102: Murder in Tenebris

I was awoken the next morning by loud, urgent knocking at my door and the sound of Alice’s panicked voice.
“Pheonix! Phoenix! Phoenix open up it’s important!”
Half-asleep and still not even aware of the planet I had woken up on, I groggily grunted before lifting my blankets off of me and walking towards the door. Sebastian, in whose room I was staying, growled before covering his head with a pillow, clearly not in the mood for waking up anytime soon either.
It wasn’t however until I opened the door and was greeted by the tear-stained face of Alice that I finally woke up.
“What’s going on Alice?” I asked concerned.
“I-it’s Felicity, she’s dead.”
I stood there, unable to move and barely able to comprehend the news that I had just received. In fact, my first reaction to receiving the news of Felicity’s death was denial.
“N-no… that can’t be. I just saw her yesterday. We were going to spend the day together… i-it’s impossible.”
“I’m sorry Phoenix. They found her body this morning.”
“Where?” This came from Sebastian who now stood behind me with a grim look on his face.
“She drowned in the river near the memorial centre.”
It was the same river that Samantha, Darren, Kyle and I had been to yesterday. A place of peace, nostalgia and reminiscence, now a place of death, loss and betrayal. I wanted to cry, Moon Goddess knew how badly I needed to. But I couldn’t. At this point in time, it wasn’t real to me. All I could do was feel numb.
“I want to see her…” I uttered out and began to exit the room. Sebastian called after me, but I couldn’t hear him. All I could hear was the sound of my footsteps and the rushing of blood to my ears. Alice followed behind me, almost running to keep up with my pace. And as we walked towards the place of Felicity’s death, I couldn’t help but try to convince myself that this was a lie, a trick even. I tried to convince myself that she’d be there, standing on the riverbank with a smile on her face and she’d laugh at me for falling for her little trick. I tried to convince myself that this wasn’t the end for her, that yesterday was not my final time seeing her alive.
But as soon as I stepped foot on the wet grass near the riverbank, and as soon as I saw all of the people gathered around, the tear-stained faces and her pale, lifeless body, all of the convincing I’d done amounted to nothing. And in that moment, it finally became real to me. My friend, the person who had stood by me when I was alone and new to this place, was now gone. I would never see her smile again, never hear her voice again, never laugh with her again. All that she left behind now, was a memory.
I neared her body, clutching at my heavy chest as I did, but froze the moment I laid eyes on her. Her veins were a bright shade of yellow, the same kind of yellow that Demetri’s were yesterday when he had taken the werewolf suppressants. And although I felt a sense of chest-crushing, throat swelling sadness, I also began to feel something else. Anger. I knew exactly who had done this, and as I thought this, my eyes landed on *his*. I could no longer hold back how I was feeling by then. I was filled with anger and hatred, and I wanted nothing more than to show him how much I hurt, and I wanted him to hurt just as much.
“You fucking murderer!” I yelled as I raced towards David. My claws were elongated and ready to slash at him. But just before I could even think of striking him, someone grabbed at my arm and yanked me back. I turned around to see Sebastian with a stern look on his face.
“Not here Phoenix…” He said, widening his eyes. I stopped for a moment and saw that the people who had gathered around here, including Felicity’s parents and a heartbroken Aaliyah, now all had their eyes on me. It took everything in me to retract my claws and back away from David who just stared at me, again with that challenging look in his eyes.
But I couldn’t just leave. I had to say one more thing to him.
“You’re dead David.” And as I said this softly to him, rage burned in my eyes, and they flashed gold and red. I was serious in my intent to kill him. But he remained unphased by my comment. Instead, he began walking towards me before leaning in and whispering, “Not if I kill you first… Diana.”
With that, he turned around and began to walk away, leaving me angrier than I had been before. I wasn’t even surprised that he knew who I was. I now knew who he was and the more I thought about how much I truly hated him, the angrier I got. And the angrier I got, the hotter my skin became, the longer my fangs grew and the closer I got to turning.
“I need to get myself out of here…” I grunted under my breath. I saw Aaliyah walking towards me, Alice too, but I couldn’t talk to them, not when I was seconds from fully transforming. And so I ripped my arm from Sebastian’s grasp and began running, completely ignoring the people who called out after me. I was blinded by rage by now, and once I reached the border of Tenebris, I could no longer hold back. My bones began snapping and reforming. The hair on my skin started growing longer and into a coat of thick fur and soon my screams of agony turned into loud howls. Up ahead of me, bordering the morning horizon were the giant silver gates, the last barrier to my freedom. The guards ahead gazed at me in shock and hostility, but I paid them no mind as I raced towards them at full-speed and then leapt over the great gates right at the last second. I never stopped running after that. I feared that if I did, I would be tempted to go back there and rip David to shreds and cause an entire scene. Sebastian had once said to play by the rules that Meera had set, but she wasn’t playing fair anymore. As I thought this, I began to wonder why… why had David killed Felicity. She was an innocent party in this whole thing so why was she now lying lifeless on the riverbank back in Tenebris. The closer I got to figuring things out, the more it all seemed to change.
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Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!