Chapter 6: Better Off If Forgotten

        "Celeste..." compassion marked his eyes, and for an instance, Luhan looked like he was reaching out towards you. You moved slightly away to avoid eye contact, not letting his hand touch you for you had always refused to accept anyone's pity. "My name isn't Celeste, that isn't me...it had always been ________. But for you Luhan, I changed it. I changed who I am, and left who I depended on most to wait for you."

        "I'm sorry..." he lowered his head with guilt, yet you were quick to stop him. "I don't want you to be sorry! I want to you to know how much you mean to me, to all of us, to our people. Every century, a warrior is selected amongst us to protect the packs. My personal pain is nothing compared to the endless suffering our people have gone through in the past histories. We need a leader who would unite us and fight for us. That person is going to be you Luhan." You turned at him, moving closer to him suddenly as your eyes glistened with hope. "When I first met you, I couldn't believe it. I thought you were nothing special, and could not understand why someone like you had been chosen for something so great. But now I know, perhaps there is something special with you. I've never met anyone but you who has been left with all their memories even after their mark."

        Luhan looked away from you, as though the expectations in your word were great enough to already pressure him. And lowly, he mumbled, "Like you, that might had been because of my blood. It might as well be only for the reason of my bloodline, was I ever chosen to do this." He stopped and looked out the windows into a night sky of darkness, his sad eyes filled with solitude. "You think I'm special, maybe even lucky to still have memories. But I'd say, better off if forgotten." His brows tightened as he closed his eyes briefly, his fingers shaking by his lap. You shushed yourself and did not ask. After your silence, he breathed long and softly, attempting to calm his restless heart as he began. "Like your father, my father was also a wolf. And as for my mother's father, my grandfather, he too was one of us. With the bloodline of a wolf, my mother remained human and was never marked."

         "But she has half the blood of a wolf," you muttered.

        Luhan paused to glance shortly upon you to nod, "That is what made me born with more than three forth of wolf blood, even as a mortal. My father knew, if I were to be marked, I would eventually become more powerful than any ordinary wolf because of the wolf blood I already bore. But he didn't want that. My parents wanted me to live a normal life, a happy life without scary tales. They knew that eventually I would find out about everything. So they planned on telling me all that I needed to know on my twenty-second birthday. They wanted to offer me a choice on what I wanted to be, whether it was to remain as a mortal, or become one of them."

        You shuddered, hesitating before you finally asked, "What happened?

        "There was a fire..." his voice spoke quietly, his lightless eyes kept low to the ground as every bit of flashback pounded his heart heavily, paining him more and more.

        He strolled through the neighborhood on his way back from school. Many friends surrounded him. They talked and laughed with nothing weighing their hearts down by the slightest. And as Luhan came closer to home, more and more of them began to scatter away into their own directions. He had waved them off and said his goodbyes with such ease, assuming that for sure he would see them all again the next day. Thus, he continued walking, quickening his steps as the night grew darker. He complained often of how isolated his parents had built their cottage at. He could not understand why of all the wonderful neighborhoods, they specifically chose a place deeper inside the woods where even the morning sunlight could barely escape through the bushes of trees to their windows.

        The woods were deadly silent with its usual darkness, just like what Luhan used to fear. But after having spent a lifetime walking through it, he no longer felt any anxiety. But that scream, that heart-breaking scream, came yelling from one direction all too suddenly. His mind turned into complete chaos. Within moments, smoke began to rise from deeper inside the trees. He halted at first in apprehension, until he at last panicked and began to run. He became determined that it was his home, his house, and his parents.

        "No please...whatever is happening, please be ok..." he hurried his feet, not even having the heart to pick up his backpack when he dropped it. "Mom...mom! Dad..." his eyes burnt the second he saw his house, once so pretty and elegant, now burning into piles of wood and dust. He opened his mouth to scream, right when a pair of hands grabbed him from behind, grabbing him back with all its strength while covering his mouth. The man clenched to him tightly, wrestling him down behind the bushes as Luhan's eyes were already b with tears. "Stay low and quiet for your own sake." His dark eyes met his tearful ones, his deep voice attempting its best to calm him. And cleverly, he did not remove his hand from his mouth to give him another single chance to even make a sound.

        His arms shivered in fear when a loud thud came from inside the windows upstairs of the burning rooms. There was the sound of things being banged and thrown around. And faintly through all the noises, Luhan caught sound of the deep growl of an animal - a wolf whom he had only learned later to be none other than his very own father. The glass shattered into pieces as its teeth bit into a man's throat, swiftly throwing him out the window. And immediately following after him, through the bright fire lights, his shadow melted once more into the shape of a man.

        Luhan began to struggle. Yet he came to find the man only tightening his hold over him as he wrestled even further. He moved his lips from under his palm to scream, but realized that he could barely make a sound. The flames burnt brighter like the underworld fires, torturing him continuously after every second he remained watching. Hot tears escaped his clear eyes as he barely blinked. His ears could hear nothing more than the sound of his home falling apart, and the painful groans of his father coming from the smoking room while the hunters beat him ruthlessly. He could faintly see the vicious faces of these men whom he had not met once in his life, those people who wanted to kill his family. Within moments, everything became silent inside the windows, and within such a short time, Luhan's eyes were already red from the tears he wept. He shakily grabbed his phone from his pocket when he felt it vibrate.

        "I love you, my son. I'm sorr"

        That was it. The last word was left unfinished.

        The sound of a gun went off inside the burning room, the place where his loving parents had lived  for ages.

        His whole body lost all its strength. Helplessly, he collapsed inside the man's arms, his eyes no longer able to control any tears. He wanted to scream...he wanted to growl when he suddenly caught sight of the murderers who stumbled out his burning home, fleeing away from this hideous scene in which they had created with their own bloody hands. He couldn't hear anything anymore, not the sound of the man calling his name, and nor could he feel his shakes over his shoulders. Everything was gone...everything seemed dead.

        "My parents were never the target..." his voice trembled all of the sudden after having spoken calmly for so long, his straight back losing its posture when his head fell, "it was me...it had always been me. They found out who I was, and what I could become. All they wanted was to get rid of me, this greatest threat who could one day became a horrendous enemy when I would be marked. But instead, they took my parents...they murdered them both without even the slightest pity. This was never meant to happen..." his eyes turned all of the sudden at your direction, causing you to almost flinch. And at that very second, that first drop of tear rolled down his face, falling upon his hands trembling over his lap. "They weren't supposed to die!" his voice raised at last, making your heart pound heavily. You expected his eyes to glow red along with his emotions, yet they did not; all that you could sense from within them were emptiness and remorse, along with the pain that seemed all too excruciating for him to bear. "My parents, they could have lived, they should have...they were supposed to kill me. Destroy me and be done with it, that would have been so much better! But here I am....here I am, still standing and enjoying the time of my life after my savior, Kris, saved me. And my parents..." he lost his voice suddenly when he could hold his expressionless face no longer, his eyes shutting with more tears that began to fall.

        "Luhan..." you thought little as you burst before him to pull him inside your hold. You shushed him as his forehead fell heavily among your shoulder, his breath becoming heavy as he wept, losing all control of his emotions. His arms overlapped by your waist, like a child would when seeking warmth and comfort.

        Through the windows, even the breeze blowing to you two felt as if it was chilled with melancholy. You sighed soundlessly, closing your eyes with Luhan inside your arms, your fingers his hair with the gentleness you never knew you possessed.

        Inside your embrace, lay the boy whom you had once became irritated upon, the one whom you were unsatisfied with all because of how ordinary he seemed. Now you knew, he was anything but ordinary...and despite all that he was and all that he could be, you now only desired to hold him, perhaps help him through his pain, if that were only possible...