Wake up!

"Stop it. That is enough. He got what he deserved, you don't need to go any further." Eva shouted, and she ran towards her leaving the girl behind with the priest as the man was hanging over the burning pit choked by an iron grip, skin on his feet burning as he screamed in pain and agony.

"This is a fitting end for the one who wishes this kind of pain upon others," Isabel said with a sharp look on her dead face. She was speaking, but the words were coming from deep within her, filled with hatred and pure anger.

"Please, don't do this, Bell. It's not like you." Eva plead as she grabbed her hand and tried pulling her back, but she felt like she was trying to pull a mountain. "Stop it, that's already enough. You don't want to do this. Think about your son. I know what he said was awful, but this is not what he deserves. No one deserves this kind of pain." Eva said as she kept on trying to pull her hand away from the pit, but she was not moving an inch. "Please listen to me. Don't make me hurt you. If you don't stop, I'll have to use the force."

"Huh, where am I? It's raining." Isabel said as she saw dead trees all around engulfed in fire. A drop of water fell on her hand and as she extended her hand out suddenly the sky started pouring extinguishing the fire and the leaves coming back to the dead burnt trees spreading life all around the forest. "Where am I? Why can't I seem to remember anything? There's a burning feeling in my throat and inside my chest. It's like a bottomless well filled with hate and my hands are trembling just thinking about it and this feeling of unease. It's unsettling." She thought, looking at her shaking hand as she walked in the forest and it's got cold and she folded her arms in front of her, placing her hands on the opposite arms grabbing them. "Phew, it's cold and I am all soaked. I need to find shelter." As she was running, looking for a place to take shelter, suddenly a wave of heavy rain swept across the forest. "What's up with this place? Why my hands are shaking? What is even happening? This can't be real. Why I cannot remember anything, damn it." She yelled as she saw a cave under a boulder and went inside. She saw some woods burning. As she went closer, she started feeling at ease and her hands stopped shaking. "It's so calm in here. My hands stopped shaking and that feeling inside me was slowly fading away. This warmth, it's familiar. What is it?" As she was thinking, she heard some footsteps outside the cave. She quickly put her guard up and tried charging her hand with lightning, but she couldn't. "What, I can't use my magic? Where even am I" She said, utterly confused and frustrated, but before she could do anything else, the person outside the cave spoke.

"Wake up."

Everything around turned into fireflies and disappeared and she woke up opening her eyes as she saw a half-burnt man choking in her hands and heard Eva's muffled voice telling her to stop. She looked around everything is drowning in water and Eva was ready with a charged spell and the knights running from behind surrounding the place and everything started coming back to her. How she got to this point.

"Please, Bell, let him go before you regret doing something you should not. I won't say it again." Eva said with a down face with both her hands in front of her, ready to release the spell, but Isabel stood silent and motionless this whole time. "Forgive me Bell, I didn't want this to happen, but you left me no choice. I won't let you do something you'll regret after. I am your friend, after all." And she pushed her hand forward with full force and a giant wave appeared instantly turned into ice, freezing everything in its wake as it moved forwards. However, before the wave reached her, she saw tears were flowing from Isabel's left eye as she turned back, throwing the man away from the wave's reach. Eva without wasting a moment pulled her hands down and the ice turned in water before hitting her. As Eva saw all of this, she dashed towards her.

As the water disappeared Isabel was laying beside a wall totally drenched. Her hands were rocking. She wanted to talk but couldn't able to utter a single word. "Wh - at - what h have I done?" She said in broken words, looking at her hand in which she held that man and her whole body was shaking, but she couldn't stop it. "I couldn't stop myself. I wanted to stop. What kind of person I am who enjoyed hurting like this?" And her heartbeat got faster and she could hear it beating inside her chest as her breathing also rose.

"Please take a deep breath. Control yourself. You didn't go throw with it. It's all right he'll be okay, Bell." She said, trying to calm her but seeing her condition getting worst she put her right hand on Isabel's head, putting her to sleep. "Is everything okay? You help these people get things back to normal here. I'll take that little girl with me and bring that man, too." She said, pointing towards the half-burnt man lying unconscious. "And you'll also come with us. You'll have a lot of explaining to do." Eva said, turning back looking towards the old priest.

 "Rise and shine princess," Eva said as she was sitting on the chair as she saw Isabel opening her eyes laying on her bed.

Isabel slowly opened her eyes and saw a familiar roof above. "Hah, I am in my room." She said, getting back up as she noticed Eva's hair was short. "Wait, you look different. How long have I been asleep? Where is my Fin?" she asked nervously.

"Oh! Dear bell, I thought you wouldn't wake up. Finral is playing outside in the garden with Jocel." Eva replied in a down, burdened voice, but she still smiled. "You've missed a lot. But I am glad you finally woke up."

"Don't joke around. Tell how long it's been." She said in a loud voice, looking at her.

"Oh! Dear bell, it's been whole 6…"

"No, I have to see my son." Isabel interrupted her mid-sentence, getting up from bed to go outside the room.

Eva pushed her back and said. "Hold your horse, girl. I haven't finished talking, you lightning-fast idiot. I was saying, you've been sleeping for 6 hours straight but you had to stop me thinking I was about to say something else." Eva said laughing and then stopped and her expression and tone turned serious. "Would you mind telling me what happened back there?"

Isabel turned her dead down and a gloomy look took over her face as she said in a down voice. "As I heard people saying those bad things about people born with shadow affinity, 'they are all devil's spawn. They should all just die. Mankind is in this state because of them.' I got angry, but it wasn't anything unusual. However, when that man brought Alexander in all of this, 'we are all lucky that devil from the knight squad is dead, he was the biggest monster, a shadow dweller. He could've been the devil reincarnated himself. It serves him right, eaten by the things he himself created to end mankind. That was a pure justice, a divine justice from God.' my anger turned into hatred and it was so huge I felt like drowning in it, and then voices got muffled. I didn't know what people were saying anymore. All I could hear was screams and laughter and I lost all control." She said, squeezing her shoulders as a chill went down her spine. "And then I was somewhere I don't recognize. I couldn't remember how I got there and everything about it is all fogy in mind. All I remember hearing was a voice saying wake up, and I opened my eyes and saw that man's throat in my hand and then you. Please, promise me you won't tell anyone about his." She asked in a low voice as her head was down and she was still looking at her hands.

"I promise I won't tell anyone. I'll just report that you just got angry as usual. It wasn't anything unusual and knights also don't know the complete story as they got pretty late. They'll just think it was all because he tried to burn that girl alive. They'll understand." She said in a gentle voice, putting her hand over her head.