Chapter 1

~SOPHIA'S POV~

"Betrayal can be extremely painful but it's up to you how much that pain damages you permanently."  

These were the words of a woman named Emily, her last name I couldn't remember. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that her words held some truth.

Betrayal does hurt. It hurts very much. But what she wasn't right about is that you don't get to decide how much the pain damages.

Because there would be nothing left of you to decide over. There would be nothing left of you to save and nothing left to heal. For you would only be a hollow version of yourself, filled with agony, self-loath, and regret.

And I should know because I am a victim of the cruel hands of betrayal and its loyal disciples. And it cost me everything.

And that's why I'm here now lying on the floor of my once peaceful home with tears spilling from my eyes and blood from my lips and nose as I stared at the man I loved with the same heart he broke and with the same soul he crushed.

James.

He walked towards me with fluid strides, a satisfied smirk on his face and an evil glint in his eyes

"How are you, my love?" His voice which sounded smokey and gave me goosebumps once upon a time now sounds strident and makes my skin crawl.

"F…fu..fuck you." My voice sounded hoarse and the pain in my throat intensified but I would curse him all over again with all the strength in my being if it meant that I could wipe that stupid smirk off his face. My efforts proved futile when his smirk widened further.

"It's good to see that you're still your cheeky self but that attitude wouldn't last for long as I'm going to purge it out of your system just as I would purge you out of this world."

I looked over his shoulder and found the silhouette of a woman standing closer to the stairway in a dim glow. I couldn't make out her face but she was tall with a slender figure despite her delicate features, there was something ominous about this woman.  And if I hadn't known any better I would have thought that she was the one calling the shots.

"She seems to have taken a liking to you, Isabella," James spoke in a mocking tone and a light chuckle came from the woman's direction.

Isabella. Her name is Isabella.

"She's free to fall for me, James. After all that is the last time she would ever do that."

I looked between the two as they happily planned my death and before I could control myself I asked the question whose answer I longed for.

"W…why?"

James turned to me with so much speed that I thought he might have a whiplash, his eyes round in shock that I was still able to speak and amused that I asked him that question when I knew the answer.

An answer I'm too scared to admit to.

"Do you seriously not know why I'm doing this? Why am I about to end your pitiful excuse of a life? Even now as you lay before me about to die do you seriously not know why?"

I looked at him blankly. Blankly because my body was too weak to do anything else, all the energy I had left was used to keep my heart pumping and my mind functioning burst into a dry laughter from my lack of words and his eyes glittered with evil.

"Since you are so ignorant, it seems I would have to make it clear to you. It's because I despise you, Sophia. I fucking despise you. I despise you to the point that to just leave you with nothing but your life didn't seem enough, I despise you to the point that I got sick every time I touched you, I despise you to the point that it got difficult to look at your face…"

My severed heart broke further as every venom-laced truth spilled from his lips and tears brimmed in my eyes.

James knelt in front of me and against my will, held my chin in a vice grip.

"...and I hate you to the point that every day for the last five years felt like an eternity in hell."

His ocean-blue eyes changed to the color yellow and his fangs elongated in his mouth. Despite not seeing this for the second time, it would always leave me shaken because this is the cruel reminder that James is a monster, a werewolf from the folk tales my mother told me as a child.

He released my chin and my jaws crashed with the floor, white hot pain coursed through my jaw, and the tears I struggled to keep in fell freely.

He walked over to Isabella and she handed him an object that I couldn't see but the moment he walked into the light, my blood ran cold.

His holding a crowbar.

He walked over to me with a sinister look in his and raised his hand before striking me with the bar.

A scream left my lips and more tears fell from my eyes before I could recover from the pain, he hit me again and again and again until I couldn't scream anymore and I got so numb that I couldn't feel any more pain.

I feel so weak.

The white marble floor of my home was painted red and the image I saw looked like that of a painting you would only find at a haunted mansion. A masterpiece of death and a terrifying image for a lover of art like myself.

My vision got blurred and the sounds around me got worse with the breath I took. I was dying, I could feel it in the pit of my bones.

In a matter of seconds, I was going to leave this world behind but before I went to meet my maker, I caught sight of James walking towards Isabella and placing a passionate kiss on her lips and when they pulled apart I heard him say.

"May the moon goddess guide your soul to hell and happy anniversary."

Then I fell asleep, for the last time.