Indignation (12 page)

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Julian throws his fist through the wall. When he saw Miranda and Gabriel enter the Pike’s household, he couldn’t believe it. The Authority Elim would never visit or show his presence to a human unless under critical circumstances. What had his confusion turn into curiosity was when Gabriel left guards surrounding the premises. Julian had enough of wondering what could possibly cause the presence of the God’s right hand man and tried to make his way inside the house. He was stopped as soon as he reached for the door. It wasn’t long until the guards’ reinforced backup and transferred him to the Keepers’ ground. He had spent over eight hours on a desert with the Keepers being hidden from sight. They created the illusion just for him, and he hated it. He did sense their forms surrounding him, but he couldn’t define their locations.

Julian frowns when he blinks and the desert is replaced by a white space. There are no linings of a room, it’s all pure white. He takes a step forward and doesn’t hear a sound.

“You’re lucky.”

He turns around to face the form of the voice. He finds Miranda staring at him with her eyes filled with anger. “Why am I here, Miranda?”

“Because I saved you from being deserted like you were. Do you have a clue what I had to go through to have you removed from the safety of the Keepers?”

“Why was I forbidden to go into Alyssa’s home?”

     “The God ordered for it.”

“Why were you and Gabriel there? What happened to her?”

“Now you care?” Miranda takes a threatening step towards him. “That woman doesn’t deserve your hate. She was meant to love you and all you brought down to her is misery and it’s company.”

“Answer my questions now.”

She shakes her head. “I will inform you of something.” She sighs. He can tell that what she will say he will not like. “Gabriel confirmed it to me. Alyssa doesn’t remember her past as Annalisa. She has no remembrance of the time with you, or any of past after that. She only remembers her human years.”

Her statement confused him. How can that be when he remembers the look in her eyes when she had the Katana of Selene firmly in her hand? Of the eyes of a malicious being when she threatened him to stay away from her loved ones. “That can’t be possible. She’s an immortal. She has to remember her past. It sticks to all of us like a plague.”

“Julian. If you only knew how much suffering she is in, you would pity her. She’s changing her course of life. She’s become a new Alyssa, but not Annalisa. She’s not becoming Annalisa.”

“You have a pure heart, Miranda, but your heart won’t save her from what she has done to me. She deserves nothing less of what I plan to do to her.”

“How can you punish someone who doesn’t remember their wrong doings? You may think you have a heart of ice, but not even you’re that cold hearted.”

“You have yet to meet me then.”

Miranda takes a step back. “You are allowed to leave Julian. There are conditions to your leave. First, you are forbidden to see Alyssa today. Second, you are to stay away from the Followers or any of the underworlds. Lastly, you need to report to Gabriel tonight for a form of punishment for your reluctance to leave the grounds when ordered to.”

“Is that all?”

“You are not the man I thought you were Julian. I love you like a family sibling I never had. I could help you, but I can’t save you from your blindness of the truth. You will see soon enough that your blindness was the cause of your fall, not the woman who fought to the bone for you.”

“Your mind is clouded, Miranda. The only blind one I see is you.”

“I worry about you, but I can’t stand up for you anymore. My duties are to the God and the God will always trust me to do what is right. Now I know that I’ve been wrong to tell you what I had known. I assure you that I won’t make that mistake again. Until we meet again, Julian. Farewell.”

Miranda vanishes into thin air. The white clearing changes to his bedroom in his condo. He quickly picks up his smart phone that seems strayed in the middle of his bed. His fingers scan through the screen until his numbers are put in correctly.

“Hello?” The man at the other end of the line answers.

“Hans, I have an errand for you.”

Alyssa can’t take it anymore. The reality is too harsh for her to come to peace with it. She doesn’t want to face the Keepers who passed as her parents. It’s only been ten hours. The night is swallowing her shadow. Her feet are taking her far as far away as she will allow. The lone streets make no noise. The insects of the night say silent for once. The living around her gives her quite. It’s a soundless night that she doesn’t want. The mirror showed her the death of Julian in her hands. His blood on her finger tips, dripping to an endless pond. She asked herself how Julian came back from death when she clearly killed him. The answer to that is that it’s part of the curse her mother bestowed on her. She died along with him that night, but they both came back from their graves to find each other again.

There’s an itch in her heart and it won’t go away. She never knew that this could have happened to her. She’s living a scene from a movie except hers is worst since it’s real. How could her memory hide so many secrets from her? How could she even forget? She doesn’t remember anything other than her human years. Who was she? Who will she become? Those questions now haunt her with the rest. She’s terrified if facing him. Now she knows it was her eyes that drove him away from her all those years ago. She was young and naive to not see that before. It was all her fault. It was her fault he left. It was her fault that she ended up being the whore of a group of men. It was her fault that she was on the board of death. It was her fault for her depression and the loose of feelings. It was all her fault.

“Nothing can change that now.” She whispers to herself.

Her entire life has been an illusion that she’s finally breaking from. Her parents, Dev and Emily, would never be around. Her mother didn’t show any affection towards her. That was because they were like babysitters. They task was to raise her and then when the time came, leave her. She might have had resentment towards Dev, but now that she knows that in his real life outside of the lie, he is married to Mila, his sectary.

The Keepers are a strange kind of human species. The only reason the Royal Head Keepers kept Dev and Emily to pose as parents without being a real couple, is because they were the best Keepers they have. In their world, they are known for their work and it just so happens that it was an honor to her to have them. The Elims didn’t say that to her, but they implied it. Honored? That’s the last thing Alyssa feels. She feels betrayed by all of them. That includes herself.

Julian. One of the many names she wanted to keep out of her head, but she can’t. He was the king. The powerful King who fell off his throne just because of her. She killed him. That’s just too much to take in. She can’t blame him for leaving her anymore. Everything she has done to him, it’s no wonder why he treated her the way he did when he came back. The Elims informed her of many things before she decided to leave. They told her that Julian has been assigned to be her Elim. That would mean that he is to protect her at all cause. How can the world be so twisted? How can he be assigned to protect the woman who killed him all those years ago? It doesn’t make any sense to her. Is this her form of punishment, or his?

Her head spins in so much revelation. She stares up at the moon. “What am I supposed to do?” She asks the moon who remains silent in return. She wishes for many things at this Moment. She wishes for Julian to forgive her, to tell her that everything will be okay, even if she doesn’t deserve it. The only problem is to hope for that to happen would be asking for the impossible. She can’t ask for him to love her when she has betrayed him the way she did.

Alyssa stops walking. The darkness is her solitude. “I-I…” She looks up to the sky where the ‘God’, her father, did this to her. “I can’t do this!” She screams to the silence. “I don’t want to feel like this. D-Don’t let me F-feel like this.”

She breaks down again, but this time she has a guest to witness.

<><><>

Julian stares at Alyssa’s limp body resting on the mud covered grass. 

“Do you wish for me to stay, my king?” Hans says beside him.

He shakes his head in dismissal. “Keep guard. Don’t let the Keepers, or the Underworlders around. I will call to you when needed.”

Hans bows down to his king with honor and respect. “Yes, my king.” The lycanthrope says before shifting to follow his orders.

Julian stands still with the Katana of Selene in his hand. He just stares at her. Her wavy hair is in knots from being dragged into the clearing. It’s the only place that he can have privacy without the other immortals interrupting him. He is not allowed to see her by Miranda’s orders, but rules where never his to follow. He continues to stare at her with hatred filling his eyes.

“It would be so easy to kill you in your unconscious state, but I like a fight.” He smirks at her. “Are you willing to fight, Annalisa, for your life?” He swats down to get a better view. Her pale skin is turning shades of pink from the cold air that blows on the parts of her exposed body. “Are you cold? That’s too bad, isn’t it?” He stands again. He starts to pace back and forth. “You had me fooled for a while there. Alyssa? Were you scared of what I would have done to you if you told me your name was Annalisa?” He glares down at her. “You wish you had a chance to kill me again, but I have something that will keep me alive for many centuries to come. I just need to kill you first. I can’t have you attempt to murder me again. With or without being your Elim, I want your blood in my hands.”

Julian means every word he said. He does want to kill her. He understands something that he is trying to ignore. His hatred for her only strengthens his love for her. He had many chances of killing her, but he would never act on them because he’s too blinded by her betrayal to see the love that he has for her. How will he kill her when it would be like killing himself?

Alyssa groans in pain as she begins to move. Her eyes open to see him. He has the Katana in his hand. Her eyes widen in fright as his smirk appears. She crawls backwards to put some distance between them.

“Don’t be scared Annalisa. I won’t harm you-” She sighs in relief. “-yet.” He finishes.

“Julian. I-I-” She gulps, not having any words to say to him.

He presses the tip of the Katana to her lips. She flinched back from the contact. He can tell that she’s too afraid to move. “You shouldn’t speak. It will just make everything worst. I do want you to listen. That’s an order not a request.” She stays still. He begins his speech with a dark chuckle. His finds the whole situation amusing. It is much better than the entertainers he had hired before. “I have a question, and I want your honestly.” He guides the tip of the Katana to her exposed neck. It gently presses upward her skin until it’s below her chin. He makes her look up at him. “Why did you do it? Why did you kill me?”

“I-”

He presses the tip of the Katana deeper into her skin. “Answer me!”

“I don’t remember! They said it was a curse!”

“Who? Who said that?” He yells.

“The Elims.” He lowers the Katana in confusion. “That blonde and that man with dark hair told me.” She searches his eyes for the names of the Elims. “Miranda and Gabriel. They’re the ones that told me.” Her sharp breaths turn into shallow ones. She’s fighting the tears that are falling in silence.

He clenches jaw tight. “Gabriel and Miranda said it was a curse?” She nods with regret.

Alyssa positions herself to kneel before him. “I’m sorry!” She cried. “I’m sorry for doing all those horrible things to you. I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t. I have to live with the guilt. I just wish you would have told me instead of those strangers. I wish it was you.” She finishes in a whisper.

He stands there in shock. He doesn’t know what he should do. Miranda knows something that she didn’t tell him. What is she hiding from him?

He doesn’t notice her pounding her small fist on his chest. “Say something please. Scream at me if you have to. Just do something.” She grips his shirt between her fingers and cries.

“Julian!” He snaps his head towards the new voice that rose above Alyssa’s cries. Miranda runs toward them. Fear is in her eyes. Gabriel isn’t far behind her. “Let her go.” The Adviser Elim orders him.

He narrows his eyes at her. “What do you know Miranda? What are you hiding from me?” He attacked her with his questions.

Her eyes move back and forth between him and Alyssa. She’s trying to find her words, but it’s stuck in her throat. That’s when he knows there’s more than enough she must be hiding from him. He knew her loyalty was to the Heavens, but it was low for her.

“Hand her to us. That is an order.” Gabriel roars. That voice annoys him. He will never let them control him. He will fight if he has to. He will get what he wants, he always does.

Julian pushes Alyssa behind him, protecting her. “Not until I have my answers.”

<><><>

Miranda nervously glances at Alyssa. The poor soul is cowering behind Julian. She should have known that Julian wouldn’t have listened to her orders. When she received a call from Gabriel informing her that Julian had disappeared, she knew something was wrong. She then called the Keepers, Dev and Emily, to see if they had Alyssa back. They said she never appeared after she left. She knew Julian had something to do with it.

She notices the fighting stance Gabriel has. The last thing that should happen is a fight for dominance. Gabriel maybe stronger than Julian, but Julian is stronger than any immortal with Alyssa on his side. She will have to keep that small secret to herself and hope that Alyssa will too.

“Gabriel.” She warns him. “Let me take Julian.”

He narrows his eyes toward the fallen king. “I won’t allow it, Miranda. He’s not thinking clearly.”

She gently lays her hand on his shoulder. “Trust me, please.” She begs the Authority Elim with her eyes.