Keyon's POV (Mental plain)

'At...what point did everything just...stop?'

'what...everything...stop?"

'It just wasn't me, I mean...I haven't been me for a while.'

'wasn't...mean...for a while.'

'Looking back at it. I know exactly. When I stopped being...𝘮𝘦' I stare back at the corpse I once called my wolf, slumped and torn open.

'Gilda' The distorted figure removes a claw from my wolf's innards, pointing to itself and tilting its head to the side in confusion.

'That was her name, not yours' I watch as it digs back into her, snapping apart bones and swallowing organs whole.

'not yours' It repeats

'You can't even speak with your own words ca-' I go to finish, only to be interrupted by it's smug grin

'can you?' It states before standing from it's crouched position, throwing one foot in front of the other and pointing towards a figure in front of it. 'everything stopped here' Rubbing its bloodied hand across her pure white dress, leaving a clawed print of red.

'My own mate...I didn't even know her did I? I've known more about her after her death than when she was here.'

'lycan, gift, skoll...and-'

'And?' I begin to question the figure

'the first was Fenrir...Oracion...and then one more whole. followed by fragments. fragments is what they are.' It smirks at me, knowing I don't understand what it's referring to.

I stand up, preparing to walk off from the figure, 'where are you going?' It questions me.

'Back to the ones that need me'

Appearing behind me with a hand on my shoulder it tears away at the white background, 'Who? These?' showing the tortured corpses of my pack. Their arms extended out of cages, dried up and starved to bone. One cage in particular having claw marks and fresh blood cascading from the ceiling of it. The front bars burst open as an obvious sign of resistance.

'The boy who sees others...he saw me...he had to go. The woman who danced with flames...protected him...she had to go.' It stares at me, smirking with glee as its white eyes run down my body, staring down to my hands and pointing my attention to them.

'𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘶𝘴' It whispers into my ear, lifting my bloodied hands to my chest. 'Now...stay here' Its voice deepens and changes tone to different frequencies as if trying to find something in particular. 'It's safer here-' It turns its face away from me, squeezing itself and pressing it's clawed hands against its face. 'Just stay here, and it'll all be fine.' I hear myself...but I'm not speaking. 'We've been together for quite sometime now, you trust me, right? Keyon.' It turns around to show me a blood covered face...my face.

Its swirling smoke filled eyes replacing my gold ones, placing a hand on my shoulder and forcing me to my knees. 'With whatever will you had left, you guided us here and I commend you for that. Trapping us with your all-seeing mate acting as one hell of a warden that'll even make the hell hound of the underworld jealous. But that just gave me time to learn and...with these two...I can leave. You never actually got to be an alpha, did you? Keyon, the fate made catalyst."

-

Jackson's POV

"Ir-ene?" I cough out through the dusted light, swatting at the air to try and make something out something within the gleams of daybreak. Stopping my advancements at a suddenly hostility filling the air. "Irene...?" I crouch down a little to admittingly hide myself. 

Covering my ears at the sound of a window bursting followed by the beating of wood, "Stupid. Fucking. Animal." Hearing her voice deepen with hate I glance over to the direction its originating from. Watching as swirling strands of hair twist with a mind of their own. "Irene" I call out again, this time catching her attention and immediately calming her frenzied state much to my confusion. 

"Oh you're safe!" She grabs onto me, hugging me briefly before pulling me towards where Keyon fell down. "Here, help me move some of this stuff. I think his body should be around here"

"But...you said he wasn't human. He could of survived this...right?" I watch as she pauses, slapping her forehead and stunning me for a moment. 

"Oh yeah! Then let's try this, KEYON GET THE FUCK OUT HERE!" She booms through the torn down building. The previous tension in the air now gone and replaced with an eerie silence. 

"Ire-"

"Be quiet" She silences me with a hand across my lips. Scanning the areas with her eyes she begins walking towards an area, reaching into a corner with her hand and tugging out Keyon's figure. Standing there in an unconscious state before blinking a few times back to awakening. 

"Are you guys okay?" He runs towards me, checking for wounds but coming to an immediate stop after Irene kicks him to the ground. 

"You do not. Just attempt to kill us. And then act like nothing happened." She kisses her teeth, spitting between his legs but he goes unphased. 

Standing back up to his full height and...apologising to us? "I'm sorry, I've been alone for years...I lost my mate and what was left of my pack were taken as nothing more than experiments."

"So you're what? A wolf by that description?" She crosses her arms, dissatisfied by the story. 

"I'm amazed I didn't...turn rogue" He laughs while rubbing the back of his head. Turning my head to the side causes Keyon to stare at me with curiosity, "What's wrong?"

"What's a mate?"

"Uhm, Imagine your soul split into two and the other half was placed into someone else. Once you come of age you have a 6th sense and become alert to their presence or something like that!" He explains. 

"And the loss of the mate would be like...you dying?"

"Yeah exactly" He finishes

"Irene isn't the normal response to death, sadness?" 

Unfolding her arms she focuses back to me, "Depends on the context, but for the loss of a mate and for what it means to a wolf then yes. Sadness would be the only plausible reaction." I listen closely, trying to decipher something from my own head with what she's saying.

Only able to come up with a singular question I spit it out on instinct, "Keyon, why aren't you sad that Eden died?" The intensity in the air grows and not just figuratively. 

"I-I-" His body twists to face the now opened hole where the front doors were, stuttering and replaying his own words as if unable to process the next emotion. "How-would-you know that?" He stutters out, still no longer facing us.

I feel a little audible click in my head, "It called out to me...from inside you, the truth of what you feel and want." 

"No"

I continue hearing it...speak to me, "You wanted her to die"

"No"

It isn't controlling me, "You never wanted her here"

"No"

It's...fuelling me almost. "She was too perfect for this world, almost as if she was a god bound to the flesh of a mortal."

"SILENCE HIM!" He throws his arm behind him, falling to his knees and regurgitating but unable to produce anything worthy of leaving his body.

The energy I felt I lacked from the beginning, now tracing through me. "You-", Irene grabs my hand. Making me freeze in place as that energy leaves my body once again. 

"That's enough Jackson." She walks past me to lift Keyon up. "We started off shit and that's obvious. But you're a wreck and you can either come with us or stay here...alone" He places his arm over her as they walk out despite the lack of an answer. 

"Did...I do something wrong?" I murmur under my breath.

'No' I hear Irene's voice resonate within my head, looking up to see her still looking forward and paying no mind to me. Starting my pace behind them I try to think back, the memories I've lost all replaced with phasing static and yet I was still able to recognise myself within someone else's memory. 

I shake off the heavy feeling, taking my first steps back onto the stone ground and becoming alerted by the sounds of cracking. Hopping from one foot to another I notice it continue to crack, but not from my weight. 

Leaning down to it I come to recognise words forming from within the ground, "Time...said...there...were...supposed...to...be...two...but...she...refused...he...lingered" I read it out loud, becoming disturbed by Irene's booming voice once again. 

"YOU JUST GONNA SIT THERE!?" She yells at my crouched form but I wave it off, signalling for her to wait a minute.

"The...wolf...who...remembered...and...the...witch...who...never...left." It ends off in a large crack, crossing itself out and making the text unreadable to another. 

"JACKSON!" She yells again, making me look at Irene with a memory of the word, Witch. 

"I...don't understand" I call out to the space and wait a moment before acknowledging the lack of that heavy presence overlooking me anymore. "You can't mean Irene, right?" I comment although unknowing to Irene's hand touching my shoulder.

"What 'bout me?" She smiles, not even waiting for me to reply before she impatiently lifts me above her head, carrying me off to where she left Keyon. "There's a place where Keyon said members of his pack migrated to! Or so that's what a little birdie told him! And we're going!" 

She again speaks for me and leaves no room for conversation. Taking leaps for steps we approach Keyon in no time. "Are you guys ready?" he asks us.

"We didn't exactly bring anything so it's not like we have stuff to prepare with" Irene laughs, gaining distance between us already as she stares up at the dusk turning to night. 

Without another word Keyon attempts to walk ahead but I stop him briefly, "I know what I felt." The comment causing him to awkwardly squat in front of me with a hand on my head. 

"Well sometimes kiddo, we don't always feel the correct emotion in the time and place. Now do we?" He avoids eye contact with me but smiles, aggressively tapping me on the back and encouraging to move forward. 

Only pausing when a ground shattering fissure makes its way to him, just barely stopping at his feet, making him scoff and laugh a little bit. "We're out of your zone now, but I'll be missing your company, bitch." He spits on the ground, walking past me and catching up with Irene. My interest in him only increasing the longer I'm with him as I recall a name from his memory, "Who is Oneiros?".

 

Author's Note: Feel like starting the story for Volume 1 was significantly easier than this, odd.