by Gloria Dark
I started to cry, remembering everything.
The day when the phoenix cursed me with life in in the old world, I was severely injured by his claws, and my godly powers were trapped in the weapons I had created. I felt myself dying, but I found my last strength to follow a beautiful melody I hear from afar.
Back then, there was war everywhere. Obviously, everything was my fault because I was the one who started it, but I was the one who wanted it the least. So I used my last steps to find where the beautiful melody came from while the rest of the world was shattering.
I noticed a field full of poor creatures, dressed in rags. Yet they sat in a circle and smiled when a tiny girl played her violin. Her golden hair and ripped clothing were dirty, yet she stood in front of everyone gracefully, trying to make them forget the pain by giving them music. Seeing her, made my eyes fill with tears of you.
Taking my last breaths, I sat down in the grass further away from everyone to listen to the performance, but the girl noticed me. She dropped her violin and ran to me.
“I can heal you!” the little girl said. She was probably only eight or less, but she genuinely tried to save me.
“I’m a pureblood vampire!” she said, warning me that I might need to drink her blood so that my wound could heal.
“Please hold on!” she begged while biting her wrist.
But it was too late. I was a dying god that started scattering into glittery dust, and there was no way back when it happened to the gods. Yet the girl placed her bleeding wrist on my lips, yelling at me not to die, telling me to live.
I died. My body swept away by the wind.
But then a miracle happened. All the tiny pieces of me came back together, and I healed like a phoenix rising from the ash. The phoenix had made me an immortal, gifting me his powers to arise from the dead.
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the little girl leaning over me with a smile.
“You came back!” she said, “Nobody has ever come back after they die!”
Her words made me smile for the first time in a long while.
“What’s your name?” I asked the kind girl.
“My name is Leticia fon Vorigan.” she said, then pointed at the crowd, “There are my brothers too, Adam, Adrian and Vincent. The baby in Vincent’s hands is Ruby. She’s our little sister.”
“Where are your parents?” I asked.
“They… didn’t come back the same way you did.” Leticia replied, “Adam takes care of us, he’s the oldest.”
Just as Leticia spoke of Adam, a tall vampire with short, dark hair and ocean eyes, ran towards us. He seemed very protective of his siblings. Back then, I had no clue Adam would become my best friend.
“You…” he said to me, “Something happened to your blood! You smell like one of us!”
That day I became bonded to fon Vorigans, but not as a vampire turned by purebloods. I became a pureblood myself as I was reborn into a new life by the curse. If not Leticia, I would have died and returned from the ash anyway, but her blood made me reborn as one of them.
And when Leticia decided to end her own life to free me from the curse herself, she said the most painful thing. It hurt me because I loved her.
“It all started with me, I shall be the one to end it,” she said before taking her own life. Unfortunately, it solved nothing. Her death only freed me from being bonded to the family. Although I’m still a pureblood vampire, my origins don’t come from fon Vorigans. They come from the god of Eternal Life.
The day Leticia died, I ran to the Sleeping Woods, hoping to finally die. I wished the Death’s wolves would rip me apart and punish me from everything I had done.
They did.
But instead of being reborn, I simply exploded into thousands of flaming ashes and came back together as a whole. I became invincible.
Chapter 10: The Sacred Garden
Eden’s point of view
The Sacred Garden
Eden’s point of view
I finally decided to meet Demian, but a strange feeling overwhelmed my insane mind. My senses raged, yelling at me. I knew something was about to happen, I knew it because the part of my soul knew it. The part that was trapped inside the violin I had given to Demian.
I decided to stop hesitating and ran to his house. He was probably at school, so I decided to check on Lucius to wait in his room. Although he was a god himself too, I had a strange feeling about my old friend. I couldn’t figure out why, but there was always a feeling I should stay away from him. That I should wait for him to come to me himself, but I was probably wrong again.
When I climbed up his wall and checked through the window, I was terribly too late. The entire Morteeze family apart from Demian stood around Lucius. One of them had fed the boy with poison. I recognised it because it was the type of poison I used on myself daily. If only I arrived a second earlier, I could’ve had saved him.
When his family left the room, I sneaked inside to check if Lucius was breathing. He had no pulse, and it made no sense. I felt nauseous. Unable to watch my only friend from the Heavenly Kingdom lay helplessly, I took a form of a shadow and slid down the hallways to investigate the rooms, but I found no valuable information apart from the Morteeze family being happy for what they did. It sickened me.
Finally, I heard a familiar voice, and I knew it was Demian. His voice drowned in sorrow, watching his brother being carried away. I went outside the window to check on him, hoping I could help somehow.
“No!” Demian cried out for the last time, he seemed like he was in great pain. As if his bones were shattering.
Suddenly, his ears picked up a sound. A burst of quiet laughter between Dorian Morteeze and Luminor Morteeze. Both cheered about what they had done to Lucius. Because I had left the window open when I jumped out, the sound of their conversation was loud and clear.
I saw Demian’s heart shatter like mine when Lotte died. I watched his eyes turn black as mine when I knew I lost someone I loved. I watched big, black wings bloom out of his back, and I heard his voice come out void and heartless, same as mine when I lost control.
Demian rose in the air, ripping his grandmother’s heart to drink from it. Without wasting a moment, he dashed inside the castle and turned it into a proper bloodbath.
All that time, I spent by his side, ready to protect him if I had to. But I was pretty much useless there. Demian went full ‘Abyss mode’ without my help. Nobody was even able to stand against him, that’s how angry he was.
That’s how heartbroken he was.
I didn’t stop him because I knew exactly how he felt.
When he was done wiping the entire family tree, his wings exploded into billions of black feathers that snowed down. His eyes became red, and he collapsed on his knees, crying hysterically. Finally, he noticed me, but he didn’t try to mask his emotions. He cried so loud and painfully that it made me cry too.
“What have I done, Eden? What have I done?” he yelled with a broken voice.
I knelt down next to him and embraced him so tight I could feel his heart. I wanted to save him from his emotions, I wanted him to never feel the way I felt.
“I killed them!” Demian cried, “It’s me! It was always me! I’m Abyss, Eden! I am him!”
“There’s nothing wrong about being who you are!” I said, mostly to us both.
My words didn’t help, and I couldn’t watch him suffer. Sometimes, it was better to not know anything, and it made me realise there was something I could do for Demian. Something, I wished myself.
I embraced him tighter and decided to compel him to forget everything.
“Demian,” I whispered the compulsion into his ear, “It’s time for you to sleep now. When you wake up, you won’t remember that you are Abyss, and doings of your Darkness will not haunt you. May this all seem just like a bad dream that will disperse once the sun rises up again. Now sleep and forget this, be free!”
Demian fell asleep, and I laid him on the stairs. I wasn’t s
ure if the compulsion would work if I stayed around. I was scared to break it with my unpredictable nature, so I ran away.
To save my friend from the world of reincarnated gods, I decided to disappear from his life. I only had one more thing left to do before changing my life forever.
I went into the Sleeping Woods for one last time, trying to find where they had dropped Lucius. There was hope in my heart that he could be still alive. I wasn’t ready to lose him again, although I knew I had to stay away.
I wandered deep into the forest, so deep I had never been there before. I crossed the field of Death’s wolves, but they bowed to me as I was an immortal. Wherever I stepped, they parted to form a trail of free space for me.
Finally, I entered a piece of Heaven left on the mortal land. The air around me changed, it became sweet. All trees and plants were covered in elegant green, radiating liveliness as if I had stepped into the core of the energy of Life. It was full of warmth and glorious beauty.
Suddenly, my heart quivered, sending cold waves down my spine. I inhaled the air deeply into my lungs, sensing an awfully familiar energy. I could feel the presence of the pieces of my separated soul and my divine powers that I once locked inside the weapons. My Light and my Darkness were both present, so close I could feel them calling for me.
My heart stopped when I noticed crystallised walls of a dazzling glass building stand tall before me. White roses embraced the walls from the outside, their petals much more notable than I had ever seen. White orchids hung over the rooftop, moving lively around the glass as if trying to stroke it gently. And most incredibly, white lilies bloomed in harmony with roses, the two enemies of the floral world blooming and complimenting each other eternally.
I could hear my powers whispering to me, I could feel them tickling my skin with their vitality from afar. I sensed them pulling me closer to the glass garden as the air caressed me with the sweet aroma.
The flowers parted as I approached the glass door. Only then I noticed red shades behind the crystal walls, mixed with the purest of all whites, but some of the roses and lilies seemed painted crimson.
The door opened itself, daggering through me with an incredible aroma, making me instantly hungry. I walked in, reaching out for one of the red roses as if hypnotised by a divine enchantment. Then my skin caressed the soft petals, I realised the crimson paint was blood.
The realisation made me snap out of the strange hypnosis, forcing me to glance around. My eyes shot everywhere, trying to remain sane. Strangely enough, I felt more sane than ever.
Suddenly, a familiar tremble ran down my spine, and I looked towards the source of energy, calling me, begging me, recognising me. I noticed a large bed of mixed flowers, they seemed like the strongest ones, blooming with grace, and I could feel my divine powers buried under their petals.
I ran towards the bed of flowers, digging my way through the blood-drenched blossoms, but my hand touched something much softer than the graceful petals. I touched somebody’s skin.
As I continued ripping the wet flowers, I noticed a girl laying underneath them with closed eyes. Her young face couldn’t have been much older than mine, she was probably eighteen or nineteen. It was hard to tell as the thorns of the roses had cut through her pale skin, holding her captive. Some of the flowers seemed to bloom right out of her, and it looked agonising. Then it clicked me, it was her blood that the violent flowers drunk. It was her sweet scent that created the enchanting vapour around the garden.
I broke off the thorns and ripped everything that seemed to hurt the girl. She had barely any clothing left as it seemed destroyed by the plants. Her long, white dress was so old-fashioned that it triggered me to remember how the world once looked like centuries ago. The white shreds, the parody of fabric, covered only enough not to make her look naked, and one of her legs was bare, allowing me to see her skin.
I was tempted to touch her as she seemed alive, but I could hear no heartbeat at all. For a brief second, I wondered if my blood was capable of healing a damaged body, but I glanced at her still chest and dismissed my thoughts. There was no way to come back from the dead, and I wished it to no one.
Instead, I glanced at the golden dagger that was pierced through the girl’s chest, slightly above the solar plexus. Its shine caused me a headache as another shot of electricity ran throughout my head. I touched the weapon, gently caressing it, and it detonated something inside my chest. I felt its powers, recognising the dagger of Light I once created. It was my precious Kiari.
I pulled it out when I suddenly remembered why I locked my powers in the first place. I recalled all of the reasons why I allowed the weapons to be scattered across the world, and it made me drop it on the ground.
Kiari was not a toy, and somebody had tried to use it against the poor girl. For some reason, whoever it was, they tried to trap her soul inside the dagger, but they didn’t finish the ritual. Kiari was void of any souls, and the girl was dead.
There was nothing I could do. I was about to leave when I a sudden sound broke the silence. My ears picked up a faint beat, too quiet to be real. I sat down next to the girl, watching her long lashes veil her closed eyes. Her skinny cheeks had sunk in so deeply, I felt pain just by looking at them. The girl’s lips were dry and nearly purple, and there was no sign of breath, but my mind refused to leave. Something didn’t seem right.
If she were truly dead, it would be only minutes before I entered the garden. Apart from her skinny body with more bones than anything else and skin tortured by thorns, she was flawless. Her long hair was the purest silver, reaching down towards her ankles. The silver shine was a shade of the living, not the dead, but the girl’s shredded dress was ancient, meaning she had no chance to get changed for a millennium. But most importantly, the red flowers bloomed the most, feeding on her blood as if she were an immortal like me.
Feeling nervous and full of chaotic thoughts trying to analyse the meaning of the garden, I touched the girl’s cheek very gently. I expected her to be cold, but she was pleasantly warm, and my mind exploded into a thousand more thoughts.
Suddenly, something spoke to my skin, vibrating with power as if I had touched another one of my divine weapons. The girl’s hair painted black from her roots, reaching down to the ends, making me jump back. I glanced at my hand, feeling hot and cold shivers run throughout me. It almost seemed as if she was one of the weapons, but it was impossible.
I thought I was simply losing my mind, insanity playing harsh tricks, but I was far from being right. Another soft beat pulled me back into reality, so quietly, it made me think it was only my imagination.
Finally, everything came together, making me feel as if I had solved the most challenging puzzle. The faint sound was her heart, trying to survive the vigorous flowers.
She was alive.
I rushed closer towards her immediately, biting my own wrist. I tried to open the girl’s mouth, but it was impossible. Scared to break her frail jaw, I smeared my blood over her lips, waiting for something to happen; anything.
Another faint beat drummed through my ears, feeding me hope. I wet her lips with my blood enough to make them part, and when they did, I spared no drop and fed her with my life.
I smiled when I heard the beats become louder. They started playing a dynamic rhythm, breaking the silence with the soft music of how life should sound. I watched the girl’s pale skin repair and cover with lively shimmer. She became warmer, and her body became less skinny, her cheeks filled with softness.
Finally, her closed eyelids moved, but not enough to open. The girl inhaled sharply, gasping for the air desperately. Her elegant hands moved upwards clinging to the air as if she thought she were drowning. Wanting to calm her, I took her hand gently, feeling her soft, flawless skin feed mine with another shot of familiar power.
I already thought she was incredibly beautiful, but when she opened her eyes, my heart frosted, mind sinking deep, trying to remember where I had seen her before. She pulled her hand out of mine, sit
ting up sharply and blinking away her confusion. She stared at me with eyes full of terror, triggering something to move inside of me. Her gaze was the most accurate colour of silver moonlight. So pale, it made me think of the sky.
It made me understand everything, and I stepped away from her slowly, watching her black hair turn white again to confirm my suspicions. My pulse started drumming in my ears as I glanced around to search for my divine weapons. Apart from Kiari, I could see none, yet I felt the lily of Darkness. I looked right at her. Because it was her.
The last of my weapons - Morinji - was her. Finally, it all made sense. I had awakened the queen of all Dark. I had awakened the servant of the Underworld.
