Chereads / STINGER / Chapter 76 - sea and a hard place

Chapter 76 - sea and a hard place

"Kai, you know Jake was so frightened after he could not find you in the dungeon. I could see he was broken; he didn't speak what he felt. All he wanted is you and Maya back"

"He blamed himself for your pain even before you renounced him as your Alpha; he wanted to make it right" tears crawled to the corner of my eyes and rolled down easily,

"Jake has been always been there for us, he cared, he protected us; he loved." My voice wrapped around my throat making me halt unknowingly, I sniveled and wiped my eyes.

"It's not Jake's fault; I took advantage of his feelings for me. I should have left him sooner; I should have expected it was to happen,"

"He died and it's my fault. All of it"

"I know you will not talk to me but I just want you to know that I will get Maya back if you tell me where you hid her body and if not all, some of it will be resorted"

"I cannot bring your Alpha back, but at least your pack can come back together. Jake deserves this"

"Please kai; I cannot do this without you"

"You don't need to keep standing there," I said peering behind me a little.

Flynn had been standing from behind, I heard him.

"As I said earlier; he's only loyal to me. He will not dare to dialogue with you"

"This is no way to earn his loyalty; bring back what you've taken from him and you will receive his loyalty and not forcing it on him"

"You have taken what made him whole; his mate. I merely took away the betrayal he once called 'his Alpha' and the pain that came with it. No one deserve to live like that"

"What does that make me?" I asked

"For you I am willing to take your pain away only when you give up becoming a Rayleigh bloodline. I'm here to set you free"

I laughed briefly, "Set me free?"

"Everything I had cared for was taken away from me, and now you took the last of it, dear brother"

He said "Now all we have is ourselves; just us"

"So this is what having a real family feels like?" I laughed painfully; Flynn sat by me and brushed through my hair

"Gianna, Family is a pain you cannot do without. You cannot get away from it even if you try to,"

He added "But there is no greater pain than having his blood run through your vein──his powers inside your core but for his love you can rest assure you have it."

"Flynn, why are we doing this? Think about it, our father might be setting us against each other. His wish for anarchy wasn't fully completed; he will have his legacy fulfilled this way" I tried to reason but he wasn't listening I could see, she simply continued to stroke through my hair, I caught his wrist in my hand

"The throne and respect a celestial should have is what you want? To be regarded as the leader and as the legal heir to the throne? You can have it, all I want is to have someone I can call my own──to be a little sister to you"

"We can prove to the people just how good our beings once were and how you are willing to rule over them in just," he snatched his wrist out of my fist and look away from me

"You sound really convincing Gianna," he smiled

"But I want you to feel what I felt, to feel unappreciated and unwanted" his voice grew faint

"Flynn, this is the reality of our existence; everybody despises us"

"No, I want you to feel it from him"

He grabbed my wrist roughly, my chest became clouded with pain and I could no longer see my room but the city of gods.

"That is what It felt like everyday" he breathes through the mouth while tears dampen his face. I was horrified to the point I couldn't speak

"You lived all of your live away from the hatred, happy. You think you felt enough of pain; that you've seen the worst?" he looked me in the eyes his cornea flushed,

"It's just the start"

He left and what I thought of my birth father changed──Luther wasn't just a brutal leader but a heartless father too. He'd hated Flynn, which was very odd. For a being of his status all he should really focus on was a heir──a male heir. He got Flynn at the early stage of his marriage with Flynn's mother and just after his birth he started the affair with Xena. He'd never given the time for his son or his legal wife; he resented Flynn. Flynn had all the right to be angry with me to hate me as he does but I wish he could just give me a chance to prove otherwise

Days passed and I could see just Kai with me whenever I opened my eyes. My body stamina kept deteriorating in a faster pace no matter how much I consume. It came to the stage where I couldn't sit; the movements in my body had been limited. The pressing weight kept getting heavier on my soul, forcing my body to emaciate slowly turning into a pile of bones as Flynn continued crafting his vessel to contain the powers. I could cough of blood several times in a day, my heart taking slower paces and presently not even the nourishment he provided could pass down my throat. Hopeless, I lied to face the end knowing it wasn't coming anytime soon until I was free of that ancestral energy which powers my heart. The food he left from last two nights sat still on a little table while I watch it dry out.

I was still thinking about the memory I saw of my parents, how a little boy; five years old watch them from behind a tree commit atrocity to his family. Unfaithfulness and selfish love flourish more than his relationship to his own birth father that he once saw as a figure of strength. He hated them both but more towards the unborn in the womb of his father's mistress, few months away from coming into the world. He'd seen the love he had for the child in his eyes; something he'd never seen in them. Flynn perfected just how he needed to crumble that love into Luther's weakness, to make the worshipped deity fall on his knees; be helpless and broken. He watched them closely express love to each other while he feel the fire so calm in the chest of a five year old soar with determination, he compared the face of his depressed mother to Xena's bright face whenever he watched them together. He wanted to take it away too, in turn Flynn enslaved himself to those memories and more that he witnessed of the trio in a heated love triangle. Flynn became obsessed to his Half-sister still in the cocoon of her mother's love and protection; he wanted to see her just as bad as Luther or more.

The night he indeed watched his father's destruction, just seven years old then; his heart ached for him. Dissatisfaction razor in his heart while it turned to stone as he watched his father conduit himself to his new born. Forgetting he had a family back home as in much danger as he was, he wanted him to feel more of the pain; wanted it to swell to a thousand to be felt for a millennium or more. He felt pain too, losing him meant his mother's destruction; she just lost the individual she vowed to love until life ended. He felt sorry for his mother, a tear to signify that rolled down his cheek while he walks away. He also watched my mother, the once bright face in tears and mucus; in a fragile state of just giving birth blood trailed behind her as she ran with her daughter in her arms. I, a few minutes old had my eyes opened, he looked through my blue eyes enchanted at first and then I saw him smirk at me. Flynn watched her hopelessly jump off the cliff with me in her arms, leaving everything behind he vanished from the face of the earth.

Flynn came inside after twenty four hours holding a pendent in his hand, "You look better tonight,"

I tried to laugh but it came as a harsh cough, "Still holding on,"

"Here," he said while coming over to the foot of the bed, he leaned down and pulls it over my head.

"Keep it on," he instructed

"Is this it?" I asked faintly

"That is your Mother's; at least she should be with you in your last moments" I raised the pendent in my hand side by side to the one my father left me. There was no crystal on it; it was a round disk with a carving of a wolf on it and on the other side her name. Tears flowed from my eyes, rolled into my hair; seeing them side by side made me thought of the moment them both set eyes on me.

"You got it the night she died," I said with certainty

I asked, "It's happening very soon right?"

From what I feel, it was very near and I know I was just enough close to being with Elisabeth and James. Flynn stopped and simply watched me blankly; he neither responded nor looks away.

"You are right,"

"You knew Jake," I paused to take and breathe and change my uncomfortable position to more uncomfortable one "How did you know Jake Wyatt?"

"My dear sister, I know everything there is to know. I have watched you from century to century, how you learned to walk and your few first words. I know it all"

"You were watching me,"

"Of course, I waited until you were imprudent enough to trade the Paradlag for love" he said hysterically

I sighed heavily "Promise me it will be quick towards the end"

I knew I was defying all that I stood for neither Elisabeth nor James thought me to give up; that's the reason I couldn't give up on her when we lost James. The fight I had all this while was powered by them, I wanted to avenge them and I have come to the realization that it was bigger than that. I was in no position to avenge, now all that I really needed was the absolute freedom; death. My hope to get out of there died when Jake was lost, I just want to meet with them on the other side.

"You see, he also though it would take more than just a weapon through his heart to end him but it turns out a prick from a thorn could. You are nothing without those powers,"

I smiled "You are right about one thing, all my life I had been under protection from one family to another; I witnessed what love was, I felt it and there's nothing like it. My parents, Elisabeth and James made me feel like the strongest person in the world, I know the feeling of being strong, feeling impenetrable and able even before my powers manifested." I paused making sure I looked him in the eyes before saying, "It wouldn't make a difference when they are gone brother,"

He leaned down into my face, void of words but I could see and feel it all over his facial features.

I could see the lunacy in his eyes, how far he was willing to take it just to quench his thirst for revenge against my mother and our father, Luther. No it wasn't just because he hated his father for what he's done there was something else deeper just as much craze and hunger I saw in my father's eyes; he didn't just want it to get back at them but to stump on everything and build his own empire. I could see his will to be better than our father in all ways except the good; to prove to Luther that he wasn't as useless as he described him. Flynn seek to be really invincible

Wrong from inception, I realized just how much jeopardy I was willing to throw the world into because I had lost all that mattered to me. How could I have done agreed to wipe my thirst for family; for a sibling? Fear started to mount, as though I had forgotten what the feeling was I feel my skin crawl and my insides rattle before my eyes bulge in realization; I wasn't ready to believe my own thoughts. As my eyes blur with tears the corner of his mouth started to rise

"No" I uttered in disbelieve "You cannot be like him" it pained more than I thought it would; making my chest squeeze and pinch with pain.

"I am not like him! I am better" he said proudly

"Father was weak for the cause but I am,"

I continued, "I trusted you! I blamed myself for your misfortune! I pitied you!"

Flynn cut in sharply, "I am not in the position to be pitied, you are──you──his bastard" he leaned off standing straight "Why is it that no one had tried hunting me down?" he asked rhetorically

"You don't think it's because they presume I perished along with my parents?" I simply stared him down drawing deep heavy breath

"Because I am the mighty one!" he yelled

He added boosting, "No one would dare come after me even as a little child" his jade colored eyes glowed and was now freckled with golden color.

"I have the strongest link, without me the balance in this world will be lost and they will perish as quickly as their lust"

"You don't wish to restore balance; you just want to prove a point to your father; who's already passed away" I said

"These creatures need beings like us to control them, nothing comes without hardship. That's the reality"

"They don't need to be on a leash to accept your leadership," I tried to reason

"I don't need their acceptance; they will submit to me or die of the worst" he roared

"Fine! Do as you please but you will find me standing against you. If taking my power is what you seek then you will have to dig through the seven layers of earth to fish it out from our ancestors."