The Child Out For Revenge

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Jezebel’s POV

And so it went on for what seemed like an eternity. Showing Ryder my darkest memories to do with Kyle was similar to pouring my heart out to a psychiatrist or something. I had tried so hard not to think about the terrifying parts of the trip to Canada and all the fear, sadness and helplessness I’d kept pent up just burst forth from inside. I had no idea whether Ryder could feel the fear and anxiety I was feeling from reliving these memories, but the cold grip on my heart never ceased.

The memories flashed by at a rate that left me dizzy and sick to my stomach. From the first time I set eyes on Kyle, to the hike and the ambush at the top. Then from being in the car trying to escape from Kyle and his crew while Charlie possessed me, to wandering off into the dark cold forest and peering out from behind a tree while Kyle ordered Daniel’s death. It didn’t stop there though, the memories just continued to roll, one after the other.

The sharp snap of Daniel’s neck echoed as he slumped to the floor in front of my eyes for the second time. The memory was painful to watch and I could feel my cheeks weer wet as tears leaked out of the corner of my eyes. Snapping out of the rest of that memory I switched to a few minutes later when Kyle had Josh and I in a helpless position. We had no other choice than to do what he told us. Kyle forced Josh to drink from me until I passed out. Though both Kyle and Josh both thought I had passed out, a small part of me still held to consciousness and heard Kyle order for Chris’s death also. The sound of a second body hitting the dirt ground resonated through the air before the memory also ended.

Waking up on the RV came next. Fighting with Charlie and Kyle. Realising that Chris and Daniel were truly dead. The anger and grief made the memory too hard to hang onto for too long. I managed to show Ryder the most important bits before letting it slip away like dust in the wind.

The last memory I had of Kyle I knew Ryder had already seen, but I showed it to him again. I watched myself drive the fabled sword Excalibur through Kyle’s heart. I felt all the anger, the grief, the hatred and the fear leech out of me as I realised fully, for the first time, the full impact my actions had. While the flashes of every person of magical, vampiric or werewolf blood who had darkness in their hearts died I caught sight of a scene that had been meaningless to me before. I managed to focus in on it for a few seconds before it changed to someone else dying by my hand. Someone else dying for the wrong cause.

The small scene was similar to the vision I’d seen from Ryder when we’d been fighting in the Principal’s office. It was the same lounge room, with the same young woman and a small child. The woman clutched at her chest as she felt the piercing pain that Kyle would have felt when I drove Excalibur though his rib cage and into his heart. There was no blood but the pain and fear was clear all over the young woman’s face. The last thing I saw before it changed was the woman sinking to her knees one hand still clutching at her chest but the other was reaching out to her son who was sitting on the ground mere metres away. Even though there was no sound from the blur of deaths, I could make out the one word she mouthed before she died. Ryder.

My eyes snapped open as the memories ended. My whole body was shaking, but not with exhaustion. I felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t bother to wipe the tears off my face, because they were still falling. I looked over at Ryder who still looked dazed and confused. He met my eyes and I knew something had changed. Something in him but also something in me. I stood up abruptly almost making the chair topple over. Josh shot up and tried to come over to me, but I backed away.

I looked down at my hands expecting to see them covered in blood. The blood of countless lives that I’d taken. I didn’t even know how many people I had killed. What if I’d killed the parents of another young child? What if there were others like Ryder? Other kids that I’d orphaned. Every single one of those people I’d killed had been someone’s son or daughter. Someone’s spouse, brother or sister. Every single one of those people had been someone of importance in another person’s life.