"Please."
The word left Diana's lip in this whisper that was so thin and fragile that it was barely louder than the rasp of her own tired breath.
It didn't echo through the woods even though sounds were amplified at night. It didn't carry. It simply dissolved into the night as if the word itself was ashamed that it had ever been uttered.
Her hands were pressing into the dirt, her fingers trembling. Even as her nails dug into the cold soil, she didn't care that the underside of her nails was being stained brown.
For a moment, the forest around her seemed to be leaning in her direction.
The way the branches curved, the shadows stretched, and even how the wind had held its breath to give her complete silence, time to sit with nothing but her own thoughts, it was as if the forest itself was waiting to see what she would do next.
So what did she do?
Nothing.
Diana did nothing.
She just continued kneeling in place.
Exhaustion in the form of sweat was clinging to her skin, dripping, pouring, drenching her clothes.
Her breaths were short and coming in uneven intervals.
The sweat dripping from her forehead was mixing with the faint residue of blood on her cheek.
And just as she was starting to come to terms with the silence, her mind began to calm down; the universe decided to be more comedic than usual, as she could sense her powers starting to grow out of control.
Not her new powers, but the one she had been using for over a decade now.
The beads of sweat that had been dripping down her body froze, and this layer of ice covered her. She glistened as if she were a walking diamond.
She felt this jolt in her body.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she whispered, "No. Not now. Not—"
Then came a second jolt. Sharper. Stronger.
The cold spread even further.
She whipped her head up as the blades of grass around her turned into icicles, and the dirt beneath her knees had frosted over in an instant.
A thin layer of white had crawled out around her, forming this circle.
Her heart started racing again, and she was breathing heavily, releasing a visible white puff with each breath.
No. No, no no.
Shoving herself backward, her hands slipped on the sheen of ice, and she slid across momentarily before coming to a stop. And where she stopped, again her surroundings froze.
"Stop," her voice came out thin. "Please, stop. Stop, stop, stop!"
Her fingers were beginning to burn with cold, and when she held them up to her face, she saw steam coming not from heat but from the sheer temperature difference between her body and the air. Her skin prickles as if needles of frost were pushing through her pores.
The night was a little chilly, but it wasn't cold enough for this.
They were still in the early days of autumn. Winter wasn't for a few more months.
This was her.
It didn't take a second opinion or a genius for her to realize what was happening to her.
She was losing control of the powers granted to her by her god. She hadn't spoken to her god — ever. She wasn't even sure how they felt about their follower being a vampire. What if they sever the tie?
All she knew about the god she served was that they didn't have many followers, not because they weren't desirable, but because the god was picky about who they wanted. She didn't even know if they had another follower outside of herself.
One of the abilities she had granted her total control over ice at the cost of constant star energy being drained, mental burden, and the limitations of her imagination.
This was the very ability that was affecting her now.
Sucking in a breath that hurt, everything inside of her felt too loud, too quiet, too bright, too dark, too sharp, and too cold. The chill surged again, radiating outward like she was some kind of broken beacon. This time, even further.
Ice crackled up to the nearest tree trunk, and she could hear the sharp snapping noise of the bark fracturing under the frost echo.
Clutching her head, Diana begged, "Please just… just stop…"
Her voice broke.
And the ice answered her pleas by growing faster.
From her fingertips, a trail of jagged shards erupted, and she had to dodge them as they shot out in a straight line. If she hadn't been faster, it wouldn't have been the ground that was embedded with these ice shards, but instead, the same head she had been clutching.
Gulp.
Her uneven breathing could be heard meters away now as panic had crawled up her throat and was swinging her vocal cords around.
She wasn't just losing control of her powers. She was unraveling.
But that shouldn't have been possible. Only those poisoned by their greed for godly energy show signs of unraveling, which is when your abilities go haywire due to your inability to control them, due to the poison.
It's similar to how a star dies. They become their brightest just before they die.
"No. I… I have too much to live for. I don't want to die."
She wanted to get revenge. She wanted to graduate from the academy. Although it was now a place she dreaded heading to every day, at one point in time, she was extremely proud and happy to have been accepted into the academy, as it was her family's dream for her to attend.
Most importantly, though, she wanted to become happy. It didn't feel right for her to have her life ruined by Bell and to die before she could ever get the chance to become happy again.
She wanted to be happy.
It was the only way she could honor her memories of her family.
Then she could die suddenly without any regrets.
"Please. I don't want to die."
She didn't want to say the word a second time, and yet, it came out of her.
She was wallowing in agony as the pain in her body was spreading and intensifying with each passing second.
Just then, a crunch of leaves broke the silence.
Crunch.
She froze. The sound had not come from her.
It came from in front of her.
Looking up, her eyes couldn't pick out anything through the dark. Even with the moonlight illuminating much of the forest, there were still dark spots.
The shadows also looked normal. But — too normal. Like they were holding their shape perfectly in order to conceal something, or someone.
Another sound followed.
It was a slow exhale. Not hers.
Someone was here.
She swallowed hard, but her throat felt tight as if ice had formed inside it, blocking the flow. Her pounding heart was slamming against her ribs as she was nervous and terrified.
Were they here because of what she had done to that man?
Was it a vampire hunter?
But the race was thought to have been extinct. So surely the occupation of a vampire hunter is no longer a need?
She whispered, "Who's there?"
"..."
"..."
"Don't panic. You're not unraveling."
The voice that responded to her question slid into her ears so easily, despite being uttered at a low volume, that for a split second, she wondered if it was her mind speaking to itself or maybe they were right next to her speaking directly into her ear.
Diana's blood turned cold. Ice cold.
Her body locked up so completely that she was unable to breathe.
Not only did her instincts scream, but they roared. Every nerve in her body snapped into alertness. Spinning on her heels, she got up, and claws of ice materialized on her hands.
Although her voice trembled, she mustered the courage to snarl, "Show yourself!"
Nothing.
As the moon that was covered momentarily by a cloud suddenly gave a clear view of the dark spot that she had been staring at—
Nothing.
There was no figure standing there. No silhouette.
Just moonlight on empty ground.
But that voice was most definitely real. She hadn't just imagined it. She knew she hadn't.
A rustling started to her left, and she whipped her head towards it.
It was another spot of complete darkness.
"You need to get that under control before it consumes you."
This time, the voice felt like it was coming from just behind her shoulder, even though she felt the presence of the speaker in the shadows in front of her.
Just as she was about to ask a question, her ice reacted wildly, and jagged long spikes stabbed out in every direction. Everything in the way of the ice had been stabbed and frozen.
"Stop," she weakly gasped.
Her powers always felt like an extension of herself, but now they felt like a parasite that was gnawing away at her life.
Backing up in pain until her spine pressed hard against a tree trunk, the bark bit into her skin, but she didn't care.
Deciding to ignore the pain for the moment, she barked, "Who are you?!"
Silence.
Receiving no response, she had no choice but to focus on her powers going awol again. "Arghhhh," she grunted as she bit down on her lower teeth.
Then—
"Most half-bloods don't have an issue with their bloodline and their star abilities coexisting together in one body. But that doesn't apply to you because… never mind. You can't even hear me."
Diana had been so consumed by the pain of the cold that was enveloping her and her surroundings that she had no energy to even spare.
"You'll have to control it yourself in the future, but for now, let me help you before you alert them of your existence so soon."
Diana hadn't even noticed as the person emerged from the shadows and approached her.
It was only when their index and middle fingers tapped on her forehead that she remembered that there was someone else with her.
Turning her attention to them, her vision was getting blurry, but for a brief moment, she couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity with the man in front of her.
"Why do you look like…" but before she could complete her question, she fainted and collapsed.
The man caught her body and carefully placed it down onto the ground.
He waved his hand, and the ice surrounding them vanished. Slowly, warmth began to return to her body.
"You're lucky that I was here. If it wasn't for me, you could've lost your life. I don't even know how you survived this in the original," he sighed. "My Diana didn't even awaken her blood until much later. By then…"
He shook his head and stepped away from her, vanishing into the same shadows he had appeared in.
A while later.
Diana woke up in a jolt.
Ice immediately formed around her fingers, and she aimed them forward.
She was breathing heavily, but once she felt that the presence was gone, she began to calm down and took some deep breaths.
Dropping her arms, she wondered if she had been dreaming. She didn't feel any pain in her body. Not even the slight coldness.
No. The water droplets on the grass around her proved that it had been real. There was also still that faint scent of blood.
But perhaps everything other than that person was real. What if they were just a hallucination created by her mind as she was going crazy due to the mental and physical pain she had been enduring?
She looked around, trying to see if there was a second set of footprints.
"...Nothing."
Her breath stuttered as a horrifying thought crept in like a spider, 'What if the voice hadn't been real?'
What if her powers were destabilizing her mind?
What if the cold was affecting her brain, her senses, everything?
She didn't know which one she would've preferred. On one hand, it was terrifying knowing that there was a second person who was aware of what had just occurred to her. The fact that they had been there at the same time didn't seem to be a coincidence either.
But if they weren't real, what if it happens again? What if she hallucinates another person when they're not there? Being called crazy would be the least of her concerns.
She didn't like how it felt to lose control, once to the vampire blood in her and the second time to her own star ability.
"Talk to me. Please… guide me. I need your help," she muttered, calling out to her god.