Eternal Darkness

Chapter Three: Her Fate (Part One)

I'm not big into author notes because I feel like I have nothing of value to add, but I just wanted to say thank you so much to those of you who have read and voted! It really means the world to me.

I've always been terrified to share my writing with anyone. I'm so insecure about it, so truly thank you <3

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

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We drove in silence for almost an hour before Marissa pulled the car to the side of the road.

"We are being followed."

"And that's a reason for us to stop driving?" I asked. Marissa didn't seem to understand the concept of running away.

"They will just keep following us. We need to kill them," she swung her door open, considering, and glanced back at me. "You stay here."

I knew better than to argue but was still concerned about Marissa fighting alone on a road in broad daylight. The men didn't seem particularly strong, but it wasn't an ideal situation, and I would prefer her not to kill anyone.

A car had stopped further back on the road, and Marissa walked towards it. Her pace was slow and calm, as she always was.

She was strong, but I decided to ignore her words as soon as I saw all four doors of the vehicle open. The men were fast when they attacked Marissa, and I couldn't see what was happening as I ran towards the fight.

My stomach dropped in horror as I got closer. Marissa was fighting, but bleeding heavily from a would on her stomach. Something was plunged inside of her gut, and the men were unrelenting. They were prepared, which Arianna's men never quite were. I had either underestimated her, or I was wrong about who had sent them.

Marissa looked up at me, pain and contemplation clouding her emerald eyes. "Just run!"

I started sprinting. If they had surprised Marissa, then there was no doubt they would be prepared for me. Marissa had a plan. She always did.

Before long I heard heavy footsteps behind me. I took a deep breath and began singing a melody my mother had sung to me when I was young. Her words always brought me comfort.

Simple compulsion would not work as easily as it had the last time, with Marissa somewhere behind me and an unknown number of attackers pouring out of unknown vehicles. I could sense two of them behind me. One was to my far left, and one was gaining speed on my right. Vampire.

A ball of fire soared at him, and I heard screams of pain that slowly faded away the further I ran. A clean shot.

Fire derived from my access to light magic which was fairly easy to use. Compulsion and other tricks came from dark magic. Darkness was far more difficult to control, and it had the unfortunate habit of consuming everything around it. Naturally, because of that, the darkness was much stronger. The majority of siren's powers came from one of these two sources. Many sirens also had some control over the tide and water, but that was not very useful outside of a large body of water.

The footsteps on my left maintained their distance. I reached out, trying to get a sense of their aura, when the attacker unexpectedly sped up and slammed my body onto the hard ground. I moved my head quickly to the right as he plunged a knife towards me, which slipped into the earth. That wasn't a plunge of someone trying to keep me alive... Definitely Arianna then.

I looked into my attacker's silver eyes as I continued my song. Having missed his one opportunity, he didn't stand a chance at this distance. Screams of pain escaped his lips as I lured his mind into my trap. Pain. It was the most effective way to stop anyone, even if the brain didn't realize that the pain wasn't real. Very few sirens, or other species for that matter, had mastered this level of compulsion. It was difficult, and it took a lot out of me if I tried doing it to too many for too long. That, and if a mind was strong enough, this wouldn't affect them.