For the Hate of God

The boy…was me…

Aralyn’s POV

My words finally seemed to penetrate through Meena’s dense skull. For a second, she paused and seemed to hesitate and reflect. She whimpered and winced as the possibility that her Mr Right was not who she thought crossed her thick brain. The thought that I was right and that he was indeed a cunning, manipulative narcissist and an abusive monster made her lose her focus for a second. And I used that momentum to take the control back and shove her to the back of my mind. I raised my gaze to face the beast in front of me.

“Now I am going to show you what the torture is, tw.at, same as I did to your little friend Norgarth,” I gritted through my teeth with a snarl that built up at the back of my throat. I jumped into a fighting position and punched the shithead straight into his face, breaking his jaw.

“Remember when you did that to me, d***k?” I said as I breathed heavily. I smacked the prick's face with brute and raw force repeatedly. Cracks, blood splutters and squelching were heard as I was breaking his nose, arcade, cheekbones, well…breaking every fuc.king bone on his face in the series of savage sallies. He spat blood, gargled and groaned but offered no resistance to the assault. This angered me even more.

“Fight!!!” I roared at him, but he didn’t move an inch. He remained silent. I then low-kicked him to his balls with all my might, and he fell down on his knees, wincing. “I said fight, id.iot! I hate you!” I screamed while punching the mute tw.at in front of me. This followed a swift move where I swung my right leg in the air and kicked him savagely and mercilessly to his face with a precise round kick. The same thing he did to me in Avesta. Oh gosh, how many nights I dreamt of this moment. After a series of high kicks to his chin, just above Adam's apple, he fell flatly on the floor, grunting, wheezing and bleeding. His mouthwatering and intense scent of mint was now stale and tarnished with the metallic smell of blood. I jumped and tromped with all my might over his body, snarling in a hysteric tantrum while crashing his bones, one by one.

“Remember that, motherfucker?” I asked.

I embraced his head with both hands as I was about ready to break his neck.

He raised his gaze towards me, wincing and grasping the air and said while gargling through bouts of frothy blood from his mouth in a strained, wheezing voice: “The woman….” he grunted wheezingly, “…was my mother…” “…and the boy….” he whimpered “…was me….”

“Noosha, your grandmother, made her kill herself in front of me…” he winced as I released my grip off his head. He gasped for air before fainting in the pool of his ichor-like blood. I cowered away, crawling backwards from his battered and unconscious body. Meena's grieving howls and wails rang through the desolate protection armour I made. She was battling for control with me, desperate to come forward.

“I have told you there must be an explanation for his actions. I know what I felt, and I felt he was genuine with us a few moments ago. Yes, it took him a while to get his head out of his ass, but he did it. Will you ever listen to what I have to say?” She whimpered as she looked at the scene of our mate, who looked like he had gone through the meat grinder.

“Well, last time I allowed you to have control, Merlius almost drowned us as he thought we wanted to take his mate away. This time round, you had some Stockholm syndrome-ridden infatuation with the most feral beast we know and the future king of the underworld. Who in the right state of mind would ever trust your decisions? You just seem like an empty-headed wolf who lives in the moment, doing whatever she pleases, without thinking of the consequences and how your actions affect others around you. You are selfish, reckless and careless obstruction because of whom I am falling from one predicament into another.” I said to her. I could feel her anger boiling when she said: “Well, I am not the one who killed our destined mate before even hearing the reasoning for his behaviour.” she snarled angrily, glancing once more at our mate whilst wailing and sobbing before she withdrew herself deep within my mind.

I tried to call her back, but I only got an ominous silence. I watched his stoic body lying lifelessly on the floor with mixed emotions. I felt very alone. I missed my mum. I missed my silly wolf…

Then, out of nowhere, it seemed that someone’s muffled voice could be heard calling my name from a distance. I turned around, bewildered and dismayed, while murmuring a silent prayer that this was not a part of another bizarre hell loop. The more I tried to focus on the voice, the more it seemed familiar. It was Nethanaiah. Should I pull the cloaking spell down? Sentaya’s warning to not trust anyone rang out in my head with these thoughts.

“Meena!!” I called the silly wolf to come forward to hear what she thought of this, but there was no response. She had also abandoned me. Serves me right. Well, to hell with everything. It can’t be worse than this solitude and pain that threatens to choke me. I conjured my powers and disintegrated the spectral cloak of lavender shimmer which spread across horizons. My cloak was as long and as wide as one’s eye can reach. Once it was down, dreary Nerzelis and dumbfounded Nethanaiah were in front of me. Fear and motherly worry were etched on Nethanaiah’s face.

Pacing anxiously and warily but at a steady speed, I was slowly and cautiously getting closer to Nethanaiah, who spread her arms, and then she firmly embraced me.

“Girl, I was worried sick for you. Where were you? Why did you go? Did we do something wrong?” she asked, tears brimming her beautiful citrine eyes. Then she released her anaconda-like hug, giving me a chance to breathe and placed her warm palms on my cheeks, looking straight into my eyes. Hell, no, she looked straight into my soul.

“Is everything ok? What is going on, Aralyn?” she asked, and that was the spark that ignited my uncontrollable wailing. I was sniffling snotty sobs as I said: “I think I killed my mate. Meena is beyond being exasperated and furious. She does not want to talk with me. I think she hates me and that she abandoned me,” I sobbed. I turned around to the point where Marcellus’ body was lying. But the place was empty. The only indicator that this was a venue for my berserk, batshit-crazy foray where I mauled Marcellus was a puddle of ichor-like blood that soaked the burnt ground. “What a f**k? Where is he? Was this just another trick?”

Sentaya’s POV

This fuc.king boy needs to go on a diet. He is as heavy as a buffoon. He looks like his mother but is heavily clogged with muscles all over his body like his stupid father. One would think that given his lean but muscled frame, he would be easy to carry. But no, I think I lost my poor old spine somewhere in Wengarthria when I dragged the boy’s deadweight to get to Avesta. Gosh, what did she do to him? His knees, ribs and hands are crushed, deformed and twisted in impossible directions and angles. His face is beyond recognition and possibly beyond repair, as it looks to me. His eyes were closed by bruises, and his nose and jaw were broken. He is unconscious but still breathing, although barely. How is it possible that she is so strong to be able to mas.sacre the son of Hades like this? Probably the genes of that goddamn Noosha.

I was getting close to Avesta, and finally, I sighed with relief. I crept under the small underground passage that led to the dungeons. Luckily, I can rely on my supernatural eyesight because it’s dark, like in a shithole here. It has been dark in here for centuries since the day Noosha dragged my poor daughter to the dungeons to torment her. I am pulling this foolish boy who clung on me with his flailing body, which is as heavy as deadweight boar, through old pebbled, ill-lit, narrow pathways and corridors of Avesta dungeons—so much anguish in here. So many poor souls were tortured here for eternity. Yet, now, the dungeons are silent and abandoned since the untimely death of my daughter.

This is an interesting twist of fate. The place where my daughter lost her life, the place where this foolish boy tortured his mate, is the safest place for him to heal, at least for the moment. We don’t want Noosha to find him and Norgarth in this state. They both look like they were hit by a freight train. She will see through this in a blink and send her rats to explore what happened. And every intel she gets will be used against us in this battle. Not to even mention what kind of catastrophe it would be if she found Aralyn.

I finally came to Dungeon 34 and knocked with the signal agreed. I dropped the bloody boy on the floor straight away. He exhaled heavily before his unconscious body fell on the floor with a loud thud. I can’t wait for a second anymore. He is as heavy as f**k. The doors creaked, and I heard the squeaking sound of wheelchairs. Naevres’ face appeared, and he waved to someone in the background to come forward. Marcellus’ boys came in, and two of them had to carry his beaten-up, unconscious ass in. As they dragged him, his blood smeared and soaked the floor. They placed him in bed, and Naevres started with checkups.

“He has a dislocated jaw and broken nose, eight broken ribs, and both his knees, wrists, ankles and shoulders broken to a mush. He lost a lot of blood. Healing will take at least two weeks after I fix his bones. Who did this to him? I don’t know anyone apart from Hades or Nepenthern who could be a match for him. What happened?”

“I don’t know, boy, you are asking too many questions. I just found him lying on the meadow in Nerzelis in this state. How is your brother anyway?” I asked.

“Better, still in comma, but we expect him to wake up every minute. He had similar fractures as Marcellus, although I don’t see traces of magic on Marcellus as I did on Norgarth. If I did, I’d dare to say that this is a signature attack from the same person. I have a hunch that you know who did this, don’t you?” Naevres said. That boy is more intelligent than he looks, I must say.

“How are you doing, Naevres?”I asked to change the topic.

“Well…better…I can walk small distances with support now. We hope I will get to full working order in the next few weeks.” he said.

“Good, now fix the boys, keep the mouth shut and keep me posted. No one apart from the six of us is to know anything about what is happening here. Are we clear?” I said, pulling the cloak deeper to get better coverage of my face, and left the smelly dungeon.