Warning before you start reading this chapter. There are mentions of violence, murders, and deaths. It is not too descriptive or graphic but it is there. So please, proceed with slight caution.
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Have you ever felt such intense anger, such seething fury, that you wanted to tear the entire world to shreds and reduce it to ashes? A rage so dark and pure that it ignites from the depths of your heart, from the very core of your soul, screaming louder than any heart-wrenching cry. It doesn't explode outward; instead, it remains trapped inside, sinking its poison-laced claws so deep into you that it rips you apart.
That's exactly how Seraphina was feeling in that moment as she watched the extreme distress and anger on Marcus's face on seeing his daughter Chloe lying on the bed, unconscious.
Seraphina watched on her laptop, the live footage of the secret cameras that she had managed to get installed in the Grayson family mansion. There was a camera everywhere, in every room, in the washrooms as well. At this point in life where Seraphina desired nothing but revenge, there was no point in thinking about the dignity and privacy of her enemies.
The more she watched, the more angrier she felt. She could see the concern and fear in Marcus's eyes for Chloe event through the screen, she could see the rage in his facial expressions. Her eyes were trained on Marcus alone as he paced in Chloe's room like a caged lion.
The glass in Seraphina's hand cracked and broke into pieces because of the extreme pressure that Seraphina's hold onto the glass was applying to it. With eyes so red that it looked as if blood had seeped into her eyes, with blood trailing down her hand because of the shards of glass that got stuck into her palm injuring it, and her blood dripping down drop by drop on the pristine white marble floor, Seraphina continue to watch the live footage, enraged at Marcus's reaction.
He had the audacity to be so concerned about his daughter when he had no qualms about abusing someone else's daughter. How dare he act like this when he was the one who killed each and every member of her family? How dare he be so concerned over a slap when he did not give a damn about plunging daggers into other people's hearts, never cared when he shot people dead, and never even flinched when ordering others to take someone's life!
He, who ruined her face by hitting it again and again until it was so injured, her facial bones so broken that no one could ever recognize that this bloodied mess of a child was actually the beloved daughter of the Sullivan family, Caroline Mae Sullivan.
Silent tears fell down her cheeks, her eyes burning with pain but Seraphina did not move her gaze away from the screen. She was reminded of the day when Marcus, along with her step-uncle William, and their friend Daniel came to her house to be a part of their celebrations only to leave after annihilating them.
It was the day when her eldest brother Nathaniel, her Nate, had received the acceptance letter from the most prestigious university in the country to study law. They were so proud of him, everybody was so happy. Her grandfather, her father, her mother, her brothers, and her.
Her mother had decided to bake her most famous upside down pineapple cake to celebrate, while her father had ordered for them pizzas to celebrate the joyous event. When the doorbell rang, they did not know that by inviting Marcus, Daniel and William inside their home, they were inviting their deaths.
With Marcus, Daniel, and William, in came several other men. They didn't even have the time to react when the men that Marcus had brought along grabbed onto each of her family members, holding a gun against their head while William and Daniel held onto her, threatening her family to kill her in case they tried to escape or act against them.
She had tried to be brave, she hadn't cried until they hit Chrissy so hard that he started bleeding profusely from the wound on his head. Nate and her father had struggled to help Chrissy but they didn't let them do that.
Her mother, who had managed to grab a knife from the counter, attacked the man who was holding her and had just reached down to help Chrissy when she was shot in the head from behind. That was when Seraphina recalls, she had screamed so hard that it hurt her throat. William had slapped her when she had bit his hand to escape his hold and go to her mother.
Chrissy, who was semi-conscious was hit again and again on his head until he breathed his last. They tortured him to death just because they wanted her father to beg in front of them. But they showed no mercy even when they got what they wanted.
Chrissy was gone but Marcus still shot him because it was a fun game to him. Seeing his brother being mistreated and tortured even after his death, Nate had lunged upon Marcus and managed to grab his gun during their struggle but before Nate could fire a shot in defense, Daniel walked behind him and slit Nate's throat which led to his quick death.
But the few minutes that Nate was alive, he struggled to breathe, the sound of him suffocating on his blood still rang in Seraphina's ears.
After Nate, it was her grandfather who was murdered. William had pushed her to Daniel who wiped his bloody dagger using the fabric of her white skirt giving her a trauma that it took her years before she could wear white again.
Her grandfather was murdered next. He was strangled to death by William who explained to her grandfather his reasons behind the massacre. And after him, it was her father who was shot to death like her mother had been.
Money, property, inheritance, greed.
That is why William, Marcus, and Daniel did all this.
Her grandfather, who had been aware of his second son's bad lifestyle, greed, and heinous ambitions, had made Seraphina's father the sole heir to all his properties, savings, and inheritance. He had stipulated in his will that if something were to happen to him, all his inheritance will go to Seraphina's father, and after him, to his three children - Nathaniel, Christopher, and her.
It was also mentioned in her grandfather's will that in case of either one of them dies then then everything will be shared among the two remaining siblings, and in case the three of the pass away, the whole inheritance was then meant to be donated to the charity.
Nothing was giving to William, whom her grandfather knew was a nefarious man of ill intentions.
This is why William, Marcus, and Daniel killed every member of her family and kept her captive. For them, it was easier to handle a ten years old girl than a 20 and 16 years old boy. After the death of her father and brothers, she was the sole heir to the massive fortune.
She had become the heiress to the vast wealth that belonged to the Sullivan family. And it was this wealth that brought her a life of sufferings.
Hidden from the public eye in name of trauma, Seraphina who was then known as Caroline, was held captive, abused physically and mentally, and was tortured. For three years, she remained their prisoner while William made his daughter, her one year younger cousin, Camille undergo multiple face reconstruction surgeries to make her look like how Seraphina used to look like, how the real Caroline looked like.
William had no qualms about destroying his own daughter's face just for the sake of his greed so why would he hesitate to destroy her face to make sure that no one would be able to recognize her even after her death.
Seraphina remembered how Marcus and William had looked like when they hit her face again and again using a heavy rock. She remembered feeling nothing after a time, she remembered the numbness, she remember surrendering to the eternal abyss of her death.
And in the next instant, she remembered opening her eyes in the dimply lit hospital room. She remembered to unbearable pain that made her scream but no sound could be heard.
She had believed that she was dead but heaven was supposed to be nice and a place where you wouldn't feel any pain while she was in constant pain. It took her a few days and multiple sedative injections to calm down and realize that she wasn't dead, and was in fact alive thanks to her rescuer who was there at the right time where William, Marcus, and Daniel threw her to rot and die.
Seraphina realized that this wasn't heaven, this was hell. But this time around, she wasn't the hell's latest victim but the ruler instead. Her enemies had chosen to keep her alive for those three years because they believed that she could do them no harm.
They thought that she was just a naive little girl who couldn't even hurt a fly. But perhaps, they weren't familiar with the saying that 'Anger transforms a woman, whether young or old, into the most potent force - she is to be revered like a goddess or feared like a storm, for in her fury lies the power to reshape worlds.'
Their father had taught them that quote when Chrissy had once joked about their father being afraid of their mother.
Marcus, William, and Daniel had believed that she wasn't a danger to them, that is why they had left her in those fields to die not caring that she still had a few breaths left in her system. They had thought that they finally won, they had forgotten about the supreme power that sees everything, takes notes of your deeds and make a judgement accordingly.
The power called karma.
Seraphina believed that the reason why she was still alive was to punish those who destroyed her home. Otherwise, how was it possible for her rescuer to be there at the right time in those barren fields, how was it possible that she, whom the doctors and surgeons lost thrice on the operating table, is still alive.
She had to undergo several surgeries to reconstruct her face, suffer unbearable pain, get a new identity, for Caroline Mae Sullivan to become Seraphina Vale.
For years, Seraphina planned and plotted carefully. She learned various hand to hand combat forms, mastered the art of weapons, studied and worked hard to be where she was, to become capable enough to punish the sinners who destroyed her life and family, to serve them their karma in the most torturous way.
Closing her eyes, Seraphina calmed herself down and turned off her laptop. She stood up, grabbed a pair of tweezers and began plucking out the stuck pieces of glass from her skin. Once done, she applied medicine to her wound and tied a bandage over it.
She has to live, she has to survive.
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That night, Elijah's phone rang with the notification alerting him that there has been a new post at the blog that he follows. He had found this artist one day while randomly surfing internet. The "Phoenix", that was the author of the blog.
Elijah quickly clicked on the hyperlink that led to the new blog post. Phoenix has posted a poem this time, a very haunting one at that. He could not help but wonder what must have happened for them to write the said poem. With a sigh, he read it aloud -
Unfortunate were they who thought her gone,
Fools who left her with breaths to carry on.
From the ashes of her past's cruel strife,
A phoenix rose, blazing with newfound life.
It was time for her to settle the score,
To punish those evil men, their crimes ignore.
She vowed to rain hellfire, with purpose so dire,
And take their lives, in vengeance's burning fire.