Told You.

"SIYA!"

My head was pounding, but not nearly as much as before. I had been woken up to yelling so many times that I was starting to get used to it.

"Oh, hey Mara," I said as she stood in the doorway. I looked over to her. She looked like she was in shock. It was clear she wanted to draw her swords, but realized it was pointless because the conflict was already over.

"What… happened here?"

'Thinking about it now… why didn't anyone come to help me, they should have been able to hear everything right? I mean the storm wasn't THAT loud. That must have been a part of the Ghoule's magic too.'

I winced in pain as I tried to move. My whole body hurt, even where I had been healed it was still sore. Still, I laughed through the pain. "I did some remodeling, you like it?"

It looked like she took me seriously for a moment, I suppose I shouldn't have said that while holding a sword in my lap, but after furiously taking a few steps closer she suddenly paused, and then rushed to my side. "Siya!"

I lifted out a hand to stop her from touching me. "Yeah, still here." 

She hesitated, shifting backward slightly. "No, you're bleeding. And what did you do to your hair?"

'What did I do to it? Wait my hair?' "Whats… wrong with my hair?" 'Oh… Right.' I thought back to all the attacks that had nearly ended my life. 'I guess that's what they mean when they say missed by a hair…'

'It's not like it was ever nice anyway… I chuckled. "I thought it would look better this way."

"What?"

I let out a sigh 'I should stop joking around before she takes me seriously.' I felt my body starting to fall over as I tried to move. It was like all my joints were locked in place.

 "Siya… what on earth happened." She asked again, steadying me and wrapping some form of cloth around my head. "It doesn't seem that bad but we still need to stop the bleeding."

'She said that before… That it's bleeding…' "Wait… you mean it's still bleeding?" I lifted a hand up to the cut, feeling the sting of an open wound and looking at the fresh blood on my fingers. "It should have been sealed by now…"

"How long ago were you cut?" I looked down at the rest of my body. My blood had been mixing with the rain and completely covered everything in a pink stain.

I looked back at the sun. 'With it having risen already, well…' "It's been about 8 hours. It should have stopped by now right?"

"Hours…?" I heard worry in her voice.

"Yea… why didn't it clot?"

 She finished wiping away the blood and let out an angered groan as she started bandaging it. "You've been cursed… Hurry up and start talking. What happened here?" 

As she asked again my father appeared in the doorway crossing his arms. I was conscious so I'm sure he just assumed I was ok, he certainly didn't seem like he was in a rush to help me at least. Instead, a mix between a frown and a look of fear took his face.

"I told you it wasn't a part of the Freaking test…" I muttered pushing my sword toward him so that it fell to the ground. "It bleeds."

Of the 8 swords I took, four were still stuck in the demon, 1 went out the window, one was wedged hilt deep in the ground from being stepped on, another was stuck in the ceiling, and the one I pushed away was the last one I could get too.

I somehow managed to hang onto it while getting rag-dolled by the monster. It was also one of the swords it slashed itself on while it was raging.

The demon's blood was so black that it made it impossible to see anything else. One drop and its color would completely cover whatever was underneath. It made it almost look like I only had half a blade left.

"Demon blood…" his entire aura changed, it had darkened as if something was corrupting him. I half expected him to go feral and turn into a wolf or something.

He quickly looked over the room and then simply turned to leave. "Keigan!" Mara yelled, finally acknowledging that he was there. She moved as if to get up and run after him but he didn't stop, instead she did. 

looking back at me sniffling from being drenched, and still failing to crawl to my feet. She quickly gave me a hand making the decision to stay with me in seconds, as if it was only natural that I was more important.

"We need to get you out of these wet clothes and warm you up. You're already cursed, you don't need to get sick too…" Her voice seemed almost annoyed rather than concerned, but after what I just saw it seemed almost like an act.

As soon as I stood up my feet gave out from under me, but she caught me, picking me up in her arms. "If you can't walk it's fine, I'll carry you. Just… say something. Keep talking to me."

I wanted to respond but I was lost in thought. The whole time me and my father were exchanging intense glances she was treating my wounds. Even now she was trying to help. Thinking about it, in some ways she had always been like that.

Sure, she would force me to warm myself up from the cold, but whenever things got bad she would immediately wrap a blanket around me. She was always monitoring my health. Sure, she wanted to push me to become stronger, but she never actually put my life in danger…

The only time she did… It was really my fault for being stubborn and walking when I should have run.

"Siya!" She lightly tapped my cheek.

"I'm… sorry… For all the times I said you were going to kill me…"

She groaned. "DON'T BE STUPID!"

My jaw dropped. 'But, wait… What?'

"It was the truth, wasn't it? That was the deal. If you didn't become strong enough then I had to put an end to everything. That was how it was supposed to play out… And that's how I treated you, so don't apologize for calling me out on it ok?"

She squeezed me tighter in her arms. Honestly, I was too shocked to think anything. It was so strange as if I was surprised, and yet her words all sounded like they would be exactly like something she would say.

"I told you to keep talking, so quit acting like you're already dead."

She set me down next to the fire in the main hall and quickly grabbed blankets from around the room. "The one Freaking time it rains in the middle of winter…" She groaned again, complaining under her breath.

I couldn't help but notice she kept talking in the past tense. 'That's how I (Treated) you, she said. So… How is she going to treat me now? Like this? I guess that's not so bad…' "So… what now?"

After being taken into the void I never fully regained my sense of touch. All I could feel was a dull tingling through my entire body. It made sense I was cold, but I couldn't feel it. I basically just slept outside in a rainstorm in the middle of winter, but my body wasn't even shaking.

She felt my forehead again and placed her palm over my liver to check if I was warming up. "After we get you cleaned up we can take another look at your wounds… Let's start there…"