Chapter 5 | The Bus Stop

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The sky was crowded with dark cottons of nimbus when Elise found herself being surrounded by the shadows of huge, tall trees all wet with the weeps of the heavy storm. It was as if the oceans had reached the mountains because everything, including Elise and the baby boy she was holding, were completely drenched in rain. Everything was dark and gloomy, like how Elise was feeling.

Elise ran as fast as she could amid the crooked paths of the dark woods. It was like she was being chased by the lightning which broke her broom. The poor, little baby boy in her arms continued to cry along with the wrath of the sky. Elise could not make him stop crying either. She, too, was holding back her tears. It was an unfortunate scene. Both the mother and the child were orphans struggling to survive.

The roads began to appear as Elise neared the end of the woods. Just as she was about to make her final step to freedom, a loud and helpless cry stopped her. She looked back. The darkness she longed to escape from was still there. However, she could not ignore the cry that sounded a lot like the one which constantly haunted her in her dreams – the cry of her own child.

Elise followed the sound she believed to be the cry of a poor baby. And there it was – lying helplessly in a basket under the shade of a small tree. She immediately picked up the basket and ran back to the highway. Fortunately, a bus was parked right on the road where she left. Elise got on the bus just in time. She stared at the window while waiting for the bus to move. There, in the dark woods, she saw a short man who seemed like he was looking for something near the place where Elise found the baby. Elise could not see him clearly due to the darkness caused by the storm. But, it was clear that it was a man – short in height, suspicious in sight.

Elise watched him and was hoping to see a glimpse of his face. However, before the short man could turn, the bus had moved forward. She already had too much concerns and so, she shrugged off the wild thoughts forming in her head.

“What kind of evil would do such outrageous thing to this poor angel?” Elise muttered to herself as she stared at the babies who were now sleeping soundly in her arms.

She mentally cursed herself for smiling in relief while looking longingly at the sleeping babies. For quite a moment, she felt like a real mother. It was her wish to have two children so the other would not feel lonely. She once imagined her children playing in front of their house while she and Gustavo watch them contently from their porch. She imagined a simple house with a spacious backyard where they could enjoy a family’s night out. She wanted to experience what a camping with a family was like, how barbeques taste like, and how it would feel to be called “mom” under the moonlit night-sky. She wanted a normal, but happy human life with her vampire husband. She was happy even with just one child given to them. However, things had been unfortunate for her and Gustavo. Now, staring at the babies she would soon call her own children, she could not stop herself from tearing up while plastering a meaningful smile on her lips. Even if Elise had to curse herself to death, she could not remove the smile on her lips during that precious moment. It was a mother’s smile – the one smile she had not yet shown to her lost child.

Elise could not help herself but remember her missing baby as she caressed the cheek of the baby she found earlier in the forest. The little baby opened its eyes, revealing a magnanimous set of forest green eyes beneath the thick and long lashes it possessed. The small smile on her face was replaced by a bewildered awestricken expression as she suppressed a sob. The moment the baby revealed its powerful set of forest-like orbs of eyes, Elise knew the baby was a girl. Those bright eyes had been haunting her for the past weeks. It was the same set of eyes her missing baby girl had. She was sure of it. She knew that shade of green all too well. It was the same shade as Gustavo’s green ones – the set of eyes she could never forget. Elise stared at the baby’s eyes some more. The longer she stared, the more it became clear to her that she has finally found her lost princess – Elysian Emerald, the name she and Gustavo made for their baby.

Just as Elise was on the verge of crying, the little baby boy on her other arm woke up. Elise was surprised some more. The baby boy’s eyes were the most beautiful, yet the most peculiar she had ever seen in her entire life. One eye was blue and green– the bluest and the greenest that there existed. The upper eye was the color of the seas and the skies combined while the lower eye was the hue of the pastures and leaves. The other eye was colored with the interpolation of brown and purple. It was the shade of brown that looked like hazel and honeycomb were mixed together, and the purple was the unique color the sky showed every afternoon. The baby’s eyes clearly indicated that he was a Mungrell – a vampire-werewolf descent of half-bloods. What baffled Elise were the baby’s four-colored eyes. Mungrells, regardless of descent, usually possessed only one eye color. It was more than strange that the baby survived in the first place.

“The moon goddess must have favored you,” Elise said as she stared deeply at the baby boy’s eyes. “Adrielle Lucas,” she muttered. “That’s your name – named after your father’s late parents and your mother’s late grandmother.” Little Adrielle smiled, liking his name. His mesmerizing set of eyes beamed in delight as Elise gently kissed his little forehead.

That momentous moment was the beginning of Elise’s motherhood. She kept her tired eyes open along the long ride towards their new home. “The moon goddess will provide,” she muttered softly while staring joyfully at her new children.

The bus halted out of the blue, causing the passengers to jerk forward – including Elise whose hands were tightly wrapped around the heads of the little babies. Profanities filled the bus as the passengers incoherently complained under their breaths. Meanwhile, the driver whom they were complaining at was shivering in fear; speechless in shock; and had turned pale and cold with the sight before him.

A ‘monster’, as what humans would call it, was staring straight into the frightful bus driver. Its lethal glares could pierce right through the bus’ windshield. Its eyes were red in rage as it slowly circled the bus; the pointed tip of its gigantic tail was screeching both the road and the sides of the bus, making a creepy, horrifying sound which made the passengers quiver in goose bumps, their skin pale, and the hairs on the back of their necks standing in horror. The driver immediately locked the bus door and the passengers hurriedly pulled down the open windows beside them. Elise’s heartbeat quickened and held the babies closer to her.

No, it was just not any monster from the wilderness of the mortal world’s deepest forests. It was a being from the Immortal Realm – no – not from her home empire. It was a Manticore from Zophora – and it was savagely making its way inside the bus.