Shadowheart

Chapter 8

Dawn approaches. The rising sun shines through the neighborhood. The usual curtained window had no curtains covering it today, and Dahlia was sound asleep in her bed. Suddenly, she wakes up. A vivid nightmare has left Dahlia shaken up as she felt real, physical pain that night.

Dahlia went to her personal bathroom to wash her face and covers her eyes with water. As she looks at herself in the mirror she notices something different. Her eyes. Her iris' are no longer the dark brown she was born with, they have gone redder. As she kept on looking she notices a small scar in her lip. That was never there before, was it? Dahlia got a bit nervous as she was thinking... Was the nightmare real? Was she really beaten to death? Dahlia hits her head slightly to get it straight. She closed her eyes and clenched her fist close to her face to calm her overthinking. She felt a strange warmth on her face and once she opened her eyes, she gasped. She sees a dark aura emanating from her arms, like a smoke coming out of her skin. She decides to close her other hand and the same dark aura comes out of it. Dahlia sits in her toilet, opening her palms, watching the dark aura in her bare arms. She was nervous, she was confused, she was shaking...

-"Dahlia!"

Her father calls her. Dahlia jumps and clenches both of her fists. She was pushed back into the toilets tank as two blades sprouted out from her aura. Shocked, she looked at the two black blades with flaming orange edges that are coming out of said aura, not directly from her arms. In a panic, she clenches her fists again, and the blades retracted, leaving the wall of her bathroom with two holes. The aura disappeared, leaving Dahlia's arms unharmed. Knocks are heard from the door of her bedroom.

-"Dahlia! Open the goddamn door!"

-"Coming!" Dahlia jumps out of her toilet and quickly opens the door. -"Morning dad..."

-"You alright? You're pretty jumpy today, Dahlia..."

-"No! I mean... No. Not at all, I'm fine."

-"Hmph... What are you hiding?" He shoves Dahlia aside and barges in her room.

-"What!? Nothing dad."

-"What is it, weed? Drugs? A knife to cut yourself with?" He checks on Dahlias desk drawers and throws away her pencils, markers and blank papers, then he checks her closet, throwing her clothes aside looking for the suspected object. Dahlia grabs his arm to stop him.

-"Dad! I'm telling you, there's nothing he-"

-"Listen to me, you little runt. I'm your daddy and you don't hide anything from me. I'm gonna let you play your little game with whatever it is you're hiding but when I see you with it... Oooohhhh... You're gonna regret lying to me. And put some drops in your eyes, makes you look like Satan. Oh wait, you worship him."

He walks away and shuts the door. Dahlia starts crying again. "Satan worshipper". Her dad calls that a lot because of her style, but she was nothing more than an agnostic. Dahlia cleans up the mess her dad left. Obviously, her art tools were priority, as she barely had any time to get ready for school. As soon as she puts away her art tools, she quickly brushes her teeth, skips her morning shower, and dresses up to leave for school. She chose to skip breakfast as her bus was already at the stop. She makes it right on time, fortunately

She walks inside and the usual occurs, judgemental stares from every student on board. She ignores them to take her seat in the far back of the bus. Dahlia puts on her hoodie and headphones, started playing Motionless In White, and leans to the window. Still nervous, she looks at her arm. Dahlia has no idea where this comes from. The aura, the blades coming out of them... She's afraid of what might happen to her if someone sees her with it. Maybe the nightmare wasn't a nightmare...