Hellbound Heart

Abi froze by the door as she watched Elle thrashing around on her bed. However, just as Abi was considering whether or not to stay or enter, suddenly Elle sprung up from the bed.

The room was filled with a very strong and mysterious energy and Elle was... Abi's eyes widened at the scene that was playing before her eyes. Her beautiful blue eyes... one of them had turned completely white. It was not the silvery color that Alicia, Lilith and Zeres possess.

Elle's was just a clear and pure white that even her pupils could not be seen anymore. It seems that even her pupils had turned pure white.

She made a distressed sound and her hand flew up to cover that one eye, as if it was excruciatingly painful.

Something in Abi wanted her to keep her distance from Elle and observe quietly for a little while longer but when she made that pained sound, she could no longer stop herself from rushing over to the younger lady.

"Elle?" she called out softly, worried that if she called a little too loud, it might startle her.

The first thing that Abi had noticed was her ripped shirt. But when she looked at Elle's hands, she could not see anything unusual anymore. "Elle, dear. Can you hear me?"

"My eye... it hurts..." she cried.

At that moment, Alicia arrived.

"Let me see, Elle." Alicia was immediately by her side, gently touching her wrist.

But a shrill scream escaped Elle's mouth the moment Alicia touched her, causing Abi to panic a little. And then she abruptly stopped. Her scream turned into heavy pants.

Slowly, she lowered her hand and looked at Abi and Alicia with an utterly shocked and confused look in her eyes. Her other eye was back to the normal blue again.

"I... I don't know what happened..." was the first thing she told them. "I felt like my body was burning up and then it felt like my right eye was burning too."

Looking down, she realized that her shirt was ripped and in a very sorry state.

When Abi and Alicia could not answer her, Elle stared down at her hands. Parts of her shredded clothes were still caught in between her fingers.

She began to shiver. "What is... going on?"

Alicia calmly sat down on the edge of her bed, facing her as she reached out and held her hand. "Listen Elle..." she started. "We believe that you are awakening your powers. Your real ability is finally manifesting itself."

It took Elle a long while to manage a response. "P-powers? Wha- what are you saying...?"

"You're not a mere human as you thought you are, Izabelle." Alicia forthrightly told her, not wanting to be vague.

Elle's lips parted at Alicia's words. Then a forced breathless laugh left her lips. Disbelief filled her eyes. "That... that can't be..." she trailed off as soon as she looked at Abi and saw the expression on her face.

Her heartbeat thudded hard and fast within her. 'What was happening? Am I somehow still trapped in my dream?'

"When I first met you, I immediately felt that there was something different in you, Elle." Alicia continued. "After looking and observing you, I then realized that there was something off with your heartbeat. The pace of your heartbeats were completely different to the beats of a human, or a witch, or even a vampire's heart. Yours is something I have never came across before and I wasn't the only one who had realized that. That was why since we met, I knew you were different. That you're not just any ordinary human."

Elle's conflicted gaze fell back to Abi again. She struggled to find words to say. She even started to shake her head slowly in denial. What the two ladies had just told her was really hard to take in. It was just too fantastical! How had she suddenly, after one day, turned into a supernatural being like them?

But the look in these two ladies' eyes were more than enough to force her to stop trying to deny the things she just heard.

"Actually, during the hunt last night..." Abi spoke hesitantly. "Alex said you were literally invisible, Elle. No one can see you. Alex couldn't see you, too! The only reason why Alex had managed to catch you was only because you had come out on your own and he heard your light footsteps crushing the leaves and the grasses you were stepping on and brushing aside. He followed you with just those sounds that you made. And then you were also wounded and he followed your scent next. That's how he managed to catch you, Elle. It wasn't because he saw you."

Elle could not even react. She did not know how to even react. But eventually, she gave out another soundless laugh. How was she supposed to react to this? Was all these really even real?

"We understand that it's going to be hard for you to even believe, Elle... and that's why we had refrained from telling you anything. But now, we believe it's about time you start to learn more about who you truly are." Alicia's eyes were serious. And no matter what she was feeling at the moment, she knew with that one look that this woman would never ever lie to her. Abi as well. These two ladies had no reason nor would they get any benefits in lying to her.

"We believe that from here on out, you're going to keep learning about who and what you truly are."

"What... am I?" she finally asked. "Am I like... Alexander? A half... human...?"

Alicia pressed on her hand gently. "We believe that you are definitely one part human, Elle. But we still could not figure out what your other part is since you're one of a kind. You are the first to have that peculiar pace of heartbeat and also the first to have that kind of invisibility magic."