Chapter Five.

Himari’s POV.

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I cry until my throat hurts and no more tears pour out, my body falling back and my head falling against something soft and small. Oriel wiggles out from beneath my head and I smile amidst the tears on my face to see my little friend staring at me with large black curious eyes. A brief shadow passes over us and I feel Talon’s presence.

“If anything, for the sake of you guys and all those who care so much about me...I want to be useful as well and find a meaning to this existence” The words slip out my lips as my vision begins to glaze over.

Ah, I’m so tired...my head feels heavy and my body is exhausted. I’m giving into the tempting sleep when something comes piercing into my half-covered lids.

A light so bright and yet, daring to be so warm and soothing, floods my poor vision and seemingly, my whole body; if that makes any sense at all. I peel my eyes open but all I can see is nothing but the shimmering flood of white light, making me startled and wonder what kind of phenomenon is occurring.

‘Himari, my dear little girl. You’re not alone and you have a beautiful fate laying in wait for you’.

What...whose voice is that? Ugh, my head is starting to hurt badly.

My vision sways, lids falling shut against the intruding light. But I blink and receive a bewildering shock when the light suddenly vanishes. Is this a dream or something?

I feel a little nuzzling against my face, choosing not to saddle my mind with unnecessary things and just receive Oriel’s gesture of comfort as I accept the call of sleep.

I give in without protest, receiving the dirt ground, and soil to cushion my head and body. And as my eyes are shutting, a dark smudge appears out of nowhere, like a shadow lingering in the reality I’m cutting my mind out of.

Is it me or do I see a pair of crimsons in wake of the blanketing darkness?

‘Himari.’

My eyes snap open at once and my body jolts up, recoiling from pain protesting across my body. Wincing, I peer around me, realizing I’m out at the riverbank and under the slightly dim light of the moon. I see Oriel curled up closely next to me and hear a hooting that makes me lift my head to see a pair of large, coolly glowing orbs and I smile, knowing it’s Talon. He must’ve kept watch over us.

“How long was I asleep out here for? What if the others are searching for me?” I begin to panic, not sure how long I’ve spent out here as I rise to my feet, startling Oriel in the process.

He squeaks at me and I mutter an apology, running back to the Pack as I holler, “I’ve got to go now, guys. Thanks!”

Huh? I’m picking distressing signals in the air the closer I’m getting to the Pack. I pace up, having a dreary feeling welling in the pit of my stomach as I reach an exit.

My eyes go saucers, gait halting with a screech as I gasp. It’s like a scene playing out from the picture storybooks I read when I was a child, depicting someone’s imagination of how my kind and that of the Demon kind had fought in the last battle.

Fire, smoke, ferocious wolves, and chaotic voices tainting the night air...and those extremely black, sickly thin, and long shrouded figures I can’t seem to place a finger on what exactly they might be. I’ve just run into a battle scene.

My body finally moves when I recall the Packhouse and hold my heart between my teeth, fear diminishing in my mind as I race to the destination I have in mind. I follow the forest line, keeping away from the fight as much as possible until I somehow make it there.

“Oh my gosh! Himari! Where have you been? Come here” Elsa embraces me tightly, her arms trembling as she holds me.

I reply to her embrace in the same manner, mind spiraling in confusion and fear as we pull apart. Elsa says to me in a broken voice, “We’re u-under attack...they suddenly came swarming out of nowhere barely an hour after I left you”.

That means they must’ve stricken after I had run to the forest. Wait, are they all here? My eyes begin to fearfully prance about and when Elsa notices what I’m doing, she manages a nod, “We’re fine here, for now. Everyone’s here”.

“We need to go inside before we’re detected” I hear Morita beckon and Elsa holds my hand, pulling me towards the house. I don’t see Greg. Where is he?

“Elsa, why isn’t Greg here with us?” I ask carefully, trying to contain the brute fear and panic infiltrating my body.

Elsa isn’t answering and her silence is only piquing my anxiety. I stop just before the threshold. “He’s out there, isn’t he?” I ask again but she’s not turning around and neither is she supplying an answer. I break her hold, turning on my heels at once.

“Himari! Where’re you going? It’s dangerous out there!” It’s now she has a voice. I turn briefly and with a frown on my face, “I promise I won’t get hurt, but I’ll bring Greg back!” I watch her eyes widen in horror but I’m already returning to the chaos before she can use her ability on me.

I don’t know what I’m doing as I dodge a wolf flying into my path, bending my body back so low that the tips of my hair graze the ground as the bulk flies over. I don’t break my run as I spur on, burning on adrenaline and dodging dropping explosive balls of black gooey somethings. The ghastly screeches and squeaks booming all around don’t waver me as my body sprints forward.

I only come to a stop when the view of my family’s home comes into view, snapping me out of my adrenaline rush with devastation pelting down my shoulders.

Just at the porch, I recognize the black wolf snarling at the group of three Darkling closing in on him menacingly. And my gaze moves in line to look behind the wolf to see my little brother on the floor, clutching his head with both arms and crying.

In my shock, a Darkling is sneaking up behind my brother, filtering its slithery body through the porch railings like a mist. And next, I’m feeling my body move, to shout out to my brother with an arm pointing out his way as tears pour down my face.

“Timothy!”

It’s like time suddenly stops, with just me still screaming out in fear to my brother. The Darkling begins to swell in a very twisting and gruesome way, different areas of its thin body inflating like balloons so quickly until it explodes into black dust. Simultaneously, I watch the other three combust in the same, giving out a squeaking loud cry. As I hear more of the cries issuing all around me, I begin to trace them all, seeing with my very eyes, these vile creatures combusting into dust with such unbelievable speed like some super reactive chain reaction.

It feels like it takes only a second for all this to happen and as I’m looking over to the porch of my home, dad’s wolf is approaching a crying Timothy.

I don’t understand what just happened at all. Did I do that? No, it can’t be. But, does this mean my special abilities are beginning to manifest? This line of thought brings my eyes to my hands, and all blood vacates my face upon what graces me.

My hands, both of them are...I gulp the rocky lump in my throat, cold perspiration coating my forehead as I see the electric blue and black crackles, sparking statically around my glowing blue hands.

What craziness is this? Am I still asleep by the riverbank? This can’t be real. Black flames, that don’t hurt me at all? Tension arrests my limbs as I keep staring at the crackles spitting into the air. ‘Is this my ability?’

“Ow!” I stagger forward suddenly, from a solid heavy object that rams into the back of my head.

It hurts so much...what is that? Wincing with eyes stinging with tears, I turn around and meet the snarling faces of many warriors pointing at me with intense hostility.

“W-what is...” I wince, palming the back of my head infesting with so much pain that messes up my vision and stability, making me stagger back.

“Grab her! Apprehend the she-demon!” A loud and authoritative voice barks a command and before I know it, vicious hands come clapping down on my shoulders, forcing me to my knees as I yelp in pain. My arms are wrenched behind my back so forcefully as I cry out.

“Himari! Hey, get your filthy hands off my daughter!” I hear dad’s voice, throwing my head sideways to see him rushing down the porch steps with mom and Timothy.

I begin to struggle beneath the iron grips on my shoulders and arms, dragging my knees over the ground to turn to them.

“D-dad” I sob out excruciatingly, meeting the livid glare on his face as he sails a heavy punch to one of the warriors holding me captive.

“I said, get your filthy hands off my little girl!” He barks with rage, veins popping on his neck and eyes shifting into a feral red.

More warriors run forward and begin to tear my family away from me as I start to protest, “Dad! Mom! Please...help me. I’m no demon, I swear...I w-was only h-helping-

A hit akin to the first that had struck the back of my head comes slamming down into the same spot as a gasp rips off my lips and my body goes numb, falling forward effortlessly. In my fading consciousness, I see my family fighting against the warriors preventing their advancement and the side of my face collides with the ground.

~~

I sputter in the warm pool of blood, face deep in as I lift my head agonizingly. I don’t know how long I’ve been kept in this dark dungeon cell, beaten mercilessly every time I rouse up from every inch of death. The acrid smell of thorn flesh and blood ruptures my senses, nearly ripping my nose off as I grimace from the simple movement of merely lifting my head to stand on my chin.

My swollen eye slowly looks around in the looming darkness. Every whit of movement hurts like a thousand blades are being pierced into my body. I can tell how badly busted my face must be from my right swollen eye that I can’t pry open.

So I had been branded a she-demon and dragged down here to be tortured to death if I don’t spill about the hideouts of my so-called fellow Darkling.

Sigh...I wince poorly as I try to feel my iron-fastened arms. I don’t know what kind of shackles they’ve bound me in that twists the joints of my arms and locks them in place. It’s like any movement will have my joints on the edge of snapping.

Maybe it’s high time I succumb to this fate and just quit fighting. ‘It might’ve been a short life, but I’ve lived well….’