Mari: Year One [Completed]

Chapter Fifteen: The Wheels of Fate

She ran, using all of her strength, away from it all, into the jungles, into the trees where no one could find her. Her heart was cleft in two, she wanted to stay, she had been accepted yet her instincts drove her to depart.

"I'm sorry." Mari thought, as she ran absentmindedly.

She found herself in an unfamiliar place, away from the concrete jungles of the metro, it was quiet, only the sound of animals and the wind.

It was peaceful, yet lonesome.

She left it all behind, hoping that Jessamine might move on and find a better love.

"Stupid." Mari told herself, smacking her face with her fist.

"She was there, and we ran like the shitty little cowards that we are!"

"Be at peace, creature." a new voice called out to her, it was a woman's voice from the forest.

"Who goes?" Mari asked at once, preparing herself for anything.

Vines erupted from the earth and tied her down as a woman approached her.

"You are in my territory, creature. What do you seek here? Do you seek blood?" the woman asked, she was dressed in a regal looking outfit, yet made solely out of leaves from the jungle itself.

"Diwata." Mari muttered, unmoving, "If you're going to kill me, be quick with it."

"Why would I take a life?" the diwata asked, "Do you wish to be free from your pains?"

"I wish to be free from this wretched existence." Mari told her honestly, "But I can't. This damned curse is eternal."

"So I see..." the woman answered, crouching down to stare into Mari's eyes.

"So much pain, yet so much willpower." she commented, her violet eyes gazing into Mari's brown ones.

"Be still, show me everything that you are." the diwata murmured.

Mari did not resist, surrendering at once hoping for the prospect of death.

The diwata stepped back a few seconds later, releasing Mari from her vines.

"What gives, you were asking earlier if I seeked blood, I do. Now spill mine." Mari said, stepping towards her while the diwata trembled.

"It's you." she said, bowing her head.

"What is it with ME?!" Mari asked exasperatedly.

"You are not just an aswang, you are the creature that is prophesied to save all of the supernatural world!" the diwata told her.

"No, I was cursed by my mother's own 'good' will and hear I am, wanting to die. Now kill me." Mari commanded, but the diwata could not obey.

"Apologies, but I cannot." She said, "You have a destiny upon you, and it must be fulfilled."

"Destiny? Is this my fate? To be a creature that feasts on humans?" Mari shouted, her rage simmering.

"I have been given so many things I did not ask for, all I wanted was love, all I wanted was normalcy, all I wanted was to be me!" she shouted.

"But you already had all of that, you just ran from it, did you not?" the woman countered.

"No, I just... I don't want to be this anymore." Mari muttered.

"You aren't what you think you are, unlike aswangs, who are driven by instinct to feed all of the time, you have tempered yourself. You have ascended into something else, do you not feel it? The power you have towards both humans and creatures such as myself?"

"I do, but I thought that was part of me being... a monster." Mari admitted.

"No, the only thing you have inherited is immortality and this desire to consume flesh, everything else was manifested by you and you alone. It is your willpower that made you stand on top of the apex, it was you alone who embodies the prophecy that all of us have been waiting for."

"I don't want any of that!" Mari sighed, frustrated, thoughts of Jessamine filled her head and her tears fell. "I just want to be with her,."

"You were with her, you escaped, thinking that you would accidentally harm her or put her in danger." the diwata said.

"She doesn't deserve to be with someone like me, if I am like this." Mari said sadly.

"She also doesn't deserve to be abandoned, even when she stood by you, but you did so anyway."

"What would you have me do?" Mari asked in defeat.

"Embrace yourself, be the Apex of all creatures." the diwata said, "A terrible tragedy is set to befall upon the world, both ours and the mortals' and only you can fight it. The strengths, the magics of old are fading away due to human interference, many of us are waning, dying out, our sources of power depleted by the mortals. While you, you are a lifespring on your own, feeding on human flesh, feeding on the emotions and desires that you feel, they empower you. I am sorry that you have been bestowed such a curse, to feast on flesh, it is the curse amongst all of us."

"What tragedy are you speaking of?" Mari asked and the diwata approached her.

"Let me show you..."

She put her hands on Mari's temples and Mari saw it.

A lavish mansion upon which a vortex of what looked like souls, desperately tearing a hole through reality, pouring out from the bowels of hell itself, angry souls that seek vengeance and justice, feasting on the waning energies of other supernatural creatures, and when that is all set and done, they will turn their eyes on humanity next.

"Your power is astounding, Marinelle, you can diffuse a being's soul into oblivion, casting them into nothingness, it is not merely you killing them violently, when you kill, anyone or anything, their soul is turned into nothing." the diwata's voice whispered, showing her images of all her kills, even from months before.

"But did you not notice, all of your kills were not made out of malice, but out of justice and retribution. You bent the will of your aswang nature and turned it into your own weapon, thus granting you the latent abilities only your human side could have, your kin, others who have been turned, succumbed to their hunger, never more thinking of their humanity, while you did. Even in the midst of it, in the throes of hunger and wrath, you still did, only rooting out those who have wronged others and the world."

"Do you see it now?" the voice asked and Mari nodded.

The vision disappeared and she was all alone, the diwata was gone, only a faint whisper was left:

"Go, save yourself, then you can save our world."

"Very well." Mari whispered, her eyes burning crimson.