The Lost Angel

We had run for a long distance.

It was not long before he had to render me unconscious at the bottom of a huge tree but when I woke up, we were running again. “I hunted.” I heard him rasp but I didn’t speak. I didn’t care. If he wanted me dead, why not just do it?

If he’s going to keep doing this, I’m going to have to keep myself from panicking and scaring myself. I would see my family after this. I would see my mother, father, and brother again. We would laugh and smile and hug each other and-

My back collided on a wall and pain shot through my nerves like electricity- I gasped.

But, I didn’t want him having this in an easy way even if he does have the unusual strength so I quickly sat up and as my hazy vision cleared, a heavy feeling on my stomach rose. In front of me is my living room back in Rochester and I gasped as pain rushed through my arms and I was thrown on the carpet where I last saw my father’s body.

“Stop.. Please..” I rasped trying to sit up but I was shoved roughly on the floor.

The man laughed and a dark voice inside my head told me that I don’t even know his name and he’s going to kill me in a heartbeat. “Stop? No, no, sweetheart. We had only begun.”

“Do you remember what happened here?” he asked as I tried to sit up from the floor and I felt a tingling sensation in my head- like something is moving inside it. The man kneeled down in front of me and held my face as lightly as he could with his cold hands. “Do you remember your family, Katherine? Because they’re all you ever dream about..”

His hand held my jaw firmly and I looked up at his bright red eyes willing for him to move on- break my jaw, snap my neck and drink me. If he wants me hurt and broken before death, he’s going to fail miserably because I already am.

But he released my jaw harshly and I slammed back down on the carpet and pain shot through my wrist from the impact.

“And that is how you found your death, Katherine.” The man cackled rounding me off as if I’m some opponent when it’s the other way around. “You take one look at all of the people around you and then they’re all compelled by you and they would do everything you say—or think.”

I smirked, “What made you say that?” I asked trying to hide the shaking in my voice. I’m brave. I’m strong. I can do this.

“You were thinking about me killing you before.”

“True.”

He huffed and kneeled down in front of me again, “Already giving up, sweetheart?” he taunted and his eyes travelled from my face downwards- I cringed. “Is a broken wrist already enough for you? I thought I stabbed you multiple times after I killed your brother?”

“You did but let me remind you that my mother outsmarted you and killed you too.”

That seemed to have struck a nerve and the next thing I knew after feeling a tight hold on my elbow is me flying before crashing on the glass divider between our living room and dining room. The glass broke away from the impact and I fell on shards.

I was gasping for air.

“It’s good that I fed off multiple people before doing this to you, sweetheart. You don’t know how tempting it is to kill you, right now-“

I gritted my teeth, “-then do it. Don’t be a bloody coward and wait for someone to outsmart you again!”

He was suddenly holding me up in the air by my neck tightly and I crashed on the wood cabinet where my mother held her precious plates- I felt dizzy and my hand shot to the back of my head to see it bleeding profusely.

“You’ve been very bad again. You were never this mouthful.” He tsked and walked over to me. I looked up at him and realized that my vision was hazy. “I have a power too, you know.” He said pushing a stray hair from my face and I felt a slight prickling on my head again.

The man smiled as if he had won the lottery before asking me, “Wanna see and feel it?”

I didn’t have time to answer, I was taken outside our house but I was not in my body- it’s a different one. I was staggering and I can feel a throbbing on my back painfully. My mind registered and figured that I’m inside this man’s body- from the night he killed my family.

The bullet wound is painful and I felt it, I felt every single strand of pain this man felt but he deserved it. “Help.” It was not my voice. It was the man’s as he stumbled in the forest and in my vision, I saw a pale woman standing not far from us look and in a few seconds, she’s in front of us.

We fell backwards and the pain multiplied- I whimpered.

It was not long before I felt fire from my neck as if I was being burned alive from the inside. It was too painful that I started screaming and wishing for it to stop- to end. But, it won’t until it reached my whole body.

“Stop!” I screamed from the pain.

*This is not me. This is just inside my head.* I chanted but the pain becomes worse.

*Katherine..* My mother’s voice echoed at the back of my head. *You’re strong, you’re brave. Fight. You can get through this. It’s just your imagination.*

“It is but the pain won’t stop!”

*Just focus on yourself, Katherine. Push him out of your head.*

“I can’t! I can’t! Just kill me! Please!”

*You can’t give up, Katerina!* It was my father’s voice shouted in my head.

“Please! Please!”

*You can’t give up! Focus on me, Katherine! Focus on our voice!* His voice was as frantic as he had rescued me from drowning on our backyard pool when I was eleven. *That’s it. Listen to me, Katherine. Push him out of your head. The pain is not real.*

And it is not.

I gasped as my eyes shot open and saw the man kneeling in front of me with a blank look on his face but it soon changed into realization. “Who were you talking to?” he sneered looking darkly at me but I was too weak to respond, my body is twitching from the slow disappearing heat.

“Were you talking to your dead family?” he emphasized the dead as if he wasn’t one. He laughed maniacally and he pulled my up through my hair, I gasped from the pain shooting right across my body and I knew that I’m bleeding all over especially on my stomach.

The man dragged me in front of the huge family portrait hanging on top of the couch and pulled my head up so I can look in between swollen eyes. “Were you talking to them?” he whispered darkly on my ear and I stared at our portrait.

We looked happy, vibrant- lively.

“You’re crazy.” He whispered again and I was thrown to the stairs, my head colliding on one of the steps before rolling down on it to the ground. “You’re beautiful but I never thought that this would have been your imperfection.” He said snidely as he stood looking down at me before shaking his head.

I wanted to die and felt like I was dying too but I had to say something. I had to let him know what he ruined. I had to let him know how he murdered my family and my life.

“Do you want to know why I hear them?” I rasped and though my words are slurred and almost incoherent, he looked straight down at me urging me to continue. “Because, unlike you, I had a family who loves me. And, unlike you, I will die knowing that they still do.”

“And you, you may live forever but nobody will love you.”

The man knew that I spoke of the truth and as his red eyes darkened into black from the pain of my words, his lips forming into a snarl from anger, his feet rose just above my face- I closed my eyes, a smile forming on my face.

I am strong. I am brave and I would shake hands with death.

And I would see my family again.