Leave Me Alone, Big Brothers! [BL]

Chapter 175: The Last Sacrifice

In the cabin.

The scent of melting wax from dozens of candles filled the room. The flames sat perfectly still on their wicks, not flickering even though a slight draft came from the floor.

In the center of the main room, a man sat behind a heavy oak table. He wore a deep black hood that cast a shadow over most of his face. He sat with his hands resting flat on the wood, his eyes closed as if he were listening to a sound no one else could hear.

Antonio sat down in the chair near the window, staring out at the trees where his grandsons had gone. They still hadn’t come back.

His back was stiff, and his hands were clenched into fists behind him. He looked like a man ready to tear the forest down with his bare hands. He then stood up and turned around, his face hard and filled with a cold rage.

"If you cannot bring them back, I will kill you myself," Antonio said. His voice was harsh and did not waver.

The man in the black hood didn’t flinch. After several minutes of silence, he slowly opened his eyes and stood up. He moved with a strange, slow grace that made Antonio even more annoyed.

"I cannot promise you anything," the man said. His voice was calm, almost bored. "Bringing them back is not something I can do. It is a matter of who is willing to come back or stay there. To break a curse that has lasted for generations, a sacrifice must be made."

Antonio let out a loud, angry sound. He walked over to a chair again and sat down heavily, looking at the dozens of candles. "I still think this is nonsense. Spirits, portals, other worlds. It sounds like a story for children."

"And yet, you are here," the hooded man replied.

For many years, people thought Natasha and Dante had so many children just to ensure there were many heirs for the family business. But that was not the truth. Natasha had a secret goal that was much more important than money or power.

Natasha believed her marriage to Dante was part of a larger destiny. She came from the Visha family, while Dante was a Salazar. These two families were tied together by a dark history.

For generations, the Visha family suffered after they cursed the Salazars: none of them lived a long life. Most died before reaching the age of fifty-five.

On the other hand, the Salazar family had their own curse involving the birth of twins, which always brought trouble and death.

Natasha loved Dante very much. She did not want to live in fear. She wanted a future where her children wouldn’t die young and where the family could finally find peace.

She decided she would be the one to break these curses forever. She wanted her and Dante to be the very last couple to suffer from this ancient curse. After all, she was the last surviving Visha.

Breaking the curse wasn’t easy. The ritual required a specific key: she needed to have twins. For a long time, she tried, and finally, Nathan and Nael were born.

When the boys arrived, Natasha knew exactly what she had to do. However, she could not start the process immediately. Antonio did not believe in the curse or the magic. He blocked her plans for a long time because he thought it was all nonsense. He didn’t want to repeat what had happened to his twin daughters.

Even the shaman couldn’t convince him. Antonio only gave in when reality became too hard to ignore. All of his grandsons began to fall seriously ill at the same time, and a mysterious fire destroyed part of the family mansion.

Antonio became furious and exhausted. He finally stopped interfering and told Natasha she could do whatever she felt was necessary. He didn’t want to be involved anymore.

This led to a very painful decision. To protect the ritual, Nathan and Nael could not grow up together. Natasha forced herself to stay away from Nathan. She didn’t even hold him. She made the difficult choice to send him away.

Alexander, the oldest brother, was given the task of driving little Nathan to an orphanage. Only Natasha and Dante knew the true reason behind this move. To everyone else, it just looked like a cruel act. They even flew to another country when Alexander struggled with the decision.

For seventeen years, Natasha prepared for the final day. She tried to distance herself from the children, as she didn’t want to get too attached.

She visited her sons once in a while to make sure they were okay. She visited Nathan many times at the orphanage when he was still a child. She did this to "trigger" the curse.

According to the dark rules of the ritual, anyone who made contact with both twins before they turned seventeen would die as soon as the twins were reunited.

This is exactly what happened to Miranda, Antonio’s wife. Miranda loved Lily and couldn’t stop herself from visiting her.

Because Miranda ignored the warnings and touched her daughter, she passed away the moment Lily returned to the mansion years later.

Natasha was sad when it happened, but she knew she could not stop the curse from claiming its due.

Natasha’s plan was to take the Visha curse into herself and die with it. She wanted to carry the darkness away so it would never touch her children again. To do this, she had to open a portal to another world.

This other world was where her ancestors had originally made a deal with a demon. Opening this door required a terrible price: the blood of ninety-nine people.

Natasha was truly grateful to Leo for gathering what she needed. Finally, she managed to open the portal. She crossed over into the other world, intending to complete the ritual alone. However, Dante did not want her to go by herself. Without fully understanding the danger, he followed her through the portal.

Once they were on the other side, Natasha realized there was a new problem. To close the portal and break the curse forever, someone had to stay behind. If she left, the curse would remain. If she stayed, she could save her sons, but she would never see them again.

She was now trapped in that strange world with Dante.

Since she couldn’t return, she asked the shaman—the man in the black hood—to send a message back to Antonio. She explained everything through him.

She wanted Antonio to bring the boys to the forest so she could say a proper goodbye. She wanted her sons to see her one last time and understand why she did what she did.

Natasha was ready to give up her life and her soul. She would stay in that world until her time was up and her time to die had come, to ensure her sons and their heirs could live long, happy lives free from the burden of the Visha or Salazar curses.

She had planned this for seventeen years, and now, the end was finally near.

***

It was already dark. No one had returned from the forest yet. Antonio was starting to panic. He grabbed the shaman by the collar.

"Is she going to come back? Natasha? Is she going to sacrifice one of my grandsons to save herself?"

The shaman looked Antonio in the eyes. "Natasha loves Dante and her kids more than she loves her own life. She will stay. She has already accepted that. They’ll return when they’re ready."

Antonio let go of the man’s clothes. He felt a strange weight in his chest. He had spent his entire life building an empire of stone and steel, believing himself to be the strongest man in the world.

But Natasha, a woman he had dismissed as a "curse", was fighting a war against hell itself to save his family’s future.

"What do we do now?" Antonio asked. He sounded tired now.

"We wait for the sun to rise," the shaman said. "If the ritual worked, the portal will open one last time tomorrow morning. They need to find their way back."

"What if they can’t?" Antonio looked anxious.

The shaman didn’t answer.

Antonio sat back down. He looked at the candles. He thought about his grandsons. He thought about Nathan, the boy who had suffered in an orphanage for seventeen years just because of a family’s curse.

"She’s just stupid," Antonio said softly. "To plan all of this."

"She’s a mother. After all, she wants to protect all of you," the shaman replied.

They sat in silence for a long time. Outside, the forest of Blue Valley remained quiet. The river continued to flow, but it was no longer red. The water was clear and cold, waiting for morning to come.

Antonio stared at the flames of the candles.

"Make sure the door opens," Antonio said. "If my grandsons do not come back, I will burn this forest to the ground with you in it."

The shaman did not answer. He simply sat back down and closed his eyes again, resuming his silent watch over the candles. He knew that the boys were realizing their parents were not coming home.

Antonio sighed deeply.

"I hope you are happy, Natasha," Antonio whispered to the empty room. "I hope your sacrifice was worth it."