The Past

Isabelle



Continual from Isabelle's Flashback:


I and Orabelle we're playing in the toy room. Mom and dad were in the kitchen cooking dinner as always. They both cooked dinner together since dad won't let mom work all alone.

"Isabella, give me the bus..." Orabelle who was sitting a few feet away from the side of the door spoke.

I took the green plastic toy and pushed it in her direction, but instead of moving in her direction it diverted and went straight to the open door.

"Oh no," The pout displayed on both of our lips but before the toy bus could exit the room a laced-up boot came into our view that stopped it from crossing the boundary.

Orabelle and mine, both of our eyes traveled to spot the person who had done the favor for us. And a small slipped past Orabelle's lips as she looked at the man, especially the scar that started from the top of his eyebrow and ended closer to his jaw.

My eyes widen but soon as I looked at his bleeding hand, all my fears seemed to succumb and the urge that I had always felt for helping people made itself visible.

His eyes were dark, his dark leather coat didn't seem ordinary. There was a bracelet around his hand that had 'Alistair' engraved on it in bold letters.

I found myself pushing away the toys and walking closer, my eight-year-old self couldn't understand that I was walking to the devil himself in order to help the person who was soon going to be my worst nightmare.

"Isabelle, don't go toward him..." Orabelle's shaken-up yell didn't bother me, Alistair standing there only looked at me approaching him.

I couldn't even identify the menace hiding beneath his dark eyes.

I reached for his hand, my height barely came up to his thighs. He didn't say anything, he looked--Only looked at the small naive child who didn't know that he was going to shatter her entire life in a blink, tarnish all her dreams and cage her in that dark room that had nothing but darkness filled in every corner of it.

"You are hurt..." I looked at his bleeding hand and slowly closed my eyes, the spell chanted itself in my mind and the rays illuminated from my fingertips. I slowly let my fingers brush over his hand and the wound healed on its own.

There was a mere flicker of surprise in his eyes but then there was the tug at the corner of his lips, the pure depravity that lay in that smile got unnoticed by me and I flashed him an own smile of mine that had no other intention than the happiness helping someone brought within me.

"You are fine now," I smiled at him attempting to drop his hand but he grabbed mine before I could pull away, there was a slight harshness in his movement but my attention got divided as he crouched down in front of me.

His dark eyes looked into mine as if he was searching for something, the flicker passed through in a moment as though they had spotted exactly what they'd been looking for.

"So you are the one...." He spoke, his voice low and hushed. As if he had searched for something so long and finally found it and now the amazement was so much that he couldn't suppress it anymore.

"You are the blessed human, you have it with you. You have the...... locket. " His grip on me began tightening, "You have that with you!"

The menace began surfacing and his nails began digging into my arms.

The whimper slipped past my lips and I struggled to get away from his grip, "It's hurting," My mere plea that hid beneath those words didn't help in fading the darkness in his eyes at all.

"Naive little kid," He chuckled shaking his head, there was no humor in it.

"Leave her," Orabelle ran towards me and tried removing his hands off me, but he didn't budge. His grip was too strong and then I saw his nails extending that made them dig deeper into my skin, a trail of my own blood now traveling down my arm.

"Ouch,"  My cry only increased the satisfaction swirling in his eyes.

"Leave her, you monster!" She shouted and bit on his wrist in order to save me.

but in a swift motion, he pushed her so that she fell on the floor loud.

"Orabelle..." I gasped as I saw her landing on the floor with her head.

"Please let me go," I sobbed trying to anyhow escape his grip, but the strength my eighth years old self had didn't even succeed in making me move an inch.

Despite being hurt, Orabelle stood up and ran towards me. The cut on her forehead had already made the blood seep out that trailed down the side of her face.

"Mom!Dad!" She shouted, "This man is hurting Isabelle, please come here!" The tears gathered in her eyes as she looked at me. She then picked up a toy from the side and hit his head with it.

"Leave her!" She yelled.

Her action made Alistair's has clench in anger, of course, a powerful Lycan like him couldn't be hurt just by her small attempt but neither of us could understand it.

"Little kids should not act this smart," Suddenly Alistair's hold was not on me anymore, his hands had left me and wrapped around Orabelle's throat causing the terror to creep up inside of me just like the darkness that crawls up the castles.

In a second he had Orabelle gasping for air.

"Please please please, let her go! You can hurt me if you want but please let her go!" I cried out, the agonizing feeling of not being able to do anything made my insides churn.

I had never felt so helpless before.

"Sweetie, don't worry. From now on you'll get your wish fulfilled every day anyways, "He chuckled and threw Orabelle on the other side of the room. Her back slammed against the wall and the loud sound echoed the place, my eyes went wide in horror as I looked at Orabelle's body falling on the ground.

I rushed towards her, the blood was now spilling from her nose. Her eyes were barely opening.

"Orabelle," I pulled her head on my lap, I tried healing the cut on her forehead but somehow my powers were not working, "You'll be f-fine, nothing going to happen to you." I panicked the fear of losing my sister making the coldness shroud my entire existence.

"That's Alistair's spell, little girl. Your abilities won't help you," I heard his venom-filled voice.

I heard multiple footsteps that indicated the arrival of my mom and dad.

"Orabelle, "Mom gasped and ran towards us whilst dad's horror-filled eyes fell on Orabelle's injured body laying on the ground before they moved to look at Alistair.

"Who are you?!" He shouted and grabbed his collar. My dad's reaction didn't seem to affect Alistair that much but the amusement shined in his eyes.

"You haven't recognized me yet? Foolish of you to think that you would dare to reject Alistair's offer and not expect anything horrendous as an outcome," He grabbed my dad's wrists and removed his grip from the collar before he dusted off the shirt.

"You disgusting piece of shit! How could you ever think we'd give away our daughter to a monster like you only because of some stupid luxury?!" Mom was the one who shouted this time, she'd pulled half-unconscious Orabelle to her chest continuously trying to keep her awake. The tears were glistening in her eyes.

"So I see, your wife has also got some foolish courage like you..." Alistair hummed, the monster hiding beneath his skin was slowly surfacing, "You humans are not as intelligent as everyone thinks, otherwise you wouldn't have provoked the death to come at your door."

No matter how cruel and terrifying his words were, it was true that night Alistair had come to our door as though death has come in the form of that cruel ruthless Lycan.

"Get the hell out of my house before I shoot you!" Dad suddenly got his gun out from his pocket, the veins beside his forehead stood out. I had never seen my dad this angry but there was that strange fear that made me want to run away with my family from the presence of Alistair instead of standing on our ground.

I wish we had run away! I wish!

The low snicker slipped past Alistair's lips and then all of a sudden with all of his force slammed his hand against dad's chest, the action of him made dad fly and hit his body against the wall. The decorations on the wall fell and crumbled into pieces and the blood gushed out of dad's mouth in an instant.

The scream left mom's mouth so did mine, it seemed like the entire had stopped like I was about to lose everything I had ever loved.

"Brandon...." Mom shrieked.

Orabelle's consciousness began stirring and I could still see the terror shading her eyes.

"You fucking pathetic human, it's naive of you to think that you can escape Alistair's Wrath," He lazily stalked towards dad, I saw dad struggling to get up. The anger in dad's eyes was still there, there was no sign of fear for his life if only there was something was the concern that shined when glanced over at where I, mom, and Orabelle were.

"And what you think you monster?! I am scared of you?" Dad stood up, the blood had now covered his white shirt, my concern soon started turning into fear.

"You know we would have freely given you the locket if you didn't have such nasty intentions in your mind, your hands were used for the help of others instead of killing the innocent people. But Alistair Giardini, you don't even deserve to live, you are a bloody murderer and greedy Lycan who can do anything for gaining power!" Dad shouted.

"You bad, now I will have to kill your entire family to take your daughter away. You could've saved your lives but your oh-so-nice nature of wanting good for people had put you in this stage," Alistair monotonously spoke, "You are only minutes away from your death!"

Tonight was not lucky for us.

This was not going to end up well.

"Listen you piece of shit, monsters like you who only cares for power and wealth can't get anything other than unfortunate death in the end. No matter how high climb over the dead bodies of innocent people, in the end, you are going to be crushed under the same empire you have built." Dad spat, "Monsters like you are born to have pathetic deaths. You can never win Alistair, your end is unavoidable!"

I saw Alistair falling mum, he kept his stone-cold stare at me. A few seconds passed and the previous sinister smirk splayed on his lips and he looked over us before his stare fixated on dad.

"Pretty good speech you have given, human. Now let's see who gets pathetic death today," He
menacingly chuckled and clapped his hand twice.

It was less than a second and we saw guards walking inside the room with sharp swords in their hands, but amongst the guards, there were two more faces that I didn't know were going to be turning into an equal nightmare as Alistair Giardini for me.

Alistair's brothers--Julian and Draven. Even the devil would be less merciless than these three brothers.

"Hello, Mr.Brandon Yearwood," Draven's amusement filled voice buzzed in the room

I felt mom's one shaky hand wrapping around me. There was fear in her eyes, her breathing constantly getting heavier.

"I see, you have got a nice treatment from my brother huh?" Julian chuckled, circling dad.

"So these puppets you have sent me to offer a cheap deal of money and palace, are your brothers? No wonder they are as shitty as you!" Dad sneered and the moment his words ended, Draven landed a tight punch on Dad Jaw causing him to stumble backward. More blood came out of his mouth, this time a cut showed up on the corner of his jaw.

His punch had torn through the layers of dad's skin.

No scream left mom's mouth except for mine, mom's stare had stilled. Completely.

The dismay, the fear...everything had stilled her movements.

On the other side, the blood was constantly flowing out of Orabelle's nose, our constant tries were not working on stopping the blood.

I saw dad glancing at mom, then at Orabelle, and finally at me. The apologetic look on his increased the fear inside of me, at that moment I didn't know that look on dad's face was there because he already knew what was going to happen next--As if he knew these were our last moments together.

"This is all you have got you bloody piece of shit?!" Soon as dad finished the sentence this time it was Julian who punched at dad's face. Causing the same split to appear on the other of his jaw.

Dad's eyes glanced at mom, nodding at her ever so slightly so that only she could get the message he was trying to give her.

The melancholic smile displayed on mom's lips. The tears now freely spilled over her cheeks.

She looked down at Orabelle, Orabelle's body temperature had gotten colder and her breathing was coming out as pants.

"I am sorry, sweetheart. I couldn't save you," The small sob slipped past mom's lips, "You are going to be at peace, just bear a little more." She kissed her forehead.

My eyes went wide at mom's words, "No! Mom! We'll take her to the doctor." I cried out looking at my sister. She looked pale.

Mom looked at me, more tears pouring into her eyes. She leaned in and caressed my cheek," Isabelle, listen to me very carefully, you need to run," Mom whispered into my ear, "We are not going to find today's fight with these evil people but that doesn't mean this is the end...."

"Mom, I'll go with them. They'll spare you," I sobbed and tried to get up but mom stopped me.

"No, you can't go with them. The blessings you gave got from him are to help others but if these people get access to them, they'll kill more people and ruin lives just like ours." She said.

"No, mom! Please don't say that, we all can go. Our car is outside..we.." Mom pressed her hand against my mouth silencing all my cries.

"I love you so much, my angel," The cry slipped past her own lips, the sorrow in her eyes evident as she was saying goodbye to me, "This was in our destiny, our togetherness was meant for only this certain period sweetheart but this doesn't mean this is going to be the end of your life. You have to fight, be strong and fulfill your duty." She leaned in kissing my forehead.

My heart was broken into thousands of pieces but not a word escaped my mouth except for the sobs mom's hand silenced.

"Remember--Give this locket to someone in need, someone who can protect you and the protect the world beside you and someone you can trust. Only then you would show your specialties once you know that person is worthy of your trust. The one who makes you feel safe," She breathed out and slowly withdrew her hand.

My body had digested the reality before my mind and heart could. No request except for the years of defeat that slid down my cheek at the defeat.

"Remember you have much more strength than you think. We will always be just beside you," Mom smiled and wiped my tears, "Go, Isabelle..."

I looked one last time at Mom, dad, and Orabelle before I forced my feet the stand up. Stopping all my sobs and sprinting for the open window to escape before they get a hold of me.

But as if the entire universe was against me, Alistair caught me by my arm just before I was a step away from getting outside of the bungalow through the window.

"Leave me," I fought his grip as he dragged me inside the room.

I saw mom trying to run for me but a guard had grabbed her whilst two of the guards kept locked under their grip. Their shouts were banging against my ear.

"Isabelle....Isabelle....Isabelle..." He mocked, "Sweet little child, What makes you think you can escape?" He grabbed a fistful of my hair and threw me to the center of the room.

The painful feeling shrouded my entire body but not more painful than the reality that I was soon going to face something even more terrific than the coarse darkness of the forest. 

"Let her go, you monster!" Mom shouted.

"Orabelle..." Dad's shriek made me look at Draven wrapping his finger around Orabelle's throat in a painful grip. She struggled to breathe, her weak attempts did not affect the merciless brute who had the sinister smile taken over his lips as he looked at my sister's weak attempt.

The constant fight to breathe...to stay alive.

I forced my knees and stood up before I strode in Alistair's direction. I joined my hands in front of him falling on my knees, "I-I will go with you, please please please, let my mom, dad, and sister go," I begged, "You can kill me if you want but leave them, please!"

Alistair crouched down in front of me and wiped my tears, the gentleness in his movement seemed like the calm before the storm.

"Your kindness makes me want to forgive your parents, but Alas...I have made up my decision." He chuckled and his eyes darted at Julian as if he was passing a command.

I saw the smirk tugging at both of their lips and Julian grabbed a sword from the guard. He walked towards mom, lazily dragging the sword all the way to the ground till he stood in front of her.

"Any last wish, beautiful lady?" He raised the sword pacing the tip of it right under her chin.

"Leave her!" Dad fought against the guard's grip. Even though he had already lost a lot of blood he was still not giving up, the desperation and helplessness in her eyes had shaken me to my core.

"You and brothers might succeed in killing us today but remember Alistair, this is not the end. You'll pay for every one of your sins, God won't forgive you!" Mom let go of her tears and looked at me and Orabelle who was still fighting Draven's grip.

"I'll deal it with god. Julian, sent her to her god quick. I'm getting bored of them." Alistair yawned stretching his arms and the next second Julian had pushed the sword inside my mom's stomach, the painful scream slipped past her lips and the helpless shout of my dad rang inside of my head.

"No! Mom...." I tried to run toward my mother but the devil grabbed my arm and stopped me.

Julian pulled out the sword and inserted it in the same place but this time with more force, there was a pool was mom's own blood around her.

"Calm down, little kid," Alistair cooed, "You have a lot more to see, look what my brother does to your sister." My eyes shifted at the horrific side of Draven kicking Orabelle in the ribs that made her slide till her body hit against the pillar, her agonizing screams echoed the place.

I couldn't even imagine how much pain she was in.

I was helpless, I couldn't do anything but witness him killing my sister little by little, making my mom lay in a pool of her blood, leaving my dad covered in bruises.

"Please spare the child, let her die at least in peace..." Mom begged as she dropped to the floor after Julian had pulled out the sword.

The tears finally slid down dad's eyes, he averted his stare from the sight.

"Shit I had aimed for the other pillar," Draven spoke, sounding disappointed.

"Then what's stopping you brother? Try again," Julian chuckled tracing mom blood on the sword.

"Let's try something else," He walked towards Orabelle, ignoring her continuous cries and he grabbed her by her throat and threw her against another pillar. Her fragile body hit the hard surface, her blood left a stain on the pillar.

This time all that left her mouth was a whimper.

I cried and begged for the monsters to stop but they didn't look listen to me. Three more times Draven kicked Orabelle in her ribs before no sound left her mouth, her eyes closed and I saw her exhaling her very last breath.

Dad closed his eyes dropping to his knees and mom let go of her sobs watching Orabelle go lifeless.

"There's more...Isabelle," Alistair's sinister voice whispered into my ear.

Terrified my eyes moved to look at Julian who with his leg pushed mom to lay on her front.

"I wish I could've kept you alive for my own entertainment but too bad, you need to die," And in a flash, he cut mom's throat.

I cried and screamed, dad's helpless shout echoed the place but nothing helped. Gasping for air, mom slowly fell to death and I could only watch my family getting killed one by one.

The pain couldn't even be described in words, in front of my own very eyes I was watching my parents living the last few seconds of their lives.

"Brother, do the honor," Draven motioned towards my dad and Alistair let go of my hand but before I could run towards my dad Julian grabbed me by my bicep and Jerked me to where I was.

"Please let go of my dad, at least," I cried out," Please don't kill him."

All I got in return was their taunting laughs at my helplessness.

"Isabelle, listen to me...." Dad began as Alistair lazily stalked towards him.

"You will not give up, no matter what. Remember these people should not get access to your powers, you will not give up fighting. Promise me, promise me, sweetheart." Dad spoke, hid breathing had gotten heavier.

"I promise, Dad," I sobbed, "I promise you, I'll not give up."

"Remember, your mom, dad, and your sister loves you, and one day I am sure you'll bring justice to all the people these monsters have killed," Dad smiled faintly, the tears were glistening in her eyes, "I love my sweet angel, and I am sorry that I failed to protect all of you and leaving in this misery. I hope you can forgive me."

Before I could even reply Alistair pulled out his dagger and pushed it inside's dad's chest causing the gasp to escape his mouth. I saw the blood flowing from the wound and Alistair twisted the dagger causing it to increase the flow of it.

Dad glanced at me one last time and then I saw his eyes going still, colder than ever he emitted the last breath and fell on the ground on his back.

My body went still and I only looked...at my parent's dead bodies laying on the ground, my sister's lifeless body laying there who was just an hour ago playing with me.

"Destroy everything in the house," Alistair ordered the guard and picked me up before walking out of the toy room my mom and dad once built only for me and Orabelle and in the same room laid the lifeless bodies of my loved ones.

I didn't even have the strength to protest. My body went frozen, the image of my family's dead bodies got printed in my heart that I could never wipe away.



Flashback ends....



Kaden

"The three brothers who rule the Dark side of the Predators. Their sins had no boundaries and probably never have had. The hands tainted in the murders of innocent people for the hunger for power were the ones that shattered my life in only about an hour," She sobbed wiping her tears, I was too shocked to speak.

Her description had left me, mum. I couldn't even imagine how much pain she had gone through.

"My picture-perfect family was snatched from me, Kaden. I can still hear my sister's screams, my mom's painful whimpers, my dad's words that sowed deep within me. No matter how hard I try, I can never wipe away those memories," She spoke, "I-I just..." I couldn't stop myself and I pulled her in my arms.

"It's okay, everything is going to be fine," I wrapped my hands around her waist cuisine her closer. She didn't protest, instead, she buried her face into my chest letting go of all her tears.

By opening up to me she was letting me see her cracks.

I knew I couldn't completely heal her but I wanted to try my best. Each of the people who'd hurt her was going to pay, they were going to pay for their sins by their lives and nothing was going to stop me.

"Please don't leave me, Kaden," She cried, "I can't lose you, I can't bear losing you too."

"I'll never leave you, Angel. I will be here till the end even if it means that I need to defeat the death." I kissed her forehead and her wings shielded us before she pressed her head against my chest and let her hands wrap around me.

"I want to stay with you for the rest of my life, Kaden. I don't want to go away from you."

"No one is going to be able to take you away from me, Isabelle. You are mine and you'll be mine till our last breath."

I wasn't going to those brutes take Isabelle away from me, death is the price they'll for shattering the beautiful life of the Angel crying in my arms.

I will show them what is called real revenge, I'll make them regret every bit of it. It's a promise to myself and my mate.