“Heidi, call me a monster. Call me a beast. Fuck, call me the Devil. It does not change the way I feel about you.” “How about the way ‘I’ feel about you?” I whisper. “This hatred—built from love, passion… trust.” Hunter gently takes my hand and interlocks it with his before placing both on his chest. He then leans down to bump his forehead on mine, making me close my eyes and sigh as it drives in me sensations that cause me to crumble. “I love you, Heidi…” he whispers—doesn’t do good for my eyes bleeding more tears. “…and I will let the world burn for you.” ~ H E I D I I’ve lived twenty-two years but never seen a man like Hunter. He has killed everyone I know and is bound to do more, which is why I’m determined to stop him, if only I wouldn’t have to deal with these emotions—old feelings clashing with new ones; love and hate—that make me want to squash his heart one moment, then piece it up the next. But I know I can’t hang between these feelings forever. I have to choose, and quickly. H U N T E R I am told she is dangerous, a being forbidden from existence. Yet, I find myself protecting her. I shouldn’t, but I do. Then I realize she isn’t the threat. Where danger lies is with my feelings—ones that I must not have, that will be my downfall. To be that creature feared by all, I need to be the man with nothing to lose. But now I have so much to lose. Even nature has fated our Love to be doomed and will see to its vow that one of us is destroyed.
View More/ HEIDI /
The scene before me is a bloodbath.
Bodies lay scattered across the floor, the once vibrant celebration now turned into a grotesque beano of death.
My legs feel like lead as I force myself to move. And I hear another piercing cry with two more almost immediately, thuds resonating in my ears, each sound paralyzing me with fear.
The terror grows so much that it becomes numbing, leaving me to stare blankly at the blood-pooled floor. But then a thought slices through my foggy mind—Hunter.
Is his corpse among these? How about Dad Griffin, Dad Tad, and Morton—where are they?
“Saturn, I need help!” I scream, except I don’t hear my voice, as the words barely escape my lips in a hoarse whisper.
I frantically begin to search the hall. There has to be someone alive, someone who isn’t lying in this gruesome display of devilish deeds. Fortunate if that person is Hunter or other members of my family. But unfortunate when I spot a familiar satin cloth shimmering under the dim light.
Now that certainly is not Saturn, is it? No, I hope not. However, rushing over, I find the girl’s pale body in the blood pool, her heart dug out of her chest.
“No…” I whisper in disbelief. Surely, this has to be another dream—a fucking nightmare. “No! That’s not you, Saturn. Please… no…” My voice trails off as my palms cover my mouth.
The girl I saw minutes ago can’t be dead.
This is a dream, right? Another damn illusion!
Panic-stricken, wide-eyed, and my heart pounding, I race back up the stairs. But when I burst into Hunter’s room, I find it is empty—no trace of Saturn nor her scent.
Fuck, no.
I lean against the wall and slide down to the floor, gripping my braids with frail fingers as tremors wrack my body.
Pain overwhelms me as the urge to cry rises in my lungs. But the tears won’t flow. Even staring blankly at the patterned floor only channels more misery to my broken mind. A misery that suddenly morphs into bravery when the thought of Hunter brings me to my feet.
There’s a subconscious urging me to escape the mansion. Yet, it doesn’t occur to me to listen as I speed down to the hall faster than a meteor flashing across the sky.
My fear seems drowned in a sea of emotions as I search the hall again, going through the bodies carefully so as not to miss a familiar face.
Like Saturn, their hearts are all ripped out, which convinces me somehow that this might be another dream.
“Hunter? Dad?” I call out with a growing dread and a panging headache feasting on my brain.
When I notice Dad Tad’s body amidst the carnage, my shoulders drop instantly before I fall to my knees in front of his sprawled corpse.
I had hopes… hopes that at least my family would be alive if I didn’t find their bodies. But now― now that hope just disperses into thin air.
“Gods. What’s all this?” I mumble while staring defeatedly at Dad Tad’s open eyes before reaching out to close them.
I sit on my feet; frozen in place for a while. Then someone’s whimper as life leaves their body echoes. But I can’t tell where the voice comes from.
I’m whipping my head around the blood-painted hall in confusion, scrambling to my feet, suddenly aware that the killer’s lurking nearby.
My eyes dart across the archway to the hallway where the light shines bright; a contrast to the near darkness surrounding me.
Something catches my attention—the moving shadow of a large wing cast on the wall, its feathers shaped as deadly spikes, exuding a menacing aura.
The intensity of the fear crawling beneath my flesh renders me unmoving. Or maybe it’s the shadow that has trapped me to a spot.
Cold sweat breaks out on my skin, my hair standing at attention as if commanded by the sight. And even as the ominous shadow disappears, I can’t find the spirit to run.
I’m merely staring at the empty, bloodied space on the wall where it once was while finding it difficult to breathe properly.
A towering figure emerges from the hallway and steps under the archway. The light from the hallway illuminates parts of him—his nose, hair, and shoulders. But the rest of his form remains in darkness, which is why I can’t figure out who he is until he groans.
“Heidi.”
A gasp escapes my lips, relief flooding in, as I only then recognize the silver-blonde hair glinting beneath the light. He’s alive!
“Hunter!” I cry out before sprinting across the room to where he stands.
I collide with his form and wrap my arms tightly around his waist, pressing my face into the warmth of his solid, broad chest.
He doesn’t hug me back, but I’m satisfied with him being alive.
“Are you alright, were you hurt?” I ask quickly as I disentangle before patting his shoulders and pressing his arms. He seems fine to me; except, he isn’t moving. “Say something, Hunter. Did you see who did this?” I ask while searching his distant eye.
As my hands slide down his limb from his forearms to his fingers, I feel something cold and gooey beneath my touch. Then I look down to see what coats them, its coppery tang only now filling my senses.
Blood.
Why does he have blood on his hands?
I notice the gore soaking his clothes too, and his hair’s matted with it. Then my eyes follow a trail to my own bloodstained hands before wandering back to Hunter’s, watching the man let go of the bloodied hearts he cupped in each fist.
Oh, gods! Don’t tell me―
I feel something squeezing my own heart at the sight of that, and a force causes me to stagger back.
In a short moment when the spotlight suddenly flickers across us, I catch Hunter’s emotionless, crimson-streaked face, his expression darkened with an aura from the other side of the moon.
“No. This can’t be happening,” I whisper while shaking my head frantically.
I’m feeling weak, even my legs threaten to let me down. I’m also almost resigned to the probability that whatever this is only plays in my mind. And I hope that’s the case, I really do.
“Hunter, don’t fuck with me again,” I mutter with a breaking tone. “Please tell me this is another damn dream. Please…”
Hunter remains silent, his gaze fixed on me. And as seconds pass without him talking or moving, I feel my world spinning; suffocating me.
This isn’t a dream.
It is my own hell invading—a reality that’s worse than any nightmare I could have ever imagined.
The hallway echoes the footfalls of stomping darkness.But as the mute walls give way to the caress of a slow and brooding piano motif, the huge, two-way door at the hallway’s end brings us the pleasantries of a room screaming sanity and proper celebrations.A descent of steps in front of me leads to the dance floor, where pillars are still but bodies swing. With the roof high and unending, the floors are as slippery as the devil’s tongue, absolutely unfit for a person to walk on.Except these aren’t people. No, they’re not. They look paradisiacal. Vibrant despite the hall’s caliginous state.As the ladies trip the light fantastic to a hypnotic rhythm, their bowl dresses swirl around their feet, their long and colorful strands like air behind them. The smiles capturing their countenances tell the tales of their light minds, charming the gents who look graceful in patterned tailcoats over black pants.Their light tones unite to battle the funereal aura of the hall, somehow nearly kil
Not a familiar name, that one. I’ve heard nothing of it until now.Maybe he didn’t make it to the history books. It could be about the empire; history must have registered the empire instead.But I must find a way of asking about it without compromising myself. That way, I can also note this woman’s level of intelligence.“Um…” I clear my throat, shuffling to the stool I once sat on and placing my hands on it to drop my weight. “My ‘experiments’ have eaten most of my time, and I’m probably too exhausted to recall a lot of… things.” Wait. Do I sound medieval enough? “Did I... have any plans for today?” Does she understand? She’s looking at me with her lips slightly parted, and I think it’s disbelief, especially since her hands have stopped working.“Queva,” she says, then rests against the counter. “Finish the Battle of Cutting Seas, conquering Queva. Then... celebrate... with the emperor. Your experiment’s progress has not fared well of late, and you needed to ease your mind. Seeing
HEIDI.The rich, warm scent of soil, of fresh rain on earth, reminds me of how it feels to be alive.It looks to me like I’ve been thrown into a random fiction series—dark fantasy, to be precise. Should I say it’s the underworld? Nah. The underworld wouldn’t look this good. Heaven wouldn’t be this bad(?) either. Between? Maybe. But I can’t recall whether Philosophers mentioned a place between the two.Regardless of what this is, it’s a surety that I’m dead. Its near ruin of greys and ashes, mists and moisture, stones and bristled grounds, only makes me thank my shoes—and a soul that had formed a sole to tread on melting metal.I find I’m standing in a lone and narrow medieval street that looks like a painting, flanked by dark, imposing brick buildings. Their pointed roofs give me chills, especially as they look as if they could pierce the looming, twilight grey sky until it releases the clouds upon my very head.Speaking of the sky, I don’t know if I should tag it sunless or moonless.
“Another blood oath? I resisted the first,” I say as I look at the Umbra Crown who is suddenly bearing an excited demeanor.“Ah, ah. This one is different.” He rubs his index and thumb fingers like a chef warming up for his next delicacy, disappearing and appearing in the fog while scurrying around pillars. He suddenly stops close to me, sniffing near my neck. “It is like… an awakening. Hah!”Then he vanishes again.When he comes back, it’s with a ring this time, one the size of his head. Its property is unknown, but it shimmers with lights that seem alive, looking like a colorful snake slithers inside it.The object could break if it falls; that is how fragile it looks. The Realm’s Future, they call it. It is also the only thing with color in the Labyrinth, aside from the Umbra Crown’s golden eyes that are now peering at my face pores.“No,” I mutter when he tries to crown me with the ring. I know what it does to people. It deceives. “Do not manipulate me with that thing again.”“O
HUNTER.There is a forlorn whistle; a tune sounding like a call for help, only, it’s not that.It is a bird―Tapi’s Fury. A creature of the dark, built like the nightingale, with a song as loud as the latter’s. It’s never found in the human world or the Realm. Tapi’s Furys are known to exist only in the Labyrinth of Shadows―a dreaded dwelling created by the legendary sorcerer, Tapi, to shield Kings of the Realm from the talons of Firnes.It has endless pillars—of roughly stacked stones—spread out in rows through the Labyrinth, all leaving four paces between each other.The pillars’ tops reach the sky where they disappear in black clouds of rumbling mess, while their bases are rocks shaped like vines, stretching out as roots on the dry, rough ground.One distinctive feature of the Labyrinth is its colorless nature.Diverse smell is not a leisure either.One could wear whatever scent they liked. As strong as it may be, it all ends in a blast of roasted earth breathing in the wake of a b
My car’s parked across the road with me in the driver’s seat. White’s main company building overlooks us, the road partition and the crowd serving as my only blockade to it.I should ride into the building’s garage. It’s safer now, after all, as the police are now limiting the severity of violence and have placed barriers so the crowd won’t obstruct people getting in and out of the building.But I’m still feeling like a tightrope walker; afraid of so many things at once that I can’t begin to point them out.And yet what’s more disturbing is the wailing throng. Their famished appearances, coupled with the fact that most have slept here for days because they can’t return home and be reminded of their deceased loved one is enough to drive even the cold-hearted to sympathy. Hunter excluded.While watching the hectic scene, I notice an odd person cut through the crowd into the building. I only saw their backside. Yet, regardless of them being fast, I caught that the person was a male.He wo
“How do you feel?”Not fine.“Like you should fuck off?”The man behind me huffs. He should try moving to my front so I can fucking ask him why he’s everywhere at once.“Are you always in such a foul mood?” he asks, prompting me to turn back. And there he stands; the one guy I know whose smile can force bile up my throat.“You only happen to meet me when I’m the most offended,” I snap. “Blame it on your ill luck.”“Even at the restaurant?”I squint my eyes as if warning him to vomit whatever he has in mind or I’ll bite. “What restaurant?”“New Year’s Eve. KF restaurant.” I pout before the man adds, “In the male bathroom?”Bloody male restroom? How the fuck did we meet― oh… Oh! That was him? The buzzcut guy that I didn’t care to look twice at! No wonder I kept feeling like I knew him from somewhere.I take the opportunity to register the rest of him, though I try not to stare hard or he’ll deem me a pervert.All I can say is that his name fits his looks. Also, the mystery in his aura s
Walking away this time, I am sure as hell not stopping if the man behind me tells me to.I don’t like his guts, that’s one thing. Another is the look on his face whenever he regards me; smug, with a smile that never seems to fade. However, it’s a good thing he’s not tall, dark, and handsome like a certain vicious man. And he looks good nevertheless. Just a tiny message across to Hunter reminding him one more time that he’s not the god he thinks he is.The drive back to White Cosmetics wasn’t a smooth one. It seemed as if the number of people joining the protest increased per hour. And it’s not even half the population still considering it.Last week, I didn’t realize how hectic resuming work was, but today it hit me. A few days ago, I’d be mopping the floors of Saturn’s or Morton's room while sneaking my phone out from time to time to chat with Hunter. And I enjoyed those moments… more than anything.Now I’m sitting behind a desk that holds so many taxing memories, hellbent on grabbin
Today’s Monday is Monday as usual.One could be overlooked on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, as their presence could have been familiarized—or something like that. No one bothers to care when they walk by.However, on Mondays, the dust brought up during the weekends is left unsettled, eliciting side-eyes and whispers when one reappears. Aside from that though, Mondays are naturally terrible. I don’t know the kind of jinx bound to it, but I’m pretty certain the same power has me in its grip as I enter the conference room.There strike the stares, making up for where the whispers do not. These folks were loud just seconds ago. Now the only sound in the hall is from my shoes.My seat creaks when I sit down. Surely, it appreciates the daredevil aura of my presence as I cross my legs, lean back, and place my elbows on the handrest.So, where were we?A hand supporting my jaw allows me to look carefully at a few people’s faces—their grey hairs, their wrinkles; I don’t know if
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