The Pure One

Prologue

It was time now. The stunning, but flushed woman was lay uncomfortably on the bed, taking in rushed and desperately needed breaths. She was getting impatient now; she couldn't wait to see her baby boy. The painful contractions were hard to bare, while she concentrated on pushing. Why were women made to go through all this pain, but the men have it so easy? She thought bitterly.

The father to her unborn baby was still unknown to her, but she wasn't really bothered. As long as her baby was healthy and in her care, she would raise him the best she could with all her love and compassion of two parents.

Experienced, the midwife stood patiently at the ready, attempting to comfort the impatient, beautiful woman who she was helping deliver a baby to. She wondered why such a gorgeous woman would not have a man to be by her side, or even a family member, but she did not press on her curiosity. Her job was her top priority at the current moment.

The sanitary, ashen room was thronged with shrills of sheer agony, unlady-like profanities and reassuring condolences for a while later, until there was a sudden, shrill whimper of new life. Carefully, the relieved midwife passed on the flourishing, confused baby onto the perspiring mother. He was beautiful, just like his mother, inheriting her almond, hazel eyes and curly hair. He stopped crying while he looked tiredly up at his mother, but she had started anew.

Astonished, she questioned the other woman in the room with wide, shaken eyes, but Janet, the midwife, too returned a startled stare. Shrieking with additional torture of birth, the mother strived to convey her child to the middle-aged woman. Not even a nanosecond later, she was grasping the bed sheets fiercely with her long, delicate fingers. A few agonising propels later, and a new cry escaped into the atmosphere with the unexpected child's existence.

"Never have I ever known for this to happen," Janet stated with bewilderment, gently passing over the second baby like it was the most delicate gem in discovery. "It's a baby girl... by the way."

The petite woman was beyond question as she was blown away with her child's beauty and the love that engulfed both of her children from her very soul. "You are a miracle," she breathed, too breathless to say much else whilst holding her twin daughter. Beckoning the midwife for her son, he came instantly with no such as protest from the nurse. "I just don't understand how the ultrasound scans missed one of the babies." Her sweaty brows furrowed in utmost confusion and concentration. "Didn't know that could happen."

"Neither did I," came the reply. The midwife leaned over the new mother, cooing at the beautiful site of two of the most adorable babies she had ever seen. There must be a God up there to create things with so much beauty, she thought. "What do you wish to call them, may I ask?" The question was not so much out of curiosity, but to help settle her own distorted thoughts.

Exasperatedly, the mother looked down adorably to her two endearing children, raising her gaze back to the midwife after making her decision. "For the boy: Tyler, and Elizabeth for the girl." An enhancing smile lit up her face immediately after her verdict. She praised herself for the consideration of the names, and how she produced these marvellous creatures.

"Those names are very cute. What made you choose them so quickly?"

"It was the meanings. I've always thought people called Tyler were hard workers and were very productive. I named him after my grandfather also." Sad tears were threatening to stream out of her bright eyes, but she held them back with effort. "Elizabeth, on the other hand, means God and I believe that this ball of joy will be powerful and loyal, much like our creator from above." Looking up towards the heavens, she smiled appreciatively as if to thank God for her newborn children.

Janet, considering the possibilities, was about to reply, but a blinding, bright darkness and a spreading, disturbing tremor erupted through the birth ward. In response, the twin babies shrieked in dismay, their mother cajoling them sweetly, attempting to calm them and herself by clutching them tightly against her with a grip of steel. Looking up in alarm, Janet searched for a safe harbour, non believing the earthquake-like happenings going on around her. She was concerned for the mother and her children, but fled the room towards the staff room close by. However, before she could reach it, an almighty wad of debris broke off from the ceiling to come rocketing towards her at an alarming speed. It was too late for her to bolt in evasion from it though.

In the meantime, the single mother found shelter under an elevated table, having placed both of the infants into the incubator and carried it over with her hurriedly. She was clueless as of what to do. The pain from giving birth was a dull numbingness, which refused to go, even with the extreme circumstances. This only heightened her distress. And then, emerging from nowhere in particular, was a colossal figure among the darkness. Although the figure was jet-black, similarly to the darkness surrounding it, an illumination of sorts irradiated.

"Greetings, Sarah." The monotone voice sent an unpleasant shiver to sliver down her spine, making her cower and tremble in despair. She darted her direction towards her two children, who were whining vaguely. She couldn't see them but she could picture their beautiful faces and that they were safe...for now.

"Do you know who I am, Sarah?" There was no answer; she was too frozen from fear. "You want to know something? Being ignored is one thing I really detest." More silence. "I can hear you and I know where you are. Why don't you just come out and make life easier for yourself?" The figure was clearly becoming impatient. It didn't seem human, but the fact that it was male could easily be determined. "Well, then. What...are you waiting for?"

As quick as the brain can process a single thought, Sarah had risen to mistakenly stand in front of the sinister, cold individual. "What d-do you want?" In surprise, the intruder believed it was brave of her to speak up to him with so much hatred. Not long after though, a menacing sneer marked upon his face in distaste, which the woman could feel rather than see it.

"You know exactly what I am here for, woman. Now hand them over." Towering over her frail form, he lingered, watching her shiver from both the cold of his presence and trepidation. "NOW!"

Instead of being shook from the empowering force of his bitter words, she remained still. The adrenaline which was running through her veins was fueled from her determination to protect her children. She would harbour them with her life: dead and alive.

"Never! Stay away you vile creature! All you do is cause suffering and misery to the world. You don't belong here."

Having dropped to the lowest decibel, his venomous voice dripped with utmost loathing for the woman: "I wouldn't have said that if I were you."

In a nanosecond, her body was flung across the room, blood spurting from unknown wounds. The hospital lights flickered above, defining the true looming height of her antagonist and the palpable evil flaring inside of him. She was dead. Everyone was. "Pitiful," he spat disdainfully. Still, the twins continued to cry - now more than before. It was as though they could sense their mother was no longer there to comfort and protect them. "At last," he obtained their incubator, victoriously stepping out of the room and to his home. Hell.