Chapter Eleven: "Explaining the Truth Again"

My head is going to explode.

Everything around me is still moving and meaningless and when I try to close my eyes something in my head tells me not to do it, to keep trying to search for information in any way even if I am not able to know what kind of information I should capture. Ethan walks away from me, picks up the phone from him, and starts talking.

Look at his eyes, Karla. Do it and everything will be fine.

I listen to him and with all the strength I can muster, I look at him. As if he knows what I'm doing, he does the same. His gaze takes away the dizziness, the headache, the burning from my entire body. All heaviness that I previously felt disappears with the accompaniment of a cold breeze that envelops us both. His body tenses and I can hear again, hear the voice on the other end of the line.

Reconnect with me, Karla, as we used to do.

"What happened now?" The harshness in Alice's voice surprises me and for some reason the corners of my mouth lift.

"It's Karla."

"Again?"

"Something is happening to her."

Silence is the only thing that follows his words. I tilt my head and everything around me begins to blur, it becomes dark being the only thing I see at the end the colorful eyes of Alex entering the room.

The moment of truth has come and you know it, which is why you are so scared. You know that you will be in the shadow again, in the same darkness that you created for me, the bars of a cell being the only thing that I will let you see in years.

***

A dark mist embraces me and as I look around I see tall green trees. I frown, noticing that I don't feel bewilderment but rather a sense of familiarity. This place is like it's not the first time I've seen it and just thinking about it doesn't create any kind of feeling or emotion in me.

The sound of flowing water floods my ears and I breathe in the pure air that surrounds me. I start walking through the woods and instinctively head towards the source of the soothing sound. The only thing that lights up the place is the moon reflecting its shape in the stream. I get close enough to be able to touch her and I hear a voice behind me, but it doesn't scare me, I don't feel anything.

"It's nice, isn't it?" His voice sounds relaxed and deep.

"Yes."

My fingers draw meaningless shapes on the surface of the water as I hear his footsteps approach. I wake up and my heart races. When I look at him, that blackness so characteristic of his and that of theirs species begins to swallow the hazel color of his eyes.

"You were supposed to give me some quiet time."

"You don't believe that, nor do you," he says with a malicious smile on his face. "It's been too long since you've been gone, you have obligations as my daughter. You have to go back for the good of our species."

"I wish I wasn't," I whispered.

In less than a second, his body moves so fast that the fallen leaves move around him, as if moved by a hurricane, being only a few inches from me and forcing me to look up, seeing my own reflection in the blackness of his eyes.

"Do you think I wanted to have you?" he says through clenched teeth. "You know very well that what I had with your mother was a one-night stand and look what kind of gift came later." The contempt in his words is palpable."Although, to be honest, I'm glad you made it out alive. Do you know how powerful you are? More than what once was and what I will never be."

I roll my eyes and his words are filled with fury again.

"You've been playing for decades "he stops himself trying to find a word that can describe what I've been doing "being a different person, playing actress, and let me tell you one thing; deep down you know that it will be of absolutely no use to you. You can run, flee, hide, but you will always end up in the same place. Here "He gestures around us. "with me, explaining the same shit to you since you started this stupid thing."

"That's not true." I try not to let her words affect me, but it's useless.

If Henry Smith is known for anything, it is for being a good manipulator of emotions. He can torture you without touching you.

"Why would I lie to you?" he shrugs without any feeling in his words. "Although I'm glad I didn't kill you and it surprises me at the same time. When you accept Aradia again, we'll be unstoppable, darling. ”He places his hands on my cheeks. "We can make the world what we want and if your mother helped us we would have heaven in our hands. Although I already give it up for lost. You still have a chance to become something great. Accept your destiny once and for all."

"And if that's not what I want to do."

The look I meet is cold, empty and malevolent.

"I'll kill you with my bare hands." A sideways smile forms on his lips. "If you are not going to be useful to me, I will beget another being like you. Believe me when I tell you that with what you are doing your days are numbered."

I am speechless, I don't know what to say to him without further enraging him and he knows it, which makes his smile grow even more.

"Karla, today is your lucky day. For humans you turn eighteen, for the umpteenth time "he rolls his eyes", for believers your current age is the number of perdition, one in which hell and the human world are connected. What a stupid thing to do. ”He shakes his head. "It is a magical, precious and very valuable number. Not every day is six hundred and sixty-six years old. ”He smiles broadly at me and is more false than his kindness. "I hope this is the last time you waste my time telling you this shit, understood?" The contempt in his voice reappears.

I shrugged my shoulders. From the beginning I knew the consequences that my game would entail. I know what it takes to be her daughter and basically that is why I continue with the world that I have created and that amuses me so much. Although funny is not the best word for this situation.

"It all started one afternoon with the sun starting to disappear from the sky," he begins to speak after a long, tired sigh." I made my way to the same bar I'd been frequenting for the past few years. However, that day was different. The same rock always came, instead that day there was a person who had entered a very bad place.

My father moves slowly towards a rock, leaving his feet suspended above the water. He beckons me to come with him and when I sit next to him, his story continues.