chapter 14. THE FULL STORY OF THE PAST 2.

A

n hour has passed since Alphose found the Wolfhunters dead and their leader missing.

He'd come to the conclusion that the leader had aborted the mission when he saw the dead bodies of his colleagues, he might already be on his way to report back to his superiors, probably for reinforcements.

It's no longer safe for them to be here.

He came out of the shadows, looked around the hospital and followed the route he remembered Ismena had followed.

He has to get Ismena back to Naturiah. He'd seen the time when her mother left the hospital, so he knows it's only Ismena and her sick younger sister remaining in that room.

He got to a hallway where he didn't know which route to follow anymore. So, he closed his eyes and allowed his cougar's scene of smell to do the searching.

The scent of the Alpha King caressed his nose. He followed the scent until he arrived in front of a door. He knocked once and opened the door.

"Ismena, we have to go-" He stopped suddenly when he realized she had company. And the company was... Her.

The cougar stretched inside him and growled with pleasure.

"Alphose! What are you doing here!?" Ismena gasped in surprise. Then, she found out what she just did, her eyes widened more and she snapped her mouth shut.

But, then again, Sandra-always the smart one-already picked it up. Her own eyes widened, she looked at her friend, "You know him?"

Hector continued his story. "Hazel was barely conscious when I took her and ran, by the time I got far enough away from the facility, she'd lost full consciousness. I didn't want there to be problems when I arrive at the hospital carrying her-I didn't want to create any suspicions-so I laid her by the roadside, stayed in the nearby bush and waited."

"Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long. A young couple saw her and stopped to help her. I pretended to be a passerby who also saw what was happening and stopped to help with the situation. A few other cars stopped too. Together, we loaded her up and I directed them to the hospital where I want her to be treated."

Simon, in his chains was still trying to wrap his head around everything Hector was telling him.

"When Amelia heard her daughter has been found but she's in the hospital, she came running." Hector's eyes went hazy fled with memories, "I can still remember that look of relief in her eyes to have found her daughter alive but at the same time, the look of fear and horror at the condition of little Hazel."

"She stayed day and night in the hospital. For weeks. Hazel's condition was so bad that every day that passed, she goes one step closer to death. Her fever was 105 degrees, she had perin eal laceration so bad it was horrible and-"

"Wait, what's that?" Simon interrupted. He knows what perineal laceration is but maybe Hector doesn't, for him to associate it with this case.

Hector let out an empty laugh filled with pains, "You're a doctor too, Simon, so you know. Her vágina skin tore so bad down to her perineum. There was no demarcation left between her vagina hole and her asshole. That was how bad he tore her up." He stated without mincing words.

Simon winced. Okay, even he has to agree that that's a bad situation for a child to be in. "It must have hurt like hell." He grumbled.

"It did. Little Hazel had to be put into deep sleep all the time, and whenever she's awake, she is always in pain. Her mother was right there with her, but I watched her die a little more inside everyday." He paused, "Apart from all that, little Hazel's womb was heavily battered from that ordeal, which shocked the hell out of all the doctors including myself because she was pregnant."

"Wait, first. How is it even possible for an eight-year-old girl to be pregnant? Talk more of being pregnant with a battered womb?" The doctor in Simon forced him to ask.

"It would have been called a medical miracle if it was a good it. It wasn't." He ran an unsteady hand through his hair, "Carol admitted to me that Hazel strangely started seeing her menstruation a week after she started working at the Facility. She told me that while it's strange, it doesn't worry her because she knows that some girls see it earlier than the others."

"I know all that too, but eight years was just too early." Simon shrugged, "Well, either the sperm of that animal, Number 6, is strong as hell or God wanted our experiments to be a success too. Even He must have been very tired of these anima-"

"Oh, shut the fuck up." Hector interrupted, "Never bring God into the sick cause of the Facility ever again."

Simon wanted to mock him for being a religious man now, but the fact that he wanted to survive forced him to bite his lips. "Sorry, sorry. Anyway, you said something else. She had a battered womb but she was pregnant?"

Hector glared at him before looking away. "The child was growing outside her womb."

Simon blinked. That was unexpected. "What!?"

"Even the doctors were shocked too, but that was how it happened."

Okay, a lot of all these are unbelievable. The Facility needs to hear this. Simon thought.

Aloud, he said, "Those animals... Apart from being a freak of nature, their sperms must be quite persistent. A good thing to know. It will work in our favor." He added with a nod of his head, "So, she carried the child to term and give birth to her, but you took the child as yours? Knowing fully well that she belongs to the Facility?"

"Nope." Hector answered simply, "Within two weeks in the hospital, with all those poking and prodding, she had a miscarriage. It was way too much for her. She lost the baby at five weeks."

"What!? That's a lie. Algro, that wolfhunter we put in charge of keeping an eye on her told us that the pregnancy stayed even though Hazel Smith was traumatized. He kept the Facility updated for eleven good years before we stopped hearing from him-"

"I killed Algro a week after I ran away with Hazel." Hector interrupted easily, "That was his second day on the job the Facility gave him. I noticed we had a tail, so I killed him before he spilled the beans about me to the Facility. I was the one that kept feeding the Facility with false informations so that they'll think that their plans are still solid, that everything was alright, so they won't come after Hazel the second time until I'm sure they would be unable to find her. To find us."

"What the fuck!?" Simon glared at his captor.

Hector shrugged unconcerned, "I let y'all believe the child was still alive even after Hazel lost the pregnancy and her womb was battered because of all the damages to that organ, to try and save her. That child was only eight years old. Eight!" He spat the word to his prisoner, "It was too much for her. Too much."

Simon was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the Facility's child died, that there's no child of changeling blood for the Facility. It was heartbreaking.

"She died, you know." Hector confessed after a long pause. "Hazel, that child, she died."

Simon snorted again. "Now, that's dramatic. That's funny too, considering that I know for sure that she is the woman in that hospital room."

"She died in the hospital three weeks after loosing the baby." Hector continued, "I was starting to suspect we might loose her completely when there was a sudden change in her condition. It worsened. The doctor informed us to prepare for the worst. I thought hard on what to do, knowing fully well that Amelia might die if that Hazel dies."

"So, that very morning I went to my bedroom cupboard and picked up Number 6's blood sample I took some time ago from the lab, because I wanted to work from home then. I put that tube in my pocket before going to the hospital, I had no idea what I was thinking when I decided to bring that with me, but I did anyway. Best decision I ever made." He added, sparing Simon a glance.

"Only to get to the hospital to find Amelia screaming so loud." He went on, "I knew something had gone wrong. I followed the screams only to see Hazel's whole body was covered, including her face. She'd died." He swallowed tightly, "Amelia was crying... pleading... screaming. She begged her child not to go. The pain in her voice... till today, they haunt me."

He rose from the chair then and began pacing, "I was desperate then. I rushed out of there to find a syringe. Luckily, I saw a doctor leaving his office, so I ran into it and took two syringes. Number 6's blood was the only choice I had and I know I had to try it out. So, I did."

Simon's eyes went wide. "Wait. Don't tell me you-"

"Yes, I did. I was hugging her and crying for her not to die, I used my body to cover hers to shield what I wanted to do from other people's eyes. I injected her arm with those two syringes." His pacing increased, "That girl was dead, Simon, but she came back to life."

"What!? That's unbelievable!"

"She did. I found it hard to believe too but it happened. She came back to life!"

"This is a breakthrough..." Something else to tell the Facility. Wow. Just wow.

"Not only that, she started recovering. Every day, she made more progress. Within two more weeks, she was well and okay. But we found out that she suffered dissociative amnesia of that ordeal. It was a blessing."

"What? Wait... Hazel lost her memories of what happened to her in the lab?" Simon asked incredulously.

"Yes. She has no memories whatsoever of the last four months of her life. Everything that has to do with the lab-down to her stay in the hospital, her young mind forgot everything about it as a way for her to cope with the trauma of what she went through." He stopped pacing, coming in front of Simon, "Children's minds are an amazing thing, don't you think?"

"It is, indeed." Simon had to admit.

"The only part she has memories of, are her check-up visits to the hospital afterwards. Amelia had to tell her that it's because she's sick-she was all too happy to spare her child the details of what she went through."

A pause. "Till today, Hazel has no idea about what she went through when she was eight years old. The poor girl has no womb, and she has no idea about it. But then again, she is alive and well today. No thanks to the Facility." Hector finished, throwing a kīller glare to his prisoner.

Simon was trying to wrap his head around everything. "Okay. Let's say that everything you just said is true. How did Hazel Smith become Ismena Cranes, and what about her sister?"

He shrugged, "Amelia and I wanted a fresh start. After I married her, we relocated from New York to this place and started a new life with a change of identities. I took up the surname, Cranes. Amelia changed her name from Claro to Amelia and changed Hazel's own from Hazel to Ismena Cranes."

He added, "She got pregnant with Valentina six months after our marriage. If you did your research well, you'd know that that girl is barely sixteen years old while the events of the lab was eighteen-almost nineteen-years ago."

"No." Simon shook his head, "No, I'm having a hard time believing all these. That child in there is Hazel's child and she belongs to the Facility! You're only lying to protect your so-called fami-"

He cut off suddenly when Hector turned away, walked to a cupboard and pulled out a drawer in search of something. "What are you doing?"

"I expected you to be this way, Simon. Which is why I brought this here when you were still unconscious..." he withdrew a white paper document, "...just in case you might need some convincing."

He got in front of Simon and flipped the paper open to his face. "Read it."

Simon did. His eyes widened unbearably.

It was a paternity test between Hector and Valentina Cranes. The match was 99.9%.

"She is your child..." He admitted, his eyes widened to unbearable degrees. Finally, it made sense why the ring never glowed when they found Valentina Cranes, like Dr. Beloca had said it would.

It only glowed, pointing at the lobby, because of the changeling. "She is not a changeling's child."

Hector gave a nod and withdrew the paper from his face. He put it away. "So, it is extremely annoying to see you...the Facility...sneaking around my child. My children." A pause, "It doesn't matter though, I will always kill each and every one of you to keep my family safe."

Simon laughed nervously, "You truly can't possibly mean what you said about killing me, did you?"

Hector did not return the laugh. Instead, he arched his brows. "I wonder what would have given you the impression that I was bluffing, Simon."

Fear was beginning to set in pretty well inside Simon. "B-But, you told me all this...! Come on man, killing me is n-n-not really the best i-idea. Surely, s-someone has to deliver the message that Valentina Cranes is not the child we're looking for-"

Hector was already shaking his head. "I won't take the risk of leaving you alive, Simon, no matter how much I want the Facility to know that. After all, there is no guarantee that they'll leave my family alone even after they know that."

A smile crossed Hector's lips, "Which is why I'm happy that Ismena is under the protection of the changelings now, even though I have no idea why. But at least, she'll be safe with them-safe from the Facility. It makes me relieved."

"Wait. She is with the changelings?" It made sense, why he has been unable to find the girl since he stared searching, Simon thought.

"Yes, she is. She came to the hospital today, with the changeling that killed all your men." He answered easily.

Simon was speachless. Scared and speachless.

"So, why are you telling me all this?" He asked at last.

"It was a good opportunity to finally tell this story to someone. It's not easy to live with such a dark secret for the past eighteen years, you know." His tone was sad, filled with pain. "Especially since I know you'll literally take all of them to your grave...just like I know I will too.

"Please, don't k-kill me. Please, let's work things out, huh? Please?" Simon pleaded.

Unconcerned, Hector reached into his pocket and withdrew the gold-colored ring. "In the meantime, I'll keep this safe and find the perfect opportunity to give it back to the cvhangelings. That way, the Facility won't be able to use it try looking for my family again."

That said, he pocketed the ring. Then, he reached behind him, raised his shirt up and withdrew a knife.

Simon's eyes widened. He started tugging at his restraints fanatically. "Please, don't! Don't do it!!! SOMEBODY HEEEELP!!!! SOMEBODY-"

Hector went behind him and slit his throat before he could finish the second scream.

He began choking as blood poured out rapidly. He made choking sounds, while trying to say a word. But he couldn't.

Hector stood, crossed his arms and watched him until he took his last breath.

Then, he sat down and allowed his tears to flow.

Tears about his past.

Tears about Amelia's past.

And most of all, tears for his daughter, Ismena, who was the biggest victim of them all.