26 The Marks (1/2)

I OPEN MY EYES gasping for air and answers I hope Leo could give me. I slowly back away from the tree with only one question at the moment. What did the hell happen?

I jump back when I felt a feather touch my skin. I am still relieving the fact that I am back to reality. The feather that touched my skin was not a feather but Leo's fur. ”I'm guessing the tree of knowledge of good and evil didn't help you much huh? It raises more questions didn't it?”

”Y-yes,” I stutter. ”But you can answer them, right? My questions, I mean. You have answers for them right?” I ask, sounding hopeful.

”Yes, I have answers for them but no I can't answer them.” He's not looking at me though all I can see is his fur, I can tell by the way his neck cranes.

”Why?” I exclaimed.

”Because I am in no position to answer some of your questions. Some of them I could. But some of them you have to find out for yourself.” He said that matter-of-factly.

”Okay?” That came more of a question than an answer. ”So you can answer some?”

”Yes,” I can hear the hesitancy in his voice.

”Are Cade and Allianah my parents?

”Yes.” He answered curtly. I release a breath I didn't know I've been holding till now. It's like a huge rock in my chest had been removed. But I feel the sting in my eyes when I remember what happened to them.

”And Sarah is the head right?” I ask because I just want reassurance that I am going after the right person.

”Yes.” We are walking to I don't know where but after all of that, it feels good to exercise my lower limbs.

”What's my real name?”

”Rebecca. Rebecca Johanson.” Rebecca. But my parents called me Recca. I stop in my tracks as a memory came to my mind.

”Nathan,” the name came out of my lips as a whisper. I peer at Leo and he nods at me.

”Raven is Nathan. Nathaniel Hudgens. What the tree lets you see was the past not your memory but the moment you wake up from this, you will regain your memories. As well as your friends. And before you awake, I will give you a piece of information. The operation has been running for almost two decades now. Don't hate Sarah, kid, and don't hate yourself after all of this is done. She's just a follower. She's just doing what she has to do.” That was his last words before I woke up, chained in my prison.

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*VIOLA'S POV*

It's hard to think that Mica's dead. I still have the image of her imprinted in my mind and I have no intention of deleting it. I still remember her sweet smile. Her cunning retorts every time we argue. Her bell-like laugh that does something in me. I still remember everything about her vividly. So vividly it hurts. It hurts to know that I'm going to wake up the next day without having her by my side. It hurts to know that she left me. It hurts so much. My heart clenches and I am struggling to find the right rhythm of breathing. I hate this feeling. The feeling of vulnerability. The feeling of losing someone so important. The feeling that you can't do anything about it. It makes me feel weak. And I hate her. I hate the head for tricking us into her trap and I hate myself for falling into it. Right now, there's nothing I want to do but to strangle her.

My blood boils and I can feel my body heat rising. My heart is beating so fast and I can tell that my face's flush. A burning sensation is happening on the nape of my neck. I don't know what it is but I can feel the power it gives. It runs in my veins, circulating my body like oxygenated blood that I need to live. I let out a cry when I felt the burning sensation turning more intense each second. Just when I am about to combust from the heat of it, it stops. It vanishes like a bubble. Seconds later, the second wave started. Wrecking me more than ever. Leaving me in pieces as it continues to flow inside my body. Memories flash behind my heavy eyelids. And I writhe under my bindings. I tug at the chains keeping me in place and I can feel them loosening up as I resume my tugging. I don't know what's happening to me. I don't have any idea. I just know that I need a release of this power. And I just know that right now, I'm regaining a lost part of me.

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*MICA'S POV*

I can hear someone talking to me but I can't open my eyes even though I want to. I can't even move. I am stuck in my darkness and I have no power here. I am empty and numb and lifeless. There's no light, only voices. One voice booms out of them all. I recognize it. I know that I know that voice. Because it's the same voice that haunts me in my dreams. It's Sarah's, the person I once thought I could rely on. The person who taught me all of the things I need to know to survive in this cruel world. She took me in when I have no home to return for. She saved me when I've got no hero. She became my one and only family when I've got no one. She once was my role model. I wanted to be just like her. People are afraid of her, even I am afraid of her. She always looks regal and intimidating and nerve-cracking. Because of her, people started treating me as their equal. I was no longer ”the exiled child”, that's why I always do what she says. I always wanted to be like her. But all of that changes the moment I've learned what she's doing. That's why I did what I have to do to protect Ellie--or should I say Rebecca--from her but still, she had her way of catching Rebecca.

I should get used to calling her Rebecca instead of Ellie since that is her real name and Ellie is not. I've known that she's Rebecca since I accepted my position as royalty. Yes, I am a royalty too just like Ellie--I mean, Rebecca--but she doesn't know that there's two of us. I started having the dreams a little earlier than she was. I'll tell you this. There are two royalties, always, because there are two trees. The first royalty associates with time, past present future, something like that while the second royalty associates with life. I fall with the first one. I was granted the power to see through or past time. So basically I know everything before it even happened. I admit it is hard to be the first royalty because it's like being the bodyguard. Why? Knowledge Royalties should protect Life Royalties because the life of earth lies in the hands of the Life Royalties. You would think that Life Royalties got it bad but honestly the knowledge royalties got it bad too. All Life Royalties have to do is to prevent the earth from running out of life while Knowledge Royalties have to protect the Life Royalties, they have to be the loyal follower of nature too. Which means they have to do what nature or jungle told them to do. Though they will not tell us exactly what to do, they will show us the future and tell us indirectly what to do. Life Royalties often didn't know that they have their little guardian angels behind their backs until they see the inscription saying that they are royalty. As for Rebecca, she doesn't know and she doesn't need to know. I love the girl too much to hurt her. And I know that this information will kill her.

When I first saw Rebecca steps in the defiance, I immediately knew that I failed my mission. (If you thought that being the Knowledge Royalty means having to know what the future holds then you are wrong because being the Knowledge Royalty means you can only have a glimpse of future which means it is up to you to figure out what the future holds.) Right then, all I wanted to do was to throttle the life out of Sarah. Yeah, I know now that her name is Sarah because to accept being royalty means you have to accept the past. Let me rephrase that, I have to view what happens in the past before being a full-time royalty. Yeah, it is like a full-time job that I have.

A splash of blaze sends me reeling. It hurts so much that I want to cry out of pain but couldn't. I can feel it burning my skin and denting itself on my nape. As much as it hurts, it also sends jolts of pleasure in me. I can feel it running in my veins, in my blood, and throughout my systems. It is invading me in every way possible. Seconds later, it stops, only to come back up again, stronger and tougher than ever. It is the same occurrence that happened to me when I first accepted that I was a royalty except that it wasn't on my wrist but it is on my nape.

I threatened to grin if it wasn't for the fact that I am in a d*mn comma. Because I knew what this means. I knew what the images flashing in my mind means. It means that Rebecca finally made it.

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*AIKAH'S POV*

When Shekainah died, a part of me died too. Everyone knows her as Aiksha but that's not her real name. We faked our names because our real names were included in the government's blacklist. Meaning we are one of their most wanted criminals but we are not like the black hunter. No. We save exiles but we don't kill warriors. That's why the black hunter was the most wanted and dangerous criminal out there.