Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“S..so these people, the ones that have been cremated, they felt the entire process? Th..th..they felt like they were burning alive?” I was appalled by what I was hearing. This was too much. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Why was this happening to these people? Why did they have to suffer so much?
“It’s alright, Talia, they are at peace now. They can’t feel it anymore.” Lex’s soothing words accompanied his hand that was resting on my shoulder. “There is nothing that you could have done. But we will make sure that you are there for the others.”
“Alexio is correct.” Lucifer continued. “And so are you. They felt it all, Talia. They apparently screamed in agony as they felt their bodies being destroyed by the flames. I am not very fond of burning someone alive, but I have experienced what it is like to burn a soul. Dead or not, they still feel pain. If they did not, then torture in the afterlife would be pointless.” I was appalled once again, I remembered what the underworld was like and that I needed to fix it. I needed to make sure that I didn’t let people suffer for pointless reasons. And I needed to make sure that there was an end in sight for people that got their punishments. Well, that is for everyone except people like these killers. They didn’t deserve mercy. They were evil and cruel.
“Don’t let this darken your heart, Talia.” Lex’s words seemed to pull me back. I was in my head and thinking things that were not very nice. “Do not let what these people are doing change who you are. You are not them, and they are not you. You may feel sympathy and compassion for the victims, and you may even hate the killers, but don’t let yourself darken your soul and seek vengeance. Seek justice instead. Do this the right way, Talia. I know that you are capable of doing that.”
“Lex?” I could hear the emotion in my own voice. I knew that I was letting too much of it show. On my face and in my voice. And if it wasn’t for Lex, I would start spiraling.
“Thank you.” I gave him a small smile. It was all that I could manage at the time. “Thank you, Lex.”
“That is why I am here, Talia.”
“I have only found a few souls, but I will keep looking. And when I find them, I will interview them about what happened to them and then send you a report. Expect to find the ones that I already compiled very soon. That is all that I need for now, I will be in touch.” With that, the connection between me and Lucifer was cut off. It was just me and Lex standing there together with the others nearby.
“Talia?” Mom said my name and I could tell that most of her anger had receded. “I am sorry that you needed to hear that. That was what I was trying to spare you of. I didn’t want you to deal with the heartache that this case will inevitably cause you.” She came over and hugged me gently but firmly. “I am sorry that you have to go through this.”
“I am sorry too, Mom.” I hugged her back, holding onto her like I used to as a child. The emotions inside of me were going wild. I knew that I was always so very emotional when these things happened. I was a very empathetic person and that caused me more pain that I care to talk about. And in times like this, I was going to be feeling a lot of pain. “I am sorry that I didn’t listen to you. I am sorry that I came over here and spied on you.”
“It’s OK now. I know that you just want to be part of this. You have to understand though, that being a part of something means that you experience it all, not just what you want to. This will happen again and again.”
“I know. I know that, and I still want to help you. I need to help you. I need to help these victims. And I promise that I won’t try to get revenge for anyone. I only want to give them justice.” I was firm in that resolve. I wouldn’t let my people down. Until I became the goddess of the underworld, these people were my people. And even then, they would still be my people. They needed me just as much as they needed my mom.
“Alright Talia, I will let you be involved. As long as you promise me that you will not disobey me again. When I tell you to do something, or to stay put, then you need to listen to me. I can’t be worrying about you while trying to solve this case. We’re all working hard.” Mom pulled away from me, putting her hands on my shoulders as she looked me in the eyes. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
****
Riviana
****
There hadn’t been a whole lot of information that Lucifer had given us, but there was something. The people that had been cremated had been released to the underworld, but at a great cost to their mental well being. And considering that souls were purely a mental state and nothing physical at all, that meant a lot to them.
Aside from that, I now had to deal with Talia. Who, by the way, was looking at me with glowing pink eyes. I didn’t know what was going on with her or why her eyes were like that, but I would find out, and soon. Right now in fact, since I was about to ask her.
“Talia, what did you do to your eyes?” I put my hand on her face and looked at her almost eye to eye. She really was already my height. Maybe only an inch different, if that.
“Oh, well, I was, uhm, I was trying to emulate you, Mom.” She looked nervous for a moment. “I saw your eyes glowing and I knew that you were using that to look for clues. So, I wanted to do that too. I decided to call my magic to my eyes and try to see more as well. Actually, there was something that I saw when I did this. It was blurry at first, but I managed to see it after just a second.” She started to step away from me and I turned to look at where she was going. My eyes were still glowing of course, so I could see whatever it was that she wanted to show me.
…..
“I am proud of you, Talia. You’re truly here to help. Thank you.” She stopped and looked at me in surprise. Did she really think that I wouldn’t appreciate her?
“I just want to be useful, Mom. I want to help you.” Sometimes I forget how grown up she is now, but then she goes and talks like this and that is when I can still see that sweet little girl that she used to be. That tiny little Tally that looks like she disappeared but is just hiding. When she was two, three, four, five years old, and even a little older than that, she only thought about how she could help people. She always wanted to be there for others. And that caring instinct of hers never went away.
“I know.” I gave her an approving smile before moving on. “Now, what was it that you needed to show me?” I needed to see this, whatever it was. If it was evidence, then I would make sure that it was collected and use it to help the case.
“Oh, right here. There is something written here. It angered me when I read it though, I am not going to lie about that.”
When Talia stepped aside, I saw that there was writing on the tree that was in front of her. The writing consisted of the same words that had been written on the church at the last village. During the time that we were in the coroner’s office, Shawn and the others had looked into the second crime scene. They had found these words there as well. They had been written in blood on a boulder. This was something like a mission statement. It was something that the killers seemed to plant at all the scenes, but they hid them somewhat. This one, I had not seen at all until Talia pointed them out to me. Then again, I hadn’t looked for them when I came over here with my magic eyes in effect. I was more focused on my child and what was going on with her.
“What is this written in?” I asked, curious to know what was happening.
“It just smells like a tree. If I had to guess, I would say that it’s water.” Joaquin, who had come walking over to me recently, leaned toward the tree and sniffed at it. “It’s odd, why use water to write the words?”
As he said that, Joaquin touched the tree with his fingertip. I think that he was just trying to see if he could find the words. I didn’t think that he could see the words unless they had some sort of color to them. Since they were glowing for me, I couldn’t tell what color they normally were.
I stopped wondering about that though. The moment that Joaquin touched the tree he seemed to cry out in pain. Not to mention I could smell the distinct scent of burning flesh.
“OWW! What the fuck! Son of a bitch, that fucking hurt! What is fucking going on here?” I hurried to Joaquin’s side, which was only a few steps away from me, and grabbed his hand.
“What the hell happened?” I saw that there was a letter distinctly burned into his fingertip. Well, two letters to be exact. On his finger, I saw the letters 鈥榦n’ standing out against his flesh.
“Didn’t I basically just ask that same thing, Riviana?” He was clearly grumpy about being burned. “How the hell did the tree burn me?” He was looking at it, trying to figure it out.
“I think it was the words. The letters are here, see.” I pointed to his hand. “It’s like the substance that they wrote with was what burned you.”
“Like some kind of acid or something?” He was confused. “What the hell?! Wouldn’t it have lost its effect by now? Or wouldn’t it have burned into the tree?”
“I don’t know.” I was not sure what was happening. “Dietrich, have you ever seen this before?”
“No, I have not.” He shook his head as he came closer to the tree. “Joaquin is right though. It doesn’t smell like anything but water. There is nothing but the scent of the tree here.” Dietrich touched the tree then. It was almost the same place that Joaquin had touched it and he too screamed in pain. “Fuck! That hurt.” Shawn rushed to him and grabbed his hand.