I'm scared of myself

Joseph sighed and retracted his hand as Aria's body stiffened, saying, "Sorry."

Aria looked away, "No. I am sorry."

Joseph looked up, surprised, "What? Why are you sorry?"

Aria: "I have too many issues with myself, and it ends up hurting everyone who gets too close with me."

Joseph was taken aback. This was definitely not the direction he had expected the conversation to go. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something." He changed the topic.

Aria looked at him and said, "Can it wait?"

Joseph blinked, "Wait? Why?"

Aria pinched her nose, "I'm losing control of my emotions too much. I need to regain before I can have any conversation."

Joseph placed his hand on one of Aria's, which was in her lap, "Sometimes, it's okay to feel."

Aria jerked his hand away. She could see the hurt in his eyes, but this was the best way, the only way. Who knew what would happen if she ended up losing control of her emotions. Aria stood up and said, "I'm sorry Joseph. Really sorry."

Saying this, she rushed towards the recovery ward windows. "Aria....." And before Joseph could stop her, Aria had opened a window and rushed out.

Aria flew away from the recovery ward and landed on the roof of the castle. "Crazy! Idiot! Coward! You're scared!! You're scared of yourself!!" Aria yelled at herself with her head in her hands. And it was true. The reason she never ever used her full power, never let her instincts take over, was because Aria was scared of herself. Scared of her own power. Scared of being called a demon again.

"Idiot. It did not affect you this much when people really did call you a demon. Now you're scared that someone close to you will find out?" Aria smiled self depreciatingly.

She sat on the roof for a few minutes, taking deep breaths and calming herself down. When she was calm enough, Aria looked up.

She took out a notebook and a pencil and scribbled a note. Aria went in the recovery ward through the window again, all was quiet.

Though it was not yet bed hours, Miss Anhao insisted that the patients go to bed early and thus the lights were out in the ward.

Aria easily made out Joseph's bed and kept the note on his bedside table.

It said, 'I'm really sorry Joseph, for acting like that. We'll talk. Tomorrow. Once my punishment is over, let's meet up at the meadow.'

She then tip-toed out the ward again like a shadow. Aria knew what would calm her down. She flew to the East tower and circled around it. Finally she spotted what she was looking for and a giggle escaped Aria's lips.

She had seen an open window and a scarf hanging just inside it. As if to confirm her guess, Zach appeared at the window a second later and looked down towards the grounds.

After scanning every bit of the grounds visible from his window, Zach sighed, "She didn't come after all. Well, I guess I should have expected that."

"And why should you have expected that?" Aria's sudden voice felt to Zach like the ground had slid from under his feet.

He screamed and jumped back a few steps to properly see. Indeed Aria was perched lightly on the windowsill, on her toes.