Beating hearts

Chapter 34

Air being drastically drawn from the atmosphere into her revived lungs, is the first sound in the dark Dimley lit house since sita poured that questionable substance down Aras throat, and sunk her demonic teeth into her frozen white skin.
A burst of life flowed through Aras body, she sprang off the table, and stumbled to the ground, Zac rushes to her side and attempts to rest a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but she jumps away from him and shuffles herself into a Corner, drawing her knees up to her chest and covering her ears, she shakes her head, mumbling unrecognizable words, Zac slowly approaches, bending down to her level.

"Ara?" he says softly. She continues to ignore him, with not so much as a glance.
She was arguing with the voice inside her head, trying to shake it out and regain her sanity.
She had only been gone a couple of hours, but she looked so damaged, she still appeared like herself, there were minor details that were affected, her skin had life to it, a lightly shade of pink, but it also looked like if you were to touch her, it would shatter, like a dull Mirror, her hair had a more stodgy appearance, and the light from her eyes that shined brighter than stars, never returned, that light was lost to the dark. 

She took her hands off her ears and slowly lifted her head to look at Zac, a tear fell from her face, it was a struggle to speak, but she finally got the words out.

"Is... is this real?" her Voice sounding dry and hoarse, Zac gazed at her confused and then smiled, putting his hand on her cheek.

"Yes Ara, its all real, it's okay everything's going to be fine now."

She shakes her head again, quickly standing up she walks into the living room staring into the fire as she holds her chest were the bullet pierced through and sunk into her heart, she felt no beat, no pulse, she felt nothing.

"No, it's not, I feel... I feel," she says Through confused tears. "Wrong,"

Zac slowly approaches her. "What do you remember about,"
Without being able to finish his question Ara speeds passed him and out of the cabin, she runs fast, faster than a normal human could, the cold air didn't bother her anymore, it blew throughout her hair, as she ran an incredible speed, but it didn't phase her. She stops and looks around, everything she saw appeared so harsh and tainted, snow flurries circle around and the wind whistles through her ears, everything was brighter and louder. She could hear and see everything with such great detail, but it didn't fascinate her, in fact she was disgusted by it all.

A howl that would have been considered vague to her ears yesterday, now rang loud and clear. She now knew the howls and paw prints that had been appearing didn't belong to no regular wolf, she followed the sound of the howls determined to find out what exactly it was.

Squinting through the snowflakes that quickly raced toward the ground, a white figure appears straight ahead, its eyes glow and an ora seems to be shadowing the creature. She quickly runs forward in hopes of facing it, but it disappears within the snow flurries, like it became them and blew wildly around.

Ara clenches her frosted fists with anger and screams.
"Where are you?" She exhales leaving her warm breath visible in the harsh atmosphere. "More like what are you," she says aggravated.
It was then she realized, she wasn't cold, it had to be 15 degrees outside, yet the air only felt cool. "Maybe I should be asking the same thing about me,"
She said aloud.

"Only you can answer that question," a sweet and familiar voice says from behind her.
In a flash she turns around, wide eyes facing what had spoken.

"Hello Ara," It spoke again.

"Mom?" Ara says in astonishment.

The woman nods standing before her dressed in all white looking so young and enchanting

"No, no you're not real, you can't be."

The woman takes a few steps closer, "It doesn't matter whether I'm real or not, what matters is that you listen to me."

Ara still had wide eyes, they were slightly teared up, but not as emotional as they should have been.

"I tried to warn you. All those times you heard me call out to you, that was me trying to warn you. If you had turned back, things would be much different."

"what are you talking about? you never called out to me,"

The enchanting woman smiles and tilts her head to the side.

"The howls," Ara says with realization. her eyes widen as the flashbacks start to surge; all the nights that could have been prevented. The night Lilly was murdered, eddy and his friends, her death.

"This wasn't the path you were meant to be on, this way is dark and will lead to terrible things, but if you fight... and remain strong, it can change for the better." The woman continues.

"Nothing good can come out of this, I feel.... wrong, I feel the urge to do wrong."

The woman's expression became sad. "Darkness does run through your veins now, but it can be fought, a great power and love grows inside of you, and no matter what it seems to be Ara, no matter what physical affects show, what grows inside is not wrong, nor made of darkness."

"I don't understand,"

The woman smiles. "You will, I'm always here Ara. Even when you can't see me. Remember my words darling." She reaches her hand out grazing the sides of Aras face, the woman's skin gracefully transforms into small snowflakes and swirls around in the wind like a tornado, eventually taking the form of a white wolf, Ara stands there motionless trying to process, the wolf lifts its big downy head and howls into the wind before turning and disappearing into the sea of snow.