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AN AURA OF FORGETTING

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"A mark?" Selene asked, her forehead creasing at the very statement as she turned to Darcy.

"Darcy, you didn't.....start to draw on your skin, did you?" Darcy intently stared at the blonde as Selene's gaze never faltered as if she was immune to Darcy's glare.

"From when did you start to think that my shelter at home isn't needed? My mom's gonna kick me out if I did that." Darcy disappointedly shook her head at Selene as she tiredly rolled her eyes, angling her neck to the side.

"Then what mark?" Selene's voice came out softly despite the throbbing pain inside her head as she was trying her best to keep herself together before her face betrays her and pours out all the ache and tiredness on show.

Adira's lips parted and closed but no word came out from her slightly pink heart shaped lips as she rubbed Darcy's arm as if to warm her up but it was only an action to calm her heart down after what she had encountered.

"Adira?" This time Selene's voice caught her attention as Adira's eyes travelled back to Selene's face, her eyes trailing on her face curves and then back at Darcy.

She couldn't be one of them, could she?

Though it was very difficult for Adira to open her mouth and create audible words at that time, seeing it was the first time she has seen the mark and a person bearing it without her acknowledgement.

She wasn't really sure that the mark was just as same as she had seen in her father's journal or she just didn't want to believe that?

Cause what are the odds, that a person was hidden from her true personality for almost seventeen years of her life and never even had a glimpse of her power? Never even suspected that something was rather weird with her?

But Adira was no one to say things like this because she was also seventeen when the truth of nature uncovered itself all over again and in a new form.

Where all fantasies were real.

"Darcy, did you ever felt magical?" Adira blurted out from nowhere as Selene's and Darcy's, both of their faces creased in confusion as they stared at Adira.

"Now why the fuck would I feel magical? I'm not even an decent teenager for God's sake. What is wrong with you guys?"

Darcy shook her head again in disappointment at these hormonal teenagers as she sat up straightly, standing up in process.

She held her hand towards Selene for her to pass her jacket but Selene thought Darcy was offering her hand to get up. So she grabbed Darcy's hand before she could draw it back again and stood up.

"I was asking for my coat, you idiot."

"Holding hands makes the bond stronger, dear bear."

Selene handed her coat as both of them dusted the snow off their clothes but Adira stayed on the ground dazed from the incident that took place in front of her.

Flashback

The frozen snow on the ground made it harder for Adira to continue her way to nowhere in the woods. She was already exhausted in Verlaten falls and it was not even a week.

First Darcy's ex-boyfriend Ian and then Lloyd and then endless rumours. Even the elders of Verlaten falls were creepy as heck. She was tired of all these problems, sticking to her back like glue, following her everywhere.

She didn't ask for this. She didn't ask for enemies. She didn't ask for special gifts her dad told her about. She didn't want a life where her only aim was to hunt people down.

Hunt vampires down.

It would've looked cool in the myths or supernatural series but in real life, it wasn't cool to be a vampire hunter. You had to kill people. So what if they were vampires? It was in your instincts, your cursed birthright to stab or harm the forced supernatural beings who were gifted with immortality.

And Adira wasn't a person to harm people in any way.

She could've stayed out of all this as her dad said. Only if she could take back last year's incident which changed her life, her aim drastically.

She never should've been friends with him

Strong wind hit her face as she snapped back from her lonely thoughts and chose to admire the slowly falling snow from the sky.

The soft snowfall was rarely visible to someone who didn't put much notice around one's atmosphere. But Adira bright green eyes caught every snow falling gracefully onto the ground.

Her crimson mid length hair was up in a ponytail as some little specks of snows grazed her hair and fell by and some specks situated itself in the red wavy nest.

She unknowingly smiled to herself as she slowly walked forward, away from all the creepy stares and rumors. But all on a sudden, the aura changed around the place as her eyebrows furrowed in suspicion.

He is here

Her hand immediately went behind her back and grabbed the gun, located in her belt. Her posterior changed into a defensive one as her eyes searched for the person who passed her like a wind and she knew all too well who it was.

"What do you want, Lloyd?" Adira's strict voice tensed the area more as the asked person walked out behind the bush and his eyes raked down Adira's silhouette, finally stopping at her stoic face.

"My son's revenge." He sneered in a low voice as he gazed right at Adira's eyes but she didn't blink or feel threatened by his voice when she was supposed to.

"Bold of you to call him your son." Adira gritted her teeth together as she spoke with the same venom in her voice though she was seconds away from trembling.

Her insides were screaming, wanting to run away cause she wasn't as brave as she should be. She wasn't fearless or strong. She knew how to defend herself but apparently that wasn't enough right then in front of a hundred years old Vampire.

"HE WAS MY SON!"

He yelled, shocking Adira as her defensive posterior dropped but her face stayed stoic. Her eyes were minutes away from showing guilt. Guilt of what she did but sadly, that wasn't going to change anything.

She backed a few steps behind Lloyd approached very tormentally slow, whispering roughly, "And you......killed him."

"Well, he bit me first. I admit that didn't kill me yeah but I was seconds away from being a vampire! And do you know how much of a sha—"

"Silence of guilt, Owen?"

silence of wh—I was saying all of this in my head?

Oh great.

"I'm a vampire hunter, Lloyd. It's kind of my job to wipe your filthy roots out." Adira flashed a fake smile, determined to get out of here.

"Now you've crossed your boundaries, Owen—" with that the veins under his eyes grew red visible and his vampire fangs came out, uncovering his real identity but Adira was quick to attack before he transformed fully.

Hiding her wavering self-confidence, she swished smoothly to Lloyd's side as she stabbed a vervain injection right on his bicep as he let out a cry of pain.

He quickly moved away from her, letting out a spat in return, hastily pulling the needle out.

"Ugh."

His red eyes returned to her emerald ones as she backed away hastily, her face minutes away from showing what she was not supposed to show.

Fear.

So she ran for it. Through the snow and the broken twigs, being heavy obstacle on her path but soon Lloyd catched her. His speed as a vampire had Adira lost in this fight.

As he grabbed her arm, she swiftly pulled out her gun and shot right in his arm, making a clicking noise in the middle of the woods.

The atmosphere became so quiet and soundless that Adira could hear her own heartbeat in her ears. The up and down beating of her heart and her raspy breath could be heard with Lloyd's grunting noises of pain.

He took out the bullet and looked up to her under his red eyes vision and if looks could kill, they would've been six feet under a couple of thousand times.

Growling, he angrily grabbed her and pushed her against a tree, choking her with the uninjured hand. Adira gasped for breath as she tried to reach the ground but he had even made the ground out of her reach.

But all of a sudden, a blow of heavy wind was felt on both of their faces and Lloyd's hand loosened around her throat.

He let go of her in seconds as she fell on the ground on her knees, her hands going to her bruised neck immediately. She massaged her neck slowly as she managed her breathing back to normal.

When she looked up to Lloyd, he was choking, making Adira confused as she attempted to start running before he attacked again but stopped when he opened his mouth.

"What did you do?!"

Adira turned around her face, just to see Lloyd gasping and rubbing his arms and his skin getting red.

"Why is it burning!? What did you do!?"

Lloyd let out a scream as Adira backed out hastily. It wasn't even minutes till she heard another scream. Much different from Lloyd's scream.

A girl's scream.

Adira's head snapped into the direction the screeching scream came for, clouding her mind with negative scenarios already.

She jerked her head side to side to shake the scenarios from her head as she glanced at Lloyd but he was already gone.

Without thinking, Adira took off running, searching for the girl in danger.

Searching frantically, Adira came to stop but her feet didn't stop. Her gaze shifted from place to place as she tried to find a piece of human life in the woods, covered in pretty white snow.

A while later, she heard a voice whimpering, gasping as if the person was in great pain. She fastened her speed as she neared a bush and looked over it.

Darcy?

"Darcy!" Adira quickly walked around the bush and grabbed the half conscious girl with her sleeves ripped and her eyes droopy.

"Oh no, it's Sabrina Carpenter, honey. God, that hurts!" Darcy let out a groan, trying to sit up from her position but again fall down, on Adira this time.

"What happened?!" Adira warily asked as she looked for bruises or if she was hurt.

"My arm. It.....it stings like needle piercing into my skin. Oh my god, it burns so bad," Darcy rolled her head to the side as she pointed at her right arm.

Adira slowly pushed off the ripped cloth which was covering her arm only to reveal a dark bruised mark.

Her eyes widened at the display of a very ill tattooed mark. It was almost like a burning brand on her tanned skin.

A round circle, drawn with dark ink, framing it with little circles with designed golden strings. Ivy leafs adorning the frame, almost making it look like a symbol.

Adira's eyes were glued to the mark as if it's visual was binding her into a trance, almost forgetting the whimpering girl in her arms.

"Adira...it hurts. Do something!" Darcy snapped as Adira jerked in her sitting position, quickly looking at Darcy, noticing her skin getting more tanned.

It was glowing, getting more brownish. Her hair was looking smoother than ever but the mark becoming more vivid. Visible.

"Darcy.....Darcy. Look at me," Adira shook her softly as Darcy's lips parted, her body becoming almost immobilized. She resentfully let out a sigh, shutting her eyes close.

"Don't die on me, Darcy! Wake up!"

"I'm not dead, you mothertrucking fool!"

"Then why did you close your eyes that way?!"

"Then what do you do when you feel droopy all on a sud—WHY THR FUCK DOES THIS BURN SO MUCH!" Darcy groaned as she shifted in Adira's lap. She started to pant slightly, even sweat in this cold weather.

Adira quickly took her phone out of her pocket as she clicked a photo of the mark for further situations.

"Dear God, can I die already?" She let out another painful sigh as Adira inspected the mark, looking more vivid than ever.

"I don't know what I should do.....Darcy be patient, please." Adira looked at Darcy again, her eyes showcasing the first stage of panic.

Darcy pressed her eyes close, her eyes slightly blurred. She could hear her heart beating in her ears, rhyming with the thuds inside her head.

She felt heavy and tied down

All of a sudden, a strong wind swept past them just like the first one, slapping them in the face. They both had to turn their faces away, shielding them from flying twigs and branches.

As the wind passed by, the heavy aura started to lift off from that place, Darcy sucked in a long breath, cold air filling her lungs.

She immediately glanced at her bare arm, noticing the mark slowly disappearing. She shook her head as if to shake off the pounding ache inside her head but it was too much.

She blinked several times as Adira noticed the slow disappearance of the mark too. Adira's fingers traced on her arm as the ink slowly absorbed itself into Darcy's skin but all Darcy could think about was that,

She was forgetting.

Everything was slipping.

The heaviness was lifting off.

And she remembered nothing.

When the mark had still quite ink to vanish, loud thuds of someone running were heard by the girls. Both of their eyes shifted towards the sound and landed on a panting Selene.

Present

"Now don't just sit there. Get up, owen." Darcy said as Adira got up hastily, dusting the snow off her winter coat.

"Why do you look like a frozen ghost, Adira? Anything wrong?" Selene asked, her brows creasing at the very moment.

"Don't you....... remember?" She asked, her eyes shifting Selene to Darcy, both of them looked like the incidents that happened just a couple of minutes ago didn't even exist.

"Remember what? If you're talking about the time I saw you, stalking the premises of my house, yes I saw you very clearly."

Darcy stated with a very intense gaze on Adira who shamefully bit her lips for not being able to stalk a home properly without being caught.

"Which brings me to the subject....what were you doing at my house last night?"

Darcy's scrutinizing gaze never faltered and Adira felt really jumbled up under that vision to even say something properly. So to save herself from further embarrassment, she stood up and went with,

"You two need to know something."

"How about you tell me the answer to my question first?" Darcy flashed her a fake smile to assure Adira that she was going nowhere until she answered.

Selene usually loved the tension, both in reality and in fiction. But this was getting too much for the girl who saved them from much worse reality.

Wait, saved them?

From what??

"Adira, I remember." Selene sputtered and that was enough to catch two girl's attention.

Adira raised her brow in question and indicated her to go on.

"Not much. I just remember that I heard a scream and it sure was Darcy's. And then I saw both of you and there......there was something on her arm. I can't quite remember."

Selene's grey eyes shifted to the ground as she tried to get a hold of her lost memory but she failed.

"There was something! Fuck, why do I have a memory like a puffy sheep!?" Selene groaned in frustration as she ran her fingers through her hair frantically.

"Why do you think sheep has bad memory?" Darcy asked, furrowing her brows.

"I dunno! I just...... unintentionally said that. No offense, sheepies." Selene straightened her lips in a thin line as she eyed Adira as a saying, "that's all I know."

"You are really weird, Silvester." Darcy shook her head at her as she turned to Adira, saying, "so you basically saved my life?"

Adira just shrugged, not exactly claiming that she saved her life or she was there with her when she transformed into the real identity.

She needed to make sure first.

"Guys, you have to come with me please. I saw something on Darcy's arm, which is really identical to what I know and really confusing at the same time. Confusing because Darcy would've known about it a long time ago if she is what I think she is."

Adira stated with her face showing genuine concern for them and it would be a lie if Darcy and Selene's mind weren't softened after listening to her plea cause all in all, she saved one of their life.

"Wait, I do have the photo of the mark. What was I doing all this time? Look here." Adira took out her silver cased phone as she opened her picture she clicked earlier and handed her phone to the girls.

"This was ON MY ARM!?" Oh God this freaking looks like a tattoo. See I told you!" Darcy's eyes clinged on the phone screen as Selene did the same, finding it hard to believe the story of a mark suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

"Then, what do you think Darcy is?" Selene asked, staring at Adira completely dumbfounded.

"I uh—" Adira stuttered.

"Well, don't delay. Tell us already."

"I think she might be a witch."

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A/N: thanks for bearing with me and my tragic fantasy story❤️