Returning Myself

-Asha-

“Will you really stay with me forever? Until death separates us?” I asked Zeus when we were in my room as I watched him use his vampire levitation power to hang the curtain we just bought together at the mall. He paused to look at me, his golden eyes seemingly confused.

“What brought up this question all of a sudden?” He asked as he turned to finish the task then floated down to join me on the bed.

“It’s just a random thought but will you?”

“Silly Asha, do you even have to ask that question? We’ve been together for almost 6 years now, isn’t this enough proof that we’ll always be together?” I smiled as he held my face and kissed me. “So what do you think?” He directed my attention to the window with the new curtains.

That conversation happened just yesterday and now, I’m sitting on a bench at the park in front of his apartment where he is currently having sex with another woman, a woman who is also a vampire. I admit that I always felt a bit inferior to their race since I’m just a normal human and always feared that Zeus would one day give me up for someone of his own race. I was even trying to prepare myself if my fears would come true one day. However, now that it really happened, the shock and pain made me sit down and stare in a daze after I ran out of Zeus’ apartment.

We started dating when we were in high school. We knew each other merely as schoolmates before he coincidentally discovered that I was working in a club as a waitress, a hobby, which was illegal since I am still underage back then. He didn’t say anything but I still pestered him at school and always followed him around, guarding him. Before long, I started to have feelings for him and my guarding became a form of excuse to chase him. I was a straight forward person so I confessed my feelings to him before long but he didn’t budge at first until he willingly showed me that he is a vampire, his reason for not answering my feelings despite confessing that he also liked me. However, I wasn’t surprise at all because my family has been known of the existence of the supernatural world for many generations now, my mother is also from a long line of witches but she was born human. We started dating after his revelation and also entered the same business school when we finished high school. I was very happy with him despite my fears but it’s really true that when you fear something from happening, it will really happen.

“Excuse me miss, your phone has been ringing for a while now.” I was startled out of my thoughts when an old man tapped my shoulder. The ringing and the vibration of my phone in my pocket also became prominent to me after he pointed it out.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized to him and answered my phone with fear that it would be Zeus.

“Young miss! Where are you?!” Andrew, my father’s secretary, frantically shouted on the phone. I felt nervous all of a sudden.

“What’s wrong?”

“Miss you have to come to the hospital right away! The boss and the madam are in critical condition right now.”

“What?! I’ll be right there.”

Somehow, all the feelings I’ve been feeling earlier started to fade away as my whole mind and body started to panic. This was the first time that my parents have ever been in this situation; I’ve never seen them get sick in my entire life. For this to suddenly happen, it really worried me to the extent of shouting at the taxi driver to drive faster. I arrived at the hospital in just a few minutes. I almost caused a ruckus running around the hospital until I found Andrew.

“What happened?” I asked immediately when I reached him. He looked as haggard as I was, the first time that I saw the perfectionist Andrew with a messy appearance. There were also the unmistakable traces of blood scattered on his suit. I felt sick.

“There was a shooting at the company’s lobby, the shooter was apprehended but many were shot including the boss and the madam. I’m sorry miss.”

“Are they still inside?” I looked behind him, willing the emergency doors to open with the news that my parents are fine, just a scratch.

“Yes, for almost 3 hours now.” Andrew dejectedly answered as he also looked in the direction of the doors.

Andrew and I waited for an hour more, taking turns pacing around in front of the emergency room. Suddenly, the nurses started to go in and out of the room in a hurry and my heart started to feel like it’s being squeezed tightly. Half an hour later, the flurry activities stopped and the doctor came out. I could already see it on the doctor’s dejected face. Her shaking hands also didn’t escape my eyes.

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.” The doctor confirmed what I was thinking but I shook my head in denial. Before I could do anything, my vision became dark and I felt myself falling.

I was in a hospital bed when I woke up. When I saw that no one was around in the big room, I remembered that my parents are already gone and my heart suddenly became very heavy. The tears finally started to flow out when my brain started to process that I’m all alone now. I’m literally all alone now. I’m an only child and so were my mother, I also cannot trust my relatives on my father’s side because they were only after my parent’s wealth. I’m the heiress of a business empire that has existed for many generations now, our business covers different fields from the food, hotel and entertainment industry and has been expanding these past few years with the joint management of my parents but now they’re gone.

The funeral was held a few days later and I almost cried during the times that someone would make a speech about how great my parents were. However, I held my tears. This is the pain of being known as the heiress to an internationally known empire; the media has to be present even in a funeral. I cannot show a moment of weakness especially when my cunning relatives are also present. Andrew had spoken to me yesterday about the current issue of the company, the board members are nervous and my relatives are already making moves, truly heartless and without conscience. Despite Andrew’s concern, I insisted on taking my place as the next CEO tomorrow, there will be no delay in protecting what my parent’s worked so hard on.

I took a last look at my parent’s coffins, speaking to them silently that they can go in peace, I’ll be okay.