Determined

Elena was walking over, her sleeves torn, a red handprint on her right cheek, blood flowing from the corner of her lips, and she was slightly limping with her right leg.

Seeing her condition, he was overcome with worry and fear before murderous thoughts filled his mind.

Swoosh!

He rushed over to her side, grabbed her hand, and placed it over his shoulder before grabbing her waist to support her.

He didn't ask anything and simply led her toward the house.

Shua!

Just then, the door swung open, and Riya appeared, looking worried. She had heard his shouted just now.

"What happen–"

She was asking when she saw Elena's condition, and tears appeared in her eyes before she also rushed over and supported her from the other side. And unlike Eric, she couldn't hold back from asking,

"What happened, Mom? Who hit you?"

Eric glared at her before looking at Elena, who looked at the duo before smilingly shaking her head, though her eyes welled up with tears, "How about we don't talk about that?"

While Riya went silent, her tears spilling from her eyes, Eric felt his guts churn at her words.

After they helped her inside the house and made her lie on the bed, Eric cleaned the blood from her lips and tear-stained cheeks before moving to her legs. 

Immediately, his heart trembled while his anger and murderous thoughts continued to simmer in his heart and mind when he saw her black long skirt, from knee down, was drenched in blood.

With trembling hands, he slowly moved her skirt above her knees and saw a half-foot-long and quite deep wound on her calf, still bleeding.

"Riya, hurry, go bring the Black Tar." He said, his voice coming deeper than he wanted to.

Riya hurried to the wooden shelf in the corner, and from a neatly wrapped box, she took out a small container and brought it over to him.

When she was about to hand it to him, she saw the wound and hesitated, "Wouldn't Mom feel a lot of pain if we put this tar on the wound?"

This black tar was the result of a failed concoction of a grade one healing paste. 

No normal person would want to use it because it had slight chances of infecting the wounds and worsening the injury, but because the possibility of it happening was very low, poor people like them didn't worry about it. The only thing that made them hesitate was the pain... excruciating pain it caused when put on a wound.

Eric hesitated, but when he saw the still bleeding wound, he gritted his teeth, "Give it to me and give El–Mom a piece of wood to bite on."

Riya nodded. After giving the container to him, she found an inch-thick block of wood and gave it to Elena. "Here, Mom. Bite it. Brother is going to apply the black tar on your wound."

Elena parted her lips to say something, fear flickering in her eyes. She wasn't sure if she would be able to endure the pain it would bring her, but knowing they couldn't leave the wound untreated, she gulped her fears down and took the block of wood before placing it horizontally in her mouth and lightly biting on it.

After that she nodded at Riya, who said, "Mom is ready, brother."

Eric took a deep breath and opened the container's seal. Immediately, a foul stench hit him. 

Ignoring it, he scooped out some of the black tar with his fingers and started applying it on the wound. His movements were fast, a little rough even, but he had no choice because the slower he applied it, the more pain Elena would feel. If he could take away even a bit of her pain, he would do it.

"Ahhhh!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

The moment the tar came into contact with her wound, jolts of burning pain shot through her body, making her eyes go wide before she screamed. She also tried to pull her leg away from him, but he was already pressing it down with his other hand with all his strength, not letting her move it.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Stoppppppppp!"

…

Eric had lathered the wound in the tar in just a few seconds, but Elena continued screaming for an hour before she finally stopped.

"I'm sorry for troubling you two." She weakly said, looking at them with her bloodshot eyes before falling unconscious.

Eric took a deep breath and gently caressed her head before pulling Riya, who had been crying from the moment Elena started screaming and crying in pain, into his embrace. "Shh, it's alright. She will be fine."

"Eric, I—I'm worried. Something bad keeps happening. First you went missing. Then Mom lost her job. Then that guy, Luke, came back and now this. I'm worried something even more bad will happen." Riya cried in his chest, clutching his shirt.

Eric tightened his hold around her and whispered as he caressed her back. "I promise, this is the last time. After this nothing bad will happen. I promise."

As he spoke, his gaze grew determined. 

No longer was he hesitant. 

Now, he was willing to do everything he had to to keep the promise he just made and give them a safe and happy life.

Suddenly,

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Eric, it's me. Open the door."

Liam's anxious voice sounded, followed by loud knocks.

Eric stood up and went to open the door.

Liam was heaving deep breaths, his shirt and face drenched in sweat.

"What happened? I heard Aunt Elena's screams when I was in the distance."

"She got injured, and I applied the black tar to heal it." Eric said before asking, "You were coming here?"

Liam glanced at sleeping Elena and wanted to ask how she got injured, but Eric's question stopped him.

Then his expression turned ugly as he said in a low voice, "I… have bad news for your family."

Eric's heart chilled. If it worried Liam so much that he had to rush over in a hurry and made him put on such an expression, it had to be really bad.

Clenching his fists, he took a deep breath and said, "Tell me."