Emberborn

The True Monster

"I can see it in your eyes. The panic. Tell me, darling, what's gotten you so scared?"

He knew I wasn't going to answer. He just wanted to make sure I knew that he could see right through me.

My mind was continuously racing back and forth between the images of my brother and the words Zane said.

They killed my family.

They stole my life away from me.

They took my innocence.

They broke my trust.

They beat me until I couldn't even recognize myself anymore.

Beckett.

My identical twin.

My family...

"Oh, you heard something. Didn't you, darling?"

I lifted my gaze from the floor, my eyes narrowing as they locked with his.

A cold fury was burning in my veins, a feeling I haven't felt in a few years, and a thirst for vengeance that I missed so much.

He walked closer to me before taking my face in his hands. I flashed him my teeth, but he didn't care. His cold fingers traced the hollowness under my cheekbones as he looked at me with adoration.

"So much anger burns inside of you, so much hate, so much power."

I let out a deep growl and bared my teeth again, yanking down on the chains that held me in place.

He backed up a few steps and held his hands up as a form surrender. His sadistic smile always creeps on his lips but never before had it scared me like this.

"You can hate me all you want, darling, but that won't change the fact behind the matter.

"Yes, I may have played a hand in the attack on your family home, but I wasn't the one holding the knife that slit your mother's throat."

A stab to the heart.

A mind-breaking, heart-crushing feeling that left my body hanging limply.

"Stop..." I whimpered.

Flashes of images began to project in my mind like some sort of twisted horror film playing on the big screen.

But, these flashes were no movie. Movies were made up stories acted out in front of a camera.

These were not made up stories, they were real, they actually happened.

Just as the words left his lips and I shut my eyes, something flashed.

It was a master bedroom filled with antique furniture. There were men that have never seen before in every corner of the room.

I was being pinned down on the ground, my arms being held behind me by a man much stronger than I.

I was crying, my body shaking with a fear that I have never felt before. I was struggling underneath the man, fighting to break free, but it was useless.

I was useless.

"Seraphina. Sweetie, look at me."

Even though her voice was cracking, it still sounded like a siren; a voice so soft and sweet I could listen to it forever.

I looked up with tear-filled eyes to the stunning red-headed woman who had brought me into this world, the woman who cared for me, raised me, loved me.