Sequel to Modification
Estela's going back. Back to where it all started. Back to the place where everything changed. She's returning to resume the task she was given six years ago, and this time she isn't going to let anything stand in her way of...
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Chapter 13: Preparations
Tom could smell salt and hear rushing waves; a light, chilly breeze ruffled his hair as he looked out at moon-lit sea and star-strewn sky. He was standing upon a high outcrop of dark rock, water foaming and churning below him. He glanced over his shoulder to where a towering cliff stood behind him, closely hugged by a sheer drop - black and faceless. A few large chunks of rock, such as the one upon he was standing, looked as though they had broken away from the cliff face at some point in the past. It was a bleak, harsh view, the sea and the rock unrelieved by any tree or sweep of grass or sand.
He could feel flecks of cold salt spray hitting his face in a mixture of the harsh wind and pouring rain that soaked his clothes, hair and skin as a distant memory swam to the surface of his racing mind. As he looked through the rain towards the mighty cave, the echo of a child's piercing scream filled the air as thunder growled around him. In his mind, a loop played over and over – a loop where a young, dark-haired boy with a charmingly malevolent smile lured two rosy cheeked children down into the cave in an event that would leave them changed for the rest of their lives.
The same images played constantly as he looked out at the crashing waves and he enjoyed every second of re-living the torture he put them through. They deserved it and he would do it all over again if he got the chance. He continued to look out at the sea until he had to blink twice when a fourth person appeared in his memory.
It was a small, innocent looking girl with large grey eyes that swirled like the mist on the floor of the sea. She was looking at him in a way that made him freeze and completely forget what he was doing. She made him want to stop torturing these children and lead them back to safety.
He shook his head vigorously as he tried to clear his mind. She wasn't meant to be there. He didn't want to think about her. It was her who had driven him here tonight. And she was all he could think about.
He looked up towards the stormy sky and let the rain hit hard against his already soaking wet face. He didn't understand her in the slightest, but he understood her better than he understood himself at the same time.
She was hurting him somehow - she was making him angry and happy at the same time and it drove him insane.
He remembered back to their school days. Back to the days when she was by his side whenever he needed her. By his side as they took on everything together in their strangely twisted and wonderful relationship.
He wanted that again; that feeling of standing with her against all odds and succeeding. So much so, that he was willing to risk everything he had worked for so far just to get it back.
But that's what drove him so angry. The fact that he was willing to risk everything –all he had worked for – just for some girl who would give him no benefit or power.
He just knew it could never be. He was a monster who craved power and immortality, and having Estela jeopardise that would only put her in danger. And he didn't want that.
