Chapter 10: The Beginning

The child walked up to Zark, who was unconscious on his stomach. Zarks shirt was ripped apart, with several cut wounds on his back.

“I am sorry!” The child said as the red eyes disappeared, and all that was left for the little one was sobbing after seeing his brother bleeding on the ground.

Meldan ran up to the entrance to check when she heard the cries and could see her husband on the ground with Berk crying over his body. She quickly hurried in and saw all the wounds on his back. She couldn’t hold back her tears as she turned him around and tried to wake him up. He coughed and opened his eyes, seeing both of them being okay. The pain in his body was nothing compared to what Berk had gone through.

“We need to get out of the cave,” Zark said with a lowered voice.

“You scared me!” Meldan said as she helped him up and grabbed Berk from the ground while trying to give Zark support with her other hand.

When they came out, loud howling from a distance echoed in the air, making Zark react with a worried expression.

“I recognize the howling,” Zark said.

“I know also that howling.” Meldan followed up.

Both looked at each other and responded at the same time:

“Samantha!”

Victoria showed up distraughtly as everyone knew how bad the situation was now.

“Your sister is here, and she brought a small army for the boy. They will pick up the boy’s scent any moment.” Victoria said.

Zark knew that everything was pointless and the Witch would never give up. If they had any chance, it would be to keep going deeper into the woods because they were on the outskirts and would enter the human world where monsters cannot just prowl around unnoticed. They hurried through the woods, trying to escape, but where would they go when Samantha would not give up even though two years had passed?

They reached a field outside Paladin Woods’s zone and saw a big sign on a large building. Quickly, they moved towards the building in the dark as Zark had difficulty keeping up with the rest. Meldan looked back to make sure her husband was still following them. Victoria noticed something strange when Berk’s eyes changed color between brown and red as she was running behind Meldan. She knew something must have happened to Berk because she never felt any powers coming from him, but now was different. Thin red smoke was gushing out from Berk with his body covered in blood, and this worried Victoria.

The sign said ‘Fredrikarons sports gymnasium,’ which indicated it was school as they quickly hurried to the entrance. Zark caught up with them, jogged slowly, and kicked the door in on the entrance.

“What are you doing, Zark?” Meldan asked.

“I hope any alarm went off and someone is coming.” He responded, thinking it would be wise for humans to show up at the school. They entered the school, and Zark looked back towards the woods and noticed hellhounds on the field with several men following them.

While they walked through the corridor, Zark knew it was not enough time for them to try and hide, and with the Hellhounds there, it would be hard to keep them away from smelling Berk or Meldan. He stopped suddenly, and when Meldan looked back, she knew what her husband would do and shook her head in denial.

“No, Zark! We keep together as a family.” She uttered to him, upset.

“Take them to safety, Meldan! I will buy us some time.”

“NO! WE KEEP TOGETHER AS A FAMILY.” She screamed at him, crying.

Zark shook his head in denial.

“Victoria, take them to safety!” Zark told her sternly.

It was the first time Victoria had seen Zark with that facial expression; it made her wonder if love meant to feel something for someone else.

Victoria pulled Meldan’s shirt as they slowly started to move, knowing how dangerous the situation would be for Zark.

They disappeared down some stairs. Zark knew it was the last time he was seeing his family again. He tried to fix his shirt and tie to make it look like he was a businessman ready for work, but all the blood on his shirt didn’t give him confidence in the upcoming battle. When he held out his hands and tried to create a fire, all that happened was just a puny black smoke gushing out from his hands. He was powerless. He quickly opened a door leading to a classroom, grabbed a chair, and kicked hard to break the metal legs on the chair. He grabbed all four legs and returned to the corridor again as he noticed that Tristor was there, but he was weak. The only thing working for Zark was how he could change his eyes to red color. At least it gave him a little bit of help with moving faster. His powers were gone; the curse must be blocking it; maybe it was gone completely. A loud-sounding boom came from the entrance as the ceiling fell with a lot of smoke covering Zarks vision to see the enemy. He aimed one of his metal sticks and threw it with full power into the smoke, and a Hellhound fell on the ground, sliding a couple of meters; the metal hit it in the forehead, turning to black dust immediately. When the smoke calmed down, two Hellhounds were growling toward Zark, but what was standing behind them was shocking for him: several men looked like himself. Was he going to fight against himself?

Meldan ended up together with Berk and Victoria down at the swimming pool. She couldn’t hold back tears as Victoria got suspicious because she had never seen Meldan in this state. It looked like she had given up as she fell on the floor, staring down without moving.

“What is wrong? You are not acting in a controlling matter?” Victoria asked with a stern voice.

Meldan had let Berk loose from her grasp as she hit the ground with her knuckle cracking it.

“Tell me what is wrong?” Victoria kept pushing Meldan.

When Meldan lifted her head to face Victoria, her eyes had turned yellow. Victoria, with a swift move, pulled Berk towards herself. Meldan had, in the same movement as Victoria just tried hitting Berk’s head but hit the wall instead with her fist and half the arm was inside the wall.

Victoria protected Berk behind her body as she noticed the person in front of her was not Meldan; it was the killer everyone had talked about in the earlier days, the monster inside Meldan that comes out in disastrous moments and takes over to protect itself, the monster who killed her family, the monster who was responsible for the destruction of her clan, her Village destroyed in just a moment. Meldan was the one responsible for Victoria’s miserable life.

“Why are you looking so sad? Meldan made sure I would remember your mother as I pierced her heart with this right hand. It went so fast; In the last moment before her death, she was looking for her daughter. You are a lucky girl to be alive, so give me the boy so I can kill it.” Meldan uttered in a dark, muffled voice.

Victoria didn’t react to the monster’s attempt to rattle her.

“Do you think Meldan would kill the boy? She would protect the boy.” Victoria answered.

Meldan laughed out loud and answered:

“That! Little girl, that is where you are wrong.”

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