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Darba glanced out the window of the tavern; the sky had grown black with night, and could see the sparkling diamonds of the stars that blanketed the sky each night. She sighed, turning back to her table, she downed her last drink for the night. Slowly she pulled herself up onto her feet, swaying a bit from the liquor in her system.
The seabirds could be heard as Darba walked upstairs to her room. Why had she come here again? She'd been through so many things. She'd hurt so many people that cared for her. "Never Again," she mumbled drunkenly. She never wanted to hurt them again.
She had finally be cured; cured of the plague, cured of her madness, and she was thankful for that. With that, however, came a price, a memory she had long suppressed. Maybe it'd had something to do with the sickness that was driving her insane? Maybe this knowledge, on top of the darkness in her heart, had torn her spirit to pieces. Darba didn't know. All she knew right now was that she was tired; the journey to the spirit world had exhausted her, and the alcohol was not helping one bit.
Darba threw her keys on the table by the bed, looking at it, she frowned. She had hoped that it was not as lumpy as last time, but feared she would be wrong. She had been here last night as well, they couldn't have gotten a new bed already. Darba shrugged to herself and slowly, painfully lowered herself into the bed.
Sleepily she mumbled to herself, blowing out the candle beside the bed. Before she knew it, Darba had drifted into a deep, troubled sleep.
......................
It was dark, it seemed that she drifted in and out of the darkness... Floating, somehow in the darkness... She could hear something, a whisper in the darkness... that is all. She couldn't understand... Suddenly, she heard crying, and screaming. She heard a harsh voice, and was slammed to the ground suddenly.
Darba looked up in shock, finding herself seated on the floor. There were carved kodos in front of her, that she seemed to be playing with... Yes, she remembered now.... her father had carved them for her. She heard her mother too, somewhere, humming to herself.
Her mother screamed suddenly, a huge hand came from the darkness... Grabbing her mother, trying to pull her into the darkness. Darba could see ghostly images around her, faces calling out in pain, ghostly hands urging her on. Slowly she stood up, staring at her mother in shock, crying, over and over, "Mama... Mama..." until she found herself standing over the old Tauren's corpse. Her mother's blood on her tiny hands, a knife plunged into her mother's heart. Darba cried, sobbing, as she kept repeating, "Why?" And then... Darkness again. Her mother was gone. Darba stood staring at the place she had been. She felt a warm wetness spray across her cheek, turning, she saw a blade sever her father's neck.
Darba again found herself floating in the darkness. She heard that harsh, cruel voice laughing at her, coldly. She couldn't understand what was being said, but she felt chided. She still saw the faint, ghostly images, but now they were trying to pull HER into the darkness...
Darba screamed as she sat bolt upright in bed; she was covered in sweat, and panting. She wiped the tears from her eyes, not having realized she had been crying. Creeping out of bed, she looked out the window, and noted that it was still night. Off in the distance, she could hear frogs still croaking their nightly dirges. Darba sighed. What she haunted now? What she healed only to be plagued by something else? She did not know, all that she did know was that she had best go for a walk...
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