𝐈𝐟 𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝; 𝗿.𝗮.𝗯

Chapter 8; A Lost Soul

Chapter 8

A Lost Soul

Who had called her name? Who was it? What did they want?

Those were all the questions that ran through her head. She froze in silence, too scared to turn around. If it was who she thought it was, she would be doomed from the start. Her body ached in agony and as she turned around her eyes peeled wide open.

It was as though she saw a ghost.

That in that very moment she had witnessed someone rise from the dead, that every strand of hair on her head instantly turned white, or that she had to believe whoever was standing in front of her wasn't dead, but they had disappeared and were now back to haunt her.

Diane.

***

She didn't want to believe it, nor did she think that what she had witnessed was actually Diane herself. She thought Diane had been long gone.

"Missed me?" Her voice echoed in the wind.

"D-Diane... No, it can't be. N-no, no, this can't be possible..!" She said in clear denial.

"You really thought I was dead. That you out of all people could leave me there pleading and begging for just a wince of help?"

Elladora found herself distraught and frozen. She could feel her heart pacing, and another word that came out of Diane's mouth stunned her.

"How? How are you still even alive?!" She bombarded in mortification.

Still, her eyes were peeled open and her heart continued racing. She begged to herself that this encounterment was just some dream, that she was making it up in her head. -- The last time she had seen Diane was in the forest where they had been attacked by pagans, in which she woke up beside what she presumed to be Diane's unlively body or what she thought at the time to be her "remains".

"Poor, poor, Elladora. I never figured you for the distraught type. But I can't blame you, your father abandoned you, your mother deserted you to this god awful place, you fled Russia, and now this."

"I didn't mean to."

"And what makes you think that I never trusted you, because I did. But clearly I was wrong, because if you didn't mean to abandon everyone who cared about you and leave them to vanish into ashes then what did you mean to do?"

"You're wrong Diane. I had no other choice."

"Well let me present you with some more choices. One, you could've stayed, maybe the Pagans wouldn't have set Koldovstoretz on fire just so they could get to you. Two, you could've easily prevented the deaths of everyone I loved, yet you so selfishly had to put yourself above anyone else. Because you always do."

"You don't think that still haunts me? Because it does. There's not a moment that I don't think about them nor you."

Before Diane could even argue her claim, the door swung open once more. Never once had Elladora been so grateful that Regulus Black out of all people had stepped in to interfere with their argument.

She could feel a sigh of relief hit the cold freezing air. Elladora noticed the sour expression that was painted on Diane's face. But in that moment all she could do was walk away, and without a second thought she did so, forgetting that Regulus had even shown up or that Diane was filled with rage and an urge to seek her revenge in some pathetic, maybe even dense way of doing so.

In a matter of seconds she could hear his footsteps chasing hers. The bitter wind blew in their direction which only made her shiver more than she already was, and she knew that if she turned her head just the slightest he'd say something that would upset her even more than what Diane had said.

"Who was that?" Regulus bombarded her.

"No one that you would know." She admitted.

"Answer the question Elladora," He demanded, grasping her wrist, forcing her with no other option than to turn around and tell him what he wanted to hear.

"An old friend. That's all." She spoke softly,

"Your depiction of friends is far off than the actual conception of what friends are supposed to be."

"And you're one to talk." She expressed before belligerently stormed off.

"Elladora," He paused before chasing after her.

"What!" She hollered in frustration.

"I-I... nevermind."