Star Blood |✔|

21| SCREAM

"Anything," I whisper, "Anything please, just...distract me."

I heard him sigh from the other side.

"What was it like for you....when you were blessed?"

I smile and close my eyes. Good memories. I was pulling up good memories now, to overshadow the bad.

"I had just arrived at the Temple. I was eight. They had taken me in. And on my first night, I felt a pull to the window and suddenly my chest burned, my whole body actually burned, and I felt....I felt her. So much, and so real. I woke up the next day, lying on the floor. My eyes blue and hair lost and with no color. And I woke up with a connection to her."

I press a hand against my chest, clinging to the memory, "I don't feel it anymore though. Not here."

I sit in silence, faintly hearing Jonaus take in sharp breaths before I ask, "And you?"

There is another silence and a light thud upon the door as he speaks, "I remember it. How could I forget? It was the same for me. I felt drawn to the window, and then...then I could feel that power within me. And my hair," I imagine Jonaus taking a piece of his white hair, examining it with those red rimmed blue eyes, as he continues saying, "But I don't feel it anymore."

We sit there in silence, each of us absorbed within our loss.

Jonaus speaks out again, "Maddox....the King.....When he was appointed he invited me into his service. He was my best friend and I...I couldn't refuse him but the moment I entered this place, I knew I would never be the same."

I took in the information, "I wish I could have met you before that," I whisper. Before you fell to the temptation of darkness. Before you clouded your blue with red. Before.

I hear another light thud upon the door. The sound made me wonder if Jonaus was softly hitting his head against the object, and leaning it back in exhaustion.

"If you stay here for too long it will happen to you."

"Never," the words are out of my mouth before I can even register it.

I wait for Jonaus to say more, but he doesn't.

"I am Arishia. I was hand picked by the Moon herself. I will not lose myself here."

"You've already doubted her though...haven't you."

I pause at his words, "That's the start. You wonder, as you witness horror after horror, why she would let something like this happen...you wonder how you could serve someone who would not stop such evil. If she had the power to paint your hair within her light, then surely she has the power to do so to the darkness that lives within other's souls?"

I close my eyes at Jonaus's words.

"I have doubted her," I admit, "I have thought she abandoned me. But I know my purpose. I knew, from the moment she touched my soul...my life would not be easy."

"It can be though..." Jonaus's words, whispered like an offering of forbidden fruit, hang within the air, "It can be easy. Life doesn't have to be hard. If you-,"

"What?" I furiously snap out the word, my control long lost as I listened to the broken sound of Jonaus's voice. "I'm nothing like you Jonaus. I doubted yes. Who doesn't doubt? But I've always kept my faith. As long as my eyes are blue and hair remains white- I know I am above this darkness."

"How."

I shiver at Jonaus's blank words. Void. He had long ago given up. Now he wanted me to. It would ease his pain, ease his mind and ease his burden to know that he wasn't so weak. To look at another and think, they gave up also. So it's okay that I did to.

"Jonaus," I whisper his name, but wait several seconds before continuing, "I was raised within the Temple. I was taught my purpose. I was put under grueling training, and long work- all in preparation for the day when I would meet this darkness."

I faintly trace the repressors that paint my body. The jewelry that adorns me gives soft clinks of sound. I find my hand going to my ear, as I follow the shape of the moon's cycle along my lobe.

"I was born in light, so that I could see what laid within the darkness."

Jonaus's soft gasp has me looking at the door in alarm.

His voice comes, muffled by the object that separates us, but still clear, "I...I wish I could be that strong."

"What's stopping you," I hiss.

"Me," Jonaus admits. I shake my head and look around the room. Himself. He was the only barrier within his mind, yet that barrier all the same, was the one that weighed upon him the most.

We sit in silence for another hour or so.

The sounds from the other room have not faded.

"How long does this last?" I ask.

I hear Jonaus sigh, "All night."

I shiver at the thought, "And he..."

Something about voicing it out loud, and putting into words what was happening, had me looking down and blinking furiously with burning cheeks. When I was alone, with no one to see me, that was when I let my true horror and disgust show. Not the blank, emotionless canvas.

"It's a venom. Only those who truly possess power can produce it. High lords and others who hold titles of rank. But it is...it's effect leaves the person on the other end high and in a euphoric state. One can become hooked on it very easily. It all depends on the person and their will."

"Can you produce this venom?" I ask curiously.

There is a pause before Jonaus whispers, "Yes."

I don't want to ask him how he knows.

The noise doesn't stop. I wish I could plug my ears in to silence it out, but the screams are to loud and close for that.

"I'll stay with you Arishia," Jonaus whispers.

I smile at his words, "Thank you Jonaus." I softly trace the moon stone with my thumb. 

He doesn't respond, but I lean my head back, adding his presence to that of the lock. Another thing that made me feel safe.

For now.