Unspoken - Book 3 - S.S.

Prologue - Part 2: Black Bird

Diana wasn't sure where she was. All she could see around her were white walls. Actually, they weren't exactly walls either, they looked more like an... An infinitude of nothing. Still, she could feel solid ground underneath her - at least, she thought she could. Diana spun around in her heels, crossing her arms in front of her chest when a shiver ran down her spine and she found absolutely nothing around her except for a white that never seemed to end.

"Hello?" She called gently, her voice echoing around her, but no response coming back to her. "Hello? Is anybody there?"

Diana sighed, taking a step forward slowly and carefully, unsure if she could even move in whatever place she was put in, but when her foot hit solid ground ahead of her as well, she sighed out in relief and took another step.

"Anyone?" She called again, the cold and the fear bubbling up inside of her the longer she stayed there, alone. "Stiles? Lydia? Scott? Allison? Anyone? Please..."

Again, she received nothing in response and, suddenly, Diana felt an even worse rush of cold hitting her body and she gasped, widening her eyes when she noticed the fog coming out of her mouth, as soon as her breathing hit the cold air around her. She frowned when she realized that she wasn't in the white room anymore. Instead, still in her pajamas, Diana squeaked when she felt something wet underneath her feet. Looking down, Diana groaned when she noticed the snow, but crouched down anyway to wipe some of it away from her.

"What's this?" She mumbled to herself, once she noticed, underneath all the snow, some kind of wood, but, even before she could inspect it a little closer, the whole thing caught fire, melting all of the snow around Diana.

The girl jumped up, alert, but, for whatever reason, she didn't step away from the fire. In fact, she was rather grateful it was even there to begin with since it was seemingly keeping her warm without properly hurting her at all. She frowned, however, confused, and that sentiment only got worse when, from the shadows of the trees around her - Diana hadn't even noticed them until that point, but it seemed to her she was in the woods right now, somewhere she recognized too, even if she couldn't really tell how - flew out a black bird, straight at her, hovering in the air in front of her, with its dark eyes staring right into hers.

Diana stood there, quietly, watching the bird for a moment. It looked like a crow, but Diana knew it wasn't. How she knew that, she wasn't sure since she had never even bothered looking up bird species at all, but she knew it wasn't a crow. It was the best way to describe it, however, a crow, hovering in the air right in front of her even if its wings were almost frozen in the air. Diana felt a sort of pull toward the bird, however, almost like a... Connection of some kind and, reaching over to it, she figured if she could at least try and touch it, maybe she would be able to figure out why she felt that way.

So, lifting her hand toward the bird, Diana was half-surprised when it didn't move. What happened as soon as she touched it, however... That did scare her a little. After all, watching a bird burst out into flames in front of her wasn't really what she was expecting. And, even worse, as soon as the fire consumed the whole bird, it disappeared, a big, dark form of another bird taking its place. Now that... That wasn't a crow at all, Diana knew. It couldn't be. Not considering the way it stood taller than her, its wings spreading wider than five meters, its face scary and eyes completely black. Diana whimpered quietly, taking a few steps back, falling out from whatever piece of tree she had been standing on and onto the snow around it. Diana crawled back, ignoring the goosebumps in her arms and the way her hands burned against the cold as she tried to get away from the giant bird.

Diana tried to get up. She tried to stand up and run away, but suddenly, she couldn't. Suddenly, Diana felt as if she couldn't move a muscle anymore, as if she could barely breathe, but the bird didn't seem to care, flying straight through the fire still burning over the cut down tree as it screeched loudly before diving straight toward Diana and entering her body through her chest as if she was made as nothing more than water.

Diana screamed, louder than she ever thought she had in her whole life and, God, how she tried to move, but she couldn't. Not until she felt two pairs of strong arms wrapping around her and she finally managed to open her eyes, realizing she was, suddenly back in her bedroom, kicking her covers and plushies off of her as she trashed around and screamed loudly. Diana took a second to understand what was going on, but once she heard her dad's soothing voice on her ear, she finally did.

"It's okay, Diana..." Her dad whispered at her, keeping his arms locked tight against her as Diana slowly but surely calmed down enough to stop screaming. "It was just a dream. It's alright, you're safe now... It's okay."

And when she finally managed to stop screaming, Diana started sobbing instead, her pleas turning into tears as she slumped her body against her dad's chest and allowed him to rock her gently side to side, still whispering in her ear as she sobbed against him. Declan, who had probably been woken up by all of the screaming going around, rubbed his eyes a little as he walked inside and sat by his sister's feet - that were, thankfully, not kicking as much anymore - and placed a hand on her leg to try and help her ground herself again, before exchanging a glance with his dad, the two of them already growing accustomed to Diana's night terrors that had become a rather common occurrence again after Sabrina's death.

"It's okay, baby, daddy's got you..." Charles mumbled, still holding Diana close as she continued to cry. "It was just a dream, it's okay..."