CHAPTER XIII

Fire and Ice

My heart pounded hard against my chest as the shadowed form lingered malevolently above me. My entire world was spinning out of control, whirling through the events of the night like a video tape on rewind. And Darcy. Darcy. She was bleeding out on the ground before me, unmoving, barely even breathing. Her blood was on my hands. With every pulse my heart took I wished for hers to, with every breath I took I willed her to breath in deeply and feel the night's cool air fill her lungs. Tears dripped silently from my widened eyes as she lay motionless on the ground, a gaping hole in her chest. And with every ounce of my being I wished for that to be me on the ground, bleeding through, dying. Instead of her. She didn't deserve this. I did. She had done everything for me, stayed with me, comforted me. And I couldn't lose her now. I needed her. Need her. She can't die because of me. And then the guilt flooded through me, seeping into the grief and fear pulsing through my veins. All of this. Everything that had happened. It was my fault. Darcy wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me. The demon. It wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for me. My fault. My fault.

As my thoughts wandered to this point, my head raised tentatively upwards to glare fearfully at the dark form above. Whom I could swear had a gleeful smile contorting his oily, shadowed face. I was too scared and shocked for any anger to enter my body. None. I was helpless and defenceless on the ground below this demon, with my best friend dying before me. There was nothing I could do. But the demon, the demon still floated there. Surely it would have fled by know, it had done its dreadful deed. Either that or he had lingered here to finish the job by killing me next, after delighting in his actions. But yet he stayed, doing nothing as I watched, hands quaking and shaking above Darcy. And then, he spoke. A awful, simpering wail that struck through my eardrums straight into my core that sounded like something of a sneering, terrible laugh.

"Mjh he imwl oepg zgnligd? Ejl ez Hlhhg..."

His prophetic words seeped like poison into my mind sounding strange and deformed like a language like my own, corrupted. The language turned over in my mind, twisting, shifting until his words echoed through my mind behind my eyes, calling to me in an awful whisper.
Want to save your friend? One of terror...

"What would you know about friendship demon!?" I shouted hoarsely at him distraught, my voice breaking as I choked through the tears. His smoke, oily form shifted closer to me into a ray of filtered moonlight so I could see dark flames of fire burning through empty eye sockets. I didn't flinch. But stared him boldly down.

"The girl has fire... he will like that" he replied in a speculating tone of his wailing, screeching voice as he hovered above me, oil horribly dripping, oozing but strangely not falling from his form. He... who is he talking about? And what did he call me? I didn't have time to think about that now. I tore my gaze from his to stare down at my dying friend, unconscious on the grass before me.

"Oh! What can I do!?" I howled, not caring if I had said the words aloud or how they would break through the silent night. Desperate, I ripped through the hem on the sleeve of my jacket. With the makeshift bandage, I set about lifting the lifeless body of Darcy as I bound the wound in her chest tightly in the tourniquet, hoping against hope to stem the endless flow of blood. But I watched in horror as the dark liquid blossomed and spread through the dark grey of my jacket, fresh tears flew anew from my eyes as I watched. I heard another simpering cackle from above and felt pure wrath flow through me, I looked up with narrowed eyes through the tears but it wasn't enough to overcome my quaking fear and dread. And worst of all, the guilt.

"You know what to do, fearful one..." he sneered.

My narrowed eyes loosened into a furrowed expression of confusion. What was this demon talking about?

"What do you know demon!?" I screamed, choked, overcome with emotion thickened in my voice.

"As the blue dawn rises on the crowning year of the stolen child, the blood of fear will rise and reveal itself in her. And the battle to reclaim the one of terror will begin"

His word echoed into the chill of the night, poison carrying through the tolling silence and into my veins. An ice like cold shot through my blood, stabbing under my skin like knives and the pain bit into me in a cold that beats with my heart as I felt my body frost over. A chill ran through me and I shivered inwardly, refusing to allow any sign of his affect on me to show. But at his words the demon shifted, shadows and smoke moving with the acrid slick of oil in the night. I blinked and the smoky apparition whirled off into the air, blending into the shadows given by the walls and the trees, into the darkness slowly lightening with the coming dawn. And I was alone. Alone with the dying form of my best friend in front of me, with the icy cold seeping through my veins, and my fear. Alone in a frosty, moonlight enclosed glade of a park where morning walkers would soon be filing through, happy in their ignorant bliss of mundane life. I was suddenly envious, envious and angry that my life had been so turned and corrupted. Envious that they could be so carefree and blissful. And angry that despite everything I had done, how I had turned from the life that had called to me. How I had turned from the life I had always dreamed of and lived on, embracing the mundane life I had always feared, accepting the future that lay before me and ignoring the scar of that life, sketched in the form of an iratze on my arm that would forever be with me. My brief spell of anger deflated slowly into a heavy sorrow. How could I have been so blind to think it would be that easy? How could I have ever imagined my life would continue as normal, as if nothing had happened? How had I not seen it before? A part of me always knew the shadows would return, but in my stupidity I had willfully pushed it aside and carried on, ignoring the signs at every corner. And when it had finally happened I was all but helpless to stop it, only able to watch as the ones I love paid the price of my ignorance, my stupidity. Cold tears rolled down my ashen face flushed with cold. Darcy lay still unconscious on the ground, barely breathing, lying dying with a now fully darkened piece of cloth binding her chest, crushing the thin layer of frost covering the grass. Despite my sordid attempt at first aid, she wasn't getting any better. Nothing consumed my thoughts more than her in that moment. Anger, envy, even fear fled and the guilt spread like fire through my mind. Repeating the mantra of my guilt through my thoughts. I was awake, I was fine, untouched and my best friend was dying, dying. She didn't deserve this, I did. She shouldn't be the one dying, I should. The guilt raged through me. Why, why was I so stupid, so blind? I just stood there, I watched as the demon cut through her. I should have done something, I should have pushed her out of the way! I should have stopped the demon, I should have sacrificed myself. I should have done something, done anything to stop this! And I didn't care what I cost me to do it. But whatever happened to me didn't matter now. The only thing that mattered was her. There was nothing else I could do, I was going back to the Institute.