Chapter Three

Dawn twisted and turned for the second night in a row. She kept seeing that damned man in her sleep. He was always in her thoughts. Mark. She growled and tried to push him out of her thoughts. In the end nothing help. He was stuck there in her thoughts.

Her work that day seemed too slow without her wanting it to. She felt too normal. Too strange after she met that guy in the park. His green eyes haunted her dreams. His voice echoes in her sleep and while she was awake. She tried to will him away, but still nothing.

She threw off her covers and needed fresh air. She dressed and went out in the early morning light. It was Wednesday and its her common day off. She was going to use this day to try and distance herself from this Mark. His memory just hounded her too much for her liking. Even in her sleep she saw him and his camera.

Dawn walked the few blocks to the city park. She kept her head down as people passed her not even paying her any attention. Thats how she liked it. She was invisible to everyone that came near her.

Once in a while someone will pass and she would shift reality so when they looked back they didn't see her. They would have to be sure of what they saw and look right at her for more than a few seconds to see her. No one had ever paid that much time to see something that on second glance didn't seem to be there.

Several minutes later, she came to her favorite spot. The sun was just over the horizon and skimming through the trees as it cast its light on everything. Everything looked like it was waking up from a restful nap. Something she didn't know. Haven't for a long time.

She sat there with her shoes off and her feet sweeping back and forth in the waters. The icy temperature of the water help to distract her from Mark. She remembered something else. A dark memory. The time before she was so lonely. A time when she was beyond happy and made everyone else happy before her innocence had been taken from her.

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The day had started like any other before it. She woke, washed, cooked morning breakfast for her family, and was the perfect respectful daughter. She wore her modest clothes like a good daughter and ate like a lady that she was expected to be.

That morning her family looked solemn as they ate. It was her twenty-first birthday and she thought they would be happy that she was meeting her future husband. It was expected of her no matter how much she didn't want to marry someone she had never met before. But she did it for her family. They were her priority.

She rose silently as she cleared the table. No one said a word to her. No one made eye contact for that matter. Like they were ashamed of themselves. She could feel that they were keeping something from her, but did not disrespect her family by asking. If they were going to tell her what was wrong, they would do it when they were ready.

The day rode on and she did her duties as she always did. No one came near her, nor spoke to her. They all seemed to be in mourning, but no one had died.

The night came and the small party in her honor started. Still her family seemed to be in mourning though they had fake smiles plastered on their face. They were playing happy for their guests.

Her father got everyone's attention for an announcement. He walked over to the mantle were the family's heirloom silver goblet rested. Her father had taken it earlier that day and had replaced it just before the party.

He came to her looking apologetic with the goblet in his hands. "It is a tradition in our family that on their twenty-first birthday, the eldest daughter drinks of this goblet." He presented the goblet to her knowing she would drink even if he didn't want her to.

Dawn placed her hands under the cup of the goblet and brought it to her lips. She took a sip and tried to drop the goblet. Her father had his hand underneath it urging her to drink more. "All of it my dear." He spoke to her with a shaky voice.

The liquid was thicker than wine and had a metallic taste to it. She had to close her eyes tightly against the warm feeling that the drink invoked. Soon that feeling felt like it spread through her veins and to her bones. She was surprised that sweat wasn't beading down her body.

The goblet ran dry and her father took it away. He left her there gasping and choking on the taste. He had his back to her as he set the goblet down on the mantle. His shoulders had slumped slightly hearing her struggling against the feeling and trying to breathe. Now her cells were feeling on fire.

He turned back around as Dawn knelt on the floor with her hands around her neck finally getting her breathing back under control and her body cooling a bit. He went back to her and lifted her up by the elbow till she stood beside him.

He grimaced internally at what he was going to announce next. "Now that she has been given the family drink, Dawn Mannings...meet Nicholas White. Your future husband."

Dawn looked ahead of her and saw a balky man with very light blonde hair. He looked in his early thirties and seemed dark inside. The man wore nearly all black so he looked very pale.

He step forward and took her hand. His kiss was slimy and disgusting to her. He even used he tongue with turned her stomach. He had this smell to him that was repulsive. If she had met him somewhere else, she would have hurled.

"Now Dawn. Go and get to know your future husband better." Her father nearly shoved her into her future husband's waiting hands. Her father told the room to celebrate as the man pulled Dawn out of the party. Her family didn't look at her.

Nicholas seemed to know where he was going as he pulled her into her room. He tossed her to her bed as he closed the door and locked it. "Now that that rouse is done with, time for the second part of your ascension."

"What? I don't understand." She moved away from him as he advanced her.

He smirked as he grabbed her and flung her onto the bed again. "They were told not to tell you about the ritual. Now that you are of perfect age, it is time to take your birthright. And mine is to take you and make you ascend into your powers."

"Get off of me!" She hit his chest as he laid on top of her. "You're insane!"

He grabbed her arms and slammed them down on her bed above her head. He pulled them together and held them with one hand as the pulled his belt off. She yelped when he fastened her wrists together and bound them to the bed frame.

He hiked up her batiste skirt till he saw her undergarments. He used his knees to keep her legs spread after he opened them up. He took the center of her undergarments in his hands and ripped them apart and off her body.

She screamed and demanded that he stop. He took the scrap that was her undergarment and tied them around her mouth to silence her. Tears streamed down her face at her being so powerless.

"Now to get you ready so I can take your innocence and give you power instead." He licked two fingers and brought them between her legs. She tried to move away, but her held her down. He groaned as he worked his fingers into her while she thrashed against his hold.

She tried to not give into the feeling he was trying to invoke. She could feel as he stroked and moved his fingers in her the building of something. She cried at how dirty he was making her feel.

She was a good daughter. She did everything her family had wanted of her. Why were they letting this happen to her? Why did they keep this from her? She had loved them and they were allowing this to happen.

He seemed to take pleasure in her suffering. It delighted him to watch her try and repel him. But at the same time he was becoming frustrated. She wasn't responding the way he wanted her to respond. Most women under his touch at least get some pleasure at his hands, but she wasn't.

He removed his hand and held her legs apart with his hands as he lowered down. She squirmed as she felt him lick her. She felt disgusted by this. She felt so sick to her stomach by him.

After a while he rose up with a smirk. Her eyes grew wide with horror as he push his erection to her entrance. She shook her head violently and screamed against the gag in her mouth. He didn't let up as he moved forward and entered her. He wasn't even bothered to ease her pain.

He groaned and moaned as he took her. He couldn't believe how delicious she felt around him. Sweat beaded off him as he continued on. He didn't even stop when he broke her barrier. He couldn't even be bothered to sooth her. He only wanted her power.

Everyone's power was different because everybody is different. He just knew that she would be powerful. Her family was the last of their kind. The descendants from the gods as the stories go. He just laughed at that assertion until he saw this one's grandmother save the small town from three twisters. He looked back through records and found that the whole line of women that stories danced around them.

He felt his climax coming on and he wanted it. He wasn't fully sure how this worked, but from what he found out from her father, their power comes when they have sex after drinking the elixir.

From the tales, if they don't gain their powers in three days, then they would never have their powers. He was going to take her constantly till she does. He wanted to use her power for his own gains. He was power hungry and he loved it. He even forced her father to allow this because he would tell everyone that they were criminals. Her father wanted to keep them safe so he had no choice but agree.

Nicholas fell to lay on his back next to Dawn. Still with her hands bound, she rolled to her side and curled up. Her tears had been a constant through this whole thing. She was ruined. No one will want her now.

Nicholas asked her if she got her power. When she didn't respond to him, he took her again. By the next night Nicholas was becoming angry at her for not talking to him. As a result, he made her own father take her. At first her father refused on moral grounds, but Nicholas played the safety of his family card which her father couldn't refuse. She was betrayed far deeper.

On the third day after her birthday, she was left alone. She wasn't bound or gagged. She was just there on her bed staring out. Her body moved of its own accord. She rose and walked to wall as it shimmered. She was just lost in a daze as she step through her first wall and shifted her first reality.

"No!" She heard Nicholas roar just as she finished stepping through the wall.

The sun bathed her as a meadow unfolded before her. She knew this place. She had visited it years ago with her family. She looked behind her and found the remains of an old colonial house that was destroyed. She had come out of the chimney that still stood tall.

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