E D W A R D

I'd wanted to gouge my eyes out at the sight, at the pain.

Why her? He could've simply let Jenna go but then the question would arise, would I have let Lisa surrender herself? No! She was first priority. Always.

I knew now how she'd look at me, as a monster, a monster responsible for her only parent's death.

I tried to keep her steady at once place but she was fighting me fiercely. She was hurling her hands and legs everywhere in attempts to breathe and get herself freed from this atrocity.

I had to be more conscious now.

Joseph finished his dine and let the corpse sank to the ground. I was dumbstruck by how much a life could really mean to someone.

She cried and cried but I shouldn't be judging her right now. No matter how small Jennifer's life meant to me, she was a mother to Lisa.

I couldn't think about it. Now every night Lisa would feel the empty space beside her on the bed emptier of any warmth than before, empty of any feelings Jenna could've furnished the poor girl with.

Even I couldn't stand the thought of my mother walking into my dreams in a state Jenna was in right now. I'd choke myself to death if I let my eyes witness the death of my mother.

I'd never had much friends or families but my mother was everything to me. I couldn't imagine a day without her blessings and yet this girl, this poor, poor girl had lost her family at an early age and now witnessed the death of her only parent.

Empathy flushed in my eyes for her and I let her slipped from my arms.

She dropped on her knees instantly like her entire weight was supported by my hands and sobbing she crawled her way to Jenna's body that had a bit pulse still left.

I knew I could trust them to let Lisa have her moments with Jenna and so they didn't interrupt her. I was glad they showed this much curtsy towards a dying woman.

Joseph nodded to his companions and they slid aside from her.

My feet were rigid and ready to run away with her any second―if required. The last thing I needed was another human's blood to spill.

Lisa dropped low and took Jenna's head into her lap, gradually and slowly as if afraid to inflict more pain. Caressing her brunette strands of red highlights and her pale face she started placing soft wet kisses on her head.

She tried to contain herself and oh how much I'd wanted to say, 'let it all out.' I wanted to draw Lisa to my chest and brush her hair as she would cry her miseries out on me.

But that would have to wait. And even then she wouldn't forgive me. Though I couldn't relate to her but I could imagine what it must feel like and it was an unforgiving action to tear the mere hope away from a little girl.

"You could've prevented this." Roshan murmured beside me.

He had fulfilled his part of annoying me and I could seriously bear no more.

"Never thought you're the forcing type." I muttered, my eyes never letting Lisa out of my sight.

"Well, don't tell me you've never been tempted. How do you hold yourself? Doesn't it hurt? Don't your fangs itch to gnaw at that priceless neck?" He murmured wandering.

Even if I wanted to be angry I couldn't because I did feel all of that but yes, I did hold myself. I did my best to not hurt her, and for what possible reasons? Because I was told as?

"I've got more self-control than you do." I stated still not facing away from her.

"Even if I don't want to say it guys but . . ." Marcus hesitated. I hoped it would be saner and less idiotic than Roshan's filthy comments.

"What is it Marco?" Alex stated landing a hand on Marcus's shoulder.

"Is it just me or you all find it hard to draw back from her scent?" Marcus admitted.

I didn't see his face but he seemed to be lost in a different state of thoughts and fantasies.

"She's special." I put up a slight curved smile as of being proud on one's self, drawing all the attentions.

"Yeah. So special that the Vampire Lord wants to keep her." Joseph stated and from his tone I could tell he wasn't mocking but was rather angry with a deep pit of burning curiosity. "Probably as a pet." He added.

I glared at him from the corner of my eyes.

"And you're trying to imply . . ." Alex questioned.

I felt Joseph's glare poking my back but I ignored him watching Lisa grieving the loss of yet another of her guardian.

"What do you think Ed?" Joseph motioned forth my back.

"I've no idea what you're talking about." I simply replied knowing enough where he was going with this.

"Vampire Lord who feasts every day with amazing scents and the man who's seemed to have any women he wants. Why would that man be interested in a sixteen year old brat?" His words caught my mind and I looked back at him with wide eyes as if awoken from sleep.

"The secrets and whispers that travel inside the walls of the castle stay buried inside the castle. We're no one to know, we're not supposed to know." He hissed against my face.

"Then start minding your own business!" I barked drawing myself back from him.

"Hand her to Mason and let this one slip like an old past. Tomorrow it'd be like nothing ever happened." He insisted and sounded almost pleading.

"What makes you think I won't?" I asked being irritated at his failing endeavors of proving something.

"Why haven't you already?" He asked.

I thought for something to snap at him but that was the question I was asking myself furiously every second of the day. I could've handed her over ages ago but why didn't I? Was I going soft then as he'd stated it?

I turned back to give myself some space only to find out she had fled. Feeling dangerously cautioned I started roaming around Jenna.

I thought she was nearby so I looked over to multiple directions but I couldn't see her only that Jenna's corpse was just the way it had been. The bushes were stilled like the rigid trunks of trees. Where must've she gone?

I startled at how she could just disappear from our sight. Didn't anyone see her running? I could've heard something; at least a gasp! And these idiots, didn't they spot her as well?

"Where did she go?" Joseph inquired with a heavy tone.

I looked at every one of us to count if someone might've betrayed the others. But there were five of us including Roshan. There was no one to doubt.

She couldn't run that far. Not by her own. Did she have any help? How in the world I didn't hear or smell her running away from me?

"C'mon Ed. She hadn't gone that far away." Joseph ran past Jenna's body and just then he stopped.

We heard the drums again, the same drums that had filled my ears on the boat. Both Lisa and I'd heard it and then there it was again.

Abruptly I felt surrounded by a throng possessing the scent of just chopped meat. I could see no one and unwillingly the five of us came closer to each other bearing our fighting faces and formed a circumference.

Our sight fixed to the moving bushes, our fists clenched firmly and beneath our eyes laid the snake like veins slithering south of our face. Whatever it was―an inhuman presence perhaps―it had outnumbered us.

🥀 🥀 🥀

L I S A

No! No! No! Hang on there . . .

I had begged to her dying body that had lain motionless in front of me. My heart was aching constantly with a devouring grief.

My sanity was leaving me―no; it had left me a while ago. I saw her dying, the person who gave me nothing but love, who furnished me clothes and food when no one else had taken me in.

She was dead!

My feet never stopped. So much had happened but I didn't remember anything apart from hearing them talk about me and then I left through the narrow moving bushes.

I ran and ran. The wind cut through my face and I gasped furiously―I wasn't angry. I was grieving, I was grieving hard.

My heart seemed to break into two pieces, the pain was devouring me and I wanted to escape it just like I was escaping the invisible misery behind me.

It was like I could never live without having to see a death of my beloved ones in years. I had just watched her die for God's sake! It was like I had been cursed to be the way I was, a wretched one.

Was it ever going to end? Was there a cure to this wound? This wound that burned you inside and out and left you with nothing but guilt and an endless sorrow, would it end?

Time, the great healer, would ever heal this bruise of mine? I was the one to be blamed for this sin, the sin of murdering the ones who held me dear at my worst. Was there a way for my redemption? Would there ever be?

Tears ran down my cheeks as my heart beat higher with every pace I took. I was tripping over myself forlornly finding my way out into somewhere I could feel relieved, I could feel free . . . and safe.

I felt an abrupt force hauling me down to the floor. I thought that was it. They had found me and this was the end, but there was more to my story, there always was.

A hand curled around my neck from behind and another one stopped me from a noise. I hurled my arms at his grip but his muscles just tightened as he dragged me into a deep forest.

I didn't want it! I wanted to be freed! I didn't want another pit. He was slower than a vampire but apparently faster than a human.

"Stop fighting!" He growled. He had a sharp accent and from that I knew he would be a troublemaker.

We stopped at a nearby distance behind the bushes where I got a perfect view of the growing skirmish.

The five vampires formed a circle in the centre and around them stood a throng of humans. I didn't get it.

Were they mad? No human could stand against vampires! They're headed to their deaths, a suicide mission! If only I could warn them, if only I could speak.

The men were heavily armed with guns, bows, arrows and stakes. I knew they weren't just regular hunters by the kind of weapons they possessed but they marked them as Vampire Hunters.

That was the last thing I had to see before my death.

Jenna's body was stilled in the same place I'd left it.

"Run . . . nn. Don't lo-ok bac-k."

Her last words that she'd whispered into my ears were going to haunt me till my very existence.

I loved her.

The five of them fought the rest almost without trying. I knew they would win, it was obvious but I couldn't hide the disappointment in myself when I saw them going victorious against an army of about twenty men.

I didn't realize just till then how much eager I was to witness the cruelty in each one of them fading away just like their corpse with time in the soil.

I wanted to see their deaths―I wanted to be their death!

Edward looked after their backs, always protecting his keen. Of course he didn't care! Otherwise he would've saved Jenna. He was just a freaking liar, betrayer, backstabber murderer tasked to deliver me to some damn vampire!

How could I be stupid enough to fall for a two-faced lying jerk? Was I that desperate?

"We're going to play 'Help me'." I bewildered at first before he swung me up into his arms and placed a thin and spiked penknife in touch of my neck.

I gasped at the sudden shock.

He took me out and in front of them where I noticed that it was the hunters who were going victorious. The vampires knelt in front of the hunters as we approached them.

Edward sure did look stunned after perceiving me. I wondered if he had made efforts to look for me, after all I was his precious prize, right?

"It's been a while since we've come across a bunch of your keen. Usually it's just one of you roaming in search of meal." One of the hunters called who seemed to be the alpha of the pack.

"We thought hunters had gain spot in the list of extinct species." Edward spoke. His eyes never left mine as I squirmed under the man's arms.

"We did." The tanned alpha stated.

That statement was itself a creative answer and a grave question.

His eyes followed Edward's gaze and it led him to me. He scanned me from head to toes trying to evolve some sense of disgust towards me but he couldn't, he was plain with empathy.

His eyes became narrower as he stepped towards me.

The man had liberated me a while ago but I still felt so suffocated to notice.

The alpha elevated my chin up by a smooth hurl of his index finger. I dared not stop him for it looked like he was taking an inception of me.

He bent his head lower to meet my height and his nose tucked above my left shoulder. Even that barely touched presence of his gave me shudders.

In a sudden move he had my arms trapped between the two of his fists on both sides. I shook.

When his face elevated, I saw a hint of confusion and anger scorching in them.

Without further tests he hauled me closer to them and stood behind me grasping one of my arms.

"Why her?" He asked.

I tried to sink into his words but I'd be pulled outside instead of drowning. What had he meant?

"We've no idea what you're talking about." Jenna's killer answered nonchalantly.

"Oh really?" Alpha sighed in disbelief.

The next thing I felt was a sharp edge piercing through my tummy from behind as I stood crying.

My hands were frozen between his clasp and my feet became too impotent to use. I couldn't keep myself steady or upright.

"I've been listening to every single one of your stupid bickers in this forest since you've arrived. Don't give me the crap that you don't know why you're supposed to take her to Him!" He growled next to my ears deepening the knife into my flesh.

My skin was burning and my shirt was wet, wet from blood, my blood! The excruciating pain kept me from going through my mental miseries but it was just unbearable.

I moaned a great deal that my throat itched. I lost the track of crying tonight but I knew well I'd dried out all my tears. I wanted it to end so badly that my heart ached. I was going to panic anytime soon.

"Stop!" I heard the gritting teeth and sound engulfed in pain but it wasn't mine.