Asher ran to the back of the dungeon and sat crying, the look on everyone faces flashing in his mind. He was sure he even saw fear in Anita’s eyes and to top it up, he hurt his mother, his sweet loving mother. Why, why would he hurt her and most importantly, why can’t he remember hurting her? Why is it that he doesn’t remember when he hurts people? What is inside him that is always taking control whenever he was angry? He sniffled and wiped his tears away forcefully.

“There, there, child, don’t be too harsh on yourself,” he heard and turned to see a woman standing a little far from him. She had long curly black hair with beautiful black eyes. She smiled and took a step towards him and paused, “should I come closer child?”

“Who are you, I have never seen you in this pack before?” he asked, wiping away his tears. The last thing he wants was a stranger seeing him cry.

“Oh but I once lived here, trust me. I used to be a famous healer, in fact, I still am and I know what your problem is,” Catherine said, taking another step closer to him.

“No you don’t, no one does. Not even my dad who is the demon king or my aunt who is a famous witch does.”

“But none of them are healers, but I am and I can heal you. You hurting your mother today is just the beginning, if you don’t get yourself treated, then soon you would be killing everyone you love. And you don’t want that, right my prince?” she took another step, slowly covering their distance.

“You can…heal me?” he asked.

“Perfectly, and you will never hurt your mom or anyone you love again.”

“How will you heal me?”

“Like I heal everyone that has a problem. I will make the darkness go away, I will restore you to your true self without a strong power trying to burst out of you at any given time. You just have to trust me. You want to be healed right? You want to be a normal boy so that you can have friends and not hurt anyone that comes close to you, right?”

Asher nodded and by then Catherine was already standing very close to him. “Then give me your hand, come with me and I will heal you, I promise. I am a woman of my words,” with that, she opened her hand for him to take, “come and I will heal and restore you to your normal self.”

“What about my parents?” Asher asked.

“Oh, they will finally be happy for having a normal son and your daddy won’t have to keep showing up everywhere to save the day. You will have friends, and you can finally play without hurting anyone, trust me. Now, give me your hand, come with me.”

Asher stared at her open hand and the thought of how he had hurt his mother and the look on everyone’s faces made him make his decision immediately and he placed his little hand in hers. Immediately his hand touched hers, his eyes turned black and Catherine smiled. He felt something like electric travel up his hand and he glanced down at his hand in hers and saw black lines climbing up his arm like tree vines. He was scared and removed his hand from hers but the black lines were still traveling up and then they were up on his neck and his face and soon his face was covered with black lines that looked like veins.

“Ah,” he screamed and fell on his knees, his hands placed on the ground to support him as his hands were now black, covered in black lines. Black smokes started seeping out of his fingers and the ground started turning black. Even the innocent grasses were not spared as they died immediately, turning black as well. An unbearable pain gripped him on the chest and he fell on the ground, turning around as he gripped his chest tightly. Catherine all but stood and watch him with a smile, not even bothering to lend a hand. “Ah,” he groaned loudly again as he felt like something inside him was fighting to come out, trying to rip him apart.

Just then, a black shadow appeared in front of him and was landing a blow on Catherine. Looking up, he saw his father fighting with the woman. “Dad…help…” he cried before his vision started turning blurry and black blood sipped out of his eyes.

Edward growled like a raging beast and attacked Catherine head on, the woman seemed to be wake or maybe, had used up her powers on whatever she did to Asher because it was hard for her to avoid his attacks or even land a strong one on him. Irene suddenly appeared with Hephzibah and joining their hands, they circled Asher and started chanting a spell. Asher was twitching and twirling on the ground, screaming in pain but they didn’t stop and kept chanting.

“No!” Catherine screamed seeing that the black lines on Asher had started disappearing and, in her desperation to get to him, she didn’t see Edward coming and he hit her with a big ball of blue light, making her scream in a heart wrenching pain. “You idiot, do you have any idea who I am?” She growled at him and rushed Edward but he easily avoided her attack. She fell on the ground, feeling her strength draining with the injury she had suffered from Edward. Right then, she turned to see that her effect on Asher has nearly cleared and she saw Aliyah, Sean and Monica who was still carrying Anita rushing to the scene. She glared at the pure blood witches working on Asher and spat out, “you can stop it from taking effect now, but you can never heal him. My mark is already in him and one day, he will answer to his destiny and that is to be my son. One day, just one day!” she screamed and disappeared, her voice echoing around them.

“Ah,” Asher screamed and sat up on the bed, he was panting heavily and glanced around him. He was in a dark place and as his mind settled, he realized that he was in his room in his mother’s pack. He closed his eyes and wiped his hand on his face, breathing heavily as the dangerous voice rang in his mind, ‘He will answer to his destiny and that is to be my son!’ He shook his head to shake off the words and the terrifying voice as he climbed out of his bed and walked to the window.

The moon was full and bright and he placed his hand on the window, letting the cool breeze bring him back to present. It’s been twenty years since that incident and all thanks to his aunt and Hephzibah, he was able to be saved from that incident. No one ever mention about that day again but it has not always been easy for him. He was constantly plagued with nightmares and Hephzibah had constructed a dreamcatcher for him growing up but now, even the dreamcatcher doesn’t work anymore. He turned and glanced at the thing hanging on his ceiling and sighed.

It was still early in the morning, three more hours before training but he knows he won’t be able to sleep again so he walked over to his closet, changed into trackers pants and his running shoes before he went over to the window and jumped, landing strongly and firmly on the ground and then picking a run.