DAYS AND WEEKS passed, Dwayne couldn't tell what date it was now. But he couldn't gather enough courage to leave the tower. He was scared, afraid to see the outside world. What if they were outside? Waiting, just to kill him, a surviving Winchester? What if he dies?
Dwayne remained sinking on his bed and covering himself with a thick blanket, craving the warmth that he missed, but only feeling emptier and colder as each day passes. It was already the beginning of winter before he sneaked out of the tower, and he used the remaining firewood that Clementine gathered to keep him warm, now he can only warm himself up in his cold bed. He could barely move, he didn't want too. It's as if he was waiting for his own death.
He was suppose to look after the greenhouse since Clementine is not here, but he couldn't and he only watched the plants slowly dying and withering. He barely eats, and has starved himself… and he also stopped taking his medicine. Because of that, his body became more and more weak than it normally was.
He's only coughed out blood and had a cold so far, but he felt weaker than before. Is it because of the mental damage? It definitely was, it was taking a toll on him, strands of his beautiful black hair started turning white. Dwayne was constantly worrying, crying and stressing over possibilities of why his family was captured.
He only became weaker.
Today was any other snow-full day, and Dwayne is buried in his bed, not having the strength to do anything at all. 'How many days haves passed..?' He thought to himself as his eyes slowly open. He woke up from sudden noises coming from nearby, it was unclear but he was sure that they were voices.
'Is someone there…?' His curiosity about the voices gave him hope and strength to pull his body up. Just as he moved, he heard silence, but when he fully opened his eyes, he saw them. Figures and faces that he's never seen before standing in front of him. There were a total number of ten men. The other eight looked like ordinary mercenaries, while the other two looked as if they were important people.
Dwayne flinched in surprise, they didn't look like they were here to harm him, it didn't matter to him if they were here to kill him either way. He was simply taken aback… to see people other than his family, nanny and doctor. "Who-" He couldn't let out his voice because of the cold air and because of how dry his throat was. He coughed continuously until blood was seen dripping on his dry lips.
The men in front of him were shocked, and began panicking.
"What are you lot standing surprised for?! Someone find the medicine already! Give him some warm water and bread too!" One of the two important-looking men immediately ordered and the eight men hurriedly started searching. Dwayne's eyes widened a little, he tried to open his mouth to speak again, but he only ended up coughing out blood.
Even with all the ruckus around, the other man, which seemed to be a stern and noble man, still stared at him with blank eyes. Dwayne watched as the man's lips parted to speak.
"Are you Dwayne Winchester?" Dwayne froze at the stern voice, he could tell that this man has a high position… higher than his father's. His intuition was the one thing that his family praised the most about him, he was never wrong about anything.
Dwayne moves his upper body, leaning to bow and show his respect. It didn't came out as he expected though, as they seem to have misunderstood that he's nauseous.
"I-I am Dwayne Winchester, the seventh child… of the Winchester F-Family... May I ask, have you come here to capture me?" Dwayne answers and asked, his throat was still dry and he barely let it out with a meek and small voice. It was incredibly unmanly of him, his brothers would probably make fun of him.
Eyes turned to him, other than pity, they were filled with confusion. 'Did the Marquis not tell him anything?' The stern man looked down at him, no one could tell what he's really thinking as he showed no emotion. But once again, after a few moments of silence, he speaks.
"Although, I am royalty, I am only a Grand Duke. The ones who ordered to capture and kill your family were the Grimes Imperial Family."
Dwayne's eyes widened, his pupils' shrinking in horror. What..? He slowly looks up to the man, and they saw despair filling his face. 'Kill..? My family… the Winchester…
… are dead?'
Although he knew that it would happen, he never admitted it. He did not give up, and hoped that they would come back… to visit him again! To celebrate his 10th birthday with him! Desperately, Dwayne gripped on the sheets, as if pulling himself to crawl to the man who's claimed himself as a Grand Duke. He was in front of the bed, and it was fortunate that he was.
"Young lord, don't push yourself!" The other man, who had a gentle yet serious feeling in him, walked to stop Dwayne, but his eyes widened as he was taken aback once more. 'This child's hair… is turning more white!' His eyes weren't deceived, Dwayne's hair was turning white, and the moment he stopped moving, all the black hair he had left were nowhere to be found.
He was both mentally and physically unstable and unhealthy. Confirming his family's deaths only made it worse.
The moonlight that served as their lamp made his hair shine bright like a natural pearl. Tears were seen trailing down his pale cheek as he crawled to the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke bends on one knee to match his current level, Dwayne was a small child despite his age. When their eyes met, Dwayne was frozen in his place. He wanted to beg the Grand Duke to tell him the truth, to tell him that he was only kidding.
But looking directly in his eyes, Dwayne knew that he heard only the truth. The fact that his family are no longer in this hell called Earth, is the truth. And Dwayne is left to accept that truth. Other than that, what is he left to do here? His family… the Winchester were all he had, and now they were taken from him. What is he suppose to do now...?
"Child, listen carefully." The Grand Duke calls for Dwayne's attention, he was thankful that this child hadn't completely lost it after learning such news. He heard from the Marquis and his other children that this child is smarter and calmer than most of his siblings. Well, just imagine being under and being taught by those people, this child practically inherited everything that they have to offer.
"Your father, the Marquis Azul Winchester left you in my hands. I am the Head of the Novak Family, Grand Duke Tanner Novak, and from now on you will be my second child, Hades Novak." Dwayne—no, Hades was taken aback. They were here to take him with them? Out to the world, and with a new identity?
As they noticed the child's silence, the Grand Duke speaks again. "Are you still angry and sad because of their deaths?" The child nodded almost immediately at his question. "Then will you bear knowing the truth behind their deaths?" The Grand Duke asks again and the child nodded firmly, despite how dead his eyes are now.
"Do you want to take revenge?"
This one question made him wonder. Is it even possible for him to take revenge against the rulers of his own homeland? Is it possible to make the Imperial Family suffer under his feet? This one question begun changing his whole mindset before he even knew it.
"Grand Duke! This isn't what the Marquis wants for the young lord!" The second important man immediately protested, but the Grand Duke glared at him.
"Silence. I accepted this child into Novak, not because of good will, but because of how useful he will be to me in the near future. What Senior Azul wants has nothing to do with this child's choice of path." The man clicked his tongue, which is surprisingly bold for a man who's probably under the Grand Duke.
"The young lord is simply lost! Let him heal and think calmly first! If you still insists that he take that path, then we, the SAG, will take him with us!" The man argues, but the Grand Duke did not back down.
"I'm giving him a choice of where he can truly achieve happiness, and I am the chosen legal guardian." The Grand Duke says, the man was in disbelief.
"Achieve happiness?! Revenge is not a path for a child to take! Let him move on, don't fan his flames and burn him out! He's just a ten year old!" The man argues again, but before the Grand Duke could say anything back, they all heard a hoarse voice.
"I do… and I will."
They saw it, burning flames of wrath lighting up and bringing life in his eyes. He was filled with determination to bring down the family who killed his family. The same child from a few moments ago was dead… and this was the birth of Hades Novak, a child living in the path of revenge.