DARKNESS

The half-broken door rattled at the force it was open but I could care less about the door right now. Not when I couldn't even recognize my own voice and the words flowing from my lips. Not when all I wanted was to let my shadows out and let them play with that witch I saw earlier.

Emeline Deshayes.

My eyes closed with disgust, the fact that she couldn't look any more like her said what I needed to know. She wasn't supposed to exist after what happened. Hell, she wasn't even meant to be alive after I greedily tasted her blood.

And yet there she was.

Looking as curious as ever.

Just as I remembered her face, a groan left my lips. How foolish she was to believe her own clan members. They were nothing but power-hungry warlocks who wanted my powers.

My shadows!

For a moment, I was distracted when my eyes racked over the broken house, which once used to just tents where we all lived. How many years had really passed for them to make a house like this? I mused over watching the spider webs on the walls. Not only this place looked so different, but even the name of this place wasn't recognizable.

New Orleans.

I tasted the name on my tongue only to feel bitterness filled my bones. Walking farther into the house, my eyebrow rose when I was met with the sight of brutal claw marks on the floor. This must be the room where the clan used to summon beings.

My attention went upstairs where I could see the state of the house was more damaged. But nothing mattered as I walked through the hallways and reached the room which called me the most.

For old time's sake, I knocked on the thick wooden almost rotten door. When no one answered, I let myself enter the once brightly colored room.

And stopped abruptly.

The furniture in the room might seem new but the things I possessed were still there, decorated in a way only one person could. The large bookshelf took half part of the room where lied the books I used to read. To my right, I noticed the large King sized bed. Though it was dusty, it felt like forever I saw something to sleep on other than the cold hard ground.

A sudden dripping sound of water had me whipped around to see where it was coming from. With difficulty, I left the room to find the roof where someone must have made a garden of flowers. Watching the flowers rot, I let out a bitter laugh. Everything was dead around me. Even the small pool near the rose garden was filled with waste and dirt. Just as I looked down to watch my reflection in the water, I only found dark eyes staring back in deadly gory.

I looked like Darkness indeed.

***

EMIE

I stopped to take a needed breath.

I had been walking across the town border for the whole day only to get disappointed. Sweat formed on my forehead and my jaw clenched in concentration. Any sound or a whisper had me clutch my bag in alarm. Not that I didn't have a reason to be jumpy, considering I was a runaway witch who was wanted everywhere for mass murder.

"Do you need help with that?" A sudden voice had me jump in surprise. Looking back at the person, I wished I didn't.

Warm Grey eyes held my eye contact, which had my breath hitched in alarm. Thankfully, I was wearing one of Gema's hoodie, hiding my face so the person really didn't notice who I was yet.

"Madam, are you ok?" He asked again.

Oh, no, I'm not. I'm not Ok. I chanted in my head wiping the tears that were threatening to fall. But all I did was give him a nod.

"Please, let me help. You look really exhausted." My childhood infatuation smiled taking the bag from me. I wanted to stop him or maybe talk to him about everything that happened to me last night. Coen was all I thought about when the word love was mentioned. He was a gentleman every girl desired, including me.

But due to my position in the clan, I could never dare to tell him about my feelings. We only talked in the small gatherings, the clan meetings, and the last when the date of the sacrifice was settled. I could still see his anger toward the High Priest if I closed my eyes right now. That was the only day he spoke to me as if I mattered. If Mr. Sullivan didn't send him away before my wedding day, he might even help me escape.

He sent me a letter though.

Before the night of my nineteenth birthday, I got a letter addressed to me. In that letter, he apologized for his clan's cowardly ways. He said sorry again and again that it was unfair to kill an innocent person based on an old prophesy which no one even knew would be true or not.

Now that I followed him to this new town, a small hope blossomed inside me. If I let him see my face, would he help me now?

It didn't take me long to decide though as the next blow of the strong wind lifted my hoodie making my auburn hair falling down my shoulder. The moment my gaze met my companion's, I froze.

Instead of the known warm Grey eyes, I was familiar with, his eyes now showed confusion and disbelief. My own words caught in my throat.

What would I tell him?

"E-Emie? Is that you?" My heart ached at the way he touched my shoulder. As if making sure I was truly here.

"Hello, Coen. I am alive, as you can see." I laughed, peering up to him, watching his expressions change from shock to something akin to cold.

"I see." He didn't look happy or sad which made me uneasy. "Well then, it's time to go home."

Home.

What home was he talking about?

I didn't have time to think through when his grip tightened to drag me to where I came from. That's when the threats of going back registered in my head. Shit, no. I couldn't go back.

"I-I can't! Coen, they will-"

Before I could realize anything, the sound of flesh meeting flesh echoed through the lonely night, taking my breath away. Feeling my cheeks flame, I slowly rubbed the place still unsure if he really just-slapped me. Worse of it all, I wasn't even given the time to get over the shock. He grabbed my unruly hair tightening it in his fist, making me whimper.

"Never ever think that you have the right to call me by my name. Because of you foolish girl, we lost most of our clan members. You've no idea what you've done."

Why did everyone think it was my fault? I didn't cause the deaths. The clan brought it upon themselves. With that, I found the encouragement to let out a scream. "Let me go this instant! Let me go!"

Coen didn't even listen, too busy to maneuver my withering body somewhere else. I couldn't believe this was happening right now. Was there no one I could trust?

A pair of dark eyes flashed before my eyes.

Darkness, who was threatening to take my soul no matter what. I should have been afraid. But oddly I found a piece of comfort knowing that I had something to live for.

My very own soul.

So the next moment I pushed Coen, I put every bit of my strength to make him stumble on the road. He was surprised but before he could recover, a dull pain formed in his shoulder making him clutch it.

"I'm sorry, Coen. But like others, you've lost your way. I pray to God that one day you find your kind soul."

With that, I sprinted to the border of the new town. I knew that he couldn't catch me right now even if he wanted to. I touched him with a special herb Gema gave me for protection. What I didn't think that I had to use that on Coen.

Out of all the people in the world.

My eyes turned teary again but this time I didn't stop them. One more person in my life just lost my respect and love. By the time I found a nearby motel, like an autopilot, I gave them a fake name to book a room to stay the night. Which should make me feel safe but all it did was made me realize just how alone and utterly betrayed I was.

And, waking up to see the sun didn't help either when all I could remember was the dark night before. Closing the bind of the motel window, I stopped to think for a second. Where would I go next? I couldn't stay in this town when Coen knew where I was. What if the Red clan was already making their way to find me?

But then again, even if I wanted to, I couldn't go to another country or somewhere far from here. I had no familiarity with the world nor could I teleport like other witches. And, I didn't have any passport I could use to travel like normal humans either. So, I didn't have any choice but to walk around the nearby towns and see if any one of them made me feel safe enough to take refuge in there.

Changing and showering in a quick time, I signed out of the motel with my handy little bag in my hands. But this time, I took precautions so that no one could immediately recognize me. I already went to a shop near the motel to buy a hair dye and now that I took in the reflection in one of the shop windows, I had a sudden urge to laugh.

Black with a hint of red short hair gazed back at me.

I was dressed in a black sleeved top with washed-up jeans and my face was hidden with a scarf around my neck along with a big ray bun in my eyes. Courtesy of Gema who thought of everything in advance. God, I wanted to be angry at her for making me leave. To condemn me to this creature who had to run for the rest of her life. But compared to what's waiting for me, this was nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

***

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