SHADOWLAND

05 : CHAPTER THREE

The Kyle's House, 16 years earlier

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    “I’m not going to give them up! Not to you and certainly not to anybody else. They are mine, Nate. How could you agree to give our children away? How could you? I thought you love me. I thought you would give your life for me?” Victoria glared at her husband, Nathan.

    “That’s not what he meant, Vicky. He only agreed to have us take care of the children for a while, until they learned of our ways, the way of a Lightbringer. We have to guard them until then to protect them from the Feeders,” a small girl with straight long hair tried to comfort her panic-stricken sister-in-law.

    Victoria’s eyebrow shot up. “Really? To protect them from the Feeders? Well, I’m a Feeder, Hannah. I’m one of them. That’s why all of you are even suggesting this, right? You don’t trust me, their own mother, to take care of them? And here I thought you guys have all welcomed me into your lives. How could I be so stupid? I will always be a stranger, an enemy to you, am I?” Victoria’s distress increased and she stood up abruptly. “Well, if you guys despise me so much, then I’ll just return to my people. I’m sure my brother will never ask me to give up my own children. My own flesh and blood!”

    “Damn it, Vic.” Nathan shoved his fingers through his hair. “You are one of us now. Feeder or Lightbringer, it doesn’t matter to me. You are the only one for me. Without you, my life is meaningless. You are my life now, Vic. You will always be.” Nathan slowly sat up, very slowly reaching for his wife, trying not to add to her distress.

    Victoria stepped backward, avoiding Nathan’s touch. “No one can take the twins away from me. I’m their mother. I will not give them up!” she shouted to his face.

    “Look at me, Vic,” Nathan instructed. “You, me, the twins---us---we will always be together. We are just protecting them from being harmed. Look at me. This is for us, baby,” he tried to make his wife see the reason for what the Oracle’s had advised him to do.

    “Calm down, Vicky. We can’t take any more chances of being hunted down. The Oracle was only suggesting that it would be best that the Guardians take care of the twins for the time being. You know it is not safe for both of you, for the twins, to live on your own,” Hannah tried to help her brother.

    “No! Nobody dares separate my twins from me. Nobody! Those who dare will have to kill me first!” Victoria looked at Hannah sharply, her stance ready for a fight.

    Suddenly, a soft voice interrupted the tense atmosphere in the study room. “Mommy, is something wrong? We can hear your voice from our rooms. Are you angry with Daddy?” a small boy peeking out from the half-opened door while his right hand is holding his sister’s hand tightly.

    “No, dears. We were just disagreeing on something. Nothing’s wrong. Your parents are not angry with each other. Let me take you back to your rooms,” Hannah smiled sweetly at her nephew and niece. She began to move towards them when suddenly, Victoria blocked her and grabbed one of her arms.

    “Nobody’s going to take them away from me! And I mean, nobody!” her eyes began to change colour and her grip on Hannah’s arm was getting tighter.

    “Vic, let her go! You’re hurting her!” Nathan screamed at his wife. He can see that Hannah’s skin was getting paler and her knees were buckling. “You’re feeding on her life force, Vic. Let my sister go!” Nathan tried to take his wife’s fingers off from Hannah’s arm.

    “Mommy!” the twins shouted together, watching their mother turning into a different person. Victoria looked extremely angry. Her hair seems to crackle with electricity. The room’s temperature dropped rapidly until they could see smoke coming out of their mouths.

    “Victoria!”

    “Vicky...”

    “Mommy!”

    A sudden flash of bright light filled the entire room completely. A flowing figure floated in the middle of the room. The room’s temperature returned to normal. Everybody in the room seems to freeze in their tracks.

    “Oracle,” Nathan greeted the newly-arrived figure.....