Immortal Heart

Prologue

The sun was already set. Its bright light is slowly fading as the darkness is gradually taking over the sky. I looked around me as the deafening silence spread through the place. I loved the quiet nights, but this time, it was different. Instead of comforting me, the silence is frightening me, for I can only hear myself crying in agony.

I wanted to scream in pain and anger, but no matter how I tried, no one would hear me. We're in the middle of nowhere.

"Stay here. I'll be back," a man standing in front of me while looking down said as he left the room.

I took all my courage and decided to risk my life to escape. I slowly made my way out of the room. I fell on my knees when I saw the sight in front of me. I already saw this coming, but seeing this sight breaks my heart a thousand times. I covered my mouth as a muffled scream escaped my lips.

I walked towards her and gently caressed her face. The warm and tender face of the woman who had loved me and raised me was now covered with blood as her lifeless body lay on the floor.

"I-I'm sorry, Mom," I said between my sobs. I know that even if I would tell her how sorry I am a thousand times, my words could never bring her back, and it breaks my heart even more.

I stood up once again as my heavy feet walked away from my mother. As I walk further to the house, my heart breaks even more.

My father was lying on the floor while his body was covered with bruises and cuts. His blood was all over the floor, and the metallic scent of blood made me want to throw up. I tried to hold him, but I knew that I didn't have much time, so I walked away from my father's dead body while tears streamed down my face.

I used the back door to escape the house. I was frozen to my feet when I saw my younger brother on the ground; his blood was tinting the green grass. He was breathing heavily and weakly. Life's slowly leaving his body.

I immediately ran towards him and held his hand. His eyes moved in my direction, then gave me his usual genuine smile, which broke my heart even more.

"B-Bolt," I called him by the name I gave him since he's always fast.

"D-Don't cry." He said as he coughed blood out of his mouth.

"This all my fault," I sobbed.

I can't help but blame myself, for I was the one who brought this horror to my family.

"Please d-don't say that. We're f-family, and we will protect you no matter w-what." He said the life in his eyes was slowly fading, as his breath had become shallow.

"Now g-go, before he r-returns." He said.

"N-No. I-I can't leave you here." I replied, to which he responded with a smile that assured me that everything would be alright.

"You h-have t-to…" he wasn't able to finish what he was about to say as his hands slipped from mine.

I bit my lower lip before I decided to get on my feet and turn my back on my family. Leaving their lifeless body behind as I run for my own life. I have to protect it, for they have risked theirs just for me to have it.

I ran endlessly in the forest as I tried my best to see my path out of the border. The sky was pitch black, but the moon was bright. I can hear the crickets as if they're taunting me, laughing at me, and blaming me for everything that has happened.

My steps are shorter, and my feet are slower than I usually am. I can hear footsteps behind me, and my heart trembles in fear, for it recognizes whose footsteps it is from and what it might mean. I flinched when the man who was running after me was already in front of me.

"Stop running away. You can't escape from me," the man said. His eyes were void of any emotions, which frightened me even more.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked him.

"You already know the reason why, Raine." He replied as he took a step forward, but I immediately ran away from him in the opposite direction.

He can't have me. I ran with all my might, even if my strength was fading away. I can feel how sore and how tired I am.

I was slowly losing my vision as tears kept on falling from it. I can no longer hear the man who murdered my entire family following me, but I can still feel that he's close. I know I can't outrun him; I will never outrun him with this body of mine. I ran deep into the forest, and it felt different from what it was before. It became unfamiliar to me, even if this is where I had grown up, and this is where I would run day and night. I used to know this forest like it was the back of my hand, but now, my body, and even my senses, felt like a stranger to this place.

"Ugh!" I almost cursed at myself when I fell flat on the ground.

"Give up already," I heard his voice, but I can't see him.

I immediately get on my knees, ignoring how my knees are badly bleeding. I kept running, hoping that I would somehow escape this hell. Without even realizing it, I was already on the edge of the cliff. I looked down, and my hope started to leave me as my strength was slowly giving up.

The waves are aggressively crashing onto the rocks below me as if they were angry. I am well aware that if I fell on the fifteen feet high cliff, my body would break as it hit the rocks down below me, and the raging sea would crash me and would be sucked deep into its depths.

"Come back, Raine," he said with a mild voice as his eyes were pleading.

I know that I brought this to myself and my family, but I would never forgive him for betraying me and killing the people I loved and who had supported me.

I unconsciously took a few steps back. I saw him reach for me, but it made me step away from him even more without noticing that I was already falling.

I looked at the bright moon as tears streamed down my eyes. After I tried my best to run away, I would end up throwing away the second life that my family had given me.

"I-I'm sorry."