Hellbound Heart

Elle took great efforts to increase her speed in her attempt to get away from Sebastian as fast as she could. Worried that he might pursue her, she ramped up her speed every second as she was running off in one direction.

Fortunately, he remained in his position. He was still facing the tree trunk where she was standing earlier. His aura was blazing like the hellfires even as he was obviously suppressing himself, trying his hardest to keep himself grounded there. He was trying his utmost best to respect her decision and hope against all odds that she would return to him - sooner rather than later.

It was hard for her to watch him. Her heart was breaking even as she turned around to leave him like this. But she had to go. She must! And she felt like this was her only chance. She knew that he was forcing himself to curb his instincts in not running after her and stopping her right now. So this means he was forcing himself to understand and respect what she wanted even though he was absolutely against it.

So after inaudibly uttering 'I love you,' and 'I'll come back as soon as possible', she ran off without turning back to the man that her heart was yearning for. Her eyes were now focused and trained onto the place where she had left Snow waiting.

When he could no longer feel Elle's presence, Sebastian shut his eyes tightly for a moment, just inhaling deeply to see if he could still catch a whiff of her unique scent on the winds. However...

When he opened it again, his eyes were red like blood that was freshly spilled. Lifting his hand, he tugged at his hair, gritting his teeth until grinding sounds could be heard. "You better come back safe and sound, Izabelle." He growled low. "Because if you don't..."

His fist slammed against the tree trunk. The tree shook before falling over and the birds flew noisily above in the way nature acts when a disaster was about to come.

...

Meanwhile, back at the small house in the forest, Zeres was shaking his head. "Iryz can't be saved by using just any random heart, Alex. She can only be saved by that... that werewolf's heart." He said in a miserable voice. "Calliste knew that and that's why she'd kept that heart for Iryz. But it was stolen from her." And then he lifted his eyes, a sharp look crossing them before his lids lowered and the sharpness was concealed.

Alex did not know what to say. Disbelief danced across his eyes. "Who told you that?"

"I found Calliste's private journal. She revealed everything there." Zeres told him straight up.

Alex shook his head, not hiding the fact that he was having a hard time believing anything that Zeres was saying. "You can't be serious about this, Zeres. How could you be sure that the journal is telling the truth? How could you even be sure that the journal actually belongs to Calliste? Did she reveal it on her own volition or you actually saw her writing in it?"

Zeres smirked bitterly. "I knew it... I knew you would not believe me. Abigail and Alicia too. Just because I'm like this, every one of you are now forgetting who I am. I am a silver haired witch first before I got the dragon blood and became the immortal I am today, Alex. I am a one-of-a-kind ancient witch and I'm not the same anymore." His silver eyes gleamed with a dangerous light. "In the past few years, I started remembering many things, receiving information from all the previous witch queens, and even the cursed and supposedly completely erased ones. No one knows more than I do in this world right now, Alex... and yet..." his voice trembled as his hold on Iryz tightened. "And yet, I still can't..."

Zeres' body trembled as he gazed at Iryz, her chest barely rising and falling with each labored breath. His silver hair fell in disarray around his face as he let out a bitter, almost manic chuckle, tinged with desperation and sorrow.

"She has already gone through her fourth heart transplant..." he trailed off, his voice barely above a whisper. "Despite knowing it won't work, we've still tried everything. But nothing's working... No matter the efforts put in, nothing works!! Not a damn thing. I could offer my own heart, but I know it won't do her any good too! None!" His whole demeanor was desperate and frenzied.

He clutched Iryz closer to his chest, as if trying to impart his own warmth and life into her frail form. His body shook with the force of his emotions, and he looked as though he might crumble at any moment.

"Why... tell me, Alex... why can't the world be good to me, for once?!" he cried out, his voice rising to a fevered pitch. "Why can't I just catch a break for once in my life? Why can't I at least keep this one person by my side?"

Zeres' hands were a blur as he tugged fiercely at the strands of his silver hair, his whole body shaking with an intensity that bordered on madness.

His eyes were wild and unfocused, darting back and forth as if searching for an escape from the overwhelming despair that threatened to engulf him.

For a moment, it seemed as though he might lose all control, his emotions spiraling out of his grasp like a runaway train hurtling towards disaster.

"How much more suffering do I need to go through?!!! Tell me!!!" He howled madly.

It was as if his grip on reality was slipping away, inch by agonizing inch, and the only thing keeping him tethered to the present was the fragile, unconscious form of the girl that was lying in his arms.

As if in answer to his anguished plea, the sky began to darken and roil with storm clouds, casting an ominous pall over the scene. The very air seemed charged with electricity, as if nature itself was responding to Zeres' agony.