Lilith's Diary: My greatest mistake

   When we arrived, the hospital looked quiet under the evening sky, the windows glowing softly with lamplight. The air smelled faintly of herbs and antiseptic.

   A doctor in white robes greeted us with a polite smile and asked Mum and Grandpa Rex to wait outside. I hesitated for just a moment before following him down the hallway. The sound of my small shoes tapped lightly against the tiled floor, echoing in the silence.

   The room I was taken into didn’t look like the one I remembered. The walls were bare, the light too dim, and the equipment wasn’t placed the same way. It felt wrong.

  “Isn't this room different from before?” I asked cautiously.

   But before I could react, the doctor stepped close, his hand clamping down hard on my head.

   “Wha—?! Let go—!” I kicked and struggled, panic surging in my chest, but before I could push him away, his other hand traced a magical circle right before my eyes. Warmth spread over me, heavy, like a blanket dragging me down.

   “W-what are you—” My words slurred, my limbs sluggish.

   The light from his spell grew stronger, pulling at me, smothering my senses.

   My vision blurred, the strength drained from my body, and the world went black.

* * *

   When I opened my eyes again, the ceiling above me was stone. Cold.

   I tried to move, but leather straps held my wrists and ankles tight against a steel table. The air was freezing, carrying the stench of chemicals and something worse… rot. My heart raced.

   Shapes shifted in the room—men in black robes standing guard, and the same doctor, his eyes gleaming unnaturally in the dim light. 

   “I see you woke up already,” the doctor said casually, stepping into view.

   My voice trembled. “W-What is this place?”

   “Where the dead are studied,” he said casually, gesturing to the room. Only then did I notice the outlines—covered bodies on stone slabs, the unmistakable shape of arms and legs beneath the sheets. It was the hospital's morgue.

   My stomach turned.

   “Why… why am I here?”

   The doctor laughed, his voice echoing sharply. “I have to say, it was a miracle that I found you. The moment I have seen your scans I knew I couldn't waste this chance. Someone born with Sacred Eyes. Do you know how valuable you are?”

   “…Sacred Eyes?” I repeated. At that time those words were unfamiliar to me. 

  He laughed again, shaking his head. “You don’t need to know. Not when you’re about to lose them anyway.”

   Fear froze me, colder than the table beneath my back. “Why? Why are you doing this?”

   His expression hardened. “You wouldn’t understand. How could you? Someone like you, who’s had everything handed to her on a silver plate—you know nothing of the struggles of regular people!”

   From his coat, he pulled out a strange device—metallic, etched with glowing runes. When he activated it, it hummed with sharp, vibrating light, bathing the room in eerie glow.

   The instinct inside me screamed. Whatever it was, it meant nothing good.

   “Stay… stay away from me!” I cried, pulling at the restraints until my wrists burned.

   Then—

   Bang. Bang.

   A loud knock at the door.

   The doctor scowled, his face twisting.  He snapped to one of the black-clad men.

   “Deal with it.”

   As the guard moved, the doctor turned back to me, his grin returning. 

   “Now then, where were we—”

   That’s when it happened.

   A thunderous crash exploded through the room as the door was kicked clean off its hinges, slamming into the wall with a deafening clang.

   A freezing wind swept inside, coating the walls, the tables, the floor—everything—in a layer of biting frost. A white fog filled the room, chilling my breath.

   “What—what’s happening?!” the doctor cried out, panicked.

   Through the fog stepped two figures. My heart leapt—Mother, her crimson eyes blazing with fury, and Grandpa Rex, his entire presence radiating menace. That was the first time I have seen them like that.

   The doctor shouted, voice breaking. “What are you waiting for?! Attack them!”

   The men in black charged.

   Grandpa Rex moved faster. His movements were fast, precise, brutal. One swung a blade, but grandpa caught his arm and twisted, a crack echoing as the man screamed. Another lunged from behind, but Grandpa spun, his fist slamming into the man’s chest with such force that the air left his lungs in a wheeze before he crumpled. A third raised his weapon—only for ice to spike up from the ground, freezing him in place before Mother stepped through the fog, her eyes burning with fury.

   It was over in seconds. The men groaned on the floor, defeated.

   The doctor collapsed to his knees, his earlier confidence shattered.

   Grandpa was at my side in a moment, ripping the restraints off with his bare hands. His arms wrapped around me, strong and warm, pulling me into the safest place I knew. 

   “It’s okay now. You’re safe.”

   Tears spilled from my eyes as I buried my face in his shoulder. “Grandpa…”

   Behind him, Mother’s voice was like ice. “Take Lilith somewhere safe. I’ll handle the doctor.”

   He nodded without argument, pulling me gently by the hand. I stumbled after him, my legs weak.

   But just as we reached the door, I heard it—the doctor’s desperate screams. “Please! Don’t! Spare me!”

   I froze. His words from before rang in my head. 

   "Someone like you, who has everything on a silver plate, will never understand…"

   Before I could think, I wrenched my hand free and ran back inside, throwing myself between him and Mother’s raised hand.

   “Wait!” I shouted, arms spread. “Please, Mama—don’t kill him. I… I forgive him.”

   “Lilith—what are you talking about?” 

   BANG!

   For a moment, time seemed to stop.

   A flash of metal.

   The doctor’s hand whipped from his coat pocket, clutching a gun. The crack of the shot split the air.

   I watched in horror as the bullet struck Mother’s face, blood bursting from her right eye as she collapsed to the ground.

   “MAMA!!!”

   I screamed, rushing toward her, but the doctor grabbed me from behind. His grip was iron, his voice venomous in my ear. 

   “You rich brats think you can just take pity on me?! Don’t make me laugh! But still… thank you—for giving me this opening.”

   I couldn’t breathe. My heart was shattering, my vision blurring with tears.

   Then, before he could say another word—

   BANG!

   The words cut off instantly as his skull snapped back, a neat hole drilled straight through his forehead.

   I turned—Grandpa Rex stood with his gun still raised, smoke curling from the barrel, his golden eyes sharp with fury.

   The doctor’s body crumpled lifeless to the floor.

   I couldn’t look away. My mother, lying in a pool of blood. The doctor’s corpse nearby. The metallic scent thick in the air.

   My chest heaved. My vision blurred. The world spun around me—too much, far too much.

   And finally everything went black as I fainted on a cold floor.