13.| Echoes OF The Past

-UKNOWN POV-

Deep within the bowels of the earth, hidden from the world above, lay an ancient temple lost in time. Its once grand halls, adorned with intricate carvings of celestial beings, dragons, and phoenixes, now stood cobwebbed and chipped.

The temple's entrance, concealed behind layers of overgrown foliage and vines, gave way to a cavernous chamber carved out of stone. Flickering candles that seemed to never go out danced in stale air. The scent of aged incense lingered, a fading memory of past devotion.

Shafts of pale, ghostly light filtered through a small and narrow opening from above, casting long shadows upon the cold stone floor.

Inside the heart of the underground temple, a witch languished in her prison, surrounded by statues of gods who's stone eyes gazed toward the empty hall as if yearning for the days when worshippers had thronged before it, offering prayers and incense.

The witch's milky white eyes roamed over the walls that felt suffocating after all the years she spent entrapped within them. She let her pale hand run along the faded depictions of ancient legends and celestial battles. Time had faded the colors and the stories they conveyed, now only mere whispers in the wind.

The temple's silence gnawed at her, broken only by the occasional drip of water from hidden springs and the soft rustle of leaves above. It was a place where the gods had once been praised, where the mortal realm had met the divine. Now, it stood as a testament to the passage of time, a sacred sanctuary lost to the ages, waiting silently for those who might rediscover its hidden wonders.

As she walked, her long, ebony hair trailed behind her on the cold floor. Her white eyes, once radiant with power, were now dull and faded, mirroring the pallor of her skin.

Time moved differently here, weighed down by the burden of centuries.

"Everything is falling into place," She laughed maniacally, her voice thick with venom. "Soon, I will be free, and then they will all pay."

Her voice, a mere whisper in the darkness, echoed off the stone walls as she muttered to herself, her words held an unrelenting anger.

The witch turned, her gaze fixating on a mirror pinned to the wall. Its frame, wrought from the purest silver and intricate wirework shimmered with an inner radiance.

She approached it, her ruby stained lips twisting in a wicked grin. "Show me Mythos. Show me what was being hidden." The witch let her finger drift over the flawless glass, making it ripple.

It was the only connection she had to the outside world. Moonlight glowed from within, shifting images that danced from a Birds Eye view until finally, it zoomed in on a beautiful man with silver hair and two toned eyes.

"So this is what you hid from me?" Asked the witch. She was seething, sounding hurt even. "You betrayed me yet again?"

Her gaze shifted to the other man he slept with. A wolf. A beast.

The mirror whispered to her, ghostly sounds she could only hear; telling her secrets and names, lies and truth. Or even letting her see the past or small hints of the future.

Her heart, twisted and blackened by centuries of imprisonment and betrayal, seethed with rage. "Yuè," She hissed, her cracked lips barely forming the name. "Gunter."

Her nails, once delicate and pristine, were now long and gnarled, more like claws than the hands of a beautiful woman she had once been. She raised a trembling hand to the mirror, her eyes locked on the two figures in the reflection as they made love.

She scraped her nail across the glass, making it screech, wishing it could be the wolf's neck she was tearing open with it.

Bitter tears ran down her face, and she felt as though a dagger had pierced her already rotting heart. "Sister…why have you forsaken me?" Her white eyes darted around in the air as though she truly sought an answer even though she knew she wouldn't receive one.

"They are wicked. They are vile and heartless, but still you choose them?" Her trembling hands clutched at her tattered robes furiously.

She fell onto her knees, screams of anguish as she clutched the sides of her head. But then, she still, the pain stricken facial expression fading into an empty stare toward the two lovers.

"Since you didn't choose me, since you have abandoned me. I will tear them away from you, one by one, until you are left with nothing. Until you're like me, an empty shell." Her anger, a storm of dark magic, had transformed her over the centuries, warping her once-glorious beauty into a twisted visage of hatred and vengeance.

She had been wronged, betrayed by the one she had trusted most, and now her heart was a seething cauldron of malevolence.

In the moonlit mirror, she watched as Yuè and Gunter moved further away, their figures disappearing into the depths of their dreams.

"Sleep now, dear boy." Her voice was crackly and deep now. "My time is coming now that the stars are aligning, and when that moment arrives, my vengeance will be unleashed upon the world."

With a bitter smile on her cracked lips, she whispered to herself once more. "I will destroy them all, tear apart the wolves that dare to defy me, and rise from this wretched prison as a force to be reckoned with."

And so, in the shadowed depths of the ancient forgotten temple, the witch plotted her revenge, her heart consumed by darkness, and her eyes filled with the promise of retribution.