Hellbound With You

Alex shut his eyes as he took in a deep breath. He had already figured that out. Zeke was a master of manipulating things. He always managed to find a solution to any problem no matter how impossible it may seem at first. But now, this time, it was a bit hard to believe but Zeke had really been cornered in regard to this matter. He had already tried to figure out every way out possible but still could not find one – even up till now. Knowing him, Alex knew that he must have already thought of a thousand possible scenarios and different conceivable combinations in his head by now. And yet...

"So… you're saying that… none of us here can do anything to help you stay… Is that it?" Alex said with a rather severe tone.

Zeke did not respond to Alex's question, but his hand had visibly clenched on Alicia's. Everyone saw that, even though it was such a small movement on Zeke's part – because they know him well – that every single and tiniest movement would mean something. Then he relaxed and leaned his head back on the head of the sofa, slowly allowing his eyes to close.

Everyone did not know what to feel seeing Zeke behaving like this. He had always been the one who was uptight. He used to never show any hints of weaknesses, much less allow such display of tiredness to be seen by so many others around him. Though his facial expressions did not change much, the way he sat right now looked like a man who was done carrying the world on his shoulders. They could somehow feel that he was weary – not externally but on the inside.

And no one could say a thing as none of them really knew what to say anymore.

The heavy and gloomy silence continued until Zeke himself broke it. "I was the one who was responsible in putting Sebastian in a cage for almost seven hundred years." he started. His voice sounded calm and there was no indication of whatever he was feeling being revealed in his tone. "Not only that. Sebastian was the main reason why I was able to live like a normal vampire royal up until now. Back then, when I had awakened my demonic powers and went on a rampage, I had already reached to such a dangerous level of power. Apparently, when a demon reaches a certain peak of power, the gates to hell open up and whether one likes it or not, this demon was going to be withdrawn out of this world and be sent to where he truly belongs. That was what should have happened to me back then, but…"

A long pause followed. Deep lines appeared between his brows, and everyone could tell that this topic was a hard one for Zeke to broach. It could be said to be a total taboo for him as none of them had heard of this before. He had never talked about Sebastian to any of them, perhaps with the exception of Alex. The matter of Sebastian had always been a taboo ever since as long as Kai could remember it.

"Sebastian had stepped in to stop that reality from coming true for me. He took on almost all of the excessive demonic powers that I had at that time. The gates of hell closed when he did that… after drawing away most of my demonic powers, Sebastian had gone feral. The demonic powers that are now stored within him did not make him powerful. But it did something else to him… it granted him nothing but madness. I tried to take it back to free him from the torment, but all my attempts were futile. I had tried every possible method available for the last almost seven hundred years. But… apparently, there is no other way. The only way for me to free him… is for me to leave this realm once the gates of hell open up again."

As he uttered that last line, his grip on Alicia's hand tightened again. Alicia's expression did not change despite the punishing grip he had on her hand. She felt that the little pain she was experiencing was nothing compared to the pain of torment Zeke must have been enduring for these seven hundred or so years.

Everyone's expression had gone quite severe, most especially Zeke's brothers. Kyle specifically, as he was the youngest, had never heard of this matter before today. Though he had heard mentions and whispers of this Sebastian – the other brother – that he had never seen, however no one had been willing to volunteer any more information on it. Even when he had tried to dig for more details on his own, he had only met with multiple dead ends. Thus, he had put it aside and ignored it as he thought it might not have been an important matter as it had been somewhat overlooked for such a long time already. He did not expect that the matter would have such a critical impact on whether his brother Ezekiel would stay or leave this world.

Now all of them knew why Zeke was so hellbent on wanting to free Sebastian, even if it meant that he had to be the one to leave everything and everyone behind. They had thought he simply wanted to leave. They did not know that he really did not have a choice left to him at all.

"And the gate of hell is going to open exactly four days from now…" Alex informed them. And again, Zeke did not respond. And the rest who heard it were either more taken aback at the suddenness of this event happening so quickly or just too dazed to be able to even respond.

"What about Alicia?" Alex added quietly. This question finally stirred some reactions and caused everyone to lift their faces again. Their eyes simultaneously looked over at Alicia first, who had been quiet all this time during the conversation. They ended up just lowering their eyes and stared at their entwined hands.

Zeke on the other hand, visibly stilled at the million-dollar question.

"You're not going to leave her behind after you turned her to a vampire, are you, Zeke?"

___

A/N: Thank you so much for the patience.