[center [size12 [i I am so cold.]]]
[center [size12 [i It is the middle of the summer. The windows are open, the air is off, and I am still so cold. Everyone else is drenched in sweat when they come to my room to check my vitals. Bringing freshly heated blankets but it does nothing to relieve the chill in my bones. It is going to happen today. I am going to die.]]]
[center [size12 [i I stare at my reflection in the mirror on the wall across from my bed. How many selfies have I taken in that thing? It was surrounded by many of the very selfies, all placed in frames. Some had friends and even family in them. All reminders of what I used to look like when I was alive.]]]
[center [size12 [i Sure, I am alive now. My heart is beating. But I am just a hollow shell of what I was. My long brown hair was nowhere to be found due to the chemo. My once caramel skin was now grayish yellow. My brown eyes now looked black from the dark circles. I no longer had my curves, just skin and bones.]]]
[center [size12 [i Chemotherapy sucks. Leukemia sucks. Even more so the second time around. This time was much worse than the last time. I could not stand the thought of staying in a hospital for a long time again. Thanks to my dad and his job, I was able to come home with round the clock nurses. Not that it was doing any good. There was not going to be a second recovery. I am still so exhausted from the first one, I cannot do it again. I just want to sleep.]]]
[center [size12 [i My eyes lazily drifted over to a picture of my dad and I. Taken just after I beat the cancer the first time. We were both so happy. He had such a huge smile on his face that I thought it would become permanent. He already lost so much, first his wife, and now he was slowly losing his daughter. I squeeze my eyes shut, I do not want to leave him, but I cannot do this anymore. I am so tired.]]]
[center [size12 [i I am so sorry, dad.]]]
[center [size12 [i Beep...Beep....Beep.....]]]
[center [size12 [i My heartbeat is slowing down by the second, I shut my eyes. I am not going to fight it.]]]
[center [size12 [i Beep]]]
[center [size12 [b [i I am so weak.]]]]
[center [pic https://i.imgur.com/SPLZ8HP.jpg]]
[right [pic https://i.imgur.com/6S57k6E.jpg]][center [font "times new roman" [#DC143C "Wake up, Dahlia.”] A voice she has never heard before floods her ear. It is a male, with a slight accent, she could not place. [#DC143C "Wake up and show the world what you are."] Dahlia flew forward into an upright position, she gasped around lumps full of air. Her lungs felt like balloons that someone suddenly re-inflated. She slowly waited for her eyes to adjust to the ugly comforter she was staring at to view the rest of the room. Only to be bombarded with bright fluorescent lights, causing her to wince. It was like someone bottled the sun and placed it in her room. After having to squeeze her eyes shut and reopening them a few times, she slowly became adjusted with just a numb headache.]]
[center [font "times new roman" Taking in her surroundings, she realized she was not even in her bedroom anymore, she was not even in a hospital room. The room was bare aside from monitors connected to her, the bed she laid in, and a chair. That was it. The walls were just white, like recently bleached white, aside from the mirror straight across from her. Where the hell was she? She started yanking off the heart monitor and the iv in her arm, ignoring the beeping the machines made from her actions. She threw the covers off and climbed out of bed.]]
[center [font "times new roman" Her legs gave out from under her, she almost collapsed to the ground but grabbed a hold of the bed just in time. Shaking she stood herself back up, slowly making her way to the door. Which proved fruitless as the door was locked and would not budge. She began knocking on it, hoping to get someone's attention on the other side. Even tried to yell but her voice was so hoarse that she barely made a noise.]]
[center [font "times new roman" She pressed her back to the door and huffed. Her dad had brought her here. Why did he do that? Why couldn't he have let her go? She was ready. Tears began to stain her cheeks; she could not take this weakness any longer. Her eyes met her reflection, and she froze. There was not a husk staring back at her, [u she] was staring back at herself. Healthy and alive her. Caramel skin, curves, long brown hair. Everything was there.]]
[center [font "times new roman" Had she died? Was this some weird form of heaven? She moved to take a closer look, excitement taking over her, she could not get to the mirror quick enough. Then she was getting to it too quickly. In mere seconds she cleared across the room from the door to the mirror. So shocked she was not able to stop. She crashed into the mirror, the impact dropping her to the ground. Cracking glass filled the room, and she began to crawl backwards to get away from it. Far enough to be out of the way, far enough to see her reflection once more before it shattered. Her eyes were not brown anymore, they were gold.]]
[center [font "times new roman" She covered her face as the glass came crashing to the ground and scattered across the room, opening a hole in the wall. A two-way mirror? As soon as it hit the ground a balding alarm sounded. It sent her to cover her ears, so loud and ear piercing, she was sure they were bleeding. What was going on!? Minutes passed and the alarm was still going. She had curled into a ball on the floor, the pain had resided, but she could not seem to move. She did not understand what was happening, she was so lost, and confused. Where was she? Why was she here? Who had been watching her?]]
[center [font "times new roman" So lost in her thoughts she did not even notice the men in uniforms swarm the room. Guns drawn and pointed right at her! "Hands where we can see them!" She peeked up at the man that spoken, his gun pointed right at her head. Slowly she moved her hands from her ears, raising them to the sky, as she sat up. Going extra slow, so not to spook them. [#808080 "I didn't mean to. I'm sorry, I don't know wh---,"] the man cut her off by putting the barrel of his gun to her temple. "Shut up, on your feet."]]
[center [font "times new roman" He grabbed a hold of her arm and yanked her to her feet. Now if there is one thing, she hates more than cancer, it was being manhandled. Usually, she would push the man away, yell at him. But anger boiled in the pit of her stomach, causing her body to move before she had a chance to register what she was doing. She placed the palm of her hand to his chest and pushed with the strength she did not realize she had. The motion threw the man clear across the room. She only had a second to realize what she did, before one of the other men shot her. The bullet pierced through her shoulder and the anger welded up again. She turned towards the other men, a growl escaping her throat. A primal sound that scared even her. And then she was on top of them.]]
[center [font "times new roman" Everything was a blur of clawing, shooting, screaming, and blood. She ripped through the men like they were rag dolls. It was over in minutes. Fourteen men all laid on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. She was straddling the fifteenth man, staring at the beating pulse on his neck, the quivering of his Adam's apple as he gasped. She was overtaken by an urge to bite at his pulse, to feed on his blood. She was about to do it when she noticed a shard of glass by his head. Her eyes. They were not brown, they were not a honey gold, they were a blood red.]]
[center [font "times new roman" The bubble of anger and pure instinct shattered around her. She got off the man and took in what she had down. What was happening to her? She ran, she did not know how she knew where to go. What halls led to the exit, but she knew. All she knew was that she had to get away. Get away from what she has done, from whatever she is. She was just at the exit when a familiar smell hit her, it was so familiar yet so strange. She turned towards the smell but before she could lay eyes on it, a piercing pain hit her in the chest. She looked down to see an arrow sticking out of her. Her hand slowly reached for the arrow, shaking as her fingertips grazed it. What had she learned about arrows? She could not remove it unless she had something to stop the bleeding and from the sound of another arrow being placed in, she did not have time. So, she ran again. Unsure of who the scent belonged to or why they had shot her.]]
[center [font "times new roman" She kept running till her legs screamed, till her lungs felt like they would burst. She came to a stop in a large forest, the trees loomed over her as she collapsed to the ground, falling into the untouched snow. Even with all the smells of the earth, the snow, the tree bark, all she could smell was the copper smell of blood. Mixtures of her blood and the blood of the soldiers. It was intoxicating. Everything was hitting her at once, her hazy mind could not take it. She began to drift in and out. She turned her head to see her blood mixing with the snow, turning it crimson. She needed to remove the arrow, but she could not focus, could not even lift her arm. But the wound burned through her chest. The arrow was coated with something, but she could not place what it was.]]
[center [font "times new roman" At one moment, she was alone in the small clearing, nothing but shadows cast by the moon, before it went black. Then she was surrounded by wolves, the hackles on their backs were raised, baring their teeth. If they planned to tear her apart than she welcomed it. Everything went blurry for a second as a distorted figure of a wolf stepped closer to her. She heard the wolf whine, pressing its nose against her forehead. The blood red of her irises faded from red to a dim gold before going completely dark, much like her vision as she fell unconscious.]]