Deborah sat underneath the stars that night, ruminating. She sat on the porch stairs, waiting, praying.

"Lord, I have been so careless, haven't I?" Deborah said, careful not to allow her voice ruffle the serenity of the night. "Something has gone awfully wrong. I feel uneasy in my spirit."

"Please Lord, have mercy. Only you can turn things around and can salvage this situation no matter how bad it may be."

"As I have been praying for months, I say again, Lord please reach in deep into the heart of your daughter..."
Deborah's heart clenched with unfathomable passion and love for Ella as she prayed out the inner groaning of the Spirit.

"Reach out to her, Lord, and let her know how much you love her. Let her know that you want to save her from her fears. Let her know that she can be completely free."

"Lord, I don't know what to do anymore about her case. I've shown her love. I've told her my own experience. I have tried to take her to church but she always found an excuse to stay back, and you know I cannot force her. She's as closed up as a clam. For goodness' sake, she claims to have met the Redeemer! What else is she waiting for? Thunder and lightning and a mighty voice from heaven?" Deborah chuckled. Saying it out loud made it sound more ridiculous. As if.

Ella ambled in, looking dishevelled and faraway in thought. She didn't speak. She didn't even behave as though Deborah was seated right in front of the house.

"Where are you coming from?" Deborah asked, with no hint of malice or anger—just relief, as she stood up and dusted her skirt.

"Somewhere." Ella's eyes were set.

Deborah's eyes settled on the top Ella wore. She smiled. "I see the top suits you."

"I'm sorry... I didn't..." Ella mumbled, eyes downcast.

Deborah laughed. "I wasn't scolding you. I was infact about to say you can have it."

"Thank you."

Then, Deborah's features creased into concern. "Ella, we have to talk. You know, about the letter and all of that. I heard the news. The Minister of Works was attacked by a mystery intruder. Jay even had to leave immediately."

Ella's face whipped towards Deborah.
"Jeremiah? You mean, he's his son?" Her eyes grew wide, the size of saucers as the links and dots began to take form in her head. So that's why the letter came through him. Does he know? Was that why he had been so aloof to all her subtle advances?

"Yes," Deborah affirmed, obviously confused by Ella's shocked countenance. "I thought you'd figured it out. You know, by the surname, Drestor."

All color drained from Ella's face. That was the bang that squelched her doubts.
Her eyes clouded with tears, but she turned just before they gave way. She slugged inside without a word, ignoring the fading voice of Deborah calling her back.

She entered her own room—which at the moment felt claustrophobic—,locked it and plonked on the bed, distraught.
Not knowing why, she wept into her pillow. Why did he have to be her stepbrother? She thought that maybe, someday she'd stand a chance, that maybe he'll see her as a woman.

That's it! He's a no-no. He's my brother and my only helper's fiance. Dang it. Why did he have to be the perfect man she so craved.

Deborah stood outside her door, pleading and wooing her to come and discuss what was going on. Ella didn't move an inch. She just wanted to melt away into her own shell and never ever come out, never to face this unfair world again. Every single thing she possessed or hoped to have had been stripped from her. Death could as well come to claim her any minute given the fire she had ignited in Room 123 State Union Building.

'What if I tell you that you can have him?' a sly voice, dripping with saccharine-like assurance, whispered.
A tiny bit of—She couldn't tell... hope?—sprouted in Ella.
She knew Mergirlina only spoke when it was obvious she could intervene.

What do you mean?

'He doesn't know you're related, yet. Drestor didn't have the guts to spill his infidelity to his only heir. And Deborah doesn't know too.' Mergirlina paused for effect. 'You love him, don't you?'

Ella sighed and turned to lie on her back. Could she call it love? Was this right?

'Tell you what? It can still work out between you both. I can help, if you let me.'

Well, what did it hurt? She'll just try her luck. But first things first, she had to leave Deborah. Now that she had declared an open all-out, second-world war on her father, he was going to let all hell loose on her. She didn't want Deborah to be at the edge of the receiving end.

Ella rubbed her temple. Why was her life this complicated? Every girl her own age was in college. As it was now, her future looked bleak. Could she go back and try her luck at her former job? Mksea Aquarium was a perfect hideout. The only problem was that Deborah could find her again. And that was what she didn't want.

The only thing on her mind was how to survive the next moment.

Unable to sleep, she took a thick coat and climbed out the window into the cold, moonlit night.

At first, she didn't have any particular place in mind, but soon, she felt the pull of the place where it has all begun.

River Klopr, swarming a breadth of the outspread wings of three full-grown albatrosses, glimmered in the silvery moonlight. Legend had it that it originated from the Frozen Mountains and that its course ended in the very heart of where the Seven Seas met. More intriguing was the fact that the river ran the length of the entire Island, dividing it into two almost equal parts.

The place was secluded, oddly. Ella chose to believe that it was because it was almost midnight.

She stopped at a particular spot in the bank of the river. The memories came tumbling back.

18 year old Ella was alarmed by the noise and rumbling she heard inside the house. Scared out of her wits for her mom's safety, she ran towards the house and tore the door open.

The house was a complete mess, looking as if a team of agitated bears and chimpanzees had done a wonderful remodelling job.
The ruckus continued upstairs. She heard a scream that was soon muffled.

"Mom?" Ella shouted as she stomped up the wooden stairs. She got to her mom's room where the noise was coming from and tried to open the door. Frustrated and unable to waste any more moment, she kicked the wooden door open.

The scene before her stopped her cold. Her father—that disgusting snake—fuming like a bull, had pinned her mother to the wall, molesting her. Ella felt so sick and so mad. This had to stop!

With a courage she didn't know was there, she yelled and whipped him off her. With her powers. It was the first time she used it openly, elsewhere besides the underworld.
Had she just defied her very own father? The one who ranked higher than her? The very one who initiated her by his pervert act to her young body? She felt power, but at the same time fear. 

Her mother slumped to the floor. The eyes of her mom was wide with shock to see her daughter exhibit such power. She was also crying profusely.

"Stop! Enough of this!" Ella screamed, her face scowled into a terrifying visage.

"How dare you?" her father spat as he buttoned up his trouser.

"Please, just leave her alone."

"Who are you to command me? She'll respect me as her man. I've had enough of her rambling on and on about her new found faith It disgusts me."

"Is that what all of this is about?"

Ella stormed past her father, took her mom by the arm and led her downstairs, ignoring her father who continued to growl out commands for her to stop the folly she was attempting.

"Ella!" Kiera tried protesting but was so weak it only came as a wince. It was evident that with what she had just seen her daughter manifest, she was scared. She was also in intense pain.

"Mom don't worry, you'll be safe. He won't bother us anymore."

"Let's call the police."

"The police?" Ella laughed bitterly. "Apart from the stupid fact that he is a politician, he has an evil network, Mom." She continued to trudge forward.

"Ella... Ella... Where are we going?" Kiera rasped, tired from all the running, aching in places she didn't know existed. She halted Ella, crouching over to catch her breath. The cold breeze of the river bank by the side of which they stood whipped her auburn hair to her cheek.

"Anywhere mom. Anywhere. I'm sick and tired of seeing you being abused by that monster."

"Don't say that dear. He is your father no matter what." Tears dripped from her eyes even as she said this.

"I hate that he is my father. Why did you let him into your life? Why did you let him cage you?"

Kiera sighed. "Just take me to my church."

Ella flinched. "Church?" Masking the fact that she couldn't enter any gathering of the saints of the Holy One—a church as her mom referred to it—wasn't easy but she had to do it. She hid it under the guise of anger. And indeed, she was somewhat annoyed.

"Mom! What has church got to do with all of this? If indeed your God cared, why did he sit back and watch as that evil man molested you. You claim God loves you, yet ever since you became this fanatic for him, your suffering has just escalated. Why don't you just get the damn out of that farce?" Ella was talking so loud and so fast, propelled by desperation to let her mom come to her senses.

Kiera just wept, unable to say anything.

Suddenly, Ella heard the sound of running feet behind them.

"Mom! We've gotta leave now."

Ella tried to lift her up but she was too weak.
A second attempt proved abortive too.

Suddenly, her father came into view from the darkness. He stood arms akimbo and stared them down with eyes that could have as well glinted with a fire. He was still dripping wet with water, his hair stuck to his face.
"You will return with me right this moment!" his bass voice boomed.

"Never!" Ella was resolute. There was no going back into that hellhole, that prison he called a house.

Ella stirred up her powers in her mind, preparing to launch. "Mom, you might want to run now!" she whispered to her mom who was cowering behind her, clutching the dress at her shoulder.

"Ella, please don't."

"Mom! I said go."

Kiera shifted an inch away, crying out for God to show mercy.

Ella lifted up blobs of water and directed them to him.

He dodged them easily. His scowl turned to an evil smirk.
"You want to do it this way? Then so be it."
She saw his lips moving. He was chanting an incantation. His eyes blazed with an unearthly fire.

Welts of flames appeared out of nowhere lunged at Ella. Some hit her arm, but she didn't let off even though the pain was nerve-wrecking. She quenching the ones she could aim well at with her water. In a moment of turning, Ella stumbled and fell on a stone.

With a roar, her foe conjured a huge mass of fire. It lit up her whole face. As the fire came aiming at her, she closed her eyes, waiting for the impact, waiting for death.

She heard the cry of her mother. She opened her eyes on impulse and saw the fire as it engulfed her mom. The poor woman was screaming as the fire licked up her clothes and found its way into her hair.

Ella was petrified, shattered. Upon regaining her conscious self, she picked herself up, ran and used her water to quench the fire. But it was too late. This was no ordinary fire. It was one fuelled by its original source—Hades, where sulphur and brimstone burned upceasingly.
Her nemesis called a father had already quietly crawled away. By the time help came, her mother was gone. Dead.

Sobs escaped her mouth as she remembered her mom's face when she died. She buried her face in her arched knees.

Try as much as she could, she couldn't help but feel guilty anytime she recalled that she was the catalyst in sending her mom to an early grave. So, she turned her anger to her father, vowing to pay back someday and to that big man upstairs who watched everything with folded arms.

**********
Author's note: Hello everyone. Thank you for reading this chapter.😇 It was kinda sad for me to write because I could almost taste Ella's grief.😭😭😭

Anyhow, on a more cheery note, let's celebrate the fact that I uploaded the very first media with a chapter of COF!💃💃💃 I guess I kinda missed doing that. Should I do more of it?😄

This chapter might house some slight errors. Please don't hesitate to point than out if you see them before I do. 🥺🙏

Until next time, the peace of the Lord be with y'all.
❤️❤️❤️