25 A painful daydream

Greg successfully escaped, but his mind was still trapped in hell. What he witnessed played on loop in his mind like a broken record, torturing him from the inside, he needed to tell someone and he did...he told many, but no one believed him and instead laughed in his face...mocked him.

No one asked about his friends that never returned with him, not even their parents, it was as if their existence was wiped from every mind in the world!

He tried convincing himself that he was living in an illusion, that none of it was real, but his heart was bleeding, his mind was exploding and his soul was shattering. He was stuck in a nightmare being asleep and a painful daydream being awake, he craved redemption.

Suicide was his best option, but as he stood at the edge of his bed with a rope around his neck, a thought crossed his mind, would he really accept death without knowing the truth?

But his curiosity only pushed him further over the edge when he came to know the truth of the world after many years of research. He wasted his youth and neglected his family, only to fall deeper into insanity. Vampires, ghouls, shapeshifters, and goddesses, their existence wasn't a myth!

Greg had been living isolated in a wooden house beside a lake and never visited his family once since the day he was chased out of town for being a mad man and scaring the old and young with his horror stories, but he returned on the day his two grand nieces, Jenna and Amaira Hendrix were born.

Not to congratulate his nephew, George on the beautiful twins he and his wife shared, but to end the life of one of the children before it could start. However, before he could do so, he was cornered by his nephew and three men that worked for a mental hospital in Chicago.

As he was being pulled away, his final words were, "That child cannot be allowed to live, wherever she goes, evil will follow!"

He was promoted from mad to insane and his horror stories were often told by adults to scare naughty children.

"The big bad monster is gonna come to eat you up," they would say and the children would behave almost instantly, that was until there was another mad person in the Hendrix family claiming that not only vampires were real, but her neighbors were a family of them, specifically an average looking fellow named Elias most considered kind and chivalrous.

Everyone laughed at Amaira, similarly to how their ancestors laughed at Greg, but when it came to the darkness in the woods, even in the present-day, no one wanted to prove if his stories were true or not.

Natalia glared at the visibly terrified group of people before her and reprimanded them, "Don't be cowards! This section of the woods may be darker than the rest of it, but I'm sure there's nothing to be scared of."

She tried to play it off as just another part of the woods with a quirk, but the people weren't buying. One man with a heavy axe resting on his shoulder even commented, "You think it's just darker than the rest? Why don't you go in first?"

"Yea!" everyone yelled in agreement and a huge weight fell on Natalia's shoulders.

Her fearless facade was faltering, out of everyone, she was probably the most terrified, but what could she do to get herself out of such a mess?

She couldn't send her mercenaries inside after Amaira because then everyone would know of her devious plan and she would undeservingly be locked up in jail! Amaira had it coming, why would she need to be punished?

But what to do? What to do?

Her thoughts were then interrupted by a deep voice commanding everyone to drop their weapons and put their hands in the air; the police officers finally arrived.

Natalia only smiled joyfully temporarily, because though she was out of one mess, she was thrown into another due to the arrival of law enforcers. Just like her and her entourage, they were after Amaira, but unfortunately, they were not there to kill her.

Police Chief Lockwood was the first to address the lot, "You people should not be here, this is a restricted area."

"Are they true? The stories of Gregory Hendrix from all those years ago?" one woman questioned and muttering followed.

"I was waiting for someone to bring up that lunatic."

"Crazy runs in that family."

"Silence!" Chief Lockwood barked and even the air stilled at his powerful and authoritative tone. He's only the police chief of a small area in a bigger state, but he didn't get his title no other way than through hard work and determination thus making him well-respected all around.

"I implore that all of you head home, this is a restricted area under the government."

The chief ignored their questions about why the area is restricted and went on to say to his second in command, "I have other important matters to attend to." He sighed looking at the darkness before them, "Get these people back to their homes, find Amaira, and bring her back alive."

Officer James saluted, "I will not disappoint you, sir!"

With that, the chief left, and Officer James started dishing out the orders he was commanded by his superior.

There were a total of fifteen men excluding Officer James, twelve of them were going with him inside the darkness and the other three were going to escort the angry residents back to the urban residential area of Roma City.

Everyone was moving along peacefully, despite being pissed, but then Elias heard Natalia whisper to her mercenaries, "Kill them."

It would raise alarm among everyone, but Natalia would only need to act like she didn't know the three armed men and hope that the people with the same goal as her wouldn't betray her.

It was her only chance to kill Amaira, she wasn't going to let it slip!

A smirk formed on Elias' lips just as the men took out the three officers and without hesitation, dashed into the darkness.

Oliver looked curiously at Elias, "They all went inside after Amaira and you don't seem the least bit concerned about her safety. What aren't you telling me, Elias?"

Elias' perfect lips spread into a devious smile, "Have you forgotten who rests here, brother?"

Oliver's eyes momentarily widened before he uttered the name he never thought would ever leave his lips again in this lifetime, "Taranis."