Chapter 164 Nothing but despair
>>Seraphina
The male police officer stepped forward, his hand on my shoulder as he gently but firmly restrained me.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," He said sternly, his voice tinged with sympathy. "But I have to ask you to step back." He blocked my path as Ariel began to drag Eris to her car.
Eris wasn’t having it. She bit Ariel’s hand making her scream and let her grip loosened. The moment Ariel’s hand was off of Eris, she ran. And she ran towards me.
“Sera!!” She yelled my name and I could feel the desperation in her voice.
Unfortunately, she didn’t get far. A few steps towards me and Ariel grabbed her with her other hand and yanked her back. She had grabbed the collar, so when she yanked her backwards, the round collar choked Eris.
“Hey!!” I yelled at her, “What are you doing??!” I was filled with negative emotions, “She’s a kid!! You can’t do that to her!!”
“God knows how you raised her,” Ariel let Eris go and she started coughing as she fell to the floor, “She’s such an unruly kid.”
“She’s a kid,” I tried to move towards her but I was stopped again, “A kid who doesn’t want to go with a stranger!” I looked at the officers, “Did you even check if she’s actually the mother of the kid? Huh?” I was desperate. I knew she was the mother. She ran away from our house the day she found out she was pregnant.
And she found out she was pregnant when she was already three months along. Even I could tell she was pregnant, but she kept denying it. I don’t know why she was in denial, maybe because she didn’t want the kid.
No, that must have been it. She didn’t want Eris, that’s why she threw her away too.
“We did check,” The female officer said,
“What?”
“I got a sample of her hair when we met in the hospital,” The male officer said, “She is indeed the mother of the girl.” He sighed, “That’s why you should stop crying. There is no way you can win this.”
“B-but,” I looked back at them.
“Look, she can take it to court as well,” The female officer said, “And you’ll lose there too.”
A deep, gnawing sense of loss that threatened to consume me whole. Eris was more than just my sister—she was my everything. The thought of her being taken away from me filled me with a profound sense of emptiness, as though a part of me had been torn away along with her.
Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring my vision as I watched helplessly, “No, please,”
“Sera!!” Eris fought Ariel, “I’m not going with you!! Leave me!!”
“Look!” I begged, “She doesn’t want to go with her!!” I clasped my hands together, “Please, please, don’t do this!!”
Tears blurred my vision as I watched helplessly, my chest constricted with a pain that was almost unbearable. Eris looked back at me, her eyes filled with confusion and fear, her tiny hand reaching out towards me as if pleading for help while Ariel tried to push her into the car.
NO! NO! NO! NO!
I tried to push through the officers who were blocking my path and run to her but the officer grabbed me, “Don’t even think about it.”
“No,”
“Sera!!” Eris kept resisting, “Sera!!!”
A suffocating panic gripped my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs and leaving me gasping for breath. It felt like the world was closing in on me, crushing me beneath its weight as I struggled to make sense of what was happening.
“Hey!” I hadn’t noticed that another car had pulled up there, “What is happening?” Not until I heard Azef’s voice.
Tears streamed down my cheeks unchecked, blurring my vision as I clutched desperately at my chest, trying to quell the rising tide of panic threatening to consume me whole, “Azef…” Every heartbeat felt like a hammer blow, reverberating through my body with a sickening intensity.
He came over while Runy removed the hands of the officers from me.
“What is happening here?” Runy asked.
“The little girl’s mother is taking her home.” The female officer answered, “She’s doing it the right way too. So please don’t make a fuss.”
“What?” Azef grabbed me as he looked at Ariel and Eris.
“Brother Azef,” Eris made a final plea before Ariel managed to throw her in the car and shut the door, “Brother Azef,” She started banging her hands on the window.
“Azef,” I looked at him. I felt like I would pass out at any moment. Amidst the chaos of my own mind, I felt Azef's presence beside me, his touch gentle yet firm as he tried to calm the storm raging within me.
“It’s alright,” His voice was a soothing murmur in the cacophony of my thoughts, a lifeline in the midst of the tempest. He looked at the officers but before he could say anything, they shook their heads.
“There’s nothing you can do.” The officers said.
“No,” I shook my head.
“I’m leaving,” Ariel told the officers and then walked to the driver’s seat.
“Shit,” Azef cursed under his breath, then he looked at me, “We should leave for now.” He told me
“Why!?!” I was losing my mind
“Look, I told you I’ll tell you about what happened with Eris later, right?” His grip was so strong I couldn’t move, “I have to take you with me because the person who’s coming after us is a formidable person.” He tried to take me away, which didn’t sit well with me.
Why was he taking me away? I still need to get Eris!!
“But Eris-” I turned my head to look at the car which was now driving away, “No! She’s leaving!!!” I tried to go to the car but Azef stopped me.
“She’ll be safer with her mother!” He tried to calm me down.
“No!”
“Seraphina!!” He called my name, making me stop. I looked back at him. This is the second time he’s called my name, “Listen to me,” He urged, his voice cutting through the haze of panic that clouded my mind. "Focus on your breathing. In, and out. You're safe here with me."
“But Eris…” Tears streamed down my cheeks, and my mind started to fall into despair.
“Hey, hey,” He noticed something wrong, “Get it together,”
But try as I might, I couldn't seem to find my way back to reality. The panic was a relentless force, tearing through me with an unyielding ferocity that left me feeling powerless in its wake.
“Seraphina?! Breathe!!!” Azef's words washed over me like a distant echo, I felt myself slipping further and further away, the world fading into darkness around me
All my heightened responses, all the yelling, all the emotions, they took a toll on me. My world spun and then I fell.
But before I could even hit the ground, everything around me went dark.
>>Azef
She fainted in my arms. I caught her before she could fall back and hit the ground but she was completely out of it. The panic attack she got caused her breathing to get ragged as well.
In this situation, I guess it’s better that she passed out. I watched her. At least her breathing is back to normal.
The officers looked at each other, they looked concerned but they didn’t say anything about it, “We’ll be taking our leave,” The walked towards their car, “You should take her to a hospital.” The female officer said and I looked at the teacher who was standing at the gate.
She was stunned by this all.
“You should go in,” I told her, “I’ll take it from here,”
“Yes…” She bowed and then went in. I looked at Runy.
“This is the worst way it could happen,” I shook my head as I picked her in my arms, “I didn’t think something like this could happen.”
“What now?” Runy asked, “Are you going to do something about the kid?”
“For now,” I shook my head, “No,”
“Really?” She was puzzled, “I thought you had grown attached to the kid.”
I paused, “I have… She’s a bright kid.” I sighed, “But since her mother took her, she might be safe from Somi.” I looked at Sera.
“We can’t be sure about that. Somi had her attacked before.”
“I know. But I can’t take her back now. Not with the police’s eyes on me. We’ll wait and see what we can do.” I let out a deep breath, “Runy, take her to the pack.”
“But Beta!” She was alarmed, “We can’t take humans to the pack!” She shook her head, “It’s against our rules! What if we get in trouble?!?!”
“Just do as I say,” I handed her over, “I can’t leave her here.”
“We’re a new pack. The other packs haven’t even recognized us. We bring a human in and they find out. They can create an issue.”
I looked into the distance where the car had gone, “I’ll take care of everything.”
“But,”
I looked at Runy, “Let leave, it’s better if we don’t waste any time.”
Volume 1 - End