Beautiful Darkness

➵Sight of the Unseen

My mind observes my surroundings as pain eats away all other thoughts. The world surrounding me is black. It isn't like a crow sitting in a tree enjoying the spring breeze or space flooded with an infinity of stars. It is a void so incomparably obscure that I momentarily forget what color is.

A sharp ringing is sensory overload amongst my eardrums. I can hear but only one thing over its abruptness- a girl screaming.

That girl is me.

Visions of the fight haze back into memory as I grip onto my temples. I scream as if my life depends on it. The sound is feral and like liquid fury. I try to open my eyes but the darkness remains. The weight of two universes falls onto my shoulders as the obvious finally dawns on me.

My eyes are open.

I just can't see.

I hear somebody calling my name trying to get my attention. I can hear them but I can't hear them. I can't hear anything over my panic. The chaos behind my emotions reaches forward.

"What did you do?" I scream at the blackness. It reminds me of what lurks inside of me.

Somebody grabs onto my wrists firmly but gentle at the same time. My breathing is uncontrolled and wild.

"Restrain him!" I hear Antonis yell. His calm demeanor and ranked composure from before is gone.

I assume he is talking about Graham however the hands never leave my wrists.

"What did you do to her?" Roman's voice yells over the room.

"Nothing she didn't deserve," Antonis replies. Even I can picture the smirk on his face.

I grab ahold of the hands grasping my own.

"Graham?" My voice sounds pleading and pathetic.

"Arailia, tell me what's wrong." Graham urgently responds as his grip on me never wavers.

"I can't see." Saying the words aloud makes it true. I am not ready to accept this. My bottled emotions break free as hatred and chaos boil to the front.

"Why can't I see, Antonis?" I am deadly quiet as I focus every ounce of my being into breaking free of the compulsion the syringe creates within me. Breaking it awakens something within me that makes me feel alive.

"Yes, Antonis. What did you inject into us?" A voice that is not my own speaks. The being from before has returned.

I raise my hand before me. I feel so weak; as if I could sleep for eternity.

'Give me control, Arailia. I will protect us.' Their thoughts combine with my own, urging me to comply. I drift off into my subconsciousness, giving the voice what it wants.

"Us?"

"Answer me." The voice bites. A strangled voice follows.

"What I pumped into you will cause more than a little damage. Pure Nerium has no bounds."

I figured his threat from before was a bluff. No elf has survived being injected with any dosage of Nerium in its purest form. I can already feel the long-term effects on my body. Maybe it will kill me slowly. Too many thoughts fill my head.

"Your death will bring me pleasure," The voice answers and a smile presses upward on my face.

"Good luck trying-" His voice is cut off. My gift flows through me as the voice somehow directs it at him completely. It cuts off his sentence as the malice wraps around his neck. It chokes him as his lungs frantically plead for oxygen. We enjoy it.