\\ Amazing trailer by @loyallyric //
One secret, one curse, is enough to change everything. Everything she knew, everything she thought she understood, became nothing, twisting into an ultimate heap of confusion. He is after her, the one that has...
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I feel sun rays vaguely shine through the clouds, shining on my face as my eyes are closed shut. The car is motion, still, going at a steady pace, though the road is bumpy, for it feels as if we're not traveling on a road anymore, but rather a dirt path.
I stir in my sleep, stretching, and I soon regret it for my stitches are pulled; I wince in pain, though I try to hide it. I immediately gaze out of the window, our surroundings different from before.
"Where are we?" I croak, my voice dry from sleep, haziness still lingering within my mind.
"Vermont," he states bluntly.
"Vermont?! That's like a thousand miles away from New York! What are we doing here?!"
"You ask a lot of questions," his infamous stone face look is back, and he stares forward, not sparing me a glance, and in a way I'm sad, but I scold myself for ever thinking such a thing.
"Why are we here?!" I repeat, rage embedded within my high pitched tone.
"I already answered that question."
"Where are we going?!" I demand an answer.
"Somewhere," he states vaguely, not giving a proper answer like I want.
"Stop being like that and answer my question, Alakade!" I shout, "why did we leave New York?!"
"It wasn't safe for you there anymore, so we had to leave," he says, this time giving more than just one simple word with one simple meaning.
"What are you talking about? It was fine back there!" I protest with a bewildered look upon my facial features.
Alakade frustratingly runs a hand through his hair, then down his face. "You're so oblivious..." he groans faintly under his breath, yet still not sparing me a glance. I let his comment slide, not wanting to fight with him again. "He's invisible to you, Vivian! He shot you! And yet you have the nerve to tell me that everything was fine?! It's not fine, Vivian! It's bad enough that you have a hole in your side because of him!" Alakade bellows, it feels as if the windows just shattered.
So much for not picking a fight, Vivian, I scold myself.
Alakade lets out a sigh of frustration, "that's why we're leaving," he murmurs. I stay silent for a second more, letting his lingering words sync into the tense air between us.
"How are we going to stop him?" I quietly ask, almost like a whisper, scared to upset him again, because it seems that's the only thing I know how to do to people, make them upset at me.
"I don't know..." he says, taking a turn on the dirt road we've been driving on for what seems like miles.
"I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset-"
"It's fine, Vivian, don't worry about it. You're caught up in the middle of this, and it's my fault. Athen's after you, and it's all my doing," he pauses to take inhale and exhale. "I'm just sick of this, sick of him. Going around, terrorizing people he doesn't even know, and for what? To be forever young? To be forever be stuck in his eighteen-year-old body? I just don't get it," he states, and his eyes quickly flicker to my own, for I'm focused on him as he talks freely.
"Why were you friends with him in the first place?"
"I wasn't. I was only supervising him, to keep him in line, to protect everyone else from him. Skin Walkers and Werewolves don't get along, I've only been around him to prevent him from doing harm, but I've failed at the one job I've given myself." My insides start to ache for him, and how he feels like a failure when he's nothing close to that, he's everything but that.
I'm about to ask another question, but it's as if he can read my mind, my thoughts, for the answers it himself, "he's only in high school to blend in, to feed, to find his next prey, his food source, he's a monster, one who uses dark magic to live. "The worst part of it all is that he's immortal, he can't be killed, it's not as simple as sticking a wooden stake through his heart like it's portrayed in TV shows. Nothing will kill him, not Vervain, silver, wolfsbane, nothing, nothing besides one thing."
"And what's that?"
"His real name."
"How do you know that?" I ask.
"Back when I was apart of the pack bind, the males were all trained one by one on how to deal with their nature, because after all, they could be anyone, anything, any animal they want to be. But by saying their real given name, their birth name from their parents, it can kill them, slowly, painfully, strip them of their power."
"What is his real name?"
"That's the problem, I don't know. All that I do know is that it's three words, and unless we can manage to find Lufu - his goddess, his leader - and ask her what his real calling is, then it'll be hard. That is the one thing that can stop him. I've been around him to try to find out, to try and use it against him, but he hasn't spilled anything, which makes this a whole lot worse, and he knows I'm one to him, which makes it almost an impossible task to fulfill."
I let his words sink in, another question forming in my mind as this starts to make more an more sense to me now, as he explains more of what he knows.
"What does his name - the one he has now - stand for? He couldn't have just made it up, could he?"
"No, and it means two words, two words wolves long ago used to fear. It means Dark Immortal because that's what he is...a dark immortal with a dark heart. But, I'm not so much different from him, for any shapeshifting beast is a monster, well all have dark hearts...all of us."
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Who guessed right on what the name Adrian Athen meant? Adrain meaning Dark and Athen meaning Immortal. 😋
