"Sky," I call to him in a small voice. My eyes go to the door. I'm anxious about the possibility of Lyall overhearing us in the bathroom. Sky has never shown up in front of me when Lyall is near.

I always thought that Sky has been hiding from Lyall, because he is supposed to be dead in Lyall's eyes. And by the story, I heard from Lyall... I don't think it's a good thing for Lyall to find out about Sky's existence. Especially this soon.

But Sky doesn't seem to care anymore.

"What have you done?" he raises his voice when he knows Lyall is just one door away.

The boy's eyes lit up with anger. And his red eyes only make him look even more devilish. I reach out my hand to him, but he flinches away.

"What have you done, Mars?" He is talking too loud now. And too damn near the door.

"Sky," I whisper in a warning tone. Panic is clear in my eyes, yet Sky doesn't have the same sentiment. Does he want to get caught?

Before I can tell Sky to quiet down, Lyall has asked beyond the door, "Mars, who are you talking to?" I hear footsteps approaching the bathroom door, then the squeaky sound of the doorknob being pulled is heard almost instantly.

When Lyall tries to open the door, the wood wouldn't budge. But I didn't lock the bathroom. My eyes go to Sky and I immediately know that he is the one locking the door. Panic rises inside me a little as I take a step back. My back hits the sink and my hand causes the cup with our toothbrushes to fall to the floor. There's no way Lyall won't be able to hear the loud clanking sound of a metal cup gliding on his bathroom tiles.

"Mars," he calls again as he pulls on the doorknob. Harder this time.

"Sky, what are you doing?" I ask the boy.

A loud bang is heard from the door. It's Lyall pulling the doorknob even harder, that it breaks from the other side. The doorknob on my side loosens, causing the knob to half turn to the floor.

The locks sound broken too. And for a few seconds, the door opens, opening just a tiny gap where I can see Lyall's worried eyes. But as fast as I can see those eyes, the door closes abruptly. This time, a blanket of darkness covers every gap in the door. The darkness doesn't only cover the door, but it also covers Sky's entire body.

I blink at what I am seeing. This is the first time I truly see Sky's full power. I have never seen such bleakness in my life.

This is the power of a Shadow Walker.

"You hurt my mother!" Sky says. His red eyes become intense, the color contrasts the black shadows he is weaving. He looks so eerie that all the hair on my body rises.

This is not the Sky I knew.

"Mars!!" Lyall cries out to me. I hear another loud bang, which I think is Lyall trying to knock down the door. "I'm coming!"

Sky's dark magic keeps Lyall from barging in. The realization that I am alone to face this Shadow Walker until Lyall figures out a way to come in just dawned on me. My first instinct is to keep Sky talking to me, to stall time with a conversation.

"Wh– what did I do?" I try to control my voice, but I cannot erase the shakiness coming from my throat. Instinctively, my hands go to my stomach. If anything happens to me, I have to make sure that my baby is safe.

Sky's body is completely basked in his darkness. "You slept with Father," his mouth is trembling, his red eyes have glittered with tears. "You hurt Mother!!"

What?

"You caused her pain," Sky keeps on talking, "Hasn't she experienced enough? Why do you have to keep on torturing her?"

"Sky, I didn't–"

"You just have to take Father's love from her." The darkness around him grows to engulf the entire room in shadows. A deep chill runs through my spine. I have never faced a Shadow Walker before. I have never even encountered dark magic before.

The door behind Sky keeps on shaking ferociously, proof that Lyall doesn't stop trying to get in. But even when the wooden door has collapsed because of Lyall's strength, Sky's black door still stands. It's thicker and firmer. I can't even see Lyall from the other side. I can only hear his panicked voice.

"Mars!!" He keeps on calling my name. "Mars!"

"You're breaking my family apart!" Sky screams his lungs out. This time, tears fall down from his red eyes.

It strikes me so much.

I know he is a Shadow Walker. I believe Lyall's story. But this... when Sky sheds tears in front of me, I can't see him only as a dark creature. The boy standing in front of me is just a boy who is hurting. And the worst part is that I know now how Sky really believes they are one family, or rather, how he really wants the three of them to be a family.

"Did she tell you that?" Somehow, I become calmer once I understand truly what is happening to Sky emotionally. I stand up straighter. With my hands on my stomach, I look straight at Sky.

"Did your mother, or should I say, the one who created you, tell you I am the one breaking your family apart?" I keep my voice calm but firm.

Instead of fear, I feel a pang of sadness, seeing this poor boy who has clearly been misled, if not by himself then he was misled by Adina.

"It's quite obvious that once you're here, Father only has eyes on you!" Sky argues.

"But even when I was not here yet, Lyall had stopped visiting your 'Mother,' Adina, correct?"

Sky widens his eyes. He takes one tiny step back as if my words were an enormous blow to him. From his expression, I can see that he knows I am right. But no one has ever told him the truth to his face, so he has been holding on to his version of the story for so long.

It's sad.

"B–but... Father will come back to Mother," Sky's words are shaking now. His pupils are trembling too. The way his darkness sways in the room also tells me I have made cracks in him. Cracks that would allow sunlight inside his dark walls.

"Is that what Adina has been telling you?" I ask with a gentle voice.

"Yes!" Sky's hands curl into fists. He answers me with a loud, clear voice, yet the answer is not reflected in his eyes. Deep down, he is unsure. I know it. "She– she asked me to help her make Father love her again. It can happen. It will happen."

"They're always meant to be together," Sky rambles on, "Only when Father loves her again will she love me and then... and then perhaps... perhaps Father will love me too..."

His words put heavy knives inside me. I understand completely now.

Sky is just a poor boy who wants to be loved.

"But everything is ruined now!" he cries out, "Because you came! Because now Father has claimed you as his–"

"He has not." My voice is firm.

"What?" Sky blinks, then he resumes a blank face.

"Lyall has not marked me." I lower my neckline so Sky can see the bite mark on my neck. There's only one bite mark, and it's faint, which means it's been on my skin for a long time. New bite marks would still look red in a few days.

Sky blinks again, realizing that my words are true.

"He didn't mark me yet because I have not given him the permission to," I say, then I gulp before continuing, "But I dare say, this shows that Lyall cares for me. On the other hand, Lyall not visiting Adina at all in the past years shows otherwise. Don't you think so?"

Sky opens his mouth to say something, but I beat him to it, "I don't know what Adina has been telling you, or making you believe. But, I will tell you this. If people don't try at all for you, then they don't care about you."

If my words before were like a blow to him, my words now seem to be a hurl of a hurricane to Sky. He becomes frozen. Even his shadows have stopped moving.

"But... Mother promised me she'll give me a name," he whispers, "She promised me she'll start loving me when Father has loved her back."

I can't help but feel pity for this boy with darkness. I understand completely now. His desire to be loved has been manipulated by Adina so he would be her loyal minion. In truth, Lyall will never love Adina back. And Adina herself will never love Sky back.

When you desire love from someone who won't give it to you, it creates this hell cycle of being unloved and desiring love from the wrong person.

"It sounds like she will only love you with a condition," I say slowly, making sure I have his gaze all the time. "But Sky, every one of us deserves to be loved unconditionally. To be loved for who we truly are."

I want him to know that Adina doesn't truly care about him. "Those who only love us with conditions will leave us in the end. And honestly, they don't deserve us, too."

Sky only blinks. He even seems to stop breathing.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" I walk to him with open arms, wanting to hug him, to give him warmth.

"But... Mother created me...," more tears fall to his cheeks.

When Lyall told me about Sky, I had this perception that Sky is eviler than I saw him as. But looking at the boy in front of me, I only want to give him affection even more... maybe even love. I want him to feel he is not alone, and he is deserving of a better love than the one he is desiring now. Perhaps it's my motherly instinct, too.

"She created you for a selfish reason, Sky," I whisper, "She thought you would make Lyall love her. She didn't create you because she loves you."

The way Sky is looking up at me breaks my heart. Lyall told me about Shadow Walker wanting to blanket the world in darkness. But I wonder... if in truth, Shadow Walkers become the manifestation of their creators' desires. Old rulers each had the desire for more power and to conquer the world, and hence, their Shadow Walkers become the embodiment of that.

So when Adina created Sky because she desired Lyall's love, Sky became a creature who desires to be loved.

I wonder if Shadow Walkers have been misunderstood all this time.

"I've tried everything..." Sky says with trembling lips. Another tear falls on his cheek. "Why am I so unlovable?"

Those last words break my heart. Truly. I don't care if he is a Shadow Walker, he is still a boy. It's sad to hear a child saying he is not worthy of love.

I want to hug him instantly, not caring about the dark shadows around him. But I halt my steps when the walls next to the door suddenly cave in. Bricks fall to the bathroom floor as well as a large, grey creature.

A loud roar is heard in the entire bathroom, even the walls are trembling in fear. When the creature stands tall, I see its muzzle, sharp teeth, grey fur. Its size is colossal, and its green eyes shine full of rage.

"Lyall," I immediately know who it is. It's Lyall in his lycan form.

Lyall's eyes look at Sky, who is frozen in his place now. The lycan king roars loudly to Sky.

"You," Lyall says in a low tone. His voice is laced with disgust and anger. "This time, I will make sure you truly die."

–to be continued–