“Who’s plan?”
“The highest members of the council. They know what is best.”
“But the entire town watched me grow up here...” I muttered, through sobs, visibly shaking. Stunned and deeply wounded by Bethany's razor edged words, I wept quietly. How could she be so heartless? If the mother and father I had in the future are not my parents, then who are? How can all of my memories be bogus? Were my first day of school, and when my dad taught me how to ride a bike fake? “How could you people be so cruel?” I accused.
“These people only knew what we implanted. Nothing more. It's all been erased.” She confessed. “Where there is no memory there is also no pain. They are all better off not remembering. Don't you agree?” Bethany said squeezing my shoulders, in an ineffective attempt to reassure me of the pain that my family and loved ones wouldn't endure.
These people
were strangers to her. Yet,
they
were spared of any sadness or pain. Why wasn't
I
? I
am
her best friend. I was left totally unshielded from anguish and sorrow
“By the way, I couldn’t send you to the future if I wanted too. I don’t possess the power to transport,” Bethany added. Hearing that, I sank lower into the abyss, drowning actually. I hadn’t expected her to transport me although, I’d invested in hope.
Bethany told me that no one except the members of the Ischeros knew where I had gone. The story was that I had spent the last two years in France, visiting my fictitious Aunt Guinevere.
“It all happened too fast – your death. It was unexpected. Then you found us before we found you. We had no time to erase your programmed memory especially not knowing if your true memory had returned.” Bethany's voice was solemn as she passed me a handkerchief. “Wipe your tears.
You’re stronger than this. Look, I know the truth hurts quite a bit, but I love you too much not to be truthful.” Bethany added as she stroked my hair. I stared into her glassy blue eyes, in the reflection in the mirror. I felt betrayed, duped, and mortified. It was unacceptable.
Bethany busied herself with tying shiny ribbons in my hair. Then she clipped a pair of sparkling amethyst, teardrop earrings on my ears. The brilliant stones picked up the sun light streaming in from the partially opened French doors and gleamed. All the while I never took my eyes off the girl I thought I knew so well.
This time when our eyes met our eyes met in my reflection, she caught the piercing glare I returned to her curious one, and quickly looked away.
My tears had long dried but the feeling of desolation was still shattering me into fragments. I felt so alone and deceived, like the world had been invaded with aliens that were once humans, and I'm the only human left being forced to succumb to their foreign way of life.
Bethany walked over to the dresser across the room, closest to my bed and began picking through more accessories that I would be forced to wear. It was fitting that I was left at the vanity table, alone– exactly how I felt. I stared at my reflection through a glaze, due to my endless tears, and didn’t notice the familiar figure that appeared in the mirror, at first. The figure dashed from the French doors to where I sat in a split second. The hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention like soldiers, and a sharp gasp escaped my quivering lips.
Victor was standing very closely behind me. His pitch black eyes pierced through mine. There was that feeling again like something was pulling me toward him, like gravity. Something hypnotic that had me emotionally over powered and dependent on it. It was as if I was without air in my lungs and Victor was the last person on this earth with an oxygen tank. The feeling was severe, shattering, and undeniably evident to him. He knew what he was doing to me. I was inconceivably drawn to him like a moth to a lit match, perfectly content with getting burned in order to be within reach of him.
He frightened the air right out of my lungs.
Placing scorching hands on my nearly exposed shoulders, Victor dug his long and jagged nails into the flesh of my shoulders, stabbing through the dainty fabric. A twinge of searing pain made me wince as I heard my skin sizzle from the burn. He drew blood that began to stain the intricate lace fabric bordering my shoulder bone. For some reason I couldn’t yell, or scream, or make an audible sound. I was silenced.
When Victor brought his face closer to mine, so close that I could smell him; the aroma was recognizable – fresh burnt cinders. The wicked half smile swept across his gorgeous face, making me wonder how someone so beautiful could be so ugly at the same time. Victor’s face was becoming that of a heinous gargoyle… again. The transformation was fast and grotesque. His eyes were red as glimmering rubies. I couldn’t turn away even if I had tried–I didn’t try. Being on the receiving end of Victor’s hypnotic like stare, I was stone. His fierce grip on my shoulders was paralyzing and I couldn’t breathe. Victor sniffed the delicate curve of my neck while I fought unsuccessfully to break his penetrating stare.
“You do not belong
heeerrre
. You must wonder where their loyalties lay my love. You
belong
to
meeeeee
,
mmmyyyy
Corde
liiiaaa
.” He hissed maliciously into my ear. His voice was just above a whisper and menacing. “Your sweet, tender soul is
miiiine
, as is your heart. No one can take you away from me.
Youuuuu
are my
destiny
.” Victor proclaimed in a bone burning purr that sent blistering sparks down my back. The heat that seemed to generate from Victor’s body must have broken Fahrenheit records across the globe. Why couldn’t Bethany feel the heat and rescue be from being barbecued?
While fighting Victor’s trancelike glare to get a glimpse of Bethany, I watched him laugh bitterly as he surveyed my frightened reflection.
Frightened, but yielding to him. I tried to scream to stop the overwhelming need of him but no sound left my mouth. He began to slide his hand toward my chest. His long claw like fingernails burned and pierced through the fabric of my bodice so forcibly that I believed they were going to puncture through my skin. I heard my skin sizzle beneath his touch and I cringed in pain. All the while the heat had not subsided; only intensified around me.
He is here to kill me, I thought. I am going to die all over again, by a bull morphing demigod. This time it won’t be instantly. Why wasn’t Bethany fighting him off of me? As if reading my desperate thoughts and hearing her cue, Bethany finally reacted to the sight of me in distress.
“Nooo!” Bethany let out a partial shriek like gasp. Her eyes went completely black then red. She moved as fast as light and was by my side within an unpredictable second, but not quick enough to stop Victor from slamming her against the wall with a suffocating grip to her neck. He held her there and leaned in close enough to kiss her.
“
Bethanyyy
, you make me
hotttt
all over” The heat intensified in the room as he mouthed the word ‘hot’. “To taste you…again would be so sweet, but
you
are
not
the girl for me.” Victor grimaced as he continued to torment.
Taste you… again? What the hell did that mean? Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Both Victor and Bethany didn’t seem to notice it. Victor ran his hand across the fabric against Bethany's hip, then thigh. Victor gripped the fabric of her dress, sliding it upward to reveal Bethany’s thigh all the while tightening his grip around her neck and sliding her up the wall.
“GET... OFF... ME!” Bethany growled like an animal.
Victor looked Bethany dead in the eyes and spewed fire into her face as she instantaneously shifted into water while keeping her natural shape, minus the dress. By Bethany turning into water, Victor lost his grip around her neck, and his hand splashed into the wall. He swiped at her liquid form, apparently pissed off that she had doused his flames. Bethany, water and all suddenly disappeared.
Victor instantly flipped around so that his back was now against the wall where he just had Bethany pinned. Out of the blue, Bethany reappeared still fleshed out in water, and now had Victor pinned against the wall. Somehow the water that made up her entire form was capable of grasping onto a solid, but not for long.
Victor forced himself free of Bethany’s aquatic vice and stood in the center of the room. I watched him, and I was completely terrified of this teenage monster. I couldn’t move. It was truly a battle of strength between fire and water. They were both so powerful. Victor began spewing fire in all directions including mine, which had me scared to death of being burned alive. I also thought that he would transform into a bull again, but he didn’t.
Instead, Bethany anticipated his targets, and doused them before he could set them ablaze, leaving everything perfectly untouched and surprisingly dry.
I would forever be grateful to her for not letting this barely legal monster, who I felt undeniably drawn too, turn me into ashes.
Another rap at the door, this time much louder, stunned us all. “More visitors upon your return,
Divine One
?” Victor teased as his ominous ogle swept over me. Although his stare was prolonged and desirous, he was voracious and seemed to want to kill me now more than ever. But to my surprise, he didn’t attack. Instead, he vanished, leaving behind a thick vapor of black smoke as a low and wicked cackle echoed throughout the room, reverberating from my ear to Bethany's, and then over by the French doors. The dreadful sound seeped out into the searing desert heat, which was no match for Victor’s.
Seven
Warning
The hypnotic attraction to Victor, if that’s what I’d been consumed by, while in his presence, was gone the moment he disappeared. I couldn’t stop shaking, and my neck felt incredibly stiff. I desperately needed an escape from this…this… HELL!
I watched Bethany in disbelief, and reflected on what had just taken place, but I was so dazed that I didn’t really see her, just a satin emerald blur of fabric. She had already transformed back into human form from the aquatic creature. I felt cold and hot all at once. My mind focused on running out of the room, running out of this house, running out of this point in time, running to someplace where I didn’t feel like screaming at the top of my lungs.
“Stop rocking,” Bethany demanded, startling me. I didn’t realize that I’d been rocking violently back and forth, with my arms wrapped around me in a cocoon like hug. She grabbed my shoulders and stared back at me; her eyes had returned to their normal ocean hue from the vibrant crimson that seemed to look right through you.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
“Uh...” I had to think about it for a second. Was I alright? No, I was a mess. The knocking at the door came in rapid and loud raps now. Both Bethany and I jumped.
“Who is it?” Bethany inquired hesitantly. I didn't want her to answer it although; I knew it couldn't be Victor. Surely that demon wouldn't be inclined to knock.
“It's Evan, Beth.” Evan said taking her inquiry as an invitation and flinging the doors open. “Didn’t either of you hear me knocking?” His eyes searched us both for an answer.
He looked at me with kind eyes. I needed kind eyes right now after just looking into the most evil eyes I had ever seen; vindictive and full of dread. I couldn't deny the instant feeling of safety I sensed whenever Evan was near. I stood up from the vanity. He walked toward me but stopped in front of Bethany instead. Her emotions were evident. She looked anxious as if she had done something wrong, and was about to be reprimanded. Evan turned to look at me, obviously still unaware of what had just happened but curious as to why we were visibly traumatized.
“I would like a moment alone with Cordelia.” Evan said, with his eyes trained on me even though he spoke to his sister. I sighed and looked down at my hands. “Nikolas is waiting for you in the parlor.”
“Evan, Victor was just here.” Bethany blurted out. The silence in the room was deafening as her words hung in the air.
“What do you mean by
just here
?” Evan’s tone went icy.
“In this house, in this room.” Bethany gulped. “I didn't see him enter. I was over by the dresser, and he had his hands on Cordelia – right over her chest. I think he was going to tear her heart out had you not knocked at that moment… ” Bethany's voice was strained as she trailed off with the idea of what could have happened while her brother stood on the other side of the double doors. “I tried to keep him …”
“Are you alright?” Did he hurt you in anyway?” Evan asked me calmly, and cutting Bethany words off like a light switch, as he held my face in his hands.
“I'm fine.” I lied. “Really, he didn’t hurt me.” I lied again. When Victor had put his hands on my shoulders, his claw like nails had burned so bad at first that I thought I might pass out from the pain. I didn't feel it at all now and they didn’t seem to notice any damage to the neckline of my dress.
“And you Beth?” Evan demanded softly noticing that his sister looked a bit stunned.
“I'm fine.” I looked at Bethany's neck. She didn't lie. It was clean of any marks; flawless ivory like an unused canvas. I looked around the room for a moment staring at each piece of furniture expecting everything to be drenched with the remnants of Bethany’s tidal wave, but all of the furnishings were stark dry. I wondered where all the water had gone?
“Victor is becoming audacious and is developing a sense of instinct as to where you are,” Evan said harshly. “The venomous outcast is also aware that you don’t remember him; hence he knows that you have not developed your powers. This leaves you extremely vulnerable. He will be back, and it will be soon.” Evan said keeping his eyes on me as he stepped away from me. “He’s very aware that time is running out.” Evan’s vibrant and concerned eyes swept over me from head to toe as if he were looking for a wound or some sign that I’d been hurt.
“He was talking to her. He told her something. What did he say to you, Delia?” Bethany questioned with panic evident in her trembling voice.”