Keisha was surprised. How could she run back to the street lamps? Was she running in circles? The moon had risen high in the sky and she didn't have much time left. In a desert like that she had to make sure that she crossed it during the night time, else in the day the sun would be harsh and she might die out of dehydration. Once again she ran fast in order to cover as much as she could. However, within an hour, she was back to the same spot. She was baffled now. After two hours of running, she was back to where she began. She was getting irritated and was running out of time.
This time Keisha decided to shape shift and walk on her feet. She thought of marking her way so that in case she returned, she would know that she had already traversed that path and would take another route. So she walked and started making a mark on the huge boulders that she saw in front of her. This way she wouldn't lose her way.
Two hours had passed and she was happy that she hadn't passed any boulder that she had already marked. That meant that she was on the right path. She walked another two hundred meters and suddenly saw a faint glow of the street lamps from a distance. She stopped in her tracks with a jolt. She was back to square one. Her hands went to her head. She was baffled beyond words. Why was she coming back to this place again and again? If that was the case, it was better that she walked back in the town and find some other way to get out of it. Even though it was risky, it was better than wasting her time in the desert. All she had to do was be cautious of any of Dmitri's people lurking in the town to catch her.
Thinking that, Keisha ran to the row of the street lamps and followed them. She looked at the town road that was hardly fifty meters ahead. Breathing in deeply, Keisha walked towards the road. Suddenly a huge sand wall appeared in front of her. The sand wall was moving inside making her retract her steps. The wall moved at a speed where she had to almost run back in the desert. Keisha was utterly confused. She thought that she was dreaming. How could it be possible that a wall would chase her back in the desert? This wall was nowhere initially. Where did it grow from? Her mind had become numb. She must have run inside a hundred meters when the wall stopped chasing her and seemed to fix itself on the ground.
Keisha also stopped. She went back to touch the wall, to see whether it was for real or not. It was there, standing solid. She touched it. Everything was abnormal. Her quest to escape from there was not coming to fruition. Once again she ran inside the desert and once again she came back to the wall. She was trapped there.
Feeling frustrated, helpless and tired, she knew who was doing all this. She shouted at the top of the lungs, "Adrianna!"
---
When Adrianna went back empty-handed, Dmitri frowned. "Where's Keisha?" he asked. He was standing in the garden waiting for her along with Nate and Liam.
"She is now trapped in a maze for the rest of her life. She will never be able to come out of it," replied Adrianna as she walked past him and entered the main hall.
The three followed her. "What do you mean Adri?" Dmitri was confused.
"Keisha wanted to run away Dmitri, so now she will keep running away in order to find a way out of that maze until she would realize that there is no way out and eventually perish. She had run with the precious gems that she had been so greedy about. In the desert where she would have no water and no food to eat, she will have to survive on those gems… That is her punishment for causing so much trouble…" replied Keisha looking unforgiving. She became silent as she watched blank space in front of her.
The way Adrianna sounded and looked, Liam and Nate became scared of her. They didn't know that Adrianna was capable of such harsh punishments. Something inside her had snapped regarding Keisha.
Even Dmitri was surprised but he didn't say anything. He was okay with whatever punishment his luna served to any person under him. "Let's go to bed Adri…" he said looking at her. He knew she was feeling sad.
Liam and Nate left the couple. None of them had any words about what Adrianna did. Keisha would fall into the grip of death slowly. She would rot away in that wilderness. This was worse than sending her to prison. They knew that the desert was harsh. The conditions there were severe, and without food and water, it was just a matter of days that Keisha would meet her end. They felt sad for her. They were sad because she had been with them to so many battles. She had fought with them through thick and thin. However, towards the end, her greed for Dmitri and to become the luna of the supreme alpha had overshadowed her judgment.
Back in the bedroom, Dmitri noticed that Adrianna had gone to take a bath.