She Belongs To The Devil

Ariel closed her eyes as her father had asked.

Theodore first held Adeline's hand so that he could borrow some pieces of her memories as well. He closed his eyes along with Adeline. And he placed his fingers on Ariel's forehead.

Theodore then took his daughter down memory lane.

Ariel opened her eyes and found herself in the middle of the battlefield at the west side of the Frostford and Wyverndale's border.

"Whoa! Am I inside my father's body? Everyone looks so small." This was the first thought that she had upon seeing everyone around her.

A battle was going on. She suddenly saw her mother fighting so fiercely with all the vampires. The red-eyed beings were dropping dead left and right.

"Mom! I never knew she fought so well!" she thought to herself. She was even more impressed by her mother.

Suddenly, she felt a little dizzy as if time had sped up.

And when everything was stable again, she found herself fighting. "Aunt Lilith?"

She felt as if Lilith was throwing a barrage of attacks on her. "Whoa! Whoa! She definitely tried to kill my father. Wow! Why does she look so angry?"

The time sped up again and now her father was ready to kill Lilith. Suddenly 'her' hands stopped. "Heartbeat?" She glanced at Lilith's belly and thought, "Is that Damien?"

Ariel was hurt when she saw Lilith asking her father to kill them both. Thankfully, she was glad that her father took Lilith to the room that she had seen once. "He didn't just spare her life but safely took her back to Hell…"

Ariel's respect towards her father went sky-high. "Damien should see this! My father was the one who protected him!"

The time sped up some more.

And suddenly, she was thrown into her mother's memories which took her by surprise. But she quickly adapted after she recognized her mother's hands.

From the way she was walking now, Ariel was sure that her mother was badly hurt. She walked towards a man who was lying on the ground while facing down.

Her mother raised her sword to stab that man. But she heard him say, "I surrender! I surrender!"

However, that man grabbed something from her mother's waist and shouted, "Fooled you!"

The almost dead man looked alive again.

"Is this Damien's father? It must be," Ariel thought to herself.

And when time sped up and stopped again, Ariel felt that very man driving a sword through her mother's heart. She didn't feel the pain of her mother but her heart ached anyway.

"No! Mom! Why would he… why would he stab mom after surrendering?"

Ariel was crying in real. Tears began rolling down her closed eyes.

She felt a little relieved when her father caught her mother. "He will save mom, right? Of course, he will." Ariel tried to calm herself down.

Suddenly, she switched bodies again. She was now looking down at her mother. And she wished that her father would have spared her of that scene. She saw a long sword still attached to her mother's chest.

"She's dying! Someone heal her!" Ariel screamed in her mind but there was no one who could hear her.

She then heard a few sentences as she bawled in her mind.

"That vampire stole her pills," she heard Arion's voice.

"Theodore, Agnes is coming. Don't worry," she heard Arion's voice again.

And then she heard even more painful words from Agnes, "I can't heal her in time. Only a miracle can save her now."

Everything turned black for a few seconds. And after a while, Ariel found herself in the cave. Her mother was lying unconscious in the water in front of her. The sword was still there in her chest.

Her father pulled out the sword and Ariel could hear the gut-wrenching scream of her father. He was also in agony. By now, she had noticed that her father was also affected by her mother's pain.

Time sped again.

And when it stopped, she heard her father praying for the first time in her life. Her father was pleading with his father.

"My father's father? Please tell me he will save my mother. I know someone saved her but please do it fast. I want these memories to end soon." Ariel was screaming in her mind.

She could hear Agnes chanting her spells in the background but it was doing nothing much for her mother.

"Somebody! Save my mother already!" She couldn't bear to see her parents in that state.

"Agnes! Why did you stop?" Ariel was taken aback by those words of her father.

She saw Agnes covering her mouth while looking at her mother and crying. She saw Arion walk away from there. And she heard her father crying for the first time in her life.

"What? No… No… No! Why is this happening? Is father showing me a wrong memory? This didn't actually happen, right?" Ariel felt like she would pass out because of the excruciating pain in her heart.

Next, she saw a light purple pendant appear on her mother's neck out of nowhere. And then she saw the familiar aura.

"Azizi?"

And she heard her father and her uncle exchanging a few words. "Why are you here, Azriel?" "You know why."

And then she heard the next devastating words from her Azizi, "Goodbye, baby brother. And say goodbye to Adeline, and everyone else."

"What now? Why is he saying goodbye?" Ariel was utterly confused.

Her confusion somewhat cleared when she saw the next few pieces of memories. She understood that her uncle had given his whole life force to her mother.

She knew now that her mother was killed by Damien's father. And if it wasn't for Azizi's selfless act, her mother as well as she wouldn't even exist on Earth.

Ariel had thought that everything would be over now. She knew that someone must have saved Azizi and thought there wasn't much to see.

However, could she be any more wrong?

Theodore didn't show Ariel how brutally he had killed Reginald.

But he did introduce Ariel to someone she hadn't seen yet.

The almighty. The heavenly father. Her grandpa.

Ariel was transported to a place with blinding light.

Ariel, for the first time in her life, heard her father addressing someone with grey hair and beard by saying, "Hello, father!"

Theodore showed the memories of him having a verbal fight with his father.

And Ariel, more or less understood that the two of them had a vast difference in opinion. She also got to see her father's hatred towards that bearded old man.

And from the way he talked, she was sure that she would hate this man if she ever met him.

"He was willing to let Azizi die? He had the power to save my mother and yet he didn't? What kind of a cold-hearted person is he? Is this why my father never talked about his father ever before?"

After experiencing a lifetime's worth of heartbreaks, Ariel was glad to get out of those tormenting memories of the past.

She instantly turned around and jumped to hug her mother. She whimpered as she tightly hugged Adeline, "Thank you for living, mom."

Adeline was also in tears since she had seen and felt what Theodore had felt. She was heartbroken to see her husband's memories that he had buried deep in his mind.

Ariel then turned to look at her father. He was trying to act strong in front of her but she could see his wet eyes.

She went into his lap and wiped his eyes. And she apologized to her father while swallowing her tears, "Dad, I'm so sorry that I made you live those horrible memories again. And I am really really sorry that I always fought with you."

Theodore softly smiled and replied, "You had to know someday. I'm glad that we did this sooner. My heart feels much lighter now that we don't have any secrets between us."

Ariel kissed her father on the cheek and hugged him. And she said in a soft voice, "Thank you for being the father that I thought you were. I knew you wouldn't hurt anybody for no reason. Both mom and I are lucky to have you in our lives."

"Thank you for bringing me into this world. And I am very proud of you, dad. You fought well." By 'You fought well', Ariel meant to say that he did the right thing by standing up against that bearded man.

Upon hearing those kind words from his daughter, Theodore felt like he had done something right in his life.

He lovingly stroked his daughter's hair. He was smiling but at the same time tears were also rolling down his eyes.

"I'm happy that we cleared the air between us," he whispered lovingly. He was happy that Ariel didn't blame him for killing Damien's father anymore.