Vermilion

Epilogue

"Harder," Zachary said to his laboring wife.

The Felton House was held still as the aggravating screams of a woman giving birth covered the silence of the house in the cold night. Every breath was held and the anticipation in the anxious faces of the awakened residents were evident. Even the newly arrived men from Corbett House held fast in their seats as they listened. The screams from the upstairs room made them all fidgety and wide awake.

Though in verge of delirium, Miranda obeyed and pushed harder. The agony she was going through was evident in her profuse sweating, tightened vessels, and cramped muscles. She twisted in pain as she endeavored to let the object of the labor slip out from her.

"Harder love, he's coming," Zachary urged as he saw the blood-covered head slowly emerging from her. As his wife screamed her efforts, he deftly pulled the child and at last, the thin wail broke the depressive atmosphere in the room.

He cut the cord and embraced the child. Overwhelmed, he did not know whether to cry or shout in joy that his son is a healthy child. The child started to stiffen due to crying and blood smothered his shirt as he had the child in his arms.

"Give him to me," Alford said as he approached with a prepared towel. Though craving for his first born, he carefully handed the child to him and turned to his wife who apparently fainted when the child slipped out form her. Her pulse is weak so he prayed that she would be well tomorrow.

"Here, he calmed when I cleaned him," Alford said cheerfully as he carried the child, wrapped in clean towel, towards him. It was then Equetaph went in to bring clean towels and another basin of warm water. Equetaph put down the things he carried and approached his son with the little being in his arms.

The serene appearance of the babe made him remember Zachary when he was that little and the joy Mary and he shared that day when Zachary was born. The little mouth yawned.

"Hold him, he's your grandson," Zachary said as he gave the child to him. The child squirmed when he held it. He angled in the light to see better of his grandson. The calmness and pure joy enveloped him as he looked down on the sound child.

"I expect you to see him grow well," Zachary said pensively.

Their eyes met. Vermilion to vermilion.

The deal between them was compromised when Pelferous took his own life. As decreed, Equetaph obtained half of Zachary's existence for the servitude the contract provided. The ability to heal himself went with the lost half life. Zachary knew that he would not live long to see his son so he trusted his immortal demon father.

Alford looked at the two men with the same red tint on their eyes. He knew that his golden eyes were as palpable to them as theirs to his. The truth behind those red eyes was also known to him for he had read it from Zachary's mind but he could not penetrate the older one's head. He went to them and deliberately asked for the child who was handed to him with laughing eyes.

"I wonder how his eyes look like," he uttered as he cuddled the child in his arms. The child had kept his eyes shut until the moment so none of them have seen it yet.

Suddenly, the window behind Zachary broke open. Before he knew it, Equetaph had shoved him hard and he knocked down on the floor. Alford instinctively back away and protected the child he held who started to wail.

Completely caught off guard, Equetaph was not able to deter the assault. The lance pierced through him as a cloaked pure blood demon held it. His mind raced but the lance moved within him sideways and ripped his flesh across.

Cariathe knew it was not enough so he shifted his lance on his hand and tore the tainted demon's chest from the stomach. Blood showered all over the room and onto his face as he did so. He saw how the tainted demon looked at him. It was with pain but anger was evident. Then, as he had expected, the tainted demon burst into flying sparks of light and turned into ashes. A picture of a horrified child with a crying babe in arms appeared in front of him when the sparks deadened.

At that moment, he knew that his father was ruthlessly killed. He could not believe it but it happened right in front of him. The wailing of his son jolted him back on his senses and he saw that the murderer walked towards the consternated Alford who carried his son.

Without thinking twice, he seized the first thing that touched his hand. Quickly, he got up from the floor and hurled the candelabra on the cloaked man who he successfully distracted.

"Alford run!" he shouted and the child scuttled out of the room. He has a wife to protect, he thought as he looked straight on blue glowing eyes.

Angered, Cariathe speared his lance on the fool's chest. It surprised him when he stared at red eyes who gazed back at him scathingly despite the fatal wound he had inflicted.

"Don't hurt my wife," he said then grasped the lance planted on his chest.

He turned his head and found a woman lying on the bed. She was already dead according to the scent he inhaled. If he would base it from the scene he saw earlier, there had been childbirth in the room.

"Your wife is already dead," he heard him say then pulled the lance from him. Blood spurted from the wound and he fell on the floor as his body began to be numb. His blood oozed and soaked him on the red pool of his life.

It couldn't be, it couldn't be, Zachary continued telling himself as he was down on the floor and struggling to live. His father is dead. Miranda is dead. He could not die now for his son needs him. His son would be alone if he died. He could not leave him. He could not...

Dark clouds of death blackened his sight and he died with his eyes left open with the hope of surviving for his son.

There was no point of staying longer in here, Cariathe told himself as he discerned that the tainted demon's son was dead on the floor. This room is the very place where life and death existed at the same night. There had been no coincidence, just inevitability.

The night no longer offered solace.

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