Accepted

A year of running

I swung my feet in the water, watching the water swish around my ankles. I closed my eyes, leaning back onto the soft sand as I listened.

The voices, no longer indecipherable had become clear. I'd even started to differentiate the voices. Everything I'd been taught, everything was wrong. The dark magic wasn't an evil entity that seeked to steal, kill, and destroy. It was misunderstood. It was a sea of voices belonging to supernaturals who had been abandoned, murdered without cause, outcasts.

Liam had always been revered and respected and the power of the dark magic was intoxicating to him. He didn't care to understand the voices, only to channel it's power to inflict catastrophe and ruin upon innocents. They had bonded through pain but their purpose wasn't to inflict pain. Liam had twisted their hand to threaten me and so I had become convinced they were evil. But now, I understood them. They had become my only friends.

What if there isn't good and evil? Simply what is accepted and what is rejected?

My earth magic had faded, no longer answering my calls or responding to my touch. My touch had now done the opposite, destroying plants and turning flowers to dust as the Earth rejected my very being. I had become one with the dark magic, which disturbed the Earthy balance. I housed the voices of the souls who were meant to return to the Earth in my mind.

I was scared at first, terrified to become like Liam. Terrified to give in to the hate within me. But that hate, that disdain it came from my anger of being alone. My anger of having to carry the burden of the world on my shoulders with nothing to show for it. The burden of my unresolved emotions turning into anger. But with the dark magic, I no longer felt alone. I had others who understood my pain, understood being hated, understood not being unable to change how one is born and being rejected for it. People hate and condemn what they don't understand. The unknown frightens them.

A year and 7 months had passed since I had seen anyone I cared for. With the dark magic coursing through my veins, the voices within me warned me whenever they came near. I traveled the world, honing my skills whilst running for my life. Soon after the dark magic had entered my body, word spread. Every supernatural had now become my enemy. The bounty placed on my head was now at 100 million and still rising. They all saw me as a threat and they wanted me dead. I couldn't blame them, I'd want me dead too if I didn't know what I know now. There was rarely a day where an attempt wasn't made on my life. The dark magic gave me more than enough power to defend myself but a life of running was tiring. Killing was never the first option but some situations forced my hand. And with each kill, my soul became tainted. Despite what we've been taught all our lives, dark magic doesn't seek to kill. Neither do I. My hesitancy to kill enabled some to make multiple attempts on my life. Danger followed me everywhere I went, the voices within my head my only comfort.

Despite the voices within my head, the hole still remained. That hole reminded me that something was missing, rather some one. The dark magic and the running made it easier to forget, to move on, to focus on what was coming but still, I missed them all particularly Zion. I had considered going to the Academy to check up on them without revealing myself. But, my efforts to protect them would all have been futile if I led danger to their doorstep.

I had changed, but in many ways I was still the same. I was older, stronger, colder but simply because my feelings were locked tight within me threatening to surface. I couldn't afford to let my emotions control me with the life I had been chosen to live. I had to go into hiding, cutting my hair to my shoulders and dying it black.

I couldn't let them find me. Not until it was time.

Something was coming, something that made every supernatural creature coming after me seem like child's play. Something that threatened to wipe out every supernatural creature from existence. The voices in my head warned me of it. The prophecy had hinted it. But now, it was finally coming. I finally understood my purpose.

But, I couldn't do it alone. Which is why I decided that it was finally time to let myself be found. I had to warn them. This was a fight I couldn't do on my own, even with the dark magic. If we couldn't set aside our differences and come together, we were doomed.

What if my purpose wasn't to choose between the light and the dark? What if my path was to embrace both?

I took a deep breath, rising up to my feet and dusting the sand off my clothes. I secured my knives on my waist band before making my way off of the beach.