The old woman waited patiently for Dianna to get up from the floor, and then, suddenly approached her. Perhaps too close. That made Dianna flinch back. "What do you want from me?"
The old woman seemed to get very serious. Her voice changed, becoming tremendously deep. "I've already told you. I have to decide, if I give you a chance to beg for a second chance." The old woman looked at the young Emily, the girl with a huge woman's body and a broken will.
Nevertheless, Dianna was still trying to avoid responsibility. "What blame do I have for...". Dianna was speechless. Clearly, the old woman seemed to transform more and more into an all-powerful being. Her elderly eyes turned completely black again and the cane she always leaned on, transformed into a tremendously sharp scythe.
The old woman pointed to Emily. "Haven't you become taller, stronger, smarter and much more beautiful? Even your hair has gotten redder and redder and your eyes will eventually turn green.
Dianna, disgusted, whispered her own thoughts aloud. "Damn it! Why the hell will I turn into her?"
The old woman explained without being asked. "No, you fool! You both look like another..." The old woman fell silent. As if she regretted what she had just said, but Dianna silently realize it. The old woman tried to dissemble. "All that matters is that you have something that was not bestowed upon you. You stole it."
Dianna fed up with the accusations, fought back. "Are you blind? I didn't steal anything. I…"
The old woman approached her, threatening. "You stole it as soon as you accepted it. Or are you going to deny that you accepted it?" To Dianna's bewilderment, the old woman reached out and touched her skin. In that instant everything vanished. Everything became darkness.
Gradually, a fourteen-year-old picture of herself appeared. She was a tanned girl with blue eyes, black hair and short stature. She was thin but very strong. It was noticeable that she exercised her body at an amateur level. In her mind was the idea of dedicating herself to professional wrestling one day, but her mother was adamantly opposed.
The girl was talking in her sleep with a dark creature in an apparently female form. Although it was very misshapen and unpleasant, it tried not to scare her. "What a coincidence! So much anger inside you! How appropriate!" The creature whispered.
The little girl was brave and didn't seem frightened. "Are you a demon? My mother doesn't like demons. What do you want from me?"
The creature walked in circles around the girl. Limping. Not coming any closer. "A demon? Me? No, not at all! I'm someone who's been hurt, just like you. Someone who is prevented from being free, just like you. But I need a host. I can't live without one and you need someone to help you. If you help me with that, I'll help you with anything you want throughout your ephemeral life.
Dianna frowned trying to hide her embarrassment. "I don't know what a host is."
The creature dodged the question with an offer. "If you help me have a place to exist. I’ll give you everything in my power, and much more that you don't know yet."
The naive Dianna didn't really think about the consequences of her curiosity. "Much more I don't know yet?"
The creature smiled expectantly as the girl thought she had the right to start asking. "Can you make my mother stop burdening me the way she does?"
The creature grew serious and turned its face, looking in a particular direction. As if it could see Dianna's mother even though it was in a dream. "Well! I cannot influence a being as stubborn as your mother, without it taking me years..." Then, the creature turned to face her. "... and I have the feeling that you don't want to wait that long. But I can scare her a little. You say she's afraid of demons, right?"
Dianna nodded reassuringly. "Very afraid."
The creature smiled. "If she's much more afraid than you showed before, I'll be able to make her see that she need to give you more... freedom."
Dianna frowned. "I wasn't scared. You don't scare me. You disgust me a little."
The creature laughed. You disgust me too, but we shouldn't be talking about that right now."
Dianna complained indignantly. "That I disgust you? Why?"
The creature explained as it waved its hands over it torso. "You have blood and filthy viscera inside you. By contrast, I'm the same on the outside as I'm on the inside. All dark matter. I can take any shape I want. But I can't now. I am too weak. My former hostess hurt me so much."
Dianna trying to be empathetic offered. "You want me to help you get revenge? I hate bullies."
The creature smiled inwardly though outwardly it looked hurt. "Later we could. So you agree to let us help each other?" Dianna happily agreed and held out her hand. The image faded and they reappeared on the sidewalk.
Dianna was puzzled and the old woman very serious. "After that, you were unconscious until the next day. It was your father who told you that your mother had died of a heart attack in her sleep. You tie up the loose ends by yourself or I'll draw you a picture."
Dianna looked like she was going to explode with anger. "What are you insinuating?! I didn't kill my mother!".
The old woman turned almost ignoring her and started on her way back. "No, not alone. You and that thing you carry inside you. Although, it seems like you're carrying a lot more compared to what went inside you back then."
Dianna didn't even hear that last part anymore. The idea that she had somehow caused her mother's death began to hit her like a sledgehammer. The old woman stopped as she heard Dianna fall on her knees. Slightly annoyed, she turned and saw her. Dianna was nearly out of breath as she began to cry. "You never came to that conclusion before, brat? I guess you're not so smart after all."
Dianna could no longer hear anything. She could only see the image of her mother in agony, because of her. Clutching her left arm as her heart stopped, causing her immense anguish. A woman with bad eating habits and a large overweight that had been gradually stoning her health. For her, the tremendous fright she must have suffered was too much.
The being with the appearance of a decrepit old woman, did not think about Dianna's pain for a whole second. She realized that she was not the culprit she was looking for. Nor was she the monster she thought she was. She began to feel sorry for both girls and made a decision she hoped she wouldn't regret. She changed her unpleasant tone to a more jovial one. “Enough whining. You've convinced me. I have to admit you're not the scum I was looking for. I'll give you the option of begging for a second chance.
Dianna screamed trying to release all the anguish she had inside. "Beg?! After that pariah fucked up my life, I'll have to beg? To whom? To you? Are you serious?"
The old woman with a feigned face of compassion sneered. " You humans, disgust me. Always trying to shirk responsibility. It's always someone else's fault, isn't it? I’m perfect and everything bad that happens in my life is someone else’s fault. There are three undeniable facts, my dear. The first is; whether it's because she was an ugly, fat, overbearing churchy, you didn't remember what it was like to love your mother until she died. That's made you feel like the shit you really are, even if you don't want to admit it."
Dianna took that like a shot to the chest. Aiming. The old woman knew she'd hit the mark. "You've always looked down on everyone around you. Perfection is only in your head. It doesn't exist. The second thing is that your perfectionism makes you value others as the shit you think they are. You are selfish to unbelievable limits. That is abhorrent to any decent being. And third and last. Whether you like it or not, you were the one who decided to get into this when you accepted that..." Hesitating not to tell her anything. "...that unworthy fragment of dark matter."
Dianna saw her resentful and furious. "So I have to beg you, all powerful Grim Reaper, to kindly give me a second chance? How do I do that? Do I kiss your feet? Do I give you my soul?"
The old woman scoffed. "Soul? Do you really think such a pathetic concept exists? You humans have a ridiculous imagination. There is nothing similar to that." The old woman seemed to hesitate. "Unless..." Then she turned to Dianna again. "Who cares! No, I don't want anything from you. It's not me who you have to ask for a second chance."
Dianna began to get anxious. "I hope you won't tell me I'll have to ask the scarred being."
The old woman looked around changing the subject. "By the way, this freezing cold is your life abandoning you." Then, Dianna realized that she was shaking. She didn't know if it was from the cold or the fear. The old woman turned and started on her way back somewhere. "A minute in here, can be as little as a second out there. So your death is slow and almost painless in here. But that's going to change in a second. The old woman held up her fingers and snapped them. Suddenly, she began to feel an indescribable pain and a total collapse of her body.
Like whispers, unfamiliar voices reached her. "We're losing her! We're losing her! Come on! Come on! Charge the defibrillator to 200! Clear!"
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