She is not my daughter

Aralyn's POV

My story began with love between Malleteagan and Larissa, my parents, which somehow evolved into a never-ending hatred and Malleteagan’s desire for death. Mine death and that of my mother.

It is a dark, misty night. Mid-autumn rain sticks on my dirty and torn clothes, mixing with mud, leaves, and branches we picked up while grazing through the forest. Brushes, stems, and trees cut through my clothes and expose my skin even more. My lungs burn from exhaustion, and sweat breaks out in big lumps. I am out of breath and have difficulty picking up the pace with my mother. If she weren't holding my hand, I would fall behind.

I would fall directly into the merciless jaws of our predator, Malleteagan. My mother was outsmarting him for years by running away from him and from his desire for our blood. We have been running since the day I was born. No, strike that, since the day I was conceived, as my mother told me. He was always on our tails, despite my mother being a demigod herself with few tricks up her sleeve too.

Running from Malleteagan through different realms is something that I remember from my earliest childhood. He was hunting us to kill us both since the day I was born. Three days ago, he again found our hideout. We were in Amaaralva, my motherland, Soovaree’s subrealm of fallen Thessalian witches. Since then, he had been on the hunt. Now, it looks like we have come to our end. He will kill us. His neon silver eyes, cold as steel, were zoning on our hideout with pure and unmistakable hatred and fury. I think he found where we are.

"Oh, Larissa!" he sang my mother's name with a peekaboo pitch of voice. Then, as he took his sweet time circling around our hideout, he laughed in maniacal fits which sent shivers down my spine: “Hey slag…you and that mistake-of-nature that clings to you will die today. It’s better to surrender peacefully!" he yelled with a sing-a-song voice that held so much grudge and menace as it rang out through desolate Amaralva.

I was terrified just by the sound of his voice. I stepped on a twig in our hideout, enough to reveal our location. He was so close, and mother’s cloaking spell didn’t do much anymore as he was too powerful while she was too tired to muster the energy to reinforce the armour that cloaked us. That twig was enough for him to figure out where we were. My heart was at my feet. We started to run again. He is inches away from catching us. Then, I tripped over another twig again when I turned around to glance over to see how far is he. What an idiotic mistake I made! Why did I turn around? What is wrong with me and twigs today?

At that point, not even my mother's hand that held mine managed to prevent me from stumbling and falling. That was enough for us to lose that slight advantage which we had. I saw my mother's horrified face, and I knew that meant he was there, getting closer. We fell together and started to crawl through mud and brush. We were sludgy grazed, and our clothes were ripped. My mother was crying and screaming at me while lifting me in panic and begging me to stand up and run. She then desperately shook me to stand up.

And I… I just couldn't run anymore. My energy was drained. We were running away from this beast for three days and three nights. Somehow, he was always seconds away from catching us. Hell, we've been on the run since I remember. I was knackered, thirsty and famished. I have just given up. I don’t care anymore. Anything, even death, sounds better now than living as the haunted prey of a madman.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk", he clicked with his tongue while cracking a demonic grin in the corner of his mouth as he approached us.

The grin on his face disappeared in a split second and was replaced with disgust, rage and loathing. He looked dreadful, with no trace of humanity, mercy or pity, as he towered above us. He wanted us dead, and he will not give us quick and painless death. He wants us to suffer. That much is evident from his gaze, fuelled with hatred and disgust. My mother stood us up and pulled me behind her back to face the monster in front of herself.

"I don't care what you will do to me, you cunt. But do not fucking dare to touch her!!!"

He was getting closer as the threatening yell gritted through her teeth. I could smell his contempt for both of us.

"She is your daughter, you twisted bastard. How can you?!" my mother screamed through tears. I was shocked and frozen in place by this revelation.

I am his daughter. I am the daughter of the monster who wants to kill us. He made our lives a living nightmare, chasing and hunting us like animals. We were always on the run and frightened that he would find us. My father... He is ready to spend his last breath and beyond, if needed, to kill us both.

My father hates me with every atom of his soul, as it looks like. What kind of father is that? Did I deserve that? What kind of person am I if I deserve this? What did I do to him? More importantly, what did my mother do to him to make him so full of hate and rage towards both of us? The look in his eyes tells it all-he is disgusted by us. He hates us. Why? Am I so disgusting and undeserving that even my father hates me?

In mid of these dreary thoughts, his rage burst with a dreadful roar: "She is not my daughter, you trollop!!!” he snarled in one breath. “She is a misbegotten spawn. Who knows who fathered her, given that her mother is a slattern frolicker willing to spread the legs to everyone!!!” he roared with disgust written all over his face.

“She is just an abomination and a reminder of how deceptive, cunning and vile your kind is. Even if she is of my flesh, she will never be my daughter as long as your putrid blood runs through her veins. And for that, I renounce her. Even if she is my blood, I will not accept this underworld mongrel of yours as my child. Ever. Do not dare to say, ever again, that this bastard spawn is mine because she is not.” he said with an indescribable amount of bile and contempt.

“You know what, why am I even wasting my breath on you?” he scoffed.

“Die! Both of you freaks will fucking die!” he snarled fiercely in an eerie, warlike tone.

He pointed the finger at us and boomed in a bloodthirsty craze ridden roar: “You will be a reminder and warning to all those who think they can fuck around with me. Rot in hell, both of you", he rumbled as he launched himself, advancing towards us with an immeasurable speed.

My mother quickly turned to me and knocked me to the chest, making me stumble again. I almost fell again whilst she whispered, with tears in her eyes, shaking and sniffling. She grabbed my head with both hands and cried, talking almost inaudibly: "Aralyn, run as fast as you can and don't look back. Promise?" I sniffled and nodded. And I ran.

I could hear bones cracking in the background, and I knew he started shifting to his Lycan. Mother told me all about it. At the same time, my mother started to cast a spell to invoke the shadows from her Thessalian ancestors. I heard a thunderous clash before I ran away deep into the forest from the man for whom, to my dismay, I know now is my father.

It sounded like heaven and hell were falling apart and crumbling away. It had a sound of utter and complete destruction of the world we know. Then I felt it before I heard it: earsplitting pandemonium and deafening clash, which sounded like all hell broke loose in my background.