Blood Shed

Chapter 25 - Levana

Faolan's wounds were covered in dirt. They were black around the edges and blood still leaked from his grazes. Bright purple bruises were starting to burst through his tanned complexion across his cheekbones. I lightly traced my fingers across the bruises. His body twitched at my touch as he stared directly into my eyes. Quickly, I pulled my hand away, realizing what I had done. "Umm, sorry. I didn't mean to... it's just... your face is covered in bruises and I was just wondering what happened to get so many. I mean I know that guy attacked you but I don't remember it being this bad." I slowly stepped away staring and the muddy soil beneath my feet.

"Oh right. He probably just hit me harder than I thought." Faolan softly chuckled, however, it sounded forced.

"Faolan, can you please tell me what really happened?" Slowly, I brought my eyes up to meet his gaze?

"You really don't want to hear this." Faolan began to fidget with his fingers, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

I leant forwards and grabbed his wrist, causing him to freeze in place. "I think I do."

Slowly he pulled himself up so that he was sitting up, pulling his hands away from mine. "If you say so, but if Scarlett goes all rage again, promise me that you'll stop her before she kills me."

"Again! Faolan!" I could feel the burning of my anger, boiling up inside.

"Promise me." His suddenly stern voice startled me, as if he truly believed that Scarlett would kill him.

"I promise."

"Ok, so after you, uh- left, Scarlett came and found you lying against the tree. Something came over her, like her demon side took over. She got really angry and tried to," Faolan pauses staring off behind me, his face contorted with fear. He squeezed his eyes shut and started mumbling to himself. I grabbed his hands and shook him awake. His eyes flashed back to reality as he stared at me, hyper ventilating. "Sorry. Umm, where was I?" He grabbed his chest and blinked rapidly, legs still shaking.

"What did she do to you?" I questioned, yet I felt that I already knew the answer, I just didn't want to believe it.

His voice was soft, and stung with pain. "She blamed your death on me and tried to kill me-" At the end of his words he drew in a sharp breath as he clutched his chest. "I think she might have broken a couple of ribs as well."

I clenched my fists so tight, that my knuckles turned white, "That temper of hers is going to get her killed one day." I slowly turned to face the trees and walked slowly towards the threes, my hiking boots digging into the soft soil.

"Wait, where are you going?" Faolan hurriedly pushed himself up with one arm and the other on his ribs. Quickly he collapsed backwards wincing in pain.

I slowly turned my head to face eyes still staring down at the floor. My anger flourished like a fire, bursting to escape in a chaotic blaze, destroying everything in its path. Scarlett, my one closest friend since I was put in the lab, had the nerve to hurt one of my friends that I died trying to save. Even if I came back to life, she had no right to attack him in the first place. I may have very strong feelings for her, but no one can do that to one of my friends. All that time in the lab had made her violent, now I'm going to change, her one way or another. But first, I had to let something out before I exploded. "Not far. I'll be back in a second." I turned back to the trees and began to walk again, my fists still clenched.

I caught a glimpse of Faolan as I disappeared into the tree line, he was sitting up as far as he dared staring back at me, biting his lip, and furrowing his brow. Just the sight of him injured made me want to explode. The fact that someone else could do this, could do any of this, I knew I had to kill someone. However, I couldn't, so I had to take it out on someone, something else. Swiftly, I placed one foot in front of the other, trekking through the foliage. I got to a point not too far away from the clearing but far enough away so that Faolan wouldn't be affected.

My anger boiled up inside me, pulsing to escape. It bubbled over, escaping into the air. I had to scream, I had to let everything out in one big burst, so I did. I screamed at the top of my lungs, my energy pulsing out of my body into the open air. I felt it escaping through every part of my body. I squeezed my eyes shut tight, still screaming. I could feel my soft locks rising off my back, no longer affected by gravity, floating into the air. I threw my arms out on instinct as my scream grew louder. Finally, my wings burst through my shirt and out of my back spreading out wide, instantly catching the breeze as my feet lifted off the ground. In one powerful flap, I rose into the air then feel back to the floor. I landed on my hands and knees just as I ran out of breath. I opened my eyes to see a new environment around me. All the trees that once grew peacefully out of the ground around me had now been wiped from existence. Ash hangs in the air, fogging my vision and slow my breathing. I gazed around the land. In about a ten metre radius, the land was flat covered in pitch black ashes, as if the life was drained out of the ground. I slowly stood up, taking in the ground. There was a black spiral pattern stretching from where I was standing to the edge of the trees that still stood, but looked wilted and melted on the surface facing the spiral. As I was turning, I caught a glimpse of my wings dragging on the ground behind me. This was the first time I noticed the feathers on them. Each feather was pitch black. However, the edges of each feather were silver, like the stars on a night sky. The shimmered in the sunlight that blazed down on me. The silver seemed to be shrinking, slowly being covered in a pitch black colour, like the rest of the feathers.

My mind flashed back to Faolan. Pushing the thought of my wings and the damage I had just done on the forest, I walked back to where Faolan sat pushing through the trees, unaffected by my outburst. I felt a shiver down my spine as my thoughts circled back around to the forest. My wings instinctively curled around my arms. I lowered my head and continued to push through the foliage to Faolan.