DRIPPING DARKNESS

Ch-23: The banshee's premonition

Lydia was back there keeping an eye on Malia and her endeavor when she had a sense of déjà vu around her.

Everything turned black on her eyes for a moment. The Music beats stopped in a snap.

But she wasn't that teenager who would easily shed tears for small things, she wasn't the same sixteen-year-old girl who would cry for hours in her car alone when she felt embarrassed, she wasn't that envious, ostentatious, pretend-to-be-dumb Lydia Martin who would wear a false façade with confidence just for the sake of gaining popularity at high school. Times have changed, and so has Lydia's personality.

In the past decade that she spent with her friends, she learned the truth about herself, knowing that life had much more meaning than just being popular at high school or have the hottest boyfriend of all time. Those times of struggles, those times of loss and mourning, times of enjoyment with her friends transformed and redeemed her into a strong, bold, and confident girl who no longer needed just a mere façade to pretend to be the strongest or the smartest one in the tank.

But to that date, she was thankful to her late best friend Allison Argent for changing herself for most of the part. The Allison Argent that made her embrace her best part of herself, the Allison Argent that taught her to stand up by one's own feet, The Allison Argent that still had a place in her heart although she was not in this world anymore.

Predicting intuitions from her alter ego and making out conclusions from her Banshee premonitions was almost like a commonplace for her, so she stepped forward cautiously.

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Lydia turned around, rotating her head in almost all directions, trying to make logic out of it, and saw that everything around her was completely dark.

"She made me do it..." a pale voice from a girl almost of her age, reached her ears.

"Who is this?" Lydia asked out with a shaky fear-induced voice, to the absolute darkness and complete silence all around.

After that, she heard that same sound, which started weeping. The voice was successively getting more lurid every second making it sound irritating and scary at the same time. But it was irresistible, uncontrollable, for the source of the sounds was unknown.

"Oh...banshee..." it was the same voice.

It felt like she was a character in a puppet show where the puppeteer ruthlessly played with the strings. And some sadistic child was playing with the spotlights, making them constantly flicker. The rapid influx and efflux of lights made her flinch every time she took a step forward.

"Oh..banshee..let your spirit combine with my soul..."

Who was speaking? Lydia could comprehend that whoever it was, wanted to speak to Lydia.

She felt the need to cover her eyes with her elbow, as the darkness around her brightly faded out to somewhere in the lonely woods. But it was not the usual Californian trees she was used to seeing, it wasn't those thin, tall trees that remained silent behind Beacon Hills high school. It was something else this time. The trees between which she was standing were letting out a negative and dark presence.

"let your mind know what's the power of control...May you see what the Achylis will make me do..then you shall find all your required clue..."

Lydia had no idea what that person was talking about but she had to find out about that until its too late for something bad to happen.

As the light faded to black, the colors of the grass and leaves remained in her mind almost like a fragrance. The forest became a tone of psychedelic silver between the shadows that stretched out as if yawning. Already the warmth of the autumn day was quite gone, only ever-present in the sunshine, and the first bite of cold winter paled her skin.