“You just keep fighting. So very stubborn. No one is coming to save you. You are a lost cause. Just another face in the crowd. A worthless soul not even worth remembering.”

Destiney clamped her hands over her ears as she shook her head back an forth. The words just kept going. Always trying to wear her down and break her. Pushing for that edge or trying to find a crack in her protection.

Darkness. It lurked just outside of her shields. Just waiting. Lurking. Testing for cracks. Wanting to devour her. And she was just so tired… A little over two weeks. Only real moments of respite given to her in the brief times of waking.

“You know you just want to cave. They don’t love you. They never did. All they ever did was cause you pain and heartbreak. Why do you cling so desperately to people who have not even saved you. I will win. So why not just surrender and save yourself some pain.”

“NO!” Destiney screamed back in response to the words. To the claws that raked against those shields. Shivering with the chill that was creeping into her skin. She could tell she was losing the fight. Slow and painfully. Even if she could maintain the mental shields… Her body would give out first.

At first she hadn’t realized what she was fighting against until it had already begun it’s damage. It had distracted her with nightmares. Kept her occupied with her own dark emotions. It picked through her memories and emotions as if it owned the place. Once she had realized what was going on she had tried to protect things. Tried to keep things safe. But the strain had begun to wear on her. Slowly she had been forced to give ground. To retreat further and give up more to the darkness.

Then there had been moments when the pain was so strong she hadn’t been able to maintain those shields. That was when she had lost the most ground to the encroaching darkness. Ikara had told her it was when they had tried to cut parts of the curse that seemed to be causing her pain.

Yet those times had also given her strength to fight back stronger once the pain had disappeared. As if the curse had been momentarily weakened. But it couldn’t buy back the lost ground. It bought her time though. Time was what she desperately needed. It gave her brief respites where the darkness would prowl but not attack. Moments where she could breath and bolster her defenses again for the next round.

“You’ll never wake up. Trapped in an endless nightmare. Half-breed. Worthless. You should have died that day. Murder.”

“Stop!” Destiney curled up around the small shining light she was protecting with her body mentally. Every word felt like daggers drawn against her flesh. Some of the words she knew to be true but she tried to hard to deny the rest. Yet she was so tired… She could feel the darkness purring at the moment of weakness.

Waiting… Hungry… Claws like razors…
Ready to finish ripping her to shreds.

Faith. She had to hold strong. Just a bit longer. Never alone. That was the favorite saying for the company. Ikara had said she was working on a way to break the curse and return her to normal. All she had to do was hold on. Think about those who she cherished. Those important to her. Remember what she was fighting for. Even when all she wanted to do right now was shut her eyes for good. If she gave up now… The hurt she would cause to those she cared about.

Shaking hands wrapped around the silver bow laying beside her. No it was her whole body that was shaking. The cold was seeping in slowly. She needed time. Hells she needed saved. She could only fight against this so well on her own. Whoever had designed this had not meant for a person to survive. Not without help.

Tired blue eyes looked towards the heart of the darkness that lurked so dangerously close. She sat up as she tried to calm the trembling enough to pull back that bowstring. An arrow of ice blue light formed between her fingers, ready to be fired.

Names crossed her mind. A silent mantra to draw strength. Names of friends and family.
Her best friend Chee.

The names of her company mates that she considered family.

“Go away! You will not win!” Destiney cried out as she let go of that arrow. The shadow shrank back from the shields. Away from that arrow. An angry hiss from the darkness. Dest dropped the bow back to where it had been before tiredly curling back up around the light. Soft sobs as she held on tightly. She didn’t want to die. Not like this. Surely she had not survived everything to die here like this.

“Please… Help me…” Destiney pleaded softly. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold it back…”