36: Diana

It began with a soft little voice calling out in the darkness before me.
"Diana... Diana, where are you?"
And as the voice spoke, slowly, the darkness began to morph into colours and textures, eventually forming an entire image before my eyes. I could feel the roughness of the wooden floors beneath me as I crouched in the darkness. As I stared out, I could see a ray of light, illuminating the floor before me, a wooden doorpost and I saw that across from this room, was another room with the same wooden floors and a strange, fur-coated bed.
"Diana?" The voice said again. And soon my view of the room in front of me was blocked by a pair of black trousers which led to a strange, yet expensive pair of shoes. "Diana what are you doing under the bed?" And soon a hand was held out towards me.
"I was hiding!" It came from my mouth, involuntarily. I tried placing my hands over my mouth, afraid of what I'd say now that I clearly had no control over it, but my body would not respond to any of my wishes. It was as though I were living in a body which was not under my own control.
Suddenly, and again without my permission, my hand stuck out and held onto the outstretched one. Slowly I was dragged out from under what I assumed to be a bed. Finally, when I found my feet, I found myself looking up at a young man- clearly the owner of the trousers and shoes. However, when I tried to pick out the details of his face, I couldn't seem to make anything out, but a blur of colours. Blue, pale white and pink. Those were the colours I picked out. I wanted to ask the stranger who they were. I wanted to ask them where I was... most importantly, I wanted to know why they kept calling me Diana. But the more I tried to speak, the more I was left disappointed at my clear inability to muster up any of my own words. It was strange. I could feel the sensation of my hand in someone else's. I could smell the stench of wood and pine. I could even feel the cool air of the draughty breeze against my skin, but I could not control the body I was in. In fact, I wondered if I was in this body at all. Perhaps it only felt that way. Perhaps I was just an onlooker, able to feel but do nothing else but watch and experience.
"Come on Diana, we only have a few moments before our parents get back." The stranger said and then slowly began to tug at my hand. By now I could tell by the sound of his voice and his height that he must have been somewhere late in his adolescence.
As he tugged on my hand, we began to exit the door to the room, and we found ourselves in the middle of a long corridor. The walls were made of stone and the same wooden floors clicked against the steps of our feet. There was, however, a strange familiarity about them and as we continued our journey, passing more rooms- many of them closed with heavy wooden doors- and more corridors, I began putting everything into place. If my memory served me correctly, this had to be the palace. Soon we passed by the dining room which, looked starkly different with a large, wooden table and uncomfortable wooden chairs and candles lighting the place up. It seemed I'd gone quite far back in time... *very* far back in time. It was strange how real everything felt and how engrossed I was in this little world I'd clearly fabricated. I wondered where it all led to and what more I'd see.
We then made it past the hall near the entrance of the palace and soon, I found myself leaping out of the door, not once letting go of the cold hand of the stranger leading me.
Like most days in the vampire capital of Tenebris, it was cloudy and dark, but today the scent of rain lingered in the air and I found myself relishing in the sweet subtlety of it.
"Hopefully they won't be back before the rain starts," Again the stranger spoke, before leading me out into the front of the palace. It was just as different as the inside of the palace, with cobblestone floors and stone walls in every direction. There was not a plant in sight, and nothing beautiful except for a stone fountain in the centre of the courtyard.
"What if they are already back?" This left my mouth, again, without my permission. "I don't want to get caught."
The blurry young man chuckled and then shook his head, "You worry too much Diana."
*Who the hell was Diana?* Was she the owner of this body I was clearly in?
I was further led to the fountain where the two of us sat on its edge. Again, I found myself staring at the face which, I discovered had become slightly clearer, but not nearly clear enough for me to pick up his features. If only I could take a closer look at him.
"Diana?" The stranger called out.
I hummed in response and felt myself begin to fidget with my legs absent-mindedly as it dangled on the edge of the fountain.
"Do you believe in love?"
As soon as it left his mouth, I found myself intrigued. I wondered what this Diana woman would respond to his question. I stayed silent for a while- clearly Diana was well equipped with building up the tension.
"I don't know," It finally left my mouth. And as it did, I felt the first small little droplet of drizzle fall onto my face. I touched my finger to it, feeling its wetness. The drizzling soon began to transform into good, solid drops of rain which, as I sat next to this strange young man, began wetting at my face and my hair.
"Finally," The stranger said. I found myself turning towards him and, to my surprise, I found myself able to gaze up at his facial features. Pale crystal blue eyes, pale porcelain skin, ashy blonde hair which hung in his face. I felt the strange familiarity about it all rushing through my veins, and as I stared up into the beauty of these familiar facial features, I found myself in a state of disbelief. It couldn't be...
"Sebastian," I uttered, "you're such a child sometimes."
This youthful adolescent was Sebastian?
Before I could comprehend any of this, the rain began pouring harder, drenching the both of us further. Sebastian chuckled, stood up and took my hand in his as he began twirling me around in the rain. The moment seemed so precious and so achingly familiar that I could almost feel as though I'd done this before. As though I'd danced in the rain with this young man once before. Soon he pulled my body against his and I felt the erratic beating heart of his against my own chest. Again, I found myself staring up at him, in awe at the softness his features now held. He didn't seem to have that scar running across his face though and although his blue eyes were icy and pale, they were warm and soft, and I found myself unable to concentrate on anything but their entrancing blue.
I was just about to reach up to touch his face when a sharp, stinging pain began to form in the pit of my stomach. I fell from his grip, dropping to the floor and soon started to spew blood all over it, mixing in red with the clearness of the rainwater. My ears began ringing and soon the sound of many voices whispering in my eardrums began to sound. I couldn't quite make out anything anyone was saying. It all swirled around in an incoherent whirlpool of noise and so I clutched my hands on my ears, trying to get rid of them. As I did this, the floor suddenly began to break away and disintegrate before me, floating around into nothing. Even the younger Sebastian, I was surprised to find, had begun to flake away into the wind and soon he disappeared. I yelled out as my head throbbed heavily and sent flashes of potent searing pain through my brain. Was I dying? The thought repeated in my mind again and again as everything in front of my disappeared before me and soon left me in the darkness of the depths of my mind. All that remained was the image of a young, brunette woman dressed in the strangest, most expensive dress I'd ever seen. Her eyes were a strange golden colour and she reached out toward me, calling my name. Almost immediately I knew who the beautiful young woman was and so I reached out for her as well, trying to get our hands to touch. But the more I reached, the further away from me she seemed to be floating.
"Diana!" I found myself yelling. Slowly I realised that the darkness had vanished and that I was now back in Sebastian's room with my arm stretched out towards nothing. Diana had vanished too, leaving me in a state of deep confusion, wondering what the hell I'd just seen and experienced.
"How do you know that name?" I heard from beside me.
I turned slowly toward Sebastian who stared at me with worry all over his face.
"I-I... who is she?" I asked, now placing my outstretched hand in my hair and running it through the red strands.
But Sebastian never answered. Instead, he sighed deeply and asked again, "*How do you know that name*?"
I uttered out a little breathless pant and began telling him about the awful dream I'd had. Sebastian listened closely, never once changing his serious facial expression.
"...and as I reached toward her, she vanished. I thought you said these would be my memories." I uttered.
Sebastian stayed quiet again, taking a long moment to finally answer. "It was a long time ago... centuries upon centuries. I'm surprised you dreamt of it at all."
"So, who was she?" I asked again.
"I didn't think you'd remember so much already, especially not *that* name. I thought there'd first be blurs of images, that you wouldn't see or here anything." He then pasued, took a breath and said, "Her name is Diana Lorenzo. She was quite a distant relative of your mother's."
"Well... what happened to her?"
Sebastian froze for a moment, gulped and then whispered, "Something terrible."
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And so the plot thickens. Who the hell is Diana and what does she have to do with Phoenix and Sebastian?
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!💖