Genesis

Hatred breeds hatred. Back in the time, Eriador was using the "light protocol" to prevent such emotions from existing in people's mind, but it was a long time ago and it took only a single soul to change everything.

This text is an epilogue to Shinda's story, a woman deluded by power and drawn into a vengeance which wasn't hers.
Suggestion: In addition to this epilogue, I suggest you to read the "Deluded" and "drawn" chapters before giving up and spitting at me :D
Thanks for reading

Epilogue / Genesis :

Suza: “Go home now.” She said to her with calm.

Her eyes slowly closing off, images continuously looping in her head, this feeling of helplessness... It is with her head down that Danielle closed the door of Shard’s countryside hospital room number 5. Outside, the wooden front porch was wet and smelling, it had not stopped raining since the mid-afternoon, and now that the sun was disappearing, the atmosphere was being icy. Danielle was walking heavily, without caring about the rain. Her mind was somewhere else and she was letting all these cold and wet peaks soaking her clothes, slowing her walk down.

°Why I did not just stay seated without moving... They will end up abandoning me if I don’t manage to hold it! I do not want to... I don’t want them to leave me. Oh please no...°

On the way back to the family’s manor, Danielle crossed the eyes of an I.D.A. (Intelligent Droid Agent). These machines equipped with artificial intelligence were serving the kingdom by monitoring low population areas. Some would say it is to avoid sucking money out of the nobles ruling Eriador. What was fascinating her about those machines was their ability to look totally empty. She would have loved to feel as empty as one of their look, but it was far from within her reach, and she knew it. Tears flowed along her chicks using the paths already traced by the rain’s drops. She would have given everything to be like them.

°My heart is a wound I would gladly get rid of!°

Arriving to the manor, Danielle looked at the purple moon rising above the roof where her family was living for 8 generations. Every one of them had its name and history on the Shard family coat of arms. She knew her family was seeing her as a stranger within those walls, however she was feeling safe and far removed from the monster analogies people from the village were making about her. After she drawn her eyes into tears, she began to walk toward her room trying not to meet anybody.

During the last 16 years, she learnt about them and was able to understand how to act in their presence. It allowed her to survive within her family by playing roles and characters at the right time. Even if she was able to deal with her family, and avoid question about the incident, she preferred not to talk. Sneaking herself into the corridors, she finally arrived to her room where she fell on the bed. Grabing pen and  paper on a table beside, she started writing, leaving each of her thoughts find a place on the paper.

“My name is Danielle, Im 16 years old. Since I have memories, I can only remember the hatred that is draining me, these strange feelings that no one accept and that I don’t even understand myself. Only feelings of light have a place in this world, and I don’t have any. Instead, every night is pushing me toward the throes of evil and I don’t know how long I will be able to hold it. These strange dreams where I’m with him, pushing me to free my hunger. I can’t resist anymore and I see how much pain it cause to mother and father. Love for me has never left them, and they are the only people I can feel love for. Today, I did it again... I hurt an innocent at the village, only because he was laughing at me when the crowd compared me to a dead body. Just because my skin is pale... I hit him, hit him, and hit him again until someone stopped me. There was blood everywhere, on my hands, on his face… What is going to happen now, will this love still exists in their eyes after that? I feel like Im testing them like an idiot... This is not what I want. I try to fight and make my parents happy but I feel that this is impossible to be as they want me to be. If what I am, and what I feel has no place in this world, so I must die.”

A page is turned, one more to tell all the suffering caused to this lost soul. Once she finished writing her thoughts, Danielle turned herself toward the wall against her bed and grabed a pillow to dip her head down into it and try to move on. Sleep won out quickly as the past event and the emotions exhausted her.

The corridor, immersed in a soft light, start creaking under Suza footsteps. Approaching Danielle’s room to listen through the door, she didn’t hear any noise so she decided to slightly open the door. Leaving a light beam coming in, she could see one of Danielle’s arms hanging along the bed. Suza slowly entered the room to replace her arm with love, and took a moment to observe her daughter. She sat beside her and put her hand in her dark long hair with tender.

“Sleep well sweet heart, I know how much you regret.” ---

It is in darkness that is the way.

“Danielle?”

D. “Yes?”

“Join me now...”

D. “Where am I?”

The darkness turned into a kind of intense and cold mist through which Danielle could not see anything. Walking step by step, with her hands in front of her to avoid potential obstacles, she was squinting to see through the fog.

“You look miserable Danielle.”

D. “Are you saying this because I can’t find my way or because I cry a willful act?”

“It remains within the same field don’t you think?"

The passing time was giving Danielle’s eyes some time to adapt and she was now able to see her environment a little. What she saw didn’t look real to her. In reality, the fog was a huge smoke cloud that was looking like thousands of cigarets lighted up at the same time. The floor,  which was still invisible to her, was slowly covered with fine ashes particles falling from the charred trees she now could see around her.

D. “Are you laughing at me? Im not going to play games, I don’t want to.”

“The choice is yours...”

D. “Im responsible for my trouble, and the ones I caused to people living here. I don’t know which path I should take, but I know it must make me assume my actions. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

In her blind walk, Danielle strucked a refined rock against which she sat.

“Why are you thinking about dying?”

Her eyes slowly closing, a smile rising on her lips.

D. “I always appreciated your frankness, as hard as it may be... The world, as I understand it, does not leave space to evil as it could be find in my heart. Every single person from Shard tries to do good , and ban everything which is not in the light. Today, if I admit that Im no good, and that no one could ever accept it, then I must be dead to fit in the world they are living in.”

“Why should it be you who bend the knees under their expectations? If this evil exists, there must be a reason. Maybe they want to live in the light but you don’t, do you think you’re the only one like that? Maybe you should surrender yourself to this light which is yours.”

D. “And what would think mother and father? They did everything they could to protect me from the people’s hatred... They wouldn’t accept such thing.”

“... Maybe it is too late to worry about that...”

D. “What do you mean?”

“Observe the path taking shape in front of you...”

Danielle quickly rose, feeling the link starting to break. An ashes cloud took shape in the air with her quick movement. Making her sneeze. The wave repelled the fog and gave to Danielle a clear view of the rock. Discovering that it was a grave, she just had time to read names on it before it vanished again.

“Suza & Kenshin Shard”

“This is your death, the one of your soul. A body with a dead soul, wasn’t it what you were looking for?...”

Tears began to fall again when she heard those words. Shocked, Danielle was not able to move, blocked by the emotions. The words resonated in her mind for a few seconds before everything disapeared in a flash.

“From now on, in your life like in your dreams, your heart will never stop bleeding...”