"The witch who turned Ares into stone, was me."

Her grip on the door handle tightened, turning her knuckles white. She chewed on her bottom lip, brooding over the current situation. 'Should I listen to her?'

"Don't you want answers? Don't you want to know the full story?" Ruth continued to ask rhetorical questions.

Blowing out air through her mouth, Faith turned around in one swift motion. She stared apprehensively at the witch before opening her mouth to speak, "Don't try anything. Ares will know."

The woman gave her a reassuring smile, "I won't. Who would want to stand on the receiving end of vampire king's wrath."

"Vampire.. king?" Faith asked in a small voice.

"Ares is a pureblood of royal origin, the son of previous vampire king. His father's death lead to him inheriting the throne. His subordinate Henricus handled everything, not letting anyone know about Ares' condition. He told the court members that Ares doesn't wish to have any connections with Rome. And since Ares had been exiled from his country, they believed Henricus' excuse."

She gaped at the witch after hearing her revelation. 'Is she telling the truth?'

"Sit, child." The lady mentioned to the chair Faith had been sitting in previously.

Faith seemed reluctant to comply. Countless questions were roaming inside her mind, "If you're the one who turned him into stone, how are you still alive? Why didn't he capture you?"

The lady let out a humorless laugh. Faith could detect a hint of sadness lying underneath its empty surface.

"He doesn't know it's me who deceived him. He thinks it's you." The lady looked straight into her eyes as she spoke those words.

Her head shot up, "What do you mean me? I never deceived him. How can I ever?"

The candle's light flickered in the old lady's eyes. "This is why I invited you here-to answer your questions."

Faith took a step forward before she noticed a movement from her peripheral vision. The lady had raised her hand, her lips moved to form incoherent words. Suddenly, the chair was behind Faith. She fell into it with an oomph as the chair flew back into its original place, opposite the old lady.

Faith gripped the table stabilising herself before she ended up falling down on the floor. She looked at the old lady with accusing eyes, "What was that?"

The witch seemed amused, "You were taking too much time. I just helped you."

Straightening herself, she gave the woman an annoyed look. The lady coughed, turning serious in a matter of seconds, "Let's get to the point. I can show you the past. Take you back to where it all started in the first place. Do you trust me, Faith?"

Her response came abrupt, " I don't."

A smile tugged at the corner of Ruth's lips. "Just like your husband."

Blood rushed to her cheeks hearing the woman address Ares as her husband. "He isn't my husband."

"Uh huh."

Faith felt herself getting agitated at the woman's nonchalant comment. 'Why does everyone around me talk in riddles?'

She watched as Ruth grabbed the rusty iron box she had retrieved from behind the curtain. The witch inserted a small key inside the lock, rotating it in clockwise direction. The lid opened with a pop. The woman's hand disappeared inside the box before reappearing with some things held in it. She placed those things carefully before Faith.

An onyx stone.

A platinum cross pendant.

A blank paper.

Faith passed a glance over all the contents of the box. 'At least she didn't take out a frog's heart or a lizard's tail.'

"This spell has been lost for centuries. As far as I know, I'm the only one able to cast it," The woman picked up the onyx in her hand, "This charmed stone is essential for casting this spell. It's one of the few left in the whole world. Pity, It can be only used once."

"Why are you wasting such a precious thing on me?" She couldn't stop herself from asking this.

"Wasting?" The witch leaned forward on the table, placing her hand on Faith's head. She rubbed it affectionately before speaking in a low voice, "I stayed alive solely for this day. The day that would wash away all of my sins." The deep silence engulfing the room had allowed Faith to hear the whispered words perfectly well.

"All I need now is a drop of your blood, dear." The witch backed away, holding out her hand for Faith.

'Why is there a need of blood? It doesn't seem right.' She was having second thoughts about the ritual. 'What if I get myself into trouble? I can't do this. I can't.' She thought to herself as her hand tightened into a fist.

The chair made a screeching noise as it was pushed back on the floor. She stood up abruptly, staring the old lady in the eye, "I'm out."

The woman let out a silent sigh before pushing the rusty iron box towards faith. "See this before you decide anything."

Hearing the woman's words, she casted a curious glance down at the interior of the box. Shock crossed her features looking at the picture resting in the bottom of the old box. Two women were seen to be staring at the camera. The older had an arm around the shoulders of the younger one. While the older woman had a delicate smile tugging at the corners of her lips, the younger, on on the other hand, seemed to be lost in thought. Detached from the world.

Her hand hurriedly went for the box, fumbling to grab the picture with her trembling hands. She recognized those features from her childhood memories. It was her mother - her younger version.

A tear slid down her cheek landing on the polaroid picture. "Mom.."

"Do you believe me now, Faith?" She looked up at the woman through her glassy eyes. She couldn't trust her completely but there was indeed some kind of connection between them.

'Does that mean the woman isn't lying?' Something inside her shattered. Her mother was dead. Had been dead for years.

Her mother's lovable voice singing her beautiful rhymes rang inside her ears.

"Mommy, why is my name Faith?" Little Faith asked, sitting in her mother's lap as Elizabeth braided her young daughter's soft locks.

The woman smiled at hearing her little girl's question, "Because you give me Faith. Faith of having a beautiful life."

The little girl giggled, "Am I your life, Mommy?"

Elizabeth placed a kiss on her cheek, "Yes. You're my life."

The girl turned in her mother's lap, "But people die when they lose their life."

Her mother smiled at her daughter's wise words. She was pretty smart for a four year old. "Yes. I'd die without you too."

The girl pounced at her mother, hugging her tightly, "Don't die, Mommy. Don't die!"

Tears brimmed in Elizabeth's eyes as she held her daughter to her chest, "I wouldn't, Baby. Stay with mommy and she wouldn't."

Tears continued to flow down her cheeks as she recalled the few hazy memories she had of her mother. The photograph fell down from her shivering hands as she flopped down in her chair. Covering her face with her hands, she bawled her eyes out. 'You lied, Mom! I'm here yet you.. died.'

The small room trembled with her painful sobs, "Mom... Mom..."

She had no idea how much time passed before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Lowering her hands from her face, she found Ruth staring down sympathetically at her. "We're running out of time, my dear. Have you made up your mind?"

The decision was made. She would go through this spell. No matter what.

Wiping the streaks of tears from her red cheeks, she gave Ruth a determined look. "I'm ready."

The woman took out a small needle from one of the drawers, holding out her other hand for Faith. Gulping inaudibly, Faith placed her hand in the witch's wrinkly one.

"Don't worry. It wouldn't hurt much."

She turned her head away not wanting to see anything, only looking back when her mind registered a dull pricking pain in her index finger.

Ruth was pressing it to draw more blood from the wound. Crimson droplets dripped down the side of her finger on the blank paper placed neatly on the table. Soon, the white of the paper was tinted with her scarlet blood. Her eyebrows furrowed as she witnessed words appear magically on the previously blank paper. The words were glowing as if they had a life of their own.

The woman hurriedly placed the onyx and cross on the tainted sheet, chanting something in a foreign language. Faith watched as her blood rose from the surface of the sheet before swirling and winding around both objects, clutching them in its hold.

Her heart jumped to her throat as the room started shaking. Strong wind hit her body from every direction, whipping her hair into her eyes, rendering her unable to see anything. She clutched her eyes shut from the force of it, "Ruth I can't see anything!"

There was no response.

"Ruth!" She screamed again but no one replied. Her heart dropped.

'Where is Ruth? What is happening?'

After some time, the rattling of the objects and swishing of the air stopped. She parted her eyelids slowly to take in the condition of the room. Shock coursed through her body when she saw the unfamiliar scene in front of her. The gypsy shop was nowhere in her view. She was standing in the middle of a bustling street amongst people, who kept giving her weird glances as they passed by her.

'Ruth..' She made a 360-degree turn but Ruth was nowhere in sight.

'What is this place?' She roamed her eyes around, trying to keep herself from panicking. Small houses lined one side of the cobbled pathway. As far as her eyes could see, there were no modern buildings. Little shops with tents shading them from the sun above, lined the other side of the street. Fruits, vegetables, meat, they were selling everything in open. She clutched the hem of her shirt as she noticed another detail about them, all of them were dressed in weird looking clothes. Hoses, doublets, cotehardies.

'Am I in medieval times?' Fear gripped her heart at the realisation. She had been in middle ages several times in her dreams but that's all there was to it. A dream.

Now she was here, on her own, with no means to go back. 'What the hell did that witch do?!' She rubbed her temples with the pad of her fingers.

She felt like crying. 'How could I be so stupid?'

She realised she had made a wrong choice in the spur of her emotions. The turmoil of the current situation was tearing away at her senses. She missed the safety she felt behind Ares' stature, as she stared at this world through his eyes.

'Ares!' Her eyes widened, 'Did the witch send me back in his time?'

She looked around once again. It was indeed the same town she had once seen in her dream. 'I must find him. He'd be able to help me.'

But she had no idea about this lost town's location. She thought about asking a man passing by her, "Uh, excuse me? Where's the manor of this area's Lord?"

The man's eyes bluged as if he couldn't believe she had just started a conversation with him. Without answering her question, he walked past her swiftly. 'Weird'

She truged forward, looking for someone else to answer her query. Prying gazes followed her everywhere she went. The instensity of their leering scorched every inch of her skin. She played with the hook of her bracelet to distract herself.

Trying her best to avoid eye contact with the other people, she kept walking in a straight line, paying more attention to the diverse amount of sounds reaching her ears. Deep voices of vendors attracting people, sizzling of hot frying food, chattering of customers arguing on prices, comments of bystanders observing their surroundings. Amongst everything, she managed to catch a few words thrown her way. Prostitute. Meretrix. Harlot.

Her nails dug into the soft skin of her palm as she tried her best to ignore those words. They were considering her a sex worker based on her foreign clothes. Skinny jeans with a button down shirt. Their ruthless looks were giving her anxiety. She felt like thousands of insects were crawling up her skin. She wanted to go home. She wanted to go back to Ares.

She halted in her step when she saw a middle aged woman passing by her. She was dressed in a long dress, her greying hair were held in a tight bun on top of her head. She carried a small basket in her small hands as she walked in the opposite direction of Faith.

"Excuse me?" Her loud voice caught many people's attention.

'Shit! Behave like a lady, Faith!'

She hurried towards the woman. The woman looked at her with warm chocolate brown eyes, "Yes?"

"Can you please tell me the way to your Lord's manor?" The woman tilted her head at her, confused by her modern pronunciation.

Faith tried to explain her question to the woman in another way. She used her hands to gesture around while her mouth uttered monosyllabic words slowly, "Lord.. Lord Ares.. Where?"

The woman's eyes turned to saucers as she gaped at Faith with shock painted on her face. Before Faith could say anything more, the woman scurried away from her in a lightning speed.

'Why the hell is everyone running away from me?' She huffed as she continued to walk on her feet, trying to reach the hills somehow.

The town was a complex web of streets. Every way looked the same as before. She had walked past the same corner about five times. No one was willing to tell her the way round the area. Her legs were tired of walking in circles again and again. The day was starting to turn into night and she still had nowhere to go.

Reaching a deserted alley, she leaned against a wall for support. All day, she had been trying desperately to stay positive but she was at her wit's end now. Gripping her hair with her hands, she slid down the brick wall. A lone tear trickled down the corner of her eye, falling on the pavement with a silent splash.

"Ares.." A muffled sob left her lips.

She could hear a clip clopping sound in the background. Somewhere in the distance, a carriage was passing by the street.

She wrapped her arms around herself as she hid her face between her legs. Her whole body shook as waves of helplessness surged through her. She was yearning for the other half of her soul. "Ares.. Please, find me."

Crunching of boots pierced the silence of the alleyway. Her hands gripped the fabric of her jeans as her body tensed hearing the sound. The hair on her body stood as she detected another presence along with her in the deserted alleyway. 'Is it a rapist? What am I going to do now?'

She huddled herself in a corner as footsetps kept approaching her at a slow pace. The person stood still in front of her as he reached her shivering body. She heard the rustling of clothes before the alley was once again enveloped in a state of quietude.

'Is he gone?'

She raised her head slowly only to meet with emerald orbs staring back at her with curiosity. The man was crouching down only a few inches away from her. His black attire coalesced with the black shadows enclosing the backstreet. A cloak was hiding his sharp features away from the view except for his green orbs. They gleamed in the dark, appearing to be her only source of redemption in these black times.

She could recognize those emeralds anywhere. Her bloodshot eyes teared at the site of him as she lunged at the man before her.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders burying her face in his pale neck. His hood fell down in the process as an electrical feeling passed through his body. His slow heart rythm went out of control under her hold as soon as she let out her next words,

"I love you, Ares."