-Previously in DiT-
Suddenly, green light washed over the room. I felt someone appear behind me from the portal, and I saw him move swiftly in my peripheral vision.
In just a few seconds Nate was lifted off the floor. He was pinned against the wall by Victor.
"What did you tell her?" Victor growled.
I tried to talk but nothing came out.
"What the hell did you tell her, Nathan?" He asked again. I had never heard him so angry.
A ghost of smile appeared on Nate's face.
"Everything she deserves to know."
***
"Everybody lies, lies, lies. It's the only truth sometimes."- Jason Walker (Everybody Lies)
Chapter-26
-Karen-
Victor balled his hand into a tight fist and was about to punch Nate on his face when I found my voice again.
"Stop it," My voice came out weak. He heard me because his punch stopped right before it could touch Nate's jaw. "Stop it, both of you."
Victor let go of Nate's collar and pushed him hard against the wall, making him groan in pain. Victor turned around quickly, facing me. He looked unsure of where to start from.
"KarenâI need to explain." He said. All of his anger was drained.
"I'm sorry I didn't understand you," I mocked. "I don't speak idiot."
Nate chuckled softly. Hearing him chuckle at this moment was strange, so my eyes darted from Victor to him. He looked at me, shaking his head lightly with a thin smile on his face.
"Just ignore him," Victor whispered. "I will explain the whole thing."
"I don't think I need any explanation right now." I looked back at Victor.
"You trust him more than you trust me?" The hurt was audible in Victor's voice.
His eyes searched my face for a sign of denial. I suddenly had the urge to scream and tell him how broken I felt right now. If I had the power to read minds, this would have been a lot easier for me. I could know what was going in his head.
"Yes, I trust him more," I forcefully managed to utter. His jawed worked. "He is not the one who has been keeping big secrets from me. 'I can't tell you' is the only answer I get if I ask you anything."
"I told you everything about my past," Pain crossed his features. "Isn't that enough for you?"
"She doesn't want to know about your sole past, Victor. This isn't about you." Nate said from behind. He stood at the back of the room like a statue. "Tell her about the past that is intertwined with ours."
"I swear to God if you won't shut up, Nathan," Victor's fangs came out. His eyes became dark. "It won't take me more than a second to tear your damned heart out."
"It is your specialty, isn't it?" I asked.
Victor closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled.
"Karen, I don't know what he has told you," He said, and I noticed that his teeth were back to normal. "I just want you toâ"
"Did you inject holy basil in Nate's body?" I asked.
"Whatâ"
"Just answer me," I gulped nervously. My heart was thudding against my chest.
His eyes met mine. Certainly, I saw a glint of regret in them. It told me he did hurt Nate, but I wasn't ready to accept it. I didn't want to be judgemental in his case. When did I become so weak in making decisions for myself?
"Yes," He whispered.
"That's it." I replied.
I could no longer hold my tears. I moved back, away from Victor and sat down on my bed. I was f.ucking tired of this. I stared at the floor of my room through the tears that fogged up my vision. If I could only turn back time, I wouldn't have kissed him. He was only messing up with my head all this time. The world I lived in was a lie.
"Please give me one chance to explain," Victor bent on his knees in front of me. I could feel his stare on my face. "I did inject holy basil in him. It happened on the spur of the moment. We were fighting, and I did that to defend myself. I didn't do it to kill him."
"I don't believe you anymore," I breathed. "Just leave."
"Karen, I've been so bad." The way he sounded, made an icy grip on my heart. "But I have changed."
"Did you plan the Paris incident?" I asked distantly. I already knew the answer.
He didn't reply. His silence gave it away.
"Were you planning all this with your mother?" I asked. I knew this was killing me inside but I needed to know the truth. My subconscious screamed at me to stop hurting myself.
"I don't wanna lie to you, Karen." He muttered audibly. "Yes, I planned all this with mother."
The lump in my throat grew and my stomach churned. Suddenly, the sadness in me was replaced with pure anger. Looking up from the floor, I raised my hand quickly and slapped him as hard as I could.
The sound of slap filled the room. Victor's face turned away from the impact. My own hand stung from the contact on his face. He closed his eyes, and I saw the blood rise on his cheek slowly, turning his skin pinkish. Opening his eyes, he turned to look at me. His eyes were soft; not angry or anything.
This was hurting me more than it was hurting him. He just didn't understand.
"This is for using all of us," I shouted at him.
I raised my hand again.
"Karen," Nate moved forward. He still cared for him.
How could he?
"Let her." Victor said, never leaving my eyes. "I deserve this."
That broke me. Burying my face in my hands, I started crying. No matter how much I wanted to stop, the loud sobs erupted from my chest. The bed dipped and I looked sideways. Nate sat down on the bed beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
It only made me cry even harder.
"I'm sorry. I should have told you this. Trust me, I wanted to but I didn't have the courage." Victor said, sounding helpless. "Don't cry, Karen. IâI didn't want to hurt you. I started all this shit but I was going to end this. I know I lied to all of you, and I know I'm the worst person in your life. I'm so sorry."
His cold hands touched mine. I jerked them away like I was afraid of some contagious disease.
"Don't touch me," I yelled. "You care for nothing, Victor. So, don't act like you do."
"I care," He stressed. "How do I prove this to you?"
"I think you should leave, Victor." Nate said calmly. "You can talk to her when she is ready."
"Leave her alone with you?" Victor asked. The tone of his voice was poisonous. "I told you I would tell her everything on my own. You did this on purpose, didn't you?"
"I did what I had to." Nate answered. "I couldn't trust you around her anymore."
"I don't want to see you again, Victor." I said faintly.
"Will you not even listen to me once?" He asked.
"Victorâ" Nate began.
Before he could continue, I felt the sudden change in the room temperature. Victor got up from the floor quickly.
"Enough! I f.ucking planned this," Victor screamed. I looked up at him with disgust. His face was impassive and...inhuman. "I wanted to be the next vampire king, alright? I deserved the title before he came along. I wasn't a person who would back down without a fight but I tried to be his brother. I tried to be kind but what did he do? He fell in love with the enemy. He crossed every line that father had ever created. And still, I was considered to be the bad one."
I shuddered as he looked at me with those cold eyes. His face was paler than ever. This wasn't the Victor I had known. Even though his face was emotionless, I knew there was certainly a volcanic eruption of emotions in him.
"I did all of this; whatever mother told me to. I was this close to everything," He made a gesture with his forefinger and thumb to indicate the distance. "Until I realized that there is no point of doing all this. It's true I planned whatever happened with the vampires in Paris. Our plan was to make your powers come alive when that bloodsucker attacked you but to my dismay, I reached there early. I f.ucking saved your life."
"Does that make you our hero?" I asked sarcastically. "Do I owe you my now delightful life?"
"I don't know how to tell you how I feel when I'm around you. Yes, I've been bad. I've been a monster. But it's true that I've changed." He said. "You two are blaming me without even listening to me."
"Why did you drag me into this family drama?" I asked, getting up. My whole body was trembling with anger.
"Nathan needed to wake up. It couldn't have been possible without you," He replied immediately. "Yes, say it, Karen. I know what's coming next. We used you. Yeah, we did. We ruined your perfect life."
"But why give her powers?" Nate asked behind me.
Yep, that didn't make any sense. If they just needed my blood; why did they want me to get my powers? They could have just let me go after Nate woke up.
"After the death of Valerie, we couldn't find anyone as powerful as her. For years we observed the powers of many witches who fell in the same bloodline but we failed to find the same aura that Valerie had. Until we found her," Victor gestured towards me. "The Paris vampires were merely a test, and I wished she hadn't passed it."
"What were you going to do to me after that?" I flinched.
"And why did you erase Kaitlin's memories?" Nate added.
"Our plan was to use Kaitlin against Nathan as we knew he would never hurt her. She was supposed to kill him on my order. We were going to let the VES (Vampire Elder Society) decide her punishment, which without doubt, would have been death." Victor paused and looked at me intently. "I was directed to erase your memory and keep you by our side."
"Why?" I asked.
"With you, we were never going to lose any war," Victor stated.
The most uncomfortable silence enveloped us. Victor had just told the whole plan as if it didn't matter to him any longer.
"So," Nate moved swiftly in front of Victor. He harshly poked him on his chest with his finger. "Do the deed. Go ahead and kill me."
"You know, I wouldn't do that," Victor said sharply, "until you really get on my nerves."
"Why? After all you've done; don't you want to get your reward?" Nate asked. "According to your mighty plan, I am the only being who is stopping you from becoming the king. It shouldn't be hard for you to kill me after those people you murdered in this town."
"It was you who killed Adam," I accused. "You are the person behind Xavier's disappearance, aren't you?"
Victor sighed loudly and pushed his hand through his hair in annoyance.
"I didn't kill anyone," Victor yelled. "Why don't you two understand? I told you literally every single thing that you both had to know. Why would I keep this from you? I've been spending all my spare time in finding out who is behind all these attacks."
"Ask your mother." Nate said coldly. "I'm sure she will have a clue or two about this."
"Nate, I know you're angry but I want to apologize for whatever I've done." Victor said, "I know you'll have a hard time trusting me. I swear I wasn't going to kill you. I talked to mother and told her that I don't wanna be the king anymore."
"What did she say?" Nate asked.
Victor remained silent at his question.
"Your inability to answer me doesn't surprise me."
"I will do anything to stop her." Victor declared. "This war is our chance. If we defeat the werewolves and hunters, we'll be free to go."
"Free to go?" I let out a laugh. "We can't kill all of them. They'll come back another day."
"She is right." Nate agreed. "There's no way out."
"I don't know what to do, but I promise I'll end this. However, I need you to be with me." Victor said. Eventhough, he was saying this to both of us, his eyes were lingering on me. "I'll do anything to make you trust me."
I was assured that there was nothing in the entire world that could make me trust him ever again. I wanted him out of my house and my life. The only thought crowding my head was to look out for a foolproof plan. I was looking forward to some great idea which could pull us out of the black hole of Victor's game.
I felt cold inside.
It was a mistake to trust him, and I wasn't an idiot to repeat my mistakes.
Nate and I glanced at each other. Then he turned to face Victor. And so did I.
"Give Kaitlin's memories back," Nate said. "I promise you; we'll leave the dimension and you can be the king or whatever you want."
My head snapped in Nate's direction. Was he kidding? Was it possible to give someone's memories back after erasing them with compulsion? That didn't sound right to me. What's gone is gone, right?
"Is it possible to give her memories back?" I frowned. "How can he do that?"
I crossed my fingers that Nate wasn't going crazy. Anger could obviously make a person go crazy.
"Yes, it is." He said.
"How does it work?" I asked
"He can explain it better," He replied, gesturing to Victor.
Victor sighed.
"Erasing memory is not exactly what it sounds like. By compulsion, the memories are not really erased from a person's mind but stored away in his subconscious mind. As you know, subconscious mind acts as a storeroom for your memories, experiences and skills. So, it simply keeps the memories locked there for a long time," Victor explained. "The subconscious mind mostly takes over while you are asleep. The person who has been hypnotized to forget might see the past memories in his dreams but usually they wouldn't remember."
"You mean Kaitlin probably had dreams of her past." I asked feeling drowsy.
"Yeah, well, that's how it works." He replied.
"So, basically you need to restore her memories from the subconscious part to make her remember," I blabbered weakly. The subconscious mind was an external HDD. "And that means you can bring her memories back."
"That's what I want him to do," Nate interjected. "If you're guilty for what you've done until now; this maybe your redemption."
I stared at Victor. His eyebrow furrowed deeper, which was very rare. It seemed like he was making a life-or-death decision. If he really wanted to prove that he doesn't want to hurt any of us, he had to do this. I couldn't think of anything else.
Not that I wanted to believe him.
A trust once lost couldn't be regained. I was angry...broken to be precise. I had trusted him like anyone would trust their old friend. I had even begun to trust him with my life. Now that I had learned the truth about him...I was happy that I hadn't gone too far. I just liked him.
I didn't love him.
"I'll do it." He said at last. His face was sombre. "I'll bring her here and give her memories back right in front of you."
Nate nodded. "I hope you remain true to your words. This time I won't forgive you."
"I'll not break the promiseâcross my heart and hope to die." Victor replied. "I really mean it."
There was something in his voice that puzzled me, but I couldn't put finger on what it was. Was he going to deceive us again? I couldn't push down the feeling that kept surfacing in my head repeatedly.
Was he really the worst person in my life?
A/N I was reading a Manga (Japanese comics) and wondered how 'Dark Choices' would look in manga form...hmmm...only if I knew how to draw a thing...enough!
--GAME: What Dark Choices character are you?--
Rule: All you have to do is choose a number from 1 to10 and in the next chapter I'll put the list of characters equivalent to the numbers with their two famous traits.
Pick a number.
Sorry, for updating late. I had a writer's block. Ugh.
-M_m