Crying. I was so overly upset and I could not keep the tears from falling.

"Oh my, what seems to be the problem, little child?" 

I looked towards the person that had just spoken.

It was a lady. Dressed in all white, black hair as dark as midnight, but I was stopped in my muffling when I stared into her eyes. The lower part of them were glowing with the shape of a crescent. 

Another thing that I noticed was that this lady was so luminous despite it being night time right now, she, herself, was glowing.

I looked at the bloodied bodies all around me, their blood splashed all over me.

"Well, that does look troublesome, doesn't it, Effyía," she says.

"They won't wake up, I asked them to wake up, but they wouldn't." I cried and then the tears came springing down again.

She passed through the bodies and she knelt in front of me. The light that glowed around her shone on me and the crimson blood became clearer. 

It scared me. The deep redness of it was eerie and my heart raced at the sight of it. I tried wiping it away, but since blood was all over me, it only got dirtied with more blood.

Dirty.

Guilty.

I tried to wipe it away, but it wouldn't. The more I tried to get rid of it, the redder it became.

Frantic and upset, I screamed.

My eyes opened wide and I found myself lying down. 

A nightmare--, no, a memory.

Two days and one night has passed ever since that night with Archer and while I forced myself to get up from bed, I couldn't.

During those two days, I spent myself staring at the ceiling of Archer's room.

He made me stay in his room because my own bed was sullied with blood and he said it wouldn't do me good to look at it. As for Archer, I have no idea where he stayed at, probably at one of the empty guest rooms.

But he came in a few times everyday to give me food or to change his clothes. During those times, I observed him. Questions racing in my head, I wondered if he knew.

I wondered if he knew that his Luna was defective.

I wondered if he knew that I couldn't handle the sight of blood too well. 

I was surprised when tears fell from my eyes, the memories of the past was once again here to haunt me and it would surely take a while to recover. 

It was probably afternoon already because the sunlight wasn't bright anymore. It was an orange hue, but my vision was starting to be distorted and all I could see was red, as red as blood and it scared the heck out of me so I shut my eyes tightly.

"Speak, Hazel."

"Stop... please."

"We will do anything you want." 

I buried my head under the pillow trying to shut the ghosts of the past away. My hands were all clammy and my heart was pounding so hard. 

"We will die for you."

"No! Stop!" I screamed at the air.

I put my hands on my ears and pressed as hard as I could and screamed to overpower the voices that haunted me, but it didn't work.

"Casualties: twenty-five, sir."

"How about Hazel?"

"We found her in the middle of the corpses, Alpha."

My chest was heaving up and down so hardly, I couldn't breathe. I kicked the blanket off of me. The huge and spacious room was all too small, it was lacking oxygen. 

I was sweating all over and I had a hard time moving because I felt like my muscles were frozen. My vision had patches of blackness and it didn't help that I couldn't breathe.

Through my deliria, I saw a way out. 

A R C H E R

I was about to land a punch on Derek as we were sparring at the training grounds when suddenly, I felt breathless. Like a foreboding ominous aura was in the air. 

My fist stopped right on top of him and he saw that as an opportunity to get back at me, he twisted my wrist so that I could get off of him, but as he did so I spun myself in a jump and pushed him away. 

My chest was tightening. It wasn't the pack, no, we weren't getting attacked.

Hazel.

As soon as the realization hit, I ran on my way home. 

"Hey, where are you going?!" Derek screamed behind me, but I couldn't care less. Something was going on and I knew I had to get to Hazel fast. 

As the clocked ticked, the anxiousness I felt increased more and more. I saw the house a few kilo meters away and I ran faster. Opening the door, I made my way upstairs to my room where she should have been.

But Hazel wasn't there. The bed was empty, the room was turned upside down, my night table and lamps were thrown all over. The other furniture were also messed up and turned over. 

Breathing heavily, I tried to trace my mate's scent and it didn't take long. I saw the windows were open and the curtains that were moving with the winds' direction. 

I approached it. She must've jumped. 

Damn it, what's going on?

I jumped from the window and focused to trace her scent as best as I could. The more I followed it, I noticed that it was on the way to the river. To the Luna Flumine.

Once I confirmed that it really was on the way to the Luna Flumine, I ran even faster although I could barely breathe anymore. My wolf has even showed itself so I could speed up.

It didn't take too long for us to get there, but the strange thing was that I couldn't see Hazel anywhere. Her scent is definitely in the air, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen.

I looked up towards the sky and the sun was only a few minutes away from fully setting to give place to the moon. 

"Hazel!" I started screaming her name and tried to pinpoint exactly where she was.

As I got closer to the river, my heart stopped.

No way.

My mind turned blank, but curses and profanities followed as I tried to gather my thoughts.

The place that usually calmed everyone who visited was presently driving me insane. The place where I went to clear my mind was now a place that was making me fear for my life.

With a heavy chest and heavy denial, I took a step closer to the river. 

One step and another. 

Please don't let it be true.

However, my knees fell on the ground and all strength left me when from where I was, Hazel was submerged in the water, her hand trying to hold onto a rock that thankfully kept her in place else, she would've been carried away by the current.

Forcing myself to recover from the shock, I jumped into the river and pulled her off the water.

I carried her on my arms and looking at her lifeless body, my strength failed me once more, but I knew I had to get her on ground.

With the strength I summoned, we finally got on the grass away from the river, but Hazel was still not responsive. 

I felt her pulse and thankfully it was still there, but it was very weak.

My breath was ragged, I tried to stay calm to be able to do the right things. 

She swallowed too much water.

I started with the chest compressions and I was extremely relieved when at two compressions, she started coughing water up. Thankfully I got here in time, she wasn't in the water for too long.

I helped her lie on her left side as to help to cough out the water that she took in and right after she did so, although she was already wet, there was no mistaking that the drops falling from her eyes were tears.

"I'm so-- sorry," she pleads as she coughs out water, "I didn't mean to do it." she was crying uncontrollably.

Is this about Jessica again? But I already talked to her and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have dared to go in our house.

"Calm down, Hazel, you're fine." I tried to comfort but I wasn't really sure if I was doing it right. All I really knew was that she needed help at the moment.

She tried to open her eyes although I could see that she was feeling extremely weak. 

"Make it stop, please. Please."