Just bare moments ago, Alicia who was still shocked at what she witnessed, came crawling towards Abigail. Disbelief colored her pale face when she saw Abigail wasn’t breathing anymore. Was she really dead? The earth shook and Alicia looked at the raging Alexander, screaming at Ezekiel to bring Abigail back.

  With shaking hands, Alicia cradled Abi’s head and gently rested it on her lap. She was too numb to cry now. What was going to happen now? How did it manage to end this way?

  Roars and cries echoed and yet, strangely, the morning sunlight peeked through the clouds.

  "Abigail…… wake up." She begged with her hoarse voice when someone stood before her.

  Alicia looked up. A woman in black cloak – the same cloak Dinah’s minions wear – stood before her. The woman looked like she was in her fifties, yet she had that grace and elegance around her. Alicia knew her. This woman was one of the most important figures to the vampires. She was only next to the vampire king. She was the oldest of all vampires alive in this world and she was what they called, the prophetess.

  "Prophetess……" Alicia said with surprise. What was she doing here? She’s wearing that cloak. Does this mean she’s been here all this time?

  The prophetess stared back at Alicia for a while and then slowly shifted her gaze to Abigail.

  That was when the dragons’ roars thundered even louder. Their eyes fell towards the dragons. Dinah was wailing, a dust-like particles were gathering around her in a spiral pattern, strangely moving upwards. It looked like the she-dragon was decaying – or to better put it, she was disintegrating. It was as if her body was slowly turning into black dust.

  Alicia turned her head towards Zeres. The same thing was happening to him.

  "What is happening? Are they dying?" Alicia asked, her eyes still locked onto the agonizing Zeres.

  "Yes." The prophetess replied.

  "Z-zeres too?"

  "Yes."

  Alicia dropped her eyes, biting down on her slightly trembling lips and looked at Zeres again. He was in pain, wailing in agony. Was he going to die just like that? In so much pain again? He didn’t even remember his real memories yet. Why did he have to live again just to die an even more painful death?

  Alicia’s heart throbbed in more pain than she could handle. It was suffocating. She could hardly breathe. First Riev, then Abi, and now…… Zeres too? Even though Zeres was someone she only met for a very short time, Alicia had seen his past, his pain, and his agony. He’s been suffering all these while, for so long.

  But when she looked down at Abi’s face, Alicia finally cried. Maybe, it was better this way. That Zeres will die just like that because Abi was already gone. She thought it’s better than having him see Abigail’s dead body once again.

  "Prophetess……" Alicia called out, not looking up at the woman. "Is this the end? I believe you’re here because you’ve seen some prophesies, right?"

  "Yes."

  "Is…… is Abi really meant to die?"

  "Yes."

  "And Ezekiel was the one prophesized to……"

  "You’re right. His highness must kill her."

  Alicia gritted her teeth. "Why? Because the only way for the dragons to die is if Abigail dies?"

  "That’s right."

  A cynical smile curved on Alicia’s face as she looked up. "But Alexander is still alive. What’s the point of getting rid of Abigail and the two dragons if Alexander is still alive? You all know Alexander will never accept this. He will not forgive Ezekiel, the vampires and the world. He will destroy the world again. And we are all well aware that he’s fully capable of doing that and even more."

  The prophetess looked up, staring up the peeking light.

  "We know that witch queen." The woman replied.

  "Yet you still went ahead and killed Abigail, just so the dragons die. Despite knowing that without Abigail, the dragons aren’t the biggest treat, but Alexander."

  Silence followed Alicia’s voice for a moment.

  "You’re right. But we have no choice but to fulfill the prophecy. His highness is aware more than anyone else what will happen if Abigail dies. Still, he decided to do it, knowing that he might very well lose his life in Alexander’s hands."

  Alicia shook her head, having a hard time to believe.

  "His highness believes that fulfilling the prophecy is the only choice. We don’t know what will happen next once the prophecy is fulfilled but his highness believes that killing Abigail is the key to end everything."

  While the prophetess was still speaking, Abigail’s body began to glow. A pale, golden color enveloped her as the roars of the dragons echoed like endless thunderstorms rumbling across the sky.

  Alicia’s eyes were wide. "What’s happening?"

  She looked up to the prophetess and followed the prophetess’ line of sight. The she-dragon was almost no more. Golden yellow glitter-like particles were mixing in a stream with the black dust that were surrounding her. And with one last roar, the she-dragon literally combusted and completely turned into dust and Dinah’s human body could be seen lying on the ground where the dragon once was. However, the next second, Dinah’s human body withered in a blink of an eye, turning into nothing but bones. The black dust particles disappeared but the yellow particles didn’t, but flew towards them and settled on Abigail’s body as if someone had commanded them to go into Abigail.

  Alicia’s head snapped towards Zeres and her heart stopped beating, afraid that Zeres had also turned into bones like how Dinah did. He didn’t. His dragon form was gone but his body was there. Alicia let out the breath she was holding in. But was he still alive?

  "Abigail!"

  Alicia’s attention was pulled back towards the woman who exclaimed Abigail’s name. Her eyes wide as she looked down.

  When Alicia’s gaze fell towards Abi, her mouth opened in shock.

  Abigail eyes were open. She was alive!

  Before Alicia could even snap from the shock, the earth shook. They knew it wasn’t from the dragons because the dragons were gone. It could only come from one other person. The raging Alexander.

  "Alex!!" Abi immediately called out as she rose. "Where is he?!" she asked, as if just waking from a dream.

  Alicia couldn’t speak and she just pointed to where Alex and Ezekiel were.

  Abigail’s eyes widened. Hearing Alex’s agonizing roar as he screamed at Zeke to bring her back. Abigail stood and fell but she stood again and ran shakily towards Alex.

  "Alex!! Stop!!" she begged, but the man was blind and deaf to everything – lost in his grief and anger. Abi reached them, falling on her knees and hugging her husband from behind, knowing that her touch would be the thing to pierce that maddened haze of sorrow and rage he had trapped himself in……

  [Sorry its late. I just want to thank everyone for all your support. I started writing hellbound because I joined FreeWebNovel’s spirity award last may and the result is now out. Hellbound won silver so i’d like to thank everyone for without you guys, this book will never win anything.

  I’m just sad that we didn’t win gold. Becaue I just believed that hellbound deserve to win gold too. I cried seeing the result. I dont know why. It seemed I am more competitive than I thought. And maybe because I expected too much and worked too hard. I was really confident that hellbound will win gold too since this book reached number 1 in fl for months and was the best selling for many weeks. But I was wrong and I didn’t know this will affect me so much. Its never about the money. It just made me feel like I am never good enough and my confidence crushed T.T

  But because of this I realize a lot of things. I think I am growing as an author now because I am crying over this and I’m not even a crybaby. I rarely cry and I never thought this will make me cry. It seemed I cared more than I thought.

  And really, expectation is the root of all heartaches. I expected too much. Thats why I am hurt.

  Again. I’d like to thank everyone for the support, thank u hellbounders.]