𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗡 ➳ 𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗔𝗖𝗜𝗘𝗦

ix.

ONCE THEY WERE BOTH OUT THE DOOR they found a place to sit, not too far from the room that Landon and Hope were in though.

"So monsters and this evil hell-pit called Maligore, huh?" Noah chuckled in slight amazement at the situation.

"Yeah," Faith smiled a bit. "But if you grow up how I did it actually doesn't seem like the craziest thing in the world."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Noah mused slightly tilting his head down at her.

Faith leaned her head over to rest upon his shoulder and lightly shrugged. "I had a... weird childhood."

"Hm," Noah just hummed softly as he listened to the sounds of the winds brushing upon the leaves. The sounds of the pool and Alaric talking with Seylah were also audible if one listened hard enough.

"I wanted to ask," Faith started slowly since this question was a sensitive topic. "Remembrance Day. Who were you writing a letter to?" Faith could feel Noah slightly tense up beside her at the unexpected question but it was so subtly she wondered if she'd really imagined it. "I'm sorry that's really personal and you shouldn't have to answer that."

It was silent for a moment and just as Faith was going to say sorry again for asking that question Noah finally spoke. "My parents." His voice came out normally but Faith could tell that there was some pain there. She took her head off his shoulder and looked up at him, mouth slightly ajar. "They died when I was young— were killed actually."

"I'm sorry. That's awful." Faith said feeling bad that she made him have to think about that again.

"You shouldn't apologize. It's not like you did it." Noah looked at her letting out a humorless laugh.

"I know, but..." Faith hesitated.

"You know what that's like." Noah finished seeing her nod in confirmation. "Well, for me... it's a relief they're dead."

"Why is that?" Faith asked in curiosity. Reacting the exact opposite of how Noah thought she would when she heard his sentiment.

"The night they were killed," He began as he stared at the bushes right in front of them. "My brother had just come home, late at night. I noticed that it became somewhat of a routine for him lately. He was suddenly always coming home at odd hours of the day and leaving unexpectedly at night. He was even starting to skip classes in school. When he opened the door he heard shouting so he rushed to the sound. It led straight to my room and he found me there."

Faith could see that he was starting to relive the memory that was most likely traumatizing and she reached out. Before she could think of what she was doing and stop herself she softly grabbed his hand. Noah looked down at their hands in shock and looked back up to her face. Faith nodded at him softly. "Finish if you want to. But you don't have to keep telling it."

Noah gulped down the nervousness in his throat and continued on with a newfound sense of valor. "I was barely alive when he found me. After years and years of my parents hurting me... beating me... that was the closest they had ever come to killing me. My brother screamed for them to stop, but of course, they didn't," Noah laughed bitterly. "They never did. The rest was sort of a blur, but I remember how my brother lost control, and then I knew why he was absent around the house so much and everywhere else. He killed them and then he rushed over to me and gave me his blood. But he didn't know just how close to dying I actually was. The blood didn't work fast enough to heal me..."

"So," Faith swallowed hard as she finished what he was going to say. "You died with it in your system."

"Yeah, that's the tragic tale of how I became a vampire," Noah said with a half-hearted tone to ease the strain of what he shared a bit.