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Aria's POV

“Nooo! Please, don't kill my parents. Please,” those were the words that escaped from my mouth as the terrifying creature who killed and terrorised people in our little village was set loose again. 

This time, the blood of innocent people spilt over the lands. 

I wailed and cried, but to no avail. My words fell on deaf ears and my nose became blocked already. 

In my very eyes, the creature dragged out my adoptive parents, pulling them with their necks. 

These were the people who had raised me, loved me and protected me from harm right from the time that I was a child.  

I screamed, trying to fight the creature to let go of them, but the sound of my voice was caught in my throat as if my own fear was strangling me. 

My legs trembled so badly that I could barely stay standing, but I could not move. 

Neither could I look away.

The creatures were merciless. They were monsters that I could not even begin to name. 

They held my parents up like they were nothing and dug their claws into their skin. 

I rushed towards them with my tiny fists, trying to blow off their heads and they stared at me sternly with their burning eyes. 

One of them growled angrily and all I could hear was a low and guttural sound that seemed to rattle in my chest.

“Run, Aria! Run! You can't remain here,” my mother begged with a panic-stricken voice. 

I stared at her, breathing heavily. Her face was already half open and blood streamed out from the deep open wound across her face, but she didn’t flinch. 

Her eyes locked onto mine. She tried to smile, but the pain she felt didn't let her. 

“No. No, mum. I can't. I can't leave you. I can't let them have you,” I deadpanned, shaking my head rigorously. My head was pounding from the overstimulation, and all I could mutter in that moment was, "Please let this be a dream. Just a bad dream."

I stood frozen to the ground, shutting my eyes with a faint ray of hope in me. I could still her begging me to run, but my legs weren't listening. 

My hands clenched into fists, and my long, sharp nails bit into my palms. In that moment, the noise died down. 

Then I opened my eyes, hoping to be back at home, in my bed drenched from a bad dream, but...

It was all real. My mom's neck was dangling by a thin rope of flesh. 

I grunted, fighting the urge to try and put an end to the monsters, but since I didn’t even know how, I had only one choice-run. 

I was standing there, useless, frozen and unable to do anything when the sharp edge of a blade glinted before my very eyes. 

“No!” I screamed out loud, finally finding my voice. 

The scream tore from my throat like a wounded animal, and then the blade from the sword came down, slicing her neck off her head.  

I saw it happen.

I saw it happen in front of me. I swear I did. 

My mother’s body crumpled to the ground with her head detached from her body. 

Her lifeless eyes stared up at me as blood pooled beneath her. 

In a split second when I was yet to recover from the shock, My father fell next. 

He let out a brief scream which was cut off by the sickening crunch of metal slicing through his bone.

Again, his head was rolling on the floor and the rest of his body was elsewhere. 

I could not breathe. 

I could not think.

It was like the world shattered around me, breaking into sharp pieces that tore through my chest.

“Run, Aria, now," someone whispered again, but it didn't sound like my mother’s voice this time. 

My mother was dead. She was long dead. 

The voice was that of a random villager. A man I didn’t know well and his face was covered with dirt. 

He pointed toward the small opening in the ground. It was a hidden passage I had never noticed before.

“I….” I started to protest, to fight, to do something, but his hands pushed me harder to the opening. 

“GO!”

“Now!” 

“Your family is dead. Do you want them to take you too? Then who will take vengeance for them?"

Before I could argue, the ground disappeared beneath me and I tumbled into darkness. 

The scent of wet soil filled my nostrils as I slid down the twisted and narrow tunnel. 

My head kept bumping on hard surfaces and my arms scraped against the rough walls. The worst that happened was when dirt filled my mouth when I tried to cry out.

My body hit the ground with a thud, and I lay there for a moment, barely conscious.

Everything was silent except for the pounding of my heart in my ears. 

The world above was gone and gone forever. That was what it seemed like. The village, the screams, the fire, the monster and my parents.

The moment I remembered my parents, a loud sob tore from my chest, but I clamped a hand over my mouth to stop it. 

I would never get over the fact that they were gone, and a motherfucking monster killed them in the most cruel manner. Now I had to live with the horror of their gruesome death forever. 

They were gone. 

"They are gone," I whispered to myself severally, as if trying to believe my new reality. 

I scrambled to my feet, with every muscle in my body shaking tremendously. 

I didn’t know where I was, but I could not remain here. 

I could feel that the monsters who killed my parents were still up there somewhere. 

If they found the tunnel, they would come for me next. I wouldn't let that happen.

I have to stay alive, for them. 

Without thinking twice, I broke into a run and my bare feet slapped against the cold ground as I found my way through the darkness. 

I didn’t care where I was going. I just had to move. I had to get away from here no matter what it takes. 

After running a long time, the tunnel eventually opened into a dense forest, and the cold air gave me a sharp slap against my teary face. 

My eyes blinked countless times as I found myself in an entirely different place, yet I didn't stop running. 

My lungs burned as I ran, the chilly air exacerbating the pain of my open wounds. 

My legs were screaming for rest but I was scared of the unknown. 

I had to survive. If not for anyone, for my dead parents. 

The trees were beginning to thin, and suddenly I was at the edge of a very different environment. 

I came to a halt and I let out a loud gasp, struggling to make sense of what I was seeing.

The air here was different. It was heavier and charged with something I could not really name.

 There were some tall mountains at strategic corners, and then my mouth fell open, and my gaze rested on them.  

They were wolves. 

But trust me, they were not like any wolves I had seen before. They were more terrifying, and larger with large claws. 

My legs suddenly became weak, and I lost my voice as my eyes bored into the creatures I had laid my eyes on. 

This was the lycan's realm and I had just ran into it. I might never be able to make it out alive. But what if I do?

My sight began to blur and I felt dizzy that I could no longer control myself and I didn't know when I passed out.