Prisoners of Hell | Kai Parker [Changing]

Prologue

September 12th, 1998

Dead leaves crunched beneath her sneakers as she dashed through the eerie forest. Rain cascaded heavily from the sky, soaking the blonde from head to toe. Low-hanging branches whipped at her forearms, scratching the exposed porcelain skin that her burgundy hoodie sleeves failed to cover; damp twigs and leaves quickly becoming tangled in her blonde locks. Nevertheless her pace never faltered, heart pounding rampantly in her chest, lungs burning as she sucked in sharp uneven breaths.

"Verity!" A guttural shout echoed from the gloom , cutting through the eerie silence like a hot knife through butter. It resembled thunder, and if she didn't know any better, she would have brushed it off as just that... but no, this girl wasn't stupid, " Stop right now! "

An invisible force swept her legs away from beneath her, muscles going into spasm as she landed rather ungracefully on the upturned earth with a thump. Verity groaned in pain, eyebrows scrunching together as she swiped a clump of mud from her face, pushing herself up onto her forearms. A heavy, cold boot pressed down harshly on the centre of her back, forcing her down into the dirt. Craning her neck as far round as possible, the blonde managed to catch a slight glimpse of the attacker's face; he appeared to be quite old, maybe in his mid-forties?

"What do you want from me?" Verity squeaked fearfully, frozen in her place as she peered back at the male, eyes deliberately avoiding his own, "I-I don't know what you want...please let me go!" She piped up once again, babbling tearfully. She was sure she'd never seen this man in her life, so bargaining seemed like the easiest way to go - no matter how demeaning it seemed.

"I don't want anything from you - your kind does enough damage on its own, why would I want any sort of association with that?"

'Your kind'? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Verity's jaw clenched, hands balling into tight fists at either side of her head; this guy was obviously mentally fucked. With a burst of energy, the blonde pushed upwards abruptly, knocking the man off-balance and onto his back. Perfect. Verity span on her heels, running on shaky legs, making for the line of trees at the edge of the clearing that led into the deeper parts of the woods.

Flames sprung up from the marshy ground, causing the blonde to skid to a halt, sliding across the churned-up earth. The fire quickly encircled her, reaching to around a foot high, the scorching heat prohibiting her exit. Verity's brows crinkled in sheer confusion - where did they come from? The ground was swamped, much too wet to be lit so quickly.

The squelching footsteps of her attacker making his way towards her seemed even more ominous than before. Verity stared at him fearfully," How -- What are you?!"

"I'm a witch - more specifically, a leader of a coven of witches," He stated, fishing around in his jacket pockets, before pulling out a small leather pouch and tossing it into the circle, "You remind me of one of my...sons," The man stated, an irritated expression etched on his face; he practically spat out the word 'son', as if it were pure venom in his mouth," I won't share the details, but he was just as evil as you are now."

"What are you talking about?! 'Your kind' - I'm just as human as any other person! I don't even have a criminal record or-or --"

"Wait - you have absolutely no clue, do you?" It was as if the penny finally dropped. The guy wiped his sodden fringe away from his face, "You tear through a town and wake up innocent, leaving everyone else to fix the mess you made – and have the gall to be ignorant of the crime!"

He raised his hand towards her, palm facing away from his body, fingers flexing; a sharp pain seared through Verity's scull, as she clutched the sides of her head in agony. Blood dribbled from her nose, vision blurring - she could've sworn the guy started speaking another language. Wait a minute, was that...latin? More and more figures piled into the clearing, emerging from the gloom as the ringing in the blonde's ears increasing in frequency, as she collapsed into a limp heap within her cell.

A painfully bright light began to envelop her vision, eyelids becoming heavy; as she began to lose consciousness she managed to catch a snippet of a conversation:

"She doesn't know? How can she not know, Joshua?! I've met others, and they at least had a rough memory of their actions!"

"This one apparently has no clue -- judging by the fear I saw in her eyes, that was no word of a lie."

"What about...him? Do you think he'll kill her."

"I doubt it - Malachai is a murderer but I don't think that he's that stupid...if he tries he'll be torn apart before he can do a thing."

Darkness.

To be continued...

AN: Hi everyone! As the title states, I am re-writing this story from start to where I am now. The storyline shouldn't change too much but details, such as face-claims and some characteristics, will probably be altered at some stage. This probably might take a bit longer that I'd like it to, but I should be adding new chapters relatively soon, so please bear with me! Thank you so much for reading! :)