Chereads / DARK BEGINNING / Chapter 28 - I Hear You Knocking

Chapter 28 - I Hear You Knocking

STARTING OVER, IN THEORY IT'S SIMPLE. You put the past behind you, taking what you learned and begin again. But it's not as easy at it sounds, moving on means letting things go, things that are familiar. Easy. Safe. Things that matter. Someone once said 'you can't go home again.' She hoped like hell they were wrong.

Asleep is only another mode, another way we solve the greatest riddles of our existence...and then sometimes...sometimes...we dream out loud upon a page or movie screen. Sleep was all she wanted to do and to stay enveloped by the warmth of silence. Whether she wanted to rest permanently or not, She did not know. She never would have though silence would be considered warm but there she way laying in her bed prepared to be swept away by the hopes that her sleep would be filled by light.

In the shadows a stranger knelt despite the rain-sodden sidewalk being perennially caked in filth. Alison paused, this was her street.

Ahead he waited, looking up at her with a glare and spit, it was all he written upon his feature. The only thing that moved was his jaw. His eyes were hard-rimmed and fixed, so much that it was as if he was no longer able to move his eyeballs, like they'd rusted into place. The confusion within her mind edge her curiosity, edging her towards the stranger before. It was as if her feet had a mind of their own, taking one step at a time. closer and closer she got to him.

Somewhere deep within her, she knew things weren't right. Bits of her memory were missing, the last thing she could remember was going to that party in the woods with her friends. but the rest remained foggy and dark.

The air around her was hard to breathe, the oxygen never getting into her lungs. She now stood in front of the very same man, that gave her his never ending glare. He kept on starring, with his green gems. The kind of green a forest obtained during the summertime, but not the kind of shade that's easily described. They seemed almost like they were both green and a hint of yellow at the same time.

He blinked and the beauty was momentarily covered by the shielding of his eyelashes; naturally long and soft looking- feminine compared to the rest of his well structured features.

By the time the stranger's eyes opened again, that beautiful green that was vibrant turned into something so malicious, dangerous. A darkness engulfed the green, turning it to blackness, something demonic. Around his eyes, veins pulsed underneath his flawless complexion. And his lips parted, revealing his trues nature. Fangs. Sharp and deadly.

"You'll regret ever being alive." His voice just as dangerous as he looked. She took a few steps backwards, moving further away from the man that knelt before her, shock consumed every part of her. But before she got even the slightest of time to turn and run as far as she could, he griped her by her delicate neck, constricting her lungs of ever sucking in the air it needed to remain alive.

With short inhales of breathes she spoke, "Who are you?"

"You know who I am. You hear my name more than you breathe." He said, squeezing her neck tighter.

But his statement confused her, puzzling her mind further. She has never seen this man in her life before, but one thing was very prominent, and it was fact. Her on going fear of him.

"You know who I am!" He shouted.

"Say my name!"

But she didn't, her mind was fogged up with the lack of oxygen that never seems to reach her lunges.

"Say my name!" He roared again. But she has never seen this man in her life, until that smallest glimpse of memory that seemed to have flashed before her eyes. A light bulb switching itself on. The stranger that stood in front of her was the very same man, that caused most of the reoccurring deaths within her pack. The man that brought great kings to fall to their knees, the main character who brought nightmares to every creature that walked this earth.

"Marcel." The moment his name left her lips, his hand had reached her chest and with force he plunged into it, grabbing the only source of life her body needed to survive. Her heart-

A scream tore through her chest, as she awoke suddenly holding her chest, where her heart remained intact, beating faster by the minute. Every thought on high definition. Sweat dripped from her forehead, and soaked her shirt. The panic she felt was visible within her. She scanned where she was, relaxing slightly at the fact of being in her own room. But the fear still remained.

Why was she dreaming about a person she hated? A man most people loathed. Better question was what the hell did he want with her?

She jumped once more, at the buzzer of her phone going off like an annoyed rattlesnake- whoever it was wanted to talk to her, badly. Alison scooped to up, and spoke. "Hello?"

Her voice felt scratchy, and weak. 'Nothing knew there.' She thought, listening for the caller to answer, but nothing could've prepared Alison for what was about to come. Haile screamed, a loud scream, she screamed down her phone with worry laced within her tone.

"I have been calling and texting you all night! Where the hell have you been?!" She shouted through the device.

In that moment Alison was more aware of her cracking headache than the layer of dehydrated saliva that coated her cracked lips.

"Haile? It's you. Thanks for the fright by the ." Alison stated, her throat feeling drier.

"Yes it's me, who else would it be! -" She screamed once more.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was?" Haile continued.

"What do you mean? I'm fine." She said, 'as fine as I could be.' She thought, getting on her feet but instantly regretting it. The room swayed almost causing her to loose balance and she reached out for the wall. Her hand slipped along the high sheen paint and she sprawled onto the carpet with the a crashing thump.

"Fine? Are you kidding me, you completely disappeared on me, how the hell did you even get home?- Wait, what's that sound?" She asked in her hectic moment of worry and concern.

The room Swirled before becoming stationary again and she used the bedstead to pull herself to standing. This feeling meant she'd had some fun the night before but somehow it wasn't there in her memory. 'Did I really drink that much?' She thought.

"I'm hangover, what do you think?" She retorted.

"You still didn't answer all my questions?" She said again, she was upset.

"Haile, I'm fine. And I thought you gave me a ride?"

"Um Ali... I never gave you a ride, you literally disappeared." 'What?' She thought, then how the hell did she get home? She must've just blacked out and someone at the party must of given her a ride, but she didn't know anybody there beside Haile and Matt.

"Ali?" Haile called once more, silence consumed their call together, pieces of her memory where missing. She has drank before but not to the point she couldn't remember anything.

"Wait, what?" Her brain hurt from all this new found thinking.

"Yeah I never gave you a ride, hence the panicking, you disappeared on me. Where the hell did you go?"

"Haile, What do you mean? I remember being with you all night." She replied, panicking further. If Haile never gave her a ride, then who the hell did?

"Ali, I asked everyone there, no one I know gave you a ride. I panicked and got Matt to literally call everyone who was there. Do you even know how worried I was about you?" Alison never listened to Haile's lecture, all she could think about was her dream. His face haunting her mind. 'No... It was just a nightmare.' She tried convincing herself further.

She pressed her hand against her chest, lifting her shirt to see if it were real. The moment her hand felt the wound that had suddenly started to heal, but its pink scarring remaining there, an encircling around her heart. It was evidence, evidence she hadn't imagined it and it was true, he had been in front of her.

"Haile, I'll call you back." She ended the call before her friend could protest. A clicking of her door being locked, had her turning within seconds to her intruder but she wished she hadn't.

There, by her door he stood his hand grasping the door nob. With an emotionless face, no one could read, not even if they tried. Alison's breathing hitched in her throat, scared of what's to come. So scared in fact she'd thought she would die just from the feeling itself, her hands shook with fear, an uncontrollable fear that she didn't even try to hide.

"Hello, love." He said smoothly, with mischief within his eyes, it twinkled.

The dryness within her mouth worsen, as the realisation finally sunk in further, everything was real. Too real in fact that even she knew her fate was ultimately death. Death had finally come for her just like it did for her dad, it knocked at her door. She was next.

"You look well, with all things considered." He spoke again, letting go of his hold on door nob. He stalked towards her, slowly but she took steps backwards, until she had finally hit the back of the wall, that stud in the way of her escape.

"W-what do you want from me?" She stuttered. But he stopped just two steps away from her, keeping his distance.

"You don't have to be afraid." He tilted his head slightly, observing her, studying her.

"I'm n-not a-afraid." But her stuttering said otherwise.

"Your trembling says otherwise." With that said she never dared rely back, she wanted to disappear or run as far as possible.

"Never the less, I come in peace." He lift his arms in surrender, just like a thief would do if they ever got caught but the law.

"I hardly believe that." This time she never stuttered, her voice remained strong.

"Well you better believe it, I have bigger fish to fry than a fragile girl." His harshness caused a sink to her ego.

"Don't call me fragile." A spark of anger swirled in her eyes, she hated it when she was seen as weak.

Marcel smirked, a wackiness edged his features, "You really haven't looked at yourself in the mirror lately, have you? All I see is a weak, powerless little girl." Hate, she hated him with all her might but Alison knew what he was doing, he was trying to provoke her. But even if he was trying to provoke her, she never spoke. The silence replied for her, it said all the things she was unable to say.

With a sigh, "Like I said I'm not here to harm you. Believe me when I say this, I'm not the one you should fear."

She laughed, "Right of course, should I trust you instead? You who tried to rip my heart out of my chest." She pointed her finger.

"I never said to trust me, I said to only believe me. There's a difference."

"If there was I would't know the difference when it came to you." She seethed, spiteful of the man. Nothing good has ever come out of anything when Marcel was involved, She wasn't smart but she was smart enough to know that he wasn't a good man. Human even. No matter her feelings towards him, it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest, he was unaffected by it, even the fear that surged through her didn't effect him.

"Fair enough. But that's not why I'm here, I need something from you-"

"I'm not giving you anything." Alison cut him off, she never wanted to listen to him in the slightest. All she wanted to do was to be left alone. It seemed the more she spoke, the more he fed off it, sucking her dry of her slight bit of confidence she had left. And it wasn't a lot.

"Yes, I can see that." His smirk seems to get bigger, and that glint of mischief glowed bright within his eyes.

"You know love, I'm not a very patient man, I always get what I want."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She said. Did she really want the question answered? Especially by someone who was pure evil.

"It means, if you don't help me obtain what I want, you force my hands in seeking other ways to make you help me, and I don't think you will like those ways in the slightest."

His threat had her on edge, there were so many ways to hurt her. They were countless, and she didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt, at least not by her hands.

Her eyes narrowed, rigid, cold, hard. "What do you want?"

"Emily." He looked her dead straight within her eyes, waiting, waiting for her answer.

"Why?" She spoke faintly, disbelief was for sure consuming her. What did he want with her aunt Emily? She wasn't someone that associated herself with vampires, Emily always kept to herself, the question that kept puzzling her mind was- what did she do? To get Marcel's attention. And what did he want with a witch like her aunt? She narrowed her eyes slightly at him.

"For so many reason." Marcel expression hardened, his eyes suddenly became a shade darker.

"I can't..." Her words came out soft and powerless.

"In the contrary, you most certainly can."

"I won't." She stated, she would never throw her aunt under the bus. Her aunt was the only thing left from her father's side, she wasn't going to let a Marcel rip that away from her.

"Why is it that you seek to cause mayhem around you? Why would you want to build this destructive outcome?" He questioned her.

"I'm not the one asking." Earning a slight hint of laughter from the devil himself. Amused.

"Careful love, if you knew even a fraction of who I am it would break you in two." He threatened. Within seconds he appeared before her eyes, closer than ever before.

"Like I said before tell me where Emily is?"

Alison found herself a new sense of fierceness within her, it sparked a confidence she didn't know she had, "Never."

"Don't make me the villain, love. You won't like the outcomes." He threatened, once more.

"You are the villain." She stated, gazing up at him with anger that seethed through her.

"Fine. Liz my dear, go ahead and finished what we had started, plug that knife further."

"What?! No, don't. Fine, fine, I'll tell you where she is. Just don't hurt my mom." Guilt, it consumed her, eating her alive because she had chose one over the other but that was her mom. She couldn't lose another parent.

"Hold on Liz, your daughter has so kindly changed her mind." He spoke, waiting.

For a man he was honest, he wasn't patient, actually he was far from it. Everything about him seemed so off. "She's at the south border." Her head dipped low, in shame.

"South border? Huh, That clever little witch." He spoke, more to himself than to her.

"What do you want from her?" Alison asked once more.

"Atia."