To His Hell and Back-Chapter 280: Death’s Utter Joy-I

The young vampires had always ruled the games of blood and power. Even the older, more seasoned ones feared their raw hunger and sheer physical strength. They were hunter, never the prey. Victors, never the victims.

And that was precisely why the terror now gripping them was unlike anything they’d ever known.

Arabella was behind them one heartbeat, and the next, she was in front of them. The movement was impossible to follow. A blink, a gust of air, and she had already closed the distance.

Her hands were outstretched, her fingertips now stained a deep, unnatural black. Those hands had already proven what they could do— kill without breaking skin, without leaving a mark. Just a touch- and death followed.

They tried to fight back, but it was useless. Their strength, their speed, their pride, it meant nothing.

One by one, they fell. Screaming. Clawing. Begging.

And one by one, their bodies hit the forest floor, their mouths twisted in horror, their lifeless eyes wide in disbelief, frozen forever in the moment they realized they were no longer the hunters.

They were the hunted.

No one knew what Arabella had become. Not truly. But one thing spread like wildfire in their panicked minds:

Run.

Get as far away from her as possible.

Isabelle stood frozen, half-hidden in the trees. Her breath caught in her throat, eyes locked on Arabella, on the way her body moved like it didn’t quite belong to her anymore. On the ancient symbols still glowing faintly along her arms. On the look in her eyes.

Not hatred. Not vengeance.

Something deeper.

Something terrifying.

For the first time, even Isabelle, who had vowed to protect Arabella, feared her. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

Isabelle who had froze on the ground, watching over what Arabella had done and what she had done in such fear that she could feel her blood froze over.

Arabella... she was no longer a human.

Was this her true self? Was this why Cassius had wanted her? Was this what the Queen had feared from her?

Shaking her head, Isabelle schooled her thoughts. Though she was still in a panic, she was quick to answer her own question. She doubted that the queen knew what she was and that she could do something like this. If the queen had known, she would have sent Arabella to the death sentence regardless of her immortal body. She was sure about this, after all the queen herself had panicked when she saw Arabella’s undying body and had demanded her to be killed.

"NO! NO! NO!" the sudden scream that was left came from Johann. He scrambled on the ground, backing away by clawing to the ground. His head involuntarily looked all over him, horrified when he saw what used to be his friends now turn into a cold corpse without a soul.

He had seen how his friend had been touched by Arabella at a closer proximity- he had seen the look of their faces as though they had just seen demons and ghosts- and they let out a scream as though in that half second, they had been tortured in Hell.

Then all of a sudden, their eyes turned bleak- All the lights from their eyes disappeared, turning hollow and they fell to the ground as nothing but a cold corpse.

"PLEASE DON’T! SAVE ME-" Johann looked around, no matter who it was, he begged for help as he knew begging for safety from Arabella would never worked. She’s turn to something- something far terrifying for someone like him to handle.

"I’M STILL YOUNG-" Johann begged, "I DON’T WANT TO DIE-"

"You’ll be surprised," Arabella smiled back at him, "At how much people had once begged me to not kill them, whether they were young or old," she sang as she gently placed her hand on his face, grabbing him forward and Johann began to soil himself out of fear.

Arabella saw that and was unimpressed, disgusted even.

She clicked her tongue, "No one has never been unafraid of death. No one. If there was someone, I’ll be well surprised, Hell maybe I’ll even love them."

"W- W- WHAT ARE YOU-" Johann was already streaming tears when he had asked this question.

Though she seemed to be thinking through it, "Arabella" seemed more puzzled by the question. She thought about it before shrugging her shoulders, "What I was doesn’t matter now. But yes, if you are so curious little vampire. Once, I was called as," she hummed, "Death. They call me death."

Johann’s jaw tremble like a window hit by the strong gust of wind. He saw how with ease Arabella’s palms had covered over his face, covering his eyes and suddenly he could see what it means to die- what they call as Hell.

Johann collapsed without so much as a scream, his body slack, his soul seemingly stolen mid-breath. It was over in a second. Arabella tilted her head, watching him with clinical detachment.

"How boring," she murmured, eyes drifting down to her fingertips, now stained with dark, shifting marks. "The host seems to dislike killing. What should I do...?"

Her tone was languid, almost amused, as though debating what to wear rather than the consequences of taking a life.

Behind her, the sound of something shifting, gritting teeth, a scrape of a boot, drew her gaze. Isabelle was standing, though barely. Her arm hung at an unnatural angle, twisted and broken, and her leg dragged as though something inside it had snapped. But her eyes, her eyes were defiant flames, locked onto the figure before her.

"You—" Isabelle rasped, her voice trembling with fury. "You’re not her. What have you done to Bella?!"

Arabella turned slowly, her face cast in shadow. Her once soft green eyes, always filled with warmth and hesitation, had sharpened into something feral, something cruel. Slit thin and gleaming, they held no gentleness. Only danger.

It was haunting.

Terrifying, even.

How someone so tender, so careful, could now look like this, a predator in the shape of a girl.

"I am Bella," came the reply, though her voice seemed laced with something else, a layered echo beneath the words. "Just... a part of her you that comes out to protect her. Like an angel of protection would you say?" she then chuckled as though calling herself angel was as funny as a twisted joke.

Her lips curled into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

"And you should be grateful. I only kill those who deserve it. Oh I have an idea!" Arabella then clapped her hands. She pointed her finger to Isabelle and the smile she had hung in darkness, "You killed them alright? You killed them."