Hello, angels, kindly refresh or delete and re-add this story to your library (gosh, those were my notes! haha! I thought I deleted it)
Chapter 50: Gift
My hands were shaking as I stared at them. The hot fluid was streaming down my cheeks as my lips trembled. It was blurry and I couldn't see well.
Until my tears fell to my palms.
At first, I could hear Kreios, Rosh, and Pryor's voices while they were calling my name, it was muffled until I couldn't hear anything but that searing sound as if it would tear my ears.
"N-no..."
Wala sa sarili kong inangat ang dalawa kong kamay at tinakpan ko ang dalawang tainga ko, pero kahit gawin ko iyon ay wala pa rin tigil ang matinis na ingay na naririnig ko.
Hindi lang luha ang siyang naramdaman ko. I felt that thick metallic liquid from my nose gliding down my mouth.
Everything seemed so fast. I thought they were saved. I thought they were given the second life they deserved. Danna and Father gave them the way— they helped them summon the Holy Land, yet the water that gave them another life became the same reason why they were helplessly murdered.
My visions were endless, now in grayscales inside a mirror with crawling cracks as if about to explode. It was just Atlas and Livius in a castle, Veda's body on the tub, the black blood on the neck, the cries of pain, and then Livius' images in different women with his long nails, fangs, and full blacked eyes. The hurried steps of women desperate for their lives to be spared— the way they begged with their bodies filled with blood, their cries, and how Livius took their hearts.
Then I saw Livius again when we were young. When he held my hands as we ran together in the market dressed like the commoners. The way he was smiling gently and calling my name sweetly.
"N-No..."
Until I clutched one of the hands to my chest, the other was on the ground as my mouth parted as though that would help me to breathe. I felt my nails clawing on the ground.
"N-No..." paulit-ulit na sabi ko.
Habang patuloy sa pag-agos ang mga luha ko ay tuluyan ko nang ikinuyom ang kamay ko at walang tigil ko iyong inihampas sa lupa. Hindi alintana ang hapdi niyon.
Pakiramdam ko'y sasabog ako sa mga nalalaman ko. Atlas was indeed a hideous enemy who knew how to play with hearts. He knew how to attack anyone's weakness. It was as if he knew every one of us who would move against him, and he'd do anything to take bigger steps ahead of us.
I left the castle with Kreios motivated to at least weaken him, but after I discovered everything that I thought would go on our way...
Bigla na lang ako napasigaw sa tindi ng galit. Ano pang klase ng galit ang kaya niyang ipadama sa akin?
He didn't just take Kalla's heart and almost killed my brother and ruined everything about our complete family. He had been killing innocent lives! Playing their hearts!
Atlas knew that one of King Thaddeus' children could summon the Holy Land— and he knew I'd hunt him with these hands.
Yumuko na ako at itinuon ko na ang aking noo sa lupa habang patuloy akong umiiyak.
This was too much. Hindi lang laban sa pamilya namin, sa kapatid ko, kay Kalla, sa mga inosenteng babae na inakala nila'y tuluyan nang makararanas ng kalayaan, at maging kay Livius.
I'd kill anyone who took the hearts of those women to free their souls, but he used Livius' hands... my childhood friend.
It was me... it was me who gave Livius his freedom. It was I who pushed him away from the palace to choose his own path.
