The living room was filled with nothing but silence as Alicia watched him wage an intense war within himself. She knew…… could very well tell that he was.

  She could feel the rage and hatred swirling off him uncontrollably, filling the entire room with something so heavy and dark and dangerous. It was so strong and intense that Alicia felt if he exudes any more of this palpable aura, it would just be too hard for her to breath.

  "It took years…… many years of…… madness." Those words seemingly were wrenched out of him and sounded like they were getting much harder for him to say. Then he began to falter, as if losing the war within himself.

  Alicia started feeling something strange going on in her body a few moments after that too. She could feel her blood boiling, the emotions within her were intensifying to an unimaginable degree. What was this? This is…… were these Ezekiel's emotions that were bubbling over and overflowing into her through their link between each other?

  Her eyes stretched so wide as she clutched hard at her chest. She felt somewhat choked and suffocated, but she somehow knew that these reactions were not coming from herself.

  And the feeling was a very weird sensation that she could not quite know how to explain at the moment.

  But suddenly, something blinding flashed in her mind and then…… she found herself in a nightmare.

  The first thing she saw was Ezekiel. A younger version of him compared to the one she knew. He was back in his younger years, still in the physical phase of a teenage boy. But as she looked closer, his eyes were those that did not normally belong to a boy, his grey eyes dangerous, bleak and desolate. There was not even a glimmer of light to be found in his eyes. He was standing behind thick bars, arms and legs all shackled with thick chains. There was even a metal loop attached to another chain around his neck.

  Alicia recognized this place in an instant. It was the witches' prison back in the Black Forest's underground secret area.

  Alicia saw that there were others behind Ezekiel. Two female vampires. One younger than Ezekiel and the other was a beautiful woman. They had the same black hair and grey eyes that was similar to his as well, so Alicia quickly realized they were the rest of the vampire king's family. His children to be exact.

  The two females had the same look in their eyes. Hopeless, lifeless, as though there was nothing more that they could expect from this life. Their eyes were dovvncast, listlessly looking to the ground, unmoving, uncaring.

  Ezekiel on the other hand, had his gaze trained straight ahead. He seemed to be staring at someone.

  "Your turn now, stubborn prince." An erotic voice echoed out from the darkness.

  The prison bars were flung opened, and he was grabbed roughly before being pushed out of the cell. "You have to cooperate, vampire prince." They whispered viciously into his ears. "Remember this. If you mess up, your dear brother and your entire family will be slaughtered before your eyes. Understand? You wouldn't want to enjoy that kind of wonderful 'show' would you? After this, everything will be over. We promise."

  He did not even blink at the threats to his sibling's lives. It was as though they were talking to a walking and breathing statue.

  Another door opened. It was a room with a large bed placed right in the middle of it. A woman was there, sprawled out languidly in the centre of the bed covered in deep scarlet sheets. She was as naked as the day she was born and had a head full of thick and straight silver hair spread out in a shocking contrast to the bedsheets under her.

  Alicia shook her head, stumbling back at the wanton display, wanting to run away from this scene. She could feel an ominous foreboding crawling up her spine. She then clutched her hands over her chest as she watched Ezekiel approach the bed woodenly, shedding his clothes one article at a time, without fumbling nor blinking despite the shackles and chains that were on him. It was as if this was nothing new to him. As if he had done this a thousand times before.

  No…… no…… no! She screamed, wanting to wake up from the nightmare. She knew she must not see this. She did not want to see this abominable act! Ezekiel…… he would never want her, no…… he would not want anyone to see this. She cannot see this……

  She felt breaking down. Wake up! Stop! Please! She screamed shrilly as she cupped her hands to her ears and screwed her eyes tightly shut — her pitiful attempt in shutting out the depraved act in not seeing nor hearing it.

  "Alicia!!!" Her name was roared out next to her ears.

  She gasped and choked out a breath. It was like she had just been pulled out from drowning under water. Her eyes snapped open wide, wet with tears streaming down her cheeks unconsciously as she stared at him. Her eyes were vacant and unfocussed.

  He was grabbing her shoulders with one hand and with the other, he cupped the side of her face. As her vision refocussed on the person who was before her right now, she noticed that his expression was one of horror. His fingers were trembling uncharacteristically against her face.

  She had never seen him, nor could even imagine him looking like this before today. Before now.

  "W-what…… did you see?" he asked. For the first time, she heard him stammer. "Alicia! Tell me! What did you see??!" she urged her when she still remained silent after his question.

  Alicia frantically shook her head. Her heart squeezing tight at the look she was seeing in his eyes. "I didn't see anything much…… I saw you went in…… there. But you had shaken me awake before I could see anything happened." She explained as fast as she could, as she could see him being so unnerved.

  He stilled. Then he tore his eyes off her, his hand on her shoulder moved first, going down to her hand, before he leaned back against the couch again.

  Throwing his head back, he laughed. If that could be called a laugh. Alicia had never heard such a broken and tormented laugh before……