The thing in front of her, that strange solid shadow, dissolves, but Aria doesn’t care because suddenly there is something else inside of her, in her veins, in her heart, in her head. She screams, back arched, fists pressed to her temples.

“GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!” The sun rises over the snowy plain she had been abandoned in, tainting the whole world scarlet. Her eyes roll back, falling unconscious.

But she is still somehow awake within her mind. Awake with the shadow. They inhabit the same place, and they fight. Aria because this is her body and her mind and there is something so fundamentally wrong right now, and the shadow because it wants this body wants this life wants the vibrant r e d of life.

“GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!”

The shadow wraps around her, suffocates her. “You’re mine! You will help me.”

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“No!” She had things to do, revenge to mete, blood to spill. At the thought, the shadow goes into another frenzy. “Blood? Blood? I want blood!”

She’s drowning in the shadows. “I’ll give you blood. But you have to save me.” Her lips are moving against her will, her jaw like a puppet's.

It calms down. Aria continues, desperate and confused both. “There is a whole world of people filled with blood. 8 billion people. You can have all the blood you want. But leave me alone.”

They separate. They look at each other, blue eyes meeting blank red circles.

They are silent until they are not. They swear an oath to each other. They want the same thing, but want it in different ways. They come to an agreement not knowing they will forever be at odds with each other.

Thus is the birth of the Shadow of Aria Oskra.

Thus is the death of Aria Oskra, the girl.

Thus the story begins again, my dear Infinity.

Let the game of Love and Death commence once more.