Chapter Two

Mark finds himself standing in a beautiful meadow. There was a large tree in the meadow, its branches casting a shade on the ground. The ground was covered in rich green grass and encircling the meadow were flowers of all types, sun flowers, helenium, lupines and lilies. He looks around in a daze at the beautiful scenery. To him, the surroundings look somewhat familiar. He tries hard to recollect his memories but no matter how hard he tries; he can't seem to remember. He finally gives up and decides to put that aside in favor of figuring out where he is, he died that much he knew but that this didn’t seem like hell. 

Suddenly he hears some sound coming from a distance. Curious, slowly, he strode in that direction. Gradually the silhouettes of two young boys come into his sight. He unhurriedly walks  towards them. 

Little by little their appearance becomes clearer. They appear to be happily engaged in something. One of them looks quite sickly and malnourished.

The clothes he is wearing are dirty and tattered. His dark hair looks messy and unkempt which is in complete contrast to the other boy who looks full of life and well taken care of, with his beautiful golden locks, he looks just like an angel.

Together they look misplaced yet the harmony they are showing can melt anyone's heart whoever sees it. With a single glance, one can tell that they are enjoying each other's company with no knowledge of their differences. 

Seeing their happy impressions, Mark was drawn into their world and so, he stands nearby and watches them while they were obvious to his presence.

Unaware of his presence, the children continued to play their game of tag, the younger of the two children seemingly to win each time. But he could tell that the blacked haired child, while seemingly weak, was capable of running fast and was just letting the younger one win. The children continued their game until the sun had reached the horizon. As the sky gradually turns darker, the dark-haired boy thoughtfully reminds his friend, “Blake, it's getting late. You should get back home now. If you're late, someone will know that you have sneaked out of home again, then you will be punished.”

The younger boy replied making no move to get off the grass“Don't worry, no one will notice it. I made proper arrangements before coming here". Although Blake answers the boy carelessly, the little bit of disappointment that rises in his eyes doesn't go unnoticed from Mark's eyes.

The dark-haired boy still cannot feel assured. He doesn't want his friend to be punished because of him. Noticing his friend still fretting over this, Blake sighs and finally gives in and gets to his feet. He doesn't want his dear friend to worry anymore. He brushed the dust and grass of his pants and stood before his friend and spoke at last, “Fine. I will listen to you but promise me that we will meet again tomorrow!”

 The dark-haired boy hesitated for a few seconds but finally with a big smile on his face, he said,“I promise.”

Mark continues to watch as the two children say their goodbyes to each other and half-heartedly leave for their respective homes. The dark-haired boy suddenly stops at the edge of the small meadow, turns around and follows his friend back through the forest, and watches his friend who sneaks in through a small gap in the fence and heads towards the back door of what seems to be a large manor. His eyes follow him until Blake's figure has completely disappeared, he seems reluctant to leave but after a while he turns around and vanishes into the depth of the forest on the other side of the meadow.

The surrounding gradually returns to its usual quietness. 

“Did watching those two children remind you how lacking your childhood was?”

Mark, since he was young, has trained himself to detect even the smallest disturbance in his surroundings, but he didn't even realize when this mysterious voice has invaded his defenses which is too dangerous. He immediately becomes alert and looks around to detect any presence nearby.

Suddenly, he looks upward into the branches of the big tree in the middle of the meadow unconsciously, there he sees a woman sitting on a branch of the tree, swinging her legs back and forth, she looks very comfortable.

The woman was ethanal, her body was surrounded by light blue light, her blond hair glowing with white light, where eyes should be filled with golden light, he stumbled back a bit in shock but hurriedly composed himself. He then immediately becomes cautious, looking very defensive. 

Watching his guarded reaction, the woman looks amused. She chortles and says lightheartedly "Oh my… I seem to have startled you. Fret not, my boy, I'm not here to harm you." 

Although she looks carefree and easygoing, Mark's instincts tell him that this person is dangerous, she was not a human that much was clear not to mention that he could tell how powerful she was. “Who are you? What do you want from me?” With caution, Mark questions her coldly.

“I am Glinda, a Spirit and I am here to help you” she replies. Seeing Mark so defensive, she cannot help but chuckle.

After knowing the woman's identity, he became even more vigilant, there was no way she was a simple spirit. “What is your purpose in bringing me to this place? As far as I know, I should have been dead by now.”

“I am innocent” she swears, giving him an innocent look. “You brought me here and now I am here, stuck with you, but you are the one accusing me. Ah! my life is sooo miserable!” she immediately gives him an exaggeratedly pitiful look.

Listening to her dramatic remarks, Mark can't help but roll his eyes inwardly. At the same time, he feels a headache coming.

Spirits, especially the old ones, are known to be extremely nosy who love to meddle in others' business solely for their entertainment. Now, looking at this old busy body, he feels that he is going to have tough days ahead. “I am not here of my own free will.” he retorted.

Glinda, the old spirit, who has been waiting for an exciting reaction from him could only jump down from the branch disgruntled, “you're no fun you know”

She floated off the tree and to his side and spoke, “Well…you are not wrong to say that I brought you here. But I am not lying either.” She harrumphs “It's your fault that I am here. Your life was so pitiful that I couldn't help myself from intervening and bringing you here. I worked so hard to bring your soul here so that I could save you and you..." She looks away unhappily “Not only did you not thank me but instead accused me repeatedly of you being here, you’re Such an ungrateful brat!” she keeps on mumbling “I worked so hard for nothing humph...keeps on accusing me… treating me so harshly humph… accused me… ah! I am so pitiful...young people these days. no respect for the old at all humph...”

Mark was very speechless. He has only questioned her a bit but from what’s coming out of her mouth, why does it seem like he is harassing the old. Moreover, any normal person would be defensive like him if an old spirit pops out of nowhere and claims to be his benefactor. 

After finishing her long monologue, Glinda turns to him, and with the attitude like an understanding elder, she says “Forget it...I am a good-hearted person. So, I choose to forgive you today for your behavior towards an elder humph…” She then turns to look at him. Her eyes turn serious for a moment. “Your life shouldn't have been like this.” Then, her eyes quickly become playful once again. It happens so fast that one would only think of it as an illusion.

“Your life seems to be more pitiful than I have imagined if your so-called happiness is when you didn't have enough to eat and wear” she says teasingly. Mark's body stiffened in shock. 

Through her words, Mark finally realizes something. He looks around once again. Finally, he realizes why this place feels so familiar to him. This is the place where he met Mark for the first time, his dearest friend and also his mate. 

He looks back at the little figure behind the widow which hasn't moved at all, "Is that Blake?"

“Finally, you remembered Blake, your childhood friend whom you left at the back of your memories.” Glinda comments.

“No no..... didn’t. I didn't leave him behind, I... I just didn't want him to be hurt because of me, I didn't want to taint his happy life.”  he hurriedly tries to justify himself not knowing why needed to, just that he wanted to make it clear.

“We both know what the truth is” Glinda snickers slightly and continues “You did it because playing with a human would make you an outcast in your pack, so you choose to leave him behind.”

Mark can still remember everything clearly. It's true, he indeed abandoned his only friend. Mark was then 7 years old when they met each other for the first time. He just got adopted by this new pack. He didn't know why no one wanted to play with him. He was strong, fast and he was good at playing games, but no one would invite him to play with them, he was an outcast that no one wanted to play with.

He was bored of having nothing to do everyday and no one to play with so one day he decided to see what was outside the barrier. The pack's beta was married to a witch, and she was responsible for setting this barrier around the pack's territory, the first thing that Mark was taught by his new father that no one was allowed to go outside of the barrier. It was there for their protection and if you went outside the barrier, you would be in danger from other creatures.

But Mark didn't care, he was lonely, and he was curious about what was on the other side, and he left the barrier one day. He walked through the forest looking at everything curiously, he unknowingly walked very far from the pack territory and suddenly he heard someone sobbing from farther up the forest. He found it strange, so he followed the sound until he reached the edge of a Meadow. The edges of the clearing were full of different kinds of flowers. The ground was covered in grass, there was a large tree in the middle, it cast a shade over the meadow, the sunlight was streaming through the branches of the tree giving it an ethereal look.

In the middle of the clearing, he saw a young boy who was sobbing so hard that his small frame was shaking. When Mark saw this particular scene, unknowingly he became depressed.

“Why are you crying?” After he asked, Blake didn't even seem to care that there was someone else there with him. He simply held on to him and started bawling his eyes out even more. After much crying and comforting, Blake's tears stopped. “So... tell me why you are crying?” Mark slowly inquired.

Blake hesitated a bit “My cousin bullied me, so I pushed her. Everyone only saw this ...hic...hic... No one listened to me and instantly sided with her. They even grounded me in my room. I was angry... hic...hic so I decided to run away from home.”

Mark felt bad for him he knew how it felt to be ignored and pushed aside but he couldn’t let Blake run away from home, he was just a little boy he wouldn’t be able to survive outside alone especially since he is just human so without much thinking, he suddenly promised Blake that if he stopped crying and returned home safely, he would come to play with him the next time. Blake was just a little boy of five, he was easily comforted by Mark's words. Just like that the two started to meet every day and became fast friends.

On the other side, Blake's situation in the pack worsened. When they came to know about his little human friend, they looked down on him even more. In a year, his life in the pack turned from bad to worse. He was just a child then. He couldn't handle the social pressure. So, he, one day, decided to abandon his only friend. That day after playing with him for a whole day he couldn't bring himself to tell him that he didn't want to be his friend, so he just decided to leave and then never looked back. Luckily or unluckily, today seems to be the every day he breaks his friendship with Blake and abandons him without a word.

After abandoning him, he felt even more guilty.He went back to the Meadow everyday since making sure that Blake was okay, watching him as he waited for him at the meadow day after day, his quilty continuing to grow until Blake stopped coming. Then he was the one coming to the meadow until he too stopped.  When he grew up he deliberately tried to forget these memories and ignored his feelings, the quilt haunted him, ever present in the back of his mind. He would find making his way to the meadow before he would stop remembering that Blake would not be there to wait for him.Then, on his birthday, he regained his memories. He remembered how his entire family was killed and the entire pack, regardless of gender and age, was massacred in front of his eyes. He was the only surviving member in the entire pack and that was also because of his mother, who covered him with her own injured body that he miraculously survived. After that, he lost all his memories, until that day. 

When he finally recovered those dark memories, he was consumed by hatred and revenge. He left everything behind and started to live solely for revenge.

When he tried to take revenge on those who participated in that massacre, the news that a member of the Ever Night pack was still alive spread like wildfire through the whole supernatural world. His presence stirred up the supernatural world and turned it upside down, he was a fugitive that no one wanted anything to do with, he had no harbor and no ally, he was utterly alone.

He was hunted down by everyone. He was not strong enough to face the whole world alone and exact his revenge, so his mission for revenge became even harder and he had to live the life of a fugitive.

As the years passed he remained on the run while trying to work out everyone that had anything to do with his family's massacre. In that time he had become a monster killing anyone that came after him regardless of who they were or what they wanted. He didn’t care all that much and as the years passed it became easier and easier to kill. Tearing apart anything that wanted to harm him. Six years later, he made his way to New York City where he met Blake once again. The guilty that he had finally buried beneath his blood lust was suddenly present in his mind once again

He wanted to leave to get as far away from Blake as possible but he couldn’t get himself to leave, there was something in Blake that drew him in, he couldn’t resist and he found himself stalking Blake and watching. 

But that wasn’t enough, he needed more so he went to the bar Blake goes to ahead of time hoping to be a little closer to him. He started drinking while waiting for Blake to arrive, he didn’t know how much he drank until he suddenly found himself in bed with Blake the next morning, he fled the place hurriedly, everything was too real too sudden so like a coward he ran away again. He was both worried and ashamed. Ashamed, because he acted like a total jerk, who didn't want to take responsibility after their passionate night. And he was worried that they would harm Blake as well and they would use Blake to get back at him. He hoped that no harm would come to him. 

The very day he decided to leave New York City for Blake's safety. He thought that if he left that place, they would not realize Blake's presence. But he still seemed to underestimate them a little and he was destined to be disappointed.

That very same night he saw the news of Blake Worthington, Ceo of Grid tech enterprises, being murdered at his own house. That  night he felt that something in him broke, he became numb, he didn’t feel sad, angry or any other emotion, just empty. He stopped running, he didn't care about living anymore, because he lost everything. But as the hours passed the pain set in, like a wave crashing over and sweeping him under the surface and he couldn’t resurface. He decided that if he's going to die, he might as well take as many of those bastards to hell with him as he could. With these murderous thoughts, he entered a bloody battle with those bastards and he slattured them all, that night he killed more than he had since he started his revenge. 

He killed many of his enemies but he was not better off, he sustained a lot of damage. He was heavily injured with only a single breath hanging onto him. He couldn't hold on any longer and fell on the ground, counting how many seconds apart each heart were from each other. 

"How do you feel about making a deal with me?” At Glinda's sudden question, Mark snaps out of his stupor, the memories of his past receding to the far corner of his mind. Raising an eyebrow, Mark asked,  “A Deal?”