Awakening From Ashes

Chapter 3: Realizing Betrayal

“Sit back down and die, worm.” 

Nicole’s words echoed in Lucas’s head.

“What?” he managed to ask through the splitting pain in his head.

“You heard me,” she said, her face devoid of any emotion. 

Lucas furrowed his brows, confused as to what was going on. The woman whom he had just proposed to, the woman whom he had promised the rest of his life to, had just told him to die. 

No, this can’t be right, Lucas thought to himself.

Another sharp pain ran through his body and he screamed out in agony. His mother’s hands gripped his body in a bid to soothe his pain. 

“Nicole, what’s the meaning of this?” Marrisa asked.

“Oh, shut up, hag. I’ve never liked you and tonight is the night I get rid of you and your sickly sweet son,” Nicole replied, her eyes menacing but true to her words.

“Stop this, please,” Lucas heard his mother beg. She was probably confused but seeing the same changes he saw in his fiancee.

“Restrain her,” Nicole ordered the men behind her who wasted no time in doing what they were told. 

They crossed the distance between them and grabbed Marrisa, pulling her away from Lucas as she screamed. One of the men held her by her hands while the other held her by her hair, preventing her from moving an inch.

“Stop,” Lucas shouted at the men but Nicole snapped his attention back to her.

“Eyes on me, Lucas. That’s not a request,” she demanded. 

Lucas bit his tongue and did as she asked. Never had he seen Nicole act in such a vile and vicious way but there was a first time for everything. A very shocking first time.

“What did you do to me?” he questioned his conniving fiancee. His skull felt like it was being split open with a sledgehammer. He fell to the ground gritting his teeth, his legs unable to carry his weight.

“Nothing much. Just a bit of strychnine in your drink. Well, enough of it to kill a frickin elephant,” Nicole mused as she walked towards Lucas and took a seat next to his aching body. 

She took a glass in her hands and swirled the contents, smirking at him as she did. Lucas tried to use his gifts to get out of this situation, any of his gifts to fight this, but unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything.

“Don’t bother. You won’t be able to use your gift once the poison is in your system.”

He glanced at his hands just in time to see his veins beginning to turn black as the poison spread.

“Why?” he asked as confusion and disbelief clearly showed on his face.

“Why not? I got offered more money than I could count just to get rid of nobody like you. Granted, I was a bit hesitant since I got a bit attached to you while we played house but when you think about it, who wouldn’t want the money?” Nicole replied with a gleam in her eye. 

She was different now. A far cry from the woman Lucas once knew. She was cold.

“Who paid you to kill me?”

“Now, why would I tell you that?” she asked him mockingly.

“I’m about to die. I deserve to know that, at least.”

“Hmm. I suppose that wouldn’t hurt. A blonde woman. Blue eyes, stiff jaw. I have no idea who she is and I have no idea why she was interested in someone like you or how you incurred her wrath but she really wanted you dead. She was pretty adamant about it.”

Blonde hair and blue eyes. There were a lot of women who had those features but none of them hated him as much as the mistress his father brought back on that fateful night. It was definitely Emilia Lockhart. It had to be.

Lucas hadn’t been in contact with his old family for more than ten years now. Hell, he didn’t even want to. Emilia had already taken his mother’s place in the household and chased him out of his rightful home, so what would she gain from doing this?

“Any last words then?” Nicole asked Lucas, dropping the glass back onto the table and leaning towards him.

“Just let my mother go. She doesn’t need to be involved in this.” 

“Sorry, but even though the deal was to get rid of just you, I prefer not to have witnesses,” Nicole said without any hesitation. 

He looked up at her, his hands holding onto her leg. “No. Just leave her. You have me. Let her go and kill me instead. Please.”

“I don’t think…” she began but Lucas cut her off.

“Nicole, please. If what we shared was even remotely real, don’t hurt her. Please, just let her go. I’m begging you,” he pleaded with her, his eyes watering up as he heard his mother crying.

Nicole kicked his hands off her and stood up, looking at him in disgust. 

“Don’t you dare touch me again. Real? Our whole relationship was a sham. Why would you think that I would ever fall for a nobody like you?” 

“Nicole, please,” Lucas begged her again, even though his heart had just been shattered by her revelation. 

Nicole just ignored him and turned to the men before giving them a nod. 

He turned his attention to his mother and spoke to her, feeling that something bad was about to happen. 

“It’s fine, mom. Everything will be fine,” Lucas said as he watched the man who gripped her hair from behind bring out a dagger from nowhere and place it on her throat.

“No! Please, don’t do this,” he begged the man directly, not knowing what else to do.

“Please, don’t kill her. I’ll give you anything you want, just please let her go,” he cried out, feeling helpless. 

Lucas couldn’t help but think of all the times she had saved him from his abusive father. All the times she had fed him or even clothed him. All the times she had protected him from the vultures when she was accused of an affair and he was the b*st*rd child. 

His mother had always kept him safe and now that it was his turn, he couldn’t even do the same for her. Lucas blinked, tears welling up in his eyes as he felt an imaginary noose tighten around his neck.

“Lucas, it’s going to be okay. I’ll always love…” His mother’s words got cut off as the blade was sliced across her neck leaving a river of red in its wake. She gargled for a moment, her hands going up to her neck before she went limp and fell to the ground, her eyes dead.

“No! Mom!” he screamed, his mind in disbelief at what had just happened.

It seemed like the world wanted both of them dead because once those words left his mouth, a blinding pain went through Lucas, causing him to cough up blood.

“Well, I guess this is it. Sorry, but this is how it’s got to be,” Nicole said to him with a stoic face, not fazed at all that she had killed an innocent woman in cold blood and was about to kill another person.

With one last look at his mother, dark spots began to encroach Lucas’s vision. His world dimmed and his breathing lessened. Was this how he was going to die? Killed by the love of his life? His mother’s throat slashed open by his fiance and at the behest of his father’s greedy mistress? 

His mind questioned it all in some moments but he guessed it didn’t matter because in the space of seconds, his body went limp and darkness took over him. 

                                                                            •••••

Lucas opened his eyes to blinding lights and the smell of disinfectant. He tried to sit up but a slight pain ran up his arm causing him to lie back down immediately. He glanced at his arm and saw an IV. 

Wait, am I in the hospital? Lucas asked himself.

He blinked, wondering what was going on. Just as he began to question his surroundings, the door to the room opened and a nurse walked in with a clipboard in her hands. She walked over to Lucas with her nose stuck in her work until her eyes landed on him properly. She froze, dropped the clipboard, and rushed to his side.

“Mr. Cole, you’re awake!” she exclaimed as she began to fiddle with the machines attached to his arm.

“What’s going on?” Lucas asked her, his memory still foggy.

The nurse ignored him and picked up a receiver by the head of his bed, then dialed a number. In some seconds she spoke into it, probably informing a doctor of his condition. When she was done, she dropped the phone and turned her attention to him.

“Nurse.”

“How are you feeling, sir? Any headaches? Soreness? Pain?” she questioned him without stopping.

Lucas shook his head. 

“Not really. I just feel a little dizzy.”

“That’s probably from the cocktail of drugs we gave you. Don’t worry, as soon as you're able to eat solid food, you’ll be back to normal,” she tried to assure him.

“Why am I here?” he asked her again, determined to get to the bottom of this. Her face went pale and then she took a step back as if she was guilty of something. 

“The doctor would have the answers to that sir,” she replied, her eyes not even looking in his direction.

Lucas was about to speak again when the door opened once more and a doctor walked in.

“Ah, you’re awake. That’s good to see.”

Lucas turned to the doctor and repeated himself, not liking how this situation was turning out. 

“Why am I here?”

The doctor paused and glanced between Lucas and the nurse for a moment before the smile on his face was wiped away and he began speaking. 

“Mr. Cole, I have some bad news. You were brought here by some of your neighbors a few days ago. We had to do a lot of extensive work to get the poison out of your system. We still don’t understand now how you managed to survive all of that. Luckily, you did, but your mother on the other hand didn’t. She was presumed dead on arrival. To save you we had to…”

As the man droned on, Lucas’s mind went back to that night. The dinner. The men. Nicole’s betrayal. His mother’s death. His mind replayed the scene all over again, reminding him of how he had lost the most important person in his life and had almost died himself. 

“Where is she?” he asked, cutting the man off from his long explanation.

“Your mother is in the morgue. We kept her there so that you could see her when you came to and possibly make preparations for a burial,” the man said with a morose face. 

Lucas forced himself to sit up in bed, wincing with every movement he made. 

“I want to see her,” he said as he ripped the IV and other tubes in his body out.

“Sir!” the nurse exclaimed as she tried to stop Lucas but he wouldn’t have it.

He glared at her, daring her to put her hands on him before he turned to the man in charge.

“I want to see my mother.”