth as the pain heightened, the deeper she went into Adeline's mind, the more intense and severe the side-effects were. Sasha didn't have very much time left; soon the pain would become too much for her to handle.

The Oracle channeled a little more of her magic into the she-wolf's mind, testing the durability of the barrier. The damn thing held solid. Not much could withstand the magic of an Oracle, and nothing had ever held this strong when she saw to it, but it somehow was.

Out of the corner of her limited vision, Sasha saw a small portion of the barrier flicker, just like a flame being moved by wind. Pushing her magic out of her soul as fast and strong as possible, Sasha screamed as she forced her essence onto the weakening spot. The pain encasing her was horrendous and crippling, but she still held out. Sasha began to chant a spell that an old friend would recite whenever life grew hard. Her voice grew louder and more fierce as she concentrated on the flickering section. How Sasha remembered the exact words and meanings -- since the spell consisted of an ancient language -- she didn't know; but it helped with the pain.

Sasha's eyes flung open and her fingers jerked away from Adeline's temple. Colors and faces returned to her as she panted with adrenaline and shock. Sasha shuddered, as if trying to push back the cold. How didn't she see it sooner? Sasha was so focused on trying to break through the wall, that she didn't realize the larger picture. Nothing could resist the force of an Oracle's magic; nothing but a curse

"Sasha?" She heard a voice ask cautiously. Sasha didn't turn to them right away, instead, she looked down at the pale girl with short, dark hair. It didn't make sense to Sasha. Why would Adeline Manson, daughter of the independent Southern Pack, have a curse on her? As far as the Oracle knew, the Southern Pack didn't have any enemies or creatures that hated them. So who had placed the curse?

"Sasha?" Desmond's voice was soft as he slipped his finger under her chin and turned her face towards him. "What happened?"

Sasha let out a ragged breath as she looked down at the poor girl again. She remembered being seventeen, Adeline's age, and could relate to her. Sasha had had an unfair life before finding Desmond, and recalled her late teenage years. Life was, and will always be unfair, but Sasha chose to leave those years behind her. But what surprised her just then, looking down at the unfortunate she-wolf, Sasha felt a wave of emotions flow over her. Whether it be her Oracle magic flowing through her, or just her need to help others, Sasha could see that Adeline needed help. She wanted to help Adeline through this obstacle, and she wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Cursed," Sasha whispered just as Desmond scooped her up in his arms. "Adeline is cursed."

Everything went dark...