CHAPTER 09
Lilian's POV
Days passed without a single word from Halia.
The police insisted they were doing everything they could, but their voices sounded hollow—empty promises meant to calm a mother who already knew the truth. Deep in my bones, in the quiet spaces of my heart, I felt it.
My daughter was slipping away from this world.
I wasn't completely sure—yet—but the fear gnawed at me endlessly. What terrified me more than death itself was the thought that she might discover who she truly was before I could stop it.
I missed Halia with an ache so deep it felt physical. She was the only child Jeffrey and I had. On his sickbed, with death already claiming his breath, he made me promise to keep her safe.
And now… I had failed him.
The guilt sat heavily on my chest, crushing every breath I took.
I didn't believe she was dead—not fully. Nor did I believe she was simply lost. Yet an unbearable unease followed every thought of her, like a shadow I couldn't outrun. I had always known this day would come. I had prepared for it, feared it, delayed it.
But never like this.
How could anyone dare try to take my daughter away from me?
The day she left for the mall with Maggie, something had felt wrong. Terribly wrong. She didn't smell the same. Not like my Halia. She smelled like someone who had been violated—stripped of something sacred that belonged only to her.
When I later went into her room and found blood on her bedsheet in the laundry, my heart nearly stopped.
It wasn't menstrual blood.
It was darker. Thicker. Heavy with meaning.
The prophecy whispered at the edges of my mind.
No. It couldn't be true. It mustn't be.
I had been careful. So careful. Every month, I gave her the pills—suppressants designed to restrain what was buried inside her, to keep the awakening at bay.
My hands trembled as I lifted my coffee, now cold from neglect, when my phone rang.
An unknown number.
My heart pounded as I answered.
It was the police.
They had found my Halia.
Unconscious.
In one of the forbidden forest territories—a place long feared, now reduced to ashes by a mysterious fire.
The world tilted.
Through tears and confusion, I hailed a taxi without another thought and left immediately.
---
Firefighters, police officers, and ambulances flooded the area. Sirens screamed through the air like warnings from another realm.
And there she was.
My Halia lay motionless on a stretcher inside an ambulance, her body unnaturally still.
"Ma'am, everything will be alright," a nurse said gently as she saw me rushing toward my daughter.
But I knew better.
Halia looked empty—drained in a way no hunger or exhaustion could explain. It was as though something had torn through her, forcing every ounce of energy out of her just to survive.
"No… this can't be happening," I thought desperately as I climbed into the ambulance. "The pills were working. They had to be."
Smoke clung to the air as I focused on her fragile body. Her thick blonde hair fell over her face, hiding her from me. With shaking fingers, I brushed it aside, my breath catching as I studied her.
"I would never allow anything to happen to you," I whispered, tears blurring my vision as guilt consumed me.
Then I saw it.
Purple veins pulsed beneath her skin, crawling like living things.
My breath hitched.
I glanced at the nurses—none of them noticed. Slowly, fear gripping my spine, I looked again.
My heart skipped violently.
"This can't be happening," I thought as a chill raced through me.
Whatever was awakening inside her—I had to stop it.
It had tried to kill her once when she was a child.
But this time, I would fight back.
I will not allow you to take my Halia away from me.
I squeezed her hand tightly, watching her steady breathing, making a silent vow—one I intended to keep, no matter the cost.