Flashback

Twenty-five years earlier...

"Tom! What are you doing?", Lucilla asked.

Tom was startled. Clearly, he did not expect Lucilla to just barge in the room and find him kneeling down in the dark, with candles all around him, chanting something with his eyes closed. There were weird stuff in front of him - like dolls, stones, wood, and other things Lucilla did not get to see clearly because it was dark.

Tom's eyes flew wide open. "Out! Get out! And don't ever enter my room again without knocking!", he shouted.

Lucilla was shocked. He thought Tom was just grief stricken by the death of their mom, that's why he's always locked up in his room. She never imagined he would be doing something so ... strange. It gave her the creeps.

Even with the risk of getting shouted at and getting Tom upset, she had to ask. She had to confront him.

"What were you doing up there, Tom?", Lucilla asked over dinner.

Tom's eyes glowed as he said, "I'm making the ring more powerful, Lucilla. I know it has more powers than what mom told us and I want to be more powerful."

Lucilla did not like the look on Tom's face when he said that. He looked a bit ... evil. Deranged. She was scared of what Tom will do with his powers. He seemed so unbalanced.

A week passed and Lucilla heard news that the husband of Tom's old flame - Sue, the one he almost married, left her. It was surprising because everyone in town knew how in love they were with each other. It doesn't make sense that he would just suddenly leave her. Lucilla decided to visit. She just felt that something was very wrong and that Tom had something to do with what happened. Fortunately, Lucilla and Sue remained in touch and are good friends even though her relationship with Tom did not end well.

When she visited Sue, she was in tears. Lucilla asked what happened. Sue said that Tom visited them that very day that Luis, her husband left her. She said she found it strange that Tom would just drop by because they were not really in touch anymore. Sue told Lucilla that Tom said he was just in the area, remembered her, and wanted to see how she was doing. So she introduced Tom to Luis and the two chatted amicably for a few minutes, then Tom left.

Next thing Sue knew, Luis said he can't stand being around her anymore, and that marrying her was a big mistake and he was leaving her that instant.

"Now that I think of it, he did seem kind of robotic and his eyes looked so lifeless when he said that. But nothing I said or did stopped him from leaving.", Sue concluded.

Lucilla tried to comfort Sue as best as she could and then left, feeling both helpless and enraged with Tom for what she thought he did. It was despicable and heartless! She can't believe her own brother was capable of doing something so cruel.

This has to stop! Lucilla thought. When she got home, she confronted Tom about it.

To her surprise, Tom did not try to deny it to her, but smiled gloatingly and said that they didn't deserve to be happy because he himself was unhappy. And then he laughed a mad, maniacal laugh. He said this is just the beginning of his revenge to all the people who wronged him.

Lucilla knew then that she was the only one who can put a stop to this. Because nobody knew about the ring but her and their mother wasn't around anymore to talk some sense into Tom. She knew Tom well enough to know that he wouldn't listen to her.

She needs to act fast before somebody else's life is ruined. So she did the only thing she can think of - steal the ring, leave, and go as far from Tom as she can manage.

This breaks her heart because Tom is the only family she has and she loved him dearly. Their father left them when they were just kids. So they were raised by their

mom alone. They were both single, because Tom did not love again after his last heartache, and Lucilla was too scared to be like his brother- so bitter and angry at the world, that she didn't give love a chance. So they grew old together, and when their mom died, they only had each other. However, Lucilla knew that no matter how important she was to Tom, he would not give the ring up for anything, not even for her.

So that night, when she prepared dinner for the two of them, she put sleeping pills in his drink so she can slip the ring from his finger without him feeling anything. He never removes it so she needed him to sleep deeply. That night was the last night she ever saw Tom...

She didn't know where to go so she just travelled from one place to another, taking up odd jobs to survive. Her only goal was to go as far as she can from Tom.