I'm sorry I haven't been updating this story very quickly. Between work, school, complicated relationships and crap, I have the same excuses all writers have for procrastination! Thank you for your patience, please review if you can. I want to know what you think.
...
"Rionach? Rio!" Julian hit the door hard, letting it crash back against the wall as he ran into the cabin. He lifted his flashlight high. Rionach was at a table in the middle of the room, slumped forward, face down in a pool of crimson. She wore only the thin sweater, and her fingertips were blue. The interior of the cabin was just as cold as the forest and the spilled water from the vase on the table was frozen, a sea of pink and white as it mixed with the blood.
"Oh, Rio, what have you done?" He lifted her arm, seeing the gleaming white flesh gaping at her wrist. She had cut so deep that her wrist was almost completely severed, the bone gleaming and exposed in the wound. She hadn't wanted to fail.
Why hadn't he seen this? How could he have missed the fact that she was suicidal? He searched backward in his memory, but there hadn't been a hint. If anything, he had thought she was trying to live. And now… there was this. The evidence, staring him in the face. He groaned, closing his eyes, then he felt it. An almost imperceptible pulsing. A bit of blood trickled over his fingers.
She was alive. He was almost too late, but… she was alive. He held up his cell phone, unsurprised by yet cursing its lack of reception. Even as he opened his bag, he knew what he had to do. For the first time he was glad he was who he was—that he had the power both to hurt and to heal. He held her arm, feeling the fire build inside him, silently apologizing for the pain he was about to inflict. The fire shot from his fingers, searing the wound. The smell of burning flesh was sickening.
She screamed.
He screamed.