They were so many. Lexa had no idea what he used them all for.
"My Dragon mamba poison is here. It's intact."
'That's the poison that killed my mother?' Lexa thought.
She became sober on thinking about her mother again. The least she could do was give the worst punishment to the culprit.
Lexa didn't know what she would do to Elliot if she found out he was behind it, whether it was him or Lot. They went to a part of the room, walking around all the tables that carried weapons.
At the very end, on a line that stood just as tall as them. Elliot used his eyes to search for it. Lexa watched him while he did, since she couldn't tell which was which.
After Elliot searched the whole line. He went back to the beginning, looking confused. He searched again and there was worry written on his face.
That also worried Lexa. She hoped it was not what she was thinking.
"What is it, Elliot?"
He rubbed his forehead, checking the bottles of poison again.
"It...it isn't here."
Lexa's brain went on pause mode.
"I don't understand." Elliot had never felt so confused and uncertain in his thousands of years of his reign.
Lexa stepped away from him. "Did you...do it? Tell me."
Elliot's lies had taken him to where he was. He didn't want to lie again so he thought well about what he wanted to say next.
'Did you do it, Lot?'
There was a disturbing silence that went on for seconds. There was tension in the air and Lexa was feeling it's weight the most. She watched Elliot in silence, expecting the worst and hoping for the best. And she badly wanted everything that Rica told her to be lies.
'Answer me now, Lot! Your master commands you!'
Lot kept the silence going before he said something. 'I don't know. I was angry. I killed more than just the campers that night and our mate's mother... could be..."
Elliot didn't want to hear anything anymore. He rose his bowed head to Lexa and tried to get something out of his mouth.
"What did Lot say? You didn't do it, right? Tell me you didn't do it."
Elliot couldn't bare to look at that scared face of hers. And he wasn't planning to see how disappointed and angry she would be at him so he bowed his head once again, preparing for the worst to come.
"I'm sorry, Alexa. I don't know how it happened."
Lexa broke in pieces and turned away from him, unable to understand the hate and love she felt for him. She wanted to give him the worst punishment anyone could ever think of as well as show him the greatest ways a woman could love a man.
Lexa could never take an ordinary sorry for her dear mother's death. Her love for her mother was immeasurable and yet, she loved the killer with all of her heart, down to the greatest depths.
She tried so hard to prove him innocent, but the closer she thought she was to proving he was good, the guiltier he became. She would not push it further. She was afraid of being disappointed again.
It was clear that all Rica said was true. Rica was like another mother to her and Lexa believed that she could never mislead her. She took care of her in the orphanage and Rica would only want the best for her.
Lexa couldn't look at his face. If she did, she was afraid that she might just forgive him but anytime she remembered that image of him putting venom in her mother's drip. She got angry all over again.
"I'm also sorry, Elliot."
Elliot was scared, scared that he might lose his love forever. He had fought an angel for her, waited 547 years for her and he'd do more but he wouldn't lose Lexa no matter what it would take him.
"Let's talk about it, Alexa. Look at me."
He tried to walk closer to her but she raised her fingers and warned him not to, still backing him.
Tears fell from her eyes but she didn't let him know. She wanted to be strong to do what she had to do. She didn't cry out but cried in, cleaning every tear that dropped with her shaky fingers.
"I'm sorry. I've tried to make this work but maybe we were never destined to be."
Elliot couldn't breathe. "What are you saying? We can work this out. Do anything you want to me. Anything at all but please Alexa. Please don't go. I'm..."
"That's enough, Elliot." When she was sure she wasn't crying anymore, she faced him. Full anger in her now black eyes. Lot was biting his fingers in anxiety, he regretted not knowing what happened that night. He'd feel worse if they later realized that he wasn't the culprit. He just wished he could recall. "What is done is done and cannot be undone. I have to do what I have to do."
Elliot had a bad feeling that it was what he feared the most. "No, don't."
"I love you. I really do Elliot but you killed my mother and I can NEVER forgive you for that."
"Alexa..."
"I cannot deny the mark because I can't stop loving you but I can't be with you. I never thought it would end up like this. I wish we could change things, rewrite our destinies."
Elliot was afraid to move closer to her for the fear that she would disappear. He felt so far away from her though he was so close. He knew that even if he ran towards her, he would be pushed back every time. His anger had put him in the worst condition.
"Stop the poems. We are adults, we can talk about this. You can even put me in jail if you want, I'll wait my time and..."
"Maybe in another time when I leave this time, things will be better."
"Alexa!"
"Goodbye."
She fell flat to the ground but as she made contact with the floor, the ground swallowed her and she was transported to another world. A far away fantasy world that only two people knew.
***
Lexa's POV
I could feel the light. It was penetrating my eyelids and piercing my eyes. I opened them, my pupil becoming smaller due to the large amount of sunlight that entered it.
When I could see again, I smelt a beautiful mixture of roses, violets and lilies. Like that of an expensive million dollar perfume. But that didn't ease the pain, anger and regret I felt.
I sat up on the chair I was resting and locked eyes with her. For some reason, I cherished her the more.
I wanted to hate her for making me do what I did. For revealing the ugly truth about Elliot but she was only helping. She made me realize the monster I was living with.
Just like beauty loved a beast, I loved a devil but I wished our ending was as happy as hers. I guessed that could never happen.
She gave me a warm smile, a smile that could calm the most troubled soul but not me. I was rolled up in a dough of hate.
I wanted to find reasons to forgive him. The only one I could think of was the fact that my mother would die either way so it only made a little difference but I wanted to be there on the death bed with her. I wanted to ease her pain by holding her hands and rubbing her thinning hair.
I wanted to tell her loving words and breathe with her when she let out her last breath. I wanted Elliot to be there with me when she left...
I covered my eyes with my palms as I leaned on the chair and cried my hearts out. How could anyone love and hate someone so much? I felt like exploding.
The confusion in my brain was unexplainable. The more I thought, the more confused and angrier I got.
"Then stop."
I separated my hands from my eyes, not bothering to clean or stop my tears. The environment of the fantasy world was helpful because if I was in the real world, I might have killed myself.
"Could I stop what has been done, then why should I stop the feelings and confusions I feel?"
She stood and sat on the chair closest to me. "So much literature? You sound just like your mother?"
I laughed pathetically. "Which one?"
Rica's smile died down but was still evidently there. "I couldn't keep this from you for love's sake. You deserved to know."
I looked up to the big blue sky as more tears came down. I wanted to cry again but I didn't want to fall weak. "I love him."
"I loved how you loved him. What do you want to do now?"
I had no idea to say the truth but I had to do something. "I have to let go of him."
Those words punched my heart. I wish I could just ignore what he did but if I was still with him, I could never look at him the way I used to. Hate would always fill my eyes. I couldn't do it.
"Love isn't scarce. You'll find it again."
I sat up on hearing that ugly word again. "F**k Love. I'm done with it." I bit my lip, taking a first deep breath.
"What can I do for you, Alexa?"
I didn't think about it before answering, I already knew what I wanted. "Make such a powerful potion that even the devil would never be able to scent me or find me. I will bail you out of the psychiatric hospital. After the final burial rites of my mother..." I never thought the time to say those words would be so soon. "...take us to France."
She bent and moved her head closer to mine, wondering why I made that decision. "Why France?"
"I know some people there and I need to get away from...from everything." Everything as in Elliot. I looked at her. "Can you do that for me?"
Her eyes brightened. "Anything for you, Alexa."
***
Elliot's POV
I clawed through the ground, continuously digging up dirt from the spot where my Alexa disappeared. I wouldn't stop until I found her, I told myself.
I had lost hold of my powers and that meant I undid the time pause and everyone was moving again.
I had dug a three metre hole with my bare hands but super long fingernails, still searching for her.
Three hours passed... but nothing.
I was frustrated and angry. I jumped out of the deep hole and destroyed everything in the room.
I broke all the bottles of venom, I snapped and destroyed all the weapons. Some of the venoms ate through the ground like deadly acids, while others mixed with others and created things that the eyes were never meant to see.
I tried killing myself with the weapons but the wounds continued to heal back. At the end of everything, I looked at myself and there was not a single scratch on my body.
I hit the walls, breaking and tearing it into pieces like it was made of cotton balls. Lot didn't say a word, he was too angry with himself to talk to me and I was too mad to hear a single word from him.
I sat on the floor, defeated, dejected. I lost my love, the only reason why I lived. Then I realized that she wasn't lost.
She was somewhere in this horrible world and as long as she was here, I would find her.
I broke open the doors of my secret room and walked into the main hallways of my mansions. The maids greeted me, since they thought I was nicer when Alexa entered my life but I didn't even realize they were there.
To me, they were like ants on the floor.
I went into my room, overruling the urge to burn it down. I waved my hands and the doors closed. I rubbed my dirty poisoned hands round my face and hair, thinking of my next line of action.
I paced the room, hitting my head on the walls anytime I reached one then it came to me. I was the king of demons. I had power both on earth and in the underworld.
If I wanted something, I would get it by all means. I had to call on my deputy.
"Andras!" On a normal day, at my first call, he would have appeared in the room in a millisecond but he was nowhere to be seen. "Andras!!" I called again, angrier with every call "Andras!!!"
That third call made the mansion thunder and shake. You would think an earthquake took place. I wanted to go there myself and disfigure him but a floating scroll suddenly emerged from thin air.
It was a black open scroll with white words written in it and the dragon-devil emblem embodied at the back. It flew closer to me. I grabbed it and read the words as fast as an angry devil would.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Andras,
A war has been called. A challenge has been made. A fight for the crown of the king has been set. I have ruled for 547 years while the devil waited on earth for a weakling's love. The king has become a weakling and he has to be overthrown.
I, Andras, the soon to be king calls for a challenge for the crown! Come to hell and fight me like lions over territory, tigers over a mate and crocodiles over food for the power to rule over all demons on hell and earth!
It is time to choose the fittest. A divided attention from a king makes the king unworthy. Come and battle for the throne here in hell and we shall see who deserves the throne.
Death awaits...
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I devoured the scroll to show that the message had been delivered. I gritted my teeth. Andras wanted to challenge me. I had given him too much freedom and power and it was time to show him his place.
I ruled for more than three thousand years and he called me a weakling! He had to pay for ever challenging me and I would put him where he belonged.
I loved Lexa and I knew she wouldn't do something without thinking over it, except her mind was jumbled. That was why I needed to straighten up her mind. She was angry and anger made people do what they'd regret later. I, of all people, understood that.
I would be back for her but my crown was at stake. I had to use the anger in me to fight for it. There was no turning back.