Married To The Mad Vampire Lord - Chapter 431

Chapter 431: Punishment_Part 1
One moment Belle was in the drawing room, and the next she had crossed into the world of the dead without even sleeping, staring up not only at the big moon but at the Grim Watchers who surrounded her. In an instant, they bound her with that same black rope the Watcher Selric had always wanted to use on her. It tightened sharply, pressing her arms together at her sides.

“We finally found the wanted,” the Grim Watcher she recognized, the one she had encountered more than once, taller than the other five, said as he turned to look at Belle, who was still trying to process how this had happened.

She was in the middle of shock, barely realizing the danger she had fallen into, until the Watcher, known as Selric spoke again.

“You have been coming here in another form and running before I catch you, but now you have come back in a form you can not escape.

The time to pay for what you did has arrived. I have been looking and waiting for you to come back, and you have come back. I shall never let you escape me again.”

Belle was still processing the Watcher’s words when she felt a cold shiver run down her spine as she was yanked up from the ground by the rope, forced to stand on her shaky feet. It was then she noticed that her body felt different. When she looked down, she saw herself dressed in an unfamiliar white burial gown, her legs burned down to blackened, stick-like limbs. She froze as she realized her hands were the same as her legs.

A memory of that nightmare, the one where she had woken up before Isabelle’s grave with people mourning, flashed through her mind. Her body had looked exactly like this then. How could she be here in this form… a form like a body that had been burned? This couldn’t be happening. She shouldn’t be here.

The Grim Watchers didn’t even give her time to fully understand everything that had went wrong before they began to drag her away.

“No, you can’t do this! I am a living person. I don’t belong here! Let me go!” Belle cried out, pulling back with everything she had. But her weightless soul’s strength was nothing compared to the creatures who ruled this world. Fear unlike any she had ever known crept into her heart. She knew deep down she was truly trapped this time, trapped with no way out, not with reapers in long cloaks falling in beside her, and not when she couldn’t even feel her heartbeat or the solid weight of the living body.

How could she be here? Wasn’t Isabelle supposed to come here instead of her? What had the witch done wrong? No… I don’t want to be here. Take me back, please. I have people who won’t take my death easily. I have loved ones, Belle cried in her head as she turned to look around fearfully.

“I don’t belong here…” she whispered, glancing toward the Watcher at her side. But if he heard her, even though she was speaking their language, he ignored her completely.

Totally helpless and terrified of what would come next, she was dragged towards a river where cold mist hovered thickly in the air, swallowing her and everything around her. She didn’t even realize she had stepped into a boat until it began to move through the water.

Belle could see nothing beyond the fog that covered the entire river of souls, but she felt something far more terrifying than the mist itself, her soul recognized the direction they were heading, and she knew she shouldn’t be going there. Something inside her knew if she sent there, it would be the end of it all.

Belle turned with the intention of throwing herself off the boat, but two scythes crossed in front of her, blocking her escape. The Watcher’s dark eyes pinned her down. “No escape now,” he warned gravely.

Belle was forced to sit back inside the moving boat, with two Watchers on either side of her.

She couldn’t even imagine what state Rohan would be in when he realized she had been trapped. Belle didn’t have time to dwell on her husband and son as the boat came to a sudden stop, and right in front of them rose a massive gate that reached endlessly high. It opened soundlessly, and the boat moved forward into the dark passage.

“Where are you taking me?” Belle asked, turning around to look at the dark fog in the air.

“To be judged and punished,” declared Watcher Selric, who couldn’t wait to gain a higher position for finally catching the wanted. “You were shown mercy by the First Elder, but you betrayed the Elder. You ruined things, misplaced orders, and ran away. It is time you pay for what you have done,” said the Watcher, whose words only made Belle even more confused.

What order had she ruined? What was he even talking about? Was he mistaking her for Isabelle because she had come in this form? What was going on?!

The boat stopped again, and this time she was dragged out of it. She didn’t feel like herself at all, and that unsettled her even more than simply being here. The ground beneath her feet was cold, and the fog was so thick the reapers’ figures disappeared into it. If it weren’t for the rope pulling her along, she wouldn’t have known where to go, or even believed anyone was there with her.

When the fog finally thinned, she found herself in a massive, dark hall. Another kind of reaper sat on what looked like a throne. The sight of the creature alone made Belle want to flee, but there was nowhere to run. She was shoved to her knees before the throne.

She dared to raise her head and look into the multi-colored eyes beneath the hood, glowing amber and red. She knew without being told: this was an Elder!

“We have found the lost soul, Elder! It has dared return in its true form. Astral shall go through the punishment it deserves!” intoned Watcher Selric.

The others echoed his words, bowing their heads. “Astral shall be punished!”

Belle froze, her heart twisting with confusion and terror at the familiar name of the reaper who had saved her husband’s life.

Had they found Astral?!

There was some kind of terrible misunderstanding happening right now, and Belle felt the desperate need to clarify it before it was too late.

“I am not a dead person! I have a body in the living world. Another soul got attached to mine and dragged me here. Please let me go, I don’t—”

“Was that the story you made up for yourself by turning back the hands of time, Astral?” came the emotionless, toneless voice of the First Elder Reaper who held absolute control over the land of the dead. “How unfortunate of you to hide your memories as well.”

Belle blinked in astonished disbelief, feeling like she was falling more and more into a void of confusion and misunderstanding. Astral? Did he just address her as a reaper who had broken laws and rules to keep and protect her husband?

“I am not—” she began to deny, but the elder raised his hand, and in no time she was surrounded by other reapers. They were double the height of the one who had brought her here, their presence so overwhelming that she stumbled back as the air grew heavier, and even breathing became a struggle.

“Give it back its memories before it faces the punishment!” ordered the elder.

Belle’s head darted around, searching for any possible escape, but the creatures closed in on her, their towering figures swallowing every inch of space around her. Panic flooded her chest. What was going on? She cried out desperately in her head, but before she could make sense of anything, the Grim Reapers combined their powers.

The energy glowed a cold, muted gray in the air, swirling and hovering over her head like a storm gathering strength to strike.

Even though she wanted to run, there was no way out. The gray light crashed down on her skull with the weight of a boulder, then melted into her like a cold stream of water seeping through her veins, flooding her entire being with a sensation that stole both breath and warmth.

And then something happened.